“Nah. Seems like a fitting way for you to earn your keep. You are kind of a handful.”
Swiveling his menacing body around, he strolled back for the door that led to the shop like he hadn’t just suggested what he had.
Like he didn’t have my traitorous body coiled up in knots. Knots that both terrified and exhilarated me.
An infuriating smirk on his face as he glanced back from over his shoulder. “That’s your cue to get back to work.”
What. A. Dick.
Turning away, he dragged open the door.
It took everything I had not to hurl my mug at the back of his arrogant head.
Instead, I catapulted a shrieked, “I hate you!” at his back.
He paused to glance at me once more. “That’s good, Little Wildfire. Think it would be best if we kept it that way.”
TWELVE
SILAS
TEN YEARS OLD
The only lightsin the living room were from the gold flames dancing in the fireplace and the twinkling Christmas lights on the tree.
That’s the way Silas’s momma liked it.
Cozy.
He felt that way right then. His stomach full of a mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows, his momma singing with her pretty voice as she put the last ornaments on the tree.
He sat on the couch with a big book on his lap, and his sister Elena was on her knees at his side, babbling and pointing at the pictures as he read. “I see Santa! Santa come?”
“Santa’s definitely gonna come,” he told her, excitement blustering up in his stomach the same way as the snow blustered outside.
He and his sister were both dressed in their pajamas. Elena’s a full body pink suit that had feet and zipped all the way from bottom to top, and his had long pants and a long-sleeved shirt with baseballs all over it.
Their baby brother was already asleep in his crib.
“But we gotta be extra good so we don’t get on the naughty list.”
Silas figured it was his job to help his momma teach her about all the important things in life.
The tiniest giggles rolled out of Elena, her chubby cheeks denting with her dimples that looked like the same ones their momma had. “I not naughty.”
Their momma danced over to them with her big smile.
Their momma softly poked Elena’s belly. “Are you sure my little Lena-Lou isn’t on the naughty list?”
She shook her head like crazy, her messy brown hair whipping around her face. “I am good, Momma!”
Silas grinned, warmth covering him whole.
“You are such a good girl, aren’t you, my angel?” their mother cooed before she turned that cooing on him. “And my big, strong Silas who is turning into such a good man.”
She set her palm on his cheek.
That’s what he wanted to be.
