Page 47 of Wishing for Love
“That sounds yummy,” she said. “How about you, Phoenix?”
“Uncle Nix likes pepperoni, sausage and cheese. He likes meat only. What do you like?” Elsie asked.
She looked at Phoenix. “That sounds good to me. I’m a big fan of meat.”
Damn, she was teasing him again and in the most innocent way.
At least he thought that was teasing. If not, he had it worse than he could have imagined.
“Then I guess we’ll make sure you get your meat,” he said.
He unloaded the bags with Crystal’s help; then she got the pans out for them to cook. “Wow, this dough is already risen.”
“I stopped and got it at a local pizza place. You can just buy their dough. I’ve done it before.”
“It’s Uncle Nix’s favorite meal with me. We like making pizza.”
It was one of the few he did well enough for Elsie to eat. She used to be a fussy eater, but he hadn’t noticed that with Crystal here.
He wasn’t sure if it was his cooking or Maryn’s or that Crystal might have a touch of magic to her ways.
He definitely thought that was possible but wasn’t going to comment on it in front of Elsie.
“What temperature do you put the oven on?”
“Four-fifty,” he said. “I’m going to assume someone is hungry?”
“I’m starving,” Elsie said. “And Crystal said that we could watch a Christmas movie tonight after dinner. I want to have time to watch it before she goes upstairs.”
“Crystal can stay down and celebrate with us until you go to bed if she wants to,” he said looking at her. “Unless she wants to have some alone time.”
“I’m good with watching a Christmas movie.”
“Mom and I used to play board games too,” Elsie said.
He hadn’t realized that and wondered if that was done last year. “We can play any game you want,” he said. “I want you to do what you are used to. I know it’s a little hard and you’re missing your mother.”
Elsie wiped her hand on her nose. “I am,” Elsie said. “But it helps to do all these things like I did with her. I can remember her and talk about her. That’s good, right? Crystal said talking about my mom keeps the memories fresh.”
He turned to look at Crystal where she was opening all the sides they’d be using and laying them out. He’d even bought precooked sausage.
She lifted her head and turned to him and sent a wink.
Sometimes he realized she was much older than her actual age. Or at least her wisdom was.
“Crystal is right,” he said.
The night went by fairly quickly between their personal pizzas, then cleaning up, and having cookies for dessert. No way Elsie was letting them go to waste because they were too pretty to eat. Those were her words too.
They’d watched two movies and played one board game and he knew the little girl was dragging it out, but it was close to nine at this point. An hour later than her normal bedtime.
“I think you need to get to sleep if you want Santa to come. If you’re not sleeping when he’s ready to come by, he might pass the house over.”
“Oh no,” Elsie said. “My mother said Santa never misses a house with a good kid in it. I’ve been good.”
He laughed. “You’ve been the best,” he said. “But you still need to get ready for bed.”
“Why don’t we go together?” Crystal said. “You had your bath earlier, but we can get your jammies on, and when you wake up in the morning, there will be so much loot under that tree you won’t know what to do first.”