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J.J. lit up. “It does?”
Faith nodded. “Maybe we can go shopping this week. I’ll take you while your dad works.”
Holden reached for the butter for his roll. “I’m supposed to be off this week, but I have to admit, I’m not a big shopper.”
“He’s not,” J.J. told Faith. “He gets bored.”
“Well, then, you and I will go over to the outlet mall tomorrow morning,” Faith said.
“Tomorrow?” Charity set her fork down, wiped her mouth, and reached for her glass of tea. “It’ll be packed.”
“The whole week after Christmas is a nightmare,” Mrs. Ardmore said.
“I like the challenge.” Faith smiled over at J.J. “Are you ready to battle the crowds?”
“You know what?” Holden set his own drink down and looked over at the two of them. “I’ll go with you. I could use a new sweater. Maybe the two of you could help me pick one out.”
Had he lost his mind? Here he had someone offering to spend the day traipsing around the outlet mall with his daughter, and he was passing up the opportunity to skip it and get some work done. That was not like him at all.
But the more he thought about it, the more he had to admit he liked the idea of spending the day with his daughter and this woman.
“Maybe we’ll grab some lunch at the Japanese place,” he said.
J.J.’s smile widened, and Holden knew he’d done the right thing. J.J. would get to experience shopping with a female adult for the first time since her mom died. But even more important—she’d get to once again feel what it was to shop and have lunch with two parents.
Okay, so Faith wasn’t a parent. And J.J. shouldn’t see her that way. This shouldn’t be all that much different from going shopping with one of the nannies he’d hired over the past year. Why did it feel different? And how did he stop himself from thinking of her as more than someone who was helping out around the house?
Because if he didn’t get control of that, he wouldn’t be the only one getting hurt. J.J. would too.
10
It was a little too cold to be outside, but Faith wouldn’t trade this for anything. It was Christmas night, and she stood on the square watching as the local community theater troupe performed the nativity for what had to be most of the town’s residents.
“Shouldn’t this have been done last night?” Holden whispered to Faith as they watched.
Faith shook her head and rose on tiptoe to whisper in his ear, “They don’t want to compete with the big church service. They’ve always done this on Christmas night.”
She was squished in next to Holden, J.J. having rushed off to hang out with a group of Ambers and one Jenelle. Charity and Nic had drifted off at some point and were somewhere else in this crowd, leaving Faith and Holden surrounded by people she’d known most of her life, including Gavin Mundy, a super smart guy she’d avoided in her younger years. He had a tendency to talk for hours about some random subject he was passionate about.
“Your daughter should audition for the Playhouse,” Nancy Chesney told Holden in one of the breaks between scenes. “With her voice, they’d probably choose a play custom-made for her to be the lead.”
Holden and Faith exchanged a look, and Faith nodded. It made sense—if, that was, J.J. was interested in acting.
“You know, it might look good on her application for that program,” Faith said.
“We could be watching her up here next year,” Nancy said.
They had to stop talking because the next scene started, but Faith’s head was still spinning over what had just happened. It wasn’t about J.J. or performing in community theater. It was the way he’d looked at her after Nancy made the suggestion. Like he was getting her thoughts on it.
It was silly. He’d do the same with a nanny, too, right? Single dads asked for opinions from nannies all the time. But those nannies were experts on children and therefore had expertise in the area. Faith was the last person to ask for advice on parenting.
“Cold?” Holden asked about halfway through the final portion of the performance.
She looked over at him. They were standing so close, she couldn’t help but remember that kiss they’d shared under the mistletoe. All it had done was make her want to kiss him again.
“A little.” She nodded.
He smiled at her, then put his arm around her, pulling her against him. “No, that won’t work,” he said.
