“I’m checking Billy out for lunch.” She hadn’t known she was going to do that until that very moment, but being out of the school for a bit would probably be a good thing.
The secretary typed for a second. “Okay, he’s good to go. Do you want a treat?” She offered Billy her candy dish.
He took a peppermint. “Thank you.”
Mitzi could have kissed him for remembering his manners without prompting. That’s right—he was a good kid.
She hooked her arm around his shoulder and steered him toward the door.
“Where are we gonna eat?” he asked. Thankfully, he didn’t ask about the outburst, the principal, or why she was still breathing like she’d run five miles at a dead sprint. The whole thing was bizarre. Not ready for a female Santa? What was this, 1950?
Forcing herself to figure out what to do for lunch helped calm her down. She had a bag in the car. They could split that and share a cocoa at the café, and it wouldn’t break her bank. Especially since Forest provided dinners most nights. Her food budget was looking all right, though she wanted to get a few special treats for Billy’s stocking. She told him her plan, and he lit up. She vowed that one day, going to the café wouldn’t feel like a treat. One day, she’d be able to afford eating out.
For a moment, she considered inviting him to join them, but he was at a follow-up appointment with the doctor for his arm and she didn’t want to interrupt. Disappointed that he wouldn’t be there, she decided to make this a special time with her little man.
They moseyed into the diner and took up a booth. The place was only half full for lunch, and the servers joked with one another as they cleared tables and took orders. The place felt unrushed and happy.
Billy knelt on his side of the booth, his shoes getting snow on the seat. She handed him some napkins and told him to wipe it off before his pants got wet. The server stopped by and took their order, and she pulled out her lunch and split the sandwich in two as they waited for cocoa.
Despite the way the conversation had turned out, she needed to address the issue with Billy. “Billy, do you know why Mr. Dimes was upset?”
He nodded and swiped his mouth with the back of his arm. She handed him another napkin. “Because I told him I met Santa.”
She chewed, wondering where to take the conversation as Billy told her the story of Santa flying into the woods with a reindeer named Cocoa. Was that a coincidence, or his subconscious making up details?
“Did you say Forest was there?”
“Yeah. He was the one who called Santa. Mom—he totally has her phone number.”
Mitzi blinked. Forest had done this? She wasn’t sure if she was mad at him or not. Probably mad. He shouldn’t have interfered. It was one thing to stop her from telling Billy there wasn’t a Santa; it was another to have playdates with a pretend Santa. And a pretty one at that, if she could believe Billy’s description. Who was this woman? For all her might, Mitzi couldn’t remember a female wrangler, so it couldn’t have been a relative. Who was she, and why was she hanging out with Forest and Billy while Mitzi wasn’t around?
A shiver raced over her arms, raising goose bumps. She rubbed at them.
Forest wasn’t her ex. …
They weren’t serious enough for her to consider this cheating. …
A hundred other reasons why she needed to slow her racing heart and stop the shaking in her core raced through her mind. But she was having flashbacks to feeling looked over, not important, and degraded.
“Do you believe in Santa, Mom?” Billy pushed the cocoa mug toward her. He had marshmallow foam on his top lip and was so full of innocent childhood hope that Mitzi couldn’t bring herself to crush him.
She smiled brightly and handed him another napkin. “You have a mustache.” She giggled. Taking a sip herself, she gave herself a marshmallow stache.
Billy laughed and reached for the dispenser, handing her a napkin. “You too.”
“What?” She feigned innocence. “Is there something on my face?” Taking the napkin, she blotted her chin and then her forehead, earning the giggles and change of subject she so desperately needed.
Now if she could only get the picture of Forest cuddling up to some woman in a red velvet Santa suit out of her head. She hated the baggage her ex had packed for her, but she also knew it was her responsibility to unpack it. As much as she wanted to confront Forest over this, she wouldn’t. She’d ask when the time was right and she wouldn’t sound like a crazed, possessive girlfriend who’d kidnap him, tie him up, and leave him under the Christmas tree.
She needed to calm down and focus on Billy for the rest of their special lunch together. Mr. Dimes’s words about him not having any friends rang all too true. But if there was anything she could do about it now, it would be to help him know that he was special to her.
She’d take on the rest of the world—and a wandering-eyed wrangler—when the time came.
Chapter Twenty-One
Forest put the gas hose in the tank and started it up. He cringed, thinking of the fuel he’d charged to the family business over the last year as he’d chased Snowflake all over the western half of the United States. The irony? She’d been right here the whole time. It’d taken him almost 11 months to do what she did in one night.
She was fast. Fast enough to be an asset to Ginger on Christmas Eve.Ifhe could ever get her to fly again. As hopeless as it felt, he had to help her see the reason for the season. Or reasons, because there were so very many of them.
