Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses(52)
“Max, you know that Nick probably won’t be able to come. He’s my boss. I work for him. He isn’t your dad, so we can’t just ask anyone to come.”
Max looked disappointed. He would be fine; Abbey knew that. She was providing a stable home for him, good memories, and lots of love. Abbey had grown up with only Gramps in her life, and she was fine too. But Abbey had a natural inclination to want to give Max what would make him happy. She knew he wanted to be like the other kids in his class, and the only reason he wasn’t like them was because of her poor judgment when it came to men. It would never happen again. Abbey was tired of trying to fix people. Now, for Christmas, she just wanted a happy family, however small.
Max sighed and focused on the flyer again. “What’s the last thing on the paper? Number three—what does it say?”
“On the nineteenth, you have your school winter party with all your friends.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun!”
“Yes! Now, Mister, it’s bedtime. Let’s go brush your teeth.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Tomorrow,” Abbey’s friend, Adrienne, said on the other end of the phone as Abbey got into the car. “My party’s tomorrow. I have no food.”
“Did the caterer say why she had to cancel?” Abbey threw her handbag on the passenger seat and set her coffee in the cup holder of her car.
“She’s sick. It’s just her. It’s a small business but great for the money. The only problem is there’s no one to take over in times like these.”
“Well, you don’t want a sick person serving food to your guests. How many are coming?”
“About twenty.”
“You and I could cook.”
“We only have one day.”
“I can probably leave Nick’s around five or so. Mom can stay with Max if you need help shopping,” she said, feeling guilty for leaving Max yet again. Adrienne had a child too, but her childcare options were even more difficult to manage. It had taken an endless string of phone calls to family members before she’d found an aunt who agreed to watch her little girl for this party.
“Could you?”
“Of course.” Abbey put the car in reverse, the exhaust filling her back window in the cold air outside. “Let’s make a list. What should we have?”
“Something Christmassy. You could make your Christmas casserole—the one with the sausage and stuffing. That’s delicious.”
“Okay,” she said, mentally accounting for the ingredients in her cupboard. That would be easy; she only needed an onion and ground sausage. A quick trip to the grocery store on the way home would be all she had to do. “Want me to pick anything else up?”
“What else? We need some finger foods. Oh! You could make those pinwheels! I love those.”
“Are you making anything?” Abbey teased.
“No. I’m going to make you do it all. It tastes so much better when you make it.”
Abbey laughed.
“I’m just kidding. I’m going to do ham biscuits, veggies and dips, and all the sweets.”
“I’ll do the pinwheels and the casserole. I’ll get it ready Friday night and then bake it all Saturday and bring it over before the party. How does that sound?”
“Perfect!”
* * *
Abbey had been working in silence all morning. Nick hadn’t been up to see her at all, and she’d finished sliding all the new furniture to the center of the room and covering it with plastic so the painters she’d called could change the color of this room. Right now, it was a boring white but there was a fireplace in this bedroom with the most beautiful gray in the marbling surrounding it, and she’d found a matching gray paint and scheduled a painting company to come. They were coming tomorrow which meant she was right on time. She looked at her watch—five o’clock. Perfect, she thought. Just enough time to get to the store for Adrienne and home to see Max. As she headed downstairs, she ran into Nick.
“I spoke with my grandmother,” he said. “She wanted to make sure you were being taken care of. I assured her that you were. In light of that fact, I took the liberty of ordering you dinner. I figured it was a little late for you to cook it. Maybe we can plan that over our meal.” He smiled.
She’d forgotten about their little bet, but of course he hadn’t. She was supposed to cook him dinner but they’d gone out the last time. Any other night she would’ve loved the gesture.
“I can’t,” she said. She didn’t want to feel disappointed but she did.
She tried to shake the feeling she was having. She hadn’t seen him all day. He’d warned her that he was going to focus on work. She needed to get used to it. The Nick she’d had seen those few times—the one who stopped everything just to be with her, the one she could easily persuade to spend time with her—he wasn’t what she was going to get if she lived with him, so she might as well get her head around the idea that things would be different. He wouldn’t be following her around the house, listening to her blab about her decoration choices. But now, he’d had dinner made. Had he planned to eat with her?