AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 23
Darn it, Daniel had meant to give Miss Carruthers a call yesterday, but his mind had been too full of Seren that he’d completely forgotten. He’d been shattered, too. After he’d dropped her off at her house, he’d gone home and had only intended to have a nap to recharge his batteries, but the darkness outside and his extreme state of tiredness had conspired to make him fall into such a deep sleep he hadn’t woken until this morning.
Flustered, he’d shot out of bed, knowing he had to be somewhere. When he remembered he was supposed to be playing Santa at the Winter Wonderland, and realised he was going to be late if he didn’t hurry, he groaned in frustration. The last thing he wanted to do today was to listen to loads of children telling him what they wanted for Christmas, but in the absence of any other work and because he was committed to this particular job, he had no choice. He was consoled by the knowledge that Seren would also be at work, so seeing her today wouldn’t be an option anyway, as much as he would have liked to.
However, he was seeing her tomorrow – they were going to the cinema and he was hoping they would sit in the back row and canoodle like a pair of teenagers – so hopefully that would sustain him through the next few hours. Plus, he was meeting Tobias for a pint after work, so he was looking forward to that, too. He hadn’t had a drink with a mate for ages, and a catch-up would be nice. It felt a little strange to think that Tobias had dated Seren before him, but they hadn’t even kissed, so he didn’t feel too bad about it. Besides, knowing Tobias, he’d have got through at least another two or three women since he’d taken Seren out, so it wasn’t as though Daniel was stepping on Tobias’s toes.
It might have been Seren’s influence, or it might have been that he was getting used to being Santa, but halfway through the morning Daniel realised he was enjoying himself. Seren was right, therewassomething magical and uplifting about seeing the joy and wonder on the faces of the little ones. Their total and unwavering belief was heart-warming and rather endearing, and he could feel himself mellow and begin to enjoy the experience for the first time.
Maybe being Santa wasn’t so bad if it brought so much joy to so many small children, he thought, as a little girl gave him the biggest smile and the jauntiest wave of the day so far, as she skipped out of the grotto, holding her present in one hand and her father’s hand in the other.
Abruptly a pang caught him in the chest, and he wondered what Amelia was doing. He tried not to think about her too much, because doing so only made his heart ache. Last year, her giddy excitement had made Christmas so wonderful, and he’d loved seeing her glowing little face and her wide eyes as she hurtled downstairs on Christmas morning, skidding to a disbelieving halt when she’d spotted her previously empty stocking now bulging with presents. And he’d never forget her excited squeal of ‘He’s been! He’s been!’
How he missed her. He’d never thought he could get so attached to a child who wasn’t his, and it still hurt to think he’d never see her again.
Daniel glanced at the queue as he waited for the next child to be brought to see him and he almost fell off his plush gold chair in shock. He was missing Amelia so much, he was seeing her face superimposed on a girl of a similar age and the same hair colour who was—
Wait a sec – the woman standing by her side was Gina. Which meant he wasn’t hallucinating, and that the little girl reallywasAmelia.
His heart simultaneously leapt for joy and plunged to the toes of his big, black boots.
It was a most disconcerting and uncomfortable feeling.
Blinking away an unexpected sting of tears, he tried to concentrate on the boy who had just been shown in, but it was difficult when his mind was focused on Amelia.
For the briefest of moments he considered saying he was unwell and beating a hasty retreat, but he couldn’t be that cruel to the children who were lined up waiting to see him.
Instead, he took a calming breath, and waited with a dry mouth and a lump in his throat for Amelia’s turn.
‘Santa, this is Amelia and she’s seven,’ his elf for the day informed him, propelling the child and her mother forward.
Amelia was looking cute in a pink dress and with her hair in pigtails. They were messy and he remembered how she used to beg him to do her plaits for her because her mother didn’t do them right, and his chest tightened in pain.
Gina also looked good, but then she usually did. She was an attractive woman and knew how to make the best of herself. Today she was dressed in brown suede boots with a matching handbag, and a long white coat. Her dark, almost black hair was piled on top of her head with tendrils curling around her face, she wore red lipstick, and her brown eyes were outlined with kohl. She was a head-turner, but pretty is as pretty does, as Edwin once said, and Daniel would have been mighty glad he had ended their relationship if it wasn’t for her daughter.
Gina was scrutinising him sharply, but Daniel ignored her, keeping his attention firmly on the child standing by his knee, who didn’t appear to have recognised him.
‘Hello, Amelia, what would you like Santa to bring you?’ Daniel asked gruffly, trying to disguise his voice. At seven, she still firmly believed in Father Christmas and Daniel would hate for her to guess it was him she was talking to and risk her being disillusioned (worst case scenario) or confused (better, but still not ideal). He didn’t care a jot if Gina recognised him (she did, he knew she did), but it was imperative that Amelia didn’t.
Amelia hung her head and swung her arms, and Daniel couldn’t decide whether she was shy or if something else was making her reticent.
‘Didn’t you say you wanted the Lego Ice Palace?’ Gina prompted, her eyes continuing to scan Daniel’s face.
‘No.’ Amelia whispered.
‘Speak up, Santa can’t hear you, can you Santa?’ Gina inched closer and Daniel lowered his head, trying to hide his eyes, which was probably the most telltale part of him.
‘Amelia, you said you wanted to see Santa,’ Gina said, and Daniel could tell she was losing patience.
‘You’re not real,’ Amelia announced abruptly, looking up at Daniel from underneath her lashes, and for a second Daniel thought he’d been rumbled.
But Amelia didn’t look as though she knew it was him. She might just be testing the theory because of something she’d heard in school or seen on the TV.
‘Areyoureal?’ he countered.
She nodded and stared at the floor.
‘If you are real, then I must be real, too.’ He’d been advised not to lie outright and claim to be the real Santa when asked the question, and he’d been given a couple of pointers on how to deal with it, should it come up, which it did surprisingly often.
