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Palmer gasped and pressed her gloved hand to her mouth. Dropping her arm to her side, she asked, “Not even a birthday party?”
Swallowing hard, I replied, “No. But I was in medical school, and then busy with interning and trying to work enough hours to provide for us while paying off my student loans. Then I was focused on buying a private practice and…”
Palmer started to walk again, saying something I couldn’t hear.
“What?”
She kept walking, but when she got to the back door, she spun around. “Charlie’s birthday is in April, right? We’re having the party to beat all parties. I can’t wait to start planning it!”
I raised my brows. “We are?”
“Yes, we are.” She shook her head and sighed. “I can’t think about it right now or I’ll get lost in the planning, and I want to be present since your parents are here. But starting tomorrow, the planning begins, mister”
I lifted my hand to salute her, but then realized I was holding bags full of pies. “Right. Planning starts tomorrow.”
Palmer smiled and opened the door that led into the mudroom. I followed and we were both immediately greeted by my mother, my father, and a beaming Charlie.
“Ms. Palmer!” Charlie said as if he hadn’t seen her an hour ago.
“Let me take those from you.” Dad took the two bags out of my hands.
“Thanks, Dad.”
While Palmer and I both started to remove our coats, I said, “Mom, Dad, you’ve met Palmer already, but it was pretty brief.”
She smiled. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Bryan. Thank you so much for letting me spend the holiday with your family.”
My father smiled back at Palmer. “You are more than welcome. Jen made plenty of food. More than the four of us can eat in a week.”
Palmer laughed softly.
Mom walked up and gave Palmer her sweetest smile. “It’s nice to see you again, Palmer. I’m so sorry to hear you can’t be with your family today, but we’re thrilled to have you spend Christmas with us. I made enough food for an army.”
Palmer looked around at all of us. “Thank you so much for having me. The thought of spending Christmas alone was a tough one.”
“Ms. Palmer, do you want to see what Santa brought me?” Charlie asked.
With a wide grin, she nodded and then looked at my mom. “Do you need any help in the kitchen?”
Waving Palmer off, my mother said, “No. Dan can help me if I need anything. The three of you go off and enjoy yourselves.”
I arched a brow in Mom’s direction, but she refused to look my way.
Charlie grabbed Palmer’s hand and nearly dragged her out of the kitchen. I followed but glanced back at my parents. They both gave me a smile that said they knew something I didn’t. I pointed to them both and shook my head.
“I know,” my mother said in a hushed voice. “Just friends.”
Nearly groaning, I headed out of the kitchen to catch up with Charlie and Palmer.
Palmer
Charlie nearly ripped my arm out of its socket as he pulled me through the house and to the family room. A large tree was up, though it looked like someone had taken a box of decorations and simply tossed it onto the tree.
“Ahh, the proof of a child in the house,” I said as I glanced back toward Mason, who was a few paces behind us. He smiled and shrugged.
“Ms. Palmer! Ms. Palmer! I got a paint set!”
I widened my eyes in an overexaggerated way as I looked at the paint set. “Charlie, this is wonderful!”
He nodded in excitement. “I know! Now we can paint together.”
My heart melted instantly as I stared down into his big blue eyes. “I would love to do that, Charlie.”
“Look what else I got!”
The next few minutes were spent with Charlie on the floor in front of the tree as we went through all of the toys that Santa brought him.
“My oh my, when did Santa find time to do all of this?” I asked as I peeked over at Mason, who was currently trying to put together some robot toy.
“Amazon.”
I giggled, and Mason looked over at us. My breath caught when our eyes met. For a moment, all I could do was stare at the man across the room.
“Ms. Palmer? Ms. Palmer?”
Snapping out of my temporary haze, I looked down at Charlie, who had been trying to hand me a toy car. “Are you ready to race?” he asked.
“Um, yes,” I answered, taking the car from him. “Which side of the track am I on?”
He looked down at the track, then back at me. “You’re a guest, so you can pick.”
“How sweet of you.”
Before I knew it, I was cheering for my little green car to beat Charlie’s around the track and laughing like I hadn’t laughed in years. Charlie took his car racing very seriously.
