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“Goddaughters,” Holly clarified. “And this is their uncle,” she added, hooking a thumb toward Chace.
“Yeah. They’re taking care of us while our mom is with our dad. He’s in the Army,” Wren elaborated.
“Well, that’s awfully nice of them,” Gemma replied. “Do you think they might want to get their faces painted?”
“Sure!” Emme chimed in at the same time Holly was shaking her head. “I think Aunt Holly should get a Christmas tree.”
“And Uncle Chace Santa,” Wren made her selection.
“How about Mrs. Claus for your aunt,” Gemma suggested.
“Yeah!” both girls answered.
One dark brow raised, Holly turned to look at Chace. Yeah, he knew what she was thinking, or rather asking, but there was no way Emme and Wren overheard him earlier when he’d reminded Holly about their aspirations to one day dress up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus.
Shrugging, Chace lifted his hands out to his sides and shook his head, telegraphing to Holly that the twins’ choices for their facial designs had to be entirely coincidental.
“Your turn!” Wren declared, hopping up from the chair and motioning for Holly to sit.
Gemma started on Holly’s Mrs. Claus as Emme turned her seat over to Chace.
“You girls stay where we can see you,” he instructed, pointing his index and middle fingers toward his eyes and then turning the gesture toward them.
Giggling, they nodded and went to the table right beside them to make a card for residents of the elder care facility.
As luck would have it, all four were finished simultaneously. Chace dropped a twenty into the jar at the face painting table before joining the girls on the sidewalk.
“I’m hungry. Can we get a hot dog and some hot chocolate?” Emme scrunched up her face and rubbed her face to emphasize her need for nourishment.
“We passed a cart right before the community center.” Holly pointed behind them.
“Lead the way.”
With the parade crowd no longer clogging the sidewalk, several café tables and chairs dotted the area in front of where some food vendors were set up in an alcove between two buildings. “Does anyone want anything besides hot dogs and hot chocolate?”
All three declined.
“Ketchup and mustard on both, right?” he looked at Emme first, then Wren.
Both nodded.
He shifted his gaze to Holly. “Still just mustard and relish for you?”
“Please.”
“Just one?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if you’ll get them settled, I’ll get the food.”
Ten minutes later, Emme and Wren were scarfing down their hot dogs on one side of the table with Holly and Chace on the other.
“Just three?” Holly inquired, inclining her head toward the box of food in front of him on the table.
Nodding, he wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I had a big breakfast,” he answered with a grin before taking another bite. He chewed and swallowed before continuing. “So, does that happen often?”
Her gaze narrowed. “What?”
