Samantha clapped her hands together and beamed. “Mommy, isn’t it great? Now you don’t have to find time to drag down that dang tree—”
“Samantha! That’s enough.” Kara’s cheeks warmed with embarrassment. Apparently her daughter had overheard her muttering to herself in frustration at the overwhelming prospect of putting all their Christmas decorations up this weekend.
“Sorry.” Samantha didn’t look the least bit sorry as she grinned at the tree as if she’d never seen one before.
But when her daughter’s blue eyes settled on Jason with that same ear-to-ear smile, Kara knew she was in trouble. She didn’t need these two to bond. No way.
“We’re making cookies,” Samantha said. “Wanna decorate ’em with me?”
Jason rocked back on his heels. His hesitant gaze traveled to Kara. Working with him would be tough enough. She didn’t need him befriending her daughter. She gave a slight shake of her head, praying he’d get the message.
“Thank you. That sounds great....” His gaze ran to Kara again, as though he was actually interested in spending time with a six-year-old.
Part of Kara wanted to relent and have him stay, to make her daughter happy, but she knew in the end that it’d end up hurting Samantha when he walked out of their lives. He wasn’t a forever kind of guy. When the going got rough, Jason got going. Reliable definitely wasn’t in his vocabulary.
And what was even worse was that he represented the one thing Kara couldn’t give her daughter—a father. Up until this point, Samantha hadn’t shown any curiosity about her dad, but the day was coming when she’d be full of questions. And Kara couldn’t help but wonder if her little girl would blame her for never marrying and giving her a father figure. Still, Jason wasn’t an ideal candidate.
Kara steeled herself and gave another shake of her head. Jason was a gentleman and explained that he had a previous engagement, causing her daughter’s smile to morph into a frown. Kara couldn’t blame her. If she wasn’t careful, she, too, would get sucked in by his charms.
He walked to the door, then turned to Samantha. “I almost forgot. I have something else for you. I’ll be right back.”
Samantha raised her bright eyes to her mother and practically bounced with excitement. “I wonder what it is.”
“I don’t know.” Truly she didn’t, but she had to admit she was curious.
When he rushed back up the walk, he was holding a small box. It looked familiar, but Kara couldn’t quite place it.
He held it out to Samantha. “This is for you, but on one condition. You have to finish baking with your mother and help with the cleanup before you open it. Can you do that?”
Her head bobbed. “Sure.”
“What else do you say?” Kara prompted.
“Oh, yeah. Thank you. Come on, Mommy.” Samantha pulled at her wrist. “We have cookies to make.”
Jason chuckled. Kara hadn’t seen him this relaxed in all the time she’d spent with him at his place. Apparently he related to little girls more easily than he did to big ones.
“Have fun baking.” He waved and strolled down the walk, whistling a little ditty.
What in the world had put him in such a good mood?
“Mommy. Mommy. Look at this.”
Kara closed the door and turned, to find her daughter had ripped away the snowman wrapping paper and opened the cardboard box. “You promised to wait to open it, remember?”
Samantha shrugged, peering inside the box. “I know. But I just wanted to peek. Isn’t she beautiful?”
She held up the box for Kara to get a good look at the contents. The angel. Jason’s Christmas angel.
When Samantha made a motion to reach inside the box, Kara yelled, “Don’t! Your hands still have cookie dough on them. Hand me the box.” Samantha frowned, but did as instructed. “Now go wash up. We have cookies to finish making before we decorate the tree.”
Kara carried the heirloom into the living room. What had Jason been thinking when he’d decided to give away this treasured memento from his childhood? She’d thought for sure, with the memories of his mother the angel invoked, that he’d hold on to it. This just went to prove that she really didn’t know him at all.
After another quick glance at the angelic figure, she placed it atop the bookshelf for safekeeping. He might not be ready to appreciate such a fine gift from his past, but she’d hang on to it for him, until his heart was open to the joy of Christmases past and the hope of Christmases future.
Jason Greene, for all of his faults, was hard to resist when he turned on the charm. His visit today had chipped away at the hard edges around her heart. She glanced out the window, but he was long gone.
She still needed to talk to him about so many things. Not only did they have the past to straighten out, but now his father’s Christmas wish was weighing on her. She prayed there was some way to broker a bit of peace between the two men. The sands of time were running out for this father-son reunion.