by Bru Baker
“I do, but not to reuse it to wrap presents,” he said. “We do some found-object projects here, and wrapping paper is great for that.” He finally worked the paper free and opened the flap on the box. It was a small cross-stitched pillow, embroidered with a smiling snowman.
“I made it!” Aubrey said proudly.
Grant took it out of the box and made a show of inspecting it carefully. “It’s beautiful, half-pint. And it’s going to fit with my snowman collection perfectly! Thank you for such a lovely gift.”
He gave her a quick hug, noticing as his cheek brushed her head that she hadn’t taken the earmuffs off. A warm feeling pooled in his chest.
“The other one is—”
Josh pulled her to his chest and put a hand over her mouth. “Let him open it, Aubs. Jeez.”
Grant laughed and went to work on the larger gift. The paper on Aubrey’s gift had been taped along the entire seam, but the larger one was much sparser. Josh must have wrapped it.
The box was standing on its side, so he opened the long flaps carefully. He nearly gasped out loud when he saw what was inside: a three-foot-tall snowman that looked like it was made out of snow globes.
“We saw this on Pinterest and figured it would be perfect for you,” Josh said. “You know, since you like snowmen and snow globes. They aren’t actual snow globes, of course. Just glass fish bowls with some fake snow inside.”
It was amazing. “You made this?” Grant was pretty sure his voice was shaking, but he couldn’t help it. This was easily the most thoughtful gift he’d ever gotten. Each bowl had a different scene in it. The bottom had some art supplies sprinkled in around the snow, and the middle housed what looked like hand-painted cardboard cut-outs that looked strikingly like Josh and Aubrey. They were wearing winter coats and holding hands, their free hands raised in a wave. And the last tier, the smallest, held a tiny replica of Make and Take’s storefront, lit from within.
“I can’t thank you enough. This is fantastic,” he said, barely able to take his eyes off it. “Did you paint these?” He trailed his fingers against the second tier, pausing right over the Josh figure’s face.
“Yeah. Aubrey and I worked on it this week. She had yesterday off school, and I took the day off work so we could hang out together. We had a lot of fun making it.”
“I told him he needed to paint one of you, Mr. Grant. You should be in there too!”
Grant swallowed back the unexpected prick of tears at her words. That would be the only thing that could make the snowman better—the addition of a tiny Grant figure in there, holding Josh’s other hand.
He cleared his throat. “But it’s something for me to remember you two by,” he told Aubrey. “It’s perfect just the way it is.”
Josh gave him a searching look, but Grant turned away, dashing his stubborn wet eyes with the back of his hand. “We should get started. We’ll be making holiday cards with watercolors. I thought instead of just doing Christmas cards, you could make cards for a full year’s worth of holidays—birthdays, the Fourth of July, Arbor Day, whatever you want. And then you could give them to someone as a set for one of your gifts.”
Aubrey frowned. “I’m not good at painting details.”
“Ah, that’s where we can get creative,” Grant said. He pulled out a basket of stencils in dozens of different shapes. “We’re going to work with negative space today. So you’ll be using these stencils to make your details—but instead of painting inside the stencil like you’re probably used to, we’ll be using the stencil to paint around, leaving the shape inside it blank.”
“I’ve never done that,” Josh said, his eyes sparkling. “Sounds like a lot of fun, right, Aubs?”
She was already riffling through the basket of stencils. “What’s Arbor Day, anyway?”
“It celebrates trees. But you don’t have to make a card for that. It was just an example. You can do whatever you want.” He picked out two round stencils. “I, for one, am going to make a card for National Donut Day.”
Aubrey giggled. “That’s not a thing.”
“It most certainly is,” Grant said haughtily.
“It’s in June,” Josh said, drawing surprised looks from both Grant and Aubrey. “What? I like donuts. It’s in my best interest to know when National Donut Day is.”
Surprises. Josh was full of them. And damn if every new revelation didn’t make Grant’s crush worse. He’d thought Hot Divorced Dad was attractive, but now that he knew Josh the intellectual property lawyer who painted like a pro and bent over backward to make his little girl smile—well, who could blame Grant for falling hard?
Grant picked up his stencil and a brush and got to work, demonstrating the technique for Aubrey. “Since you are clearly a font of knowledge, maybe you could explain complementary colors. We’ll want to choose two or three per card. Something that makes you think of the holiday.”
Josh’s brow furrowed. “Hmm. For donuts, I’d say a warm cream with splashes of something bright. Pinks and reds, maybe. Makes me think of sprinkles.”
Aubrey found a stencil and positioned it carefully on her card stock. Her tongue poked out again, and Grant met Josh’s eye over her head, sharing a grin with him.
“I’m doing one for my birthday,” she muttered, squinting at her paper. “I’m gonna give these to Dad. Maybe then he won’t forget.”
Josh’s smile vanished, and Grant had to work not to give away his confusion. Wasn’t Josh her dad? Surely he wouldn’t forget her birthday. That just didn’t jive with the kind of guy who gives up every Sunday for a month so his kid can take private art lessons. Or the kind of man who’d take a day off work to make his daughter’s art teacher the most sentimental and touching gift he’d ever received.
Josh met his gaze again and shook his head, and Grant nodded. He cleared his throat and launched into a lesson on secondary colors, but Aubrey’s words weighed heavily in his mind.
Aubrey was absorbed in her work instead of chattering like she normally did, and Josh’s closed-off expression didn’t invite questions or banter. Grant got up and grabbed his phone, starting the holiday playlist they kept running in the studio when they did their drop-in crafts. As soon as Bing Crosby began to croon about being home for Christmas, Grant saw some of the tension bleed out of Josh’s posture.
“We’ve got enough envelopes for you to make twenty cards, Aubrey,” Grant said, turning his attention toward his student. “Can you think of other holidays you’d like to do? I can look up some silly ones if you want. There’s International Coffee Day, Star Wars Day—there’s pretty much a day for everything.”
Josh muttered something that sounded like “deadbeat father day” under his breath, but Aubrey didn’t notice.
“Is Star Wars Day the day the movie came out?” she asked, still focused on what she was drawing.
“No, it’s May fourth. Get it? ‘May the Fourth be with you,’” Grant said. “Awesome, right?”
Aubrey looked up long enough to roll her eyes. “That one would be for you,” she said, inclining her head toward Josh. “Those movies are boring.”
Grant put a hand to his chest. “Boring! Are you kidding me? There’s a princess and a planet gets blown up. And space travel! And evil masterminds!”
Aubrey wrinkled her nose. “Boring.”
Josh snorted. “Don’t bother. I’ve tried. She’s hopeless. If it doesn’t have a Disney princess in it, Aubrey isn’t interested.”
“Excuse you. Star Wars does have a Disney princess in it,” Grant said, putting his hands on his hips. Aubrey giggled. “Disney bought out the Star Wars franchise, which makes Leia a de facto Disney princess.”
Just like he’d hoped, his over-the-top defense of Leia seemed to brighten Josh’s mood. The stress lines around his mouth eased, and he unfolded his arms. “You’ve got us there.”
Grant picked up a spare piece of cardstock and started absently sketching out an AT-AT. “So have you seen the Star Wars movies, Aubrey?”
“Mom says I
wouldn’t like them.”
“She just wants to pass on her prejudice against Star Wars to her offspring. It’s terrible. Ask her about Halloween 1995, Aubrey. She was Leia and I was Luke. Your Poppy went as Darth Vader.”
Aubrey rolled her eyes. “Because they’re twins.”
Were Josh and his ex-wife childhood sweethearts? No wonder she wanted to get back together. It was almost sickeningly sweet. Unless.
Wait.
Grant stopped sketching and looked at Aubrey. “How do you know Luke and Leia are twins if you haven’t seen the movie?”
“Are Luke and Leia twins?” she asked, brow furrowing as she processed that. “Oh! Oh! That’s why it’s funny! I thought it was because you guys are twins and dressed up from the same movie. But it’s funny because you were twins dressed up as twins!”
“And Darth Vader is their dad,” Josh said, prompting more laughter from Aubrey.
“And Poppy is your dad. I get it now! That was a good costume! Mom talks every Halloween about how much she hated it, but it was actually funny!” Aubrey covered her mouth as she laughed, eyes wide and sparkling.
Grant felt like the chair had been pulled out from under him. Josh and Jill were twins? How could he have read that so badly?
It all added up, though. Aubrey never called Josh Dad, and Josh always referred to Jill as “your mom” or her name, never as his ex. And Aubrey’s comment about her dad made a lot more sense now too.
“Yeah, you two definitely need to have a Star Wars movie marathon,” he said weakly, trying his best to hide how floored he was.
“What do you say, Aubs? Maybe next week while you’re at my place?”
Aubrey shrugged. Her attention was already back on her cards. “I guess. How come Mom can’t take days off like you do?”
“You know why,” he said, sounding tired. He looked over her head at Grant. “Jill is a behavioral therapist. She works at a residential facility in Oaklawn. She usually works Friday through Sunday, but it’s all hands on deck to cover staffing shortages because of the holiday.”
“She has to work on Christmas,” Aubrey said, her voice wavering.
“But she’s home all day on Christmas Eve, remember? It’s her day off. So you’ll get to spend all day with her, and on Christmas Day we’ll go see Nana and Poppy and you’ll come stay with me.”
Aubrey nodded glumly. “And watch Star Wars.”
“We don’t have to. We could go to the movies,” he said. “Lots of people do that on Christmas. Tons of good movies are coming out on Christmas Day!”
“It’s a great day to go to the movies,” Grant said, trying to match the forced enthusiasm in Josh’s voice. “I’m probably going to do the same thing.”
“Really?”
Grant reached out and tweaked Aubrey on the nose.
“Totally. My mom’s going to be traveling on Christmas Day, so I can’t celebrate with her, either.” Thank God, he added silently. “Going to the movies is a great solution when you’re feeling sad or lonely.”
“But you won’t be lonely because you’ll have me,” Josh said, tipping Aubrey under the chin.
“You should come with us, Mr. Grant!”
Grant could get whiplash trying to keep up with her moods. He wished he was half as resilient as Aubrey. She’d been near tears a moment ago and was happy as a clam now.
“Oh, that’s nice of you to say, Aubrey, but I bet we don’t go to the same movie theater.”
“You could come to ours,” she said. “Uncle Josh lives in Ravenswood. Do you live here? It’s not far, but you could stay with us after.”
Josh coughed. “Sweetie, I’m sure Mr. Grant has other plans.”
Mr. Grant certainly did not, but he wasn’t going to tell Aubrey that. But he did get a thrill that Josh lived so close. It wasn’t impossible to hope they might run into each other at some point. “I live in Wrigleyville, half-pint. Maybe I’ll see you and Uncle Josh around sometime.”
“You should give Mr. Grant your phone number.” Both Josh and Grant just stared at her. “So you can text him what movie we’re going to. Then maybe he can come.”
Josh chuckled. “She gets this bossy streak from her mom. She’s the older twin, by five and half whole minutes, and she never lets me forget it. We’d better go ahead and exchange numbers. She’ll never let this go.”
Josh keyed Grant’s number into his phone, and a moment later the music, muted as a text, came in. “So you have mine.”
Great. Now he had Hot and Definitely Single Uncle’s number. Not that he’d ever use it. Josh had clearly just exchanged numbers with him to satisfy his niece.
“Let’s get these finished up so they have a chance to dry before you have to leave,” Josh told Aubrey.
It was on the tip of his tongue to tell Josh they could leave them and pick them up at Aubrey’s next class, but there wasn’t one. When Josh and Aubrey walked out of the studio today, it was very likely the last time he’d see them. Josh being Aubrey’s uncle instead of her dad didn’t change anything. If anything, it made it even clearer that Josh wasn’t interested in him. He didn’t have a daughter or an ex getting in the way. He just plain wasn’t interested.
And wasn’t that a kick in the gut?
Two days until Christmas
WALK-IN BUSINESS had been so good leading up to Christmas that Grant was seriously considering keeping the studio open on Christmas Eve. It fell on a Sunday this year, and Grant would be lying if he denied that part of him wanted to be at the store just in case Josh and Aubrey came by.
But Aubrey would be with her mom on Christmas Eve, and Josh hadn’t texted once since they’d exchanged numbers. Not that Grant had texted either. But the ball was in Josh’s court. Grant just had to accept they weren’t playing the same game.
Opening on Christmas Eve would be silly. He’d had a sign out with Make and Take’s holiday hours since Thanksgiving, clearly stating the shop would be closed between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. He planned to spend the entirety of the break sleeping.
Grant rolled his shoulders and stretched, his apron pulling. He was covered in paint, and he was pretty sure he had glue in his hair. It had been a good day.
There were still a few families in the store working on drop-in crafts, and he’d sent the last of his instructors home an hour ago. He was contemplating flipping the sign on the door to Closed when the phone rang.
It was tempting to let it go. After all, it was after nine. Technically the studio was closed. But what if it was important? They’d be closed for the next week. He hated to think of a customer waiting that long to have a message returned.
He grabbed the phone on the sixth ring, right before the voicemail could take it.
“Make and Take, this is Grant. What can we help you craft today?”
There was a pause, and then he heard Josh’s voice. “Thank God you’re there! I was worried you might have taken off for the holiday already. Don’t they ever give you time off?”
Grant could hardly believe he’d called. Sure, it was the store phone and not his cell, but still. Josh had called.
“Uh, I’m taking the next week off. No worries there.”
“I hope they pay you enough,” Josh said seriously.
“Actually, the pay is crap. Of course it’s my own fault, considering I own the place.”
Josh sputtered. “What? You never said! That’s great, Grant! It’s an amazing shop.”
“It’s grown a lot since I opened two years ago. You’re not wrong about me always being here. I’m planning to hire some more help after New Year’s.”
“Will you still do private lessons? Aubrey hasn’t stopped talking about what she wants to learn next.”
Grant’s heart sank. He’d hoped Josh was calling because he wanted to talk to him, not because of Aubrey. “Actually, we don’t offer private lessons on Sundays. I just, uh, felt bad because Aubrey was so excited about the series and we couldn’t get her in.”
Josh’s silence was a bit
worrying. It dragged on a few long beats before Grant started to babble.
“Not that I minded, because jeez. She’s an awesome kid, and you’re a lot of fun to hang out with. And it was just a couple weeks, you know? But Sunday is the only day we’re closed, so I don’t really want to change that. In the future. You know, because it’s my day off.”
Shit. He needed to stop talking. Grant pressed his lips together, wishing he could melt into the wall he was leaning against. He distracted himself by checking in on the last family left. They were finishing up a snowman craft. He waved when he saw the mother watching him.
“So. You called for something?” he asked finally.
“Right,” Josh said, his voice faint. “Did you really come in on your day off to teach Aubrey? I knew we were getting a really good deal, but I had no idea we were cutting into your—”
“No! I mean, yes. Technically, it was my day off. But it was only a few hours, and really, I had so much fun with you two. I’d definitely like to hang out with you again, just not, you know, for private art lessons.”
There, he’d said it. He held his breath while he waited for Josh to parse that and reply.
“Oh. Uh, well, that’s really nice of you. And I will definitely be bringing Aubrey back. We’ll get her enrolled in some of the regular classes. She’ll love that.”
Dammit. Grant thunked his head against the wall, startling the family. The mother started hurrying her kids along, casting increasingly wary glances at Grant. He tried to make himself look as normal as possible.
“Were you calling to set that up? Because—”
“No, actually I was calling to ask you to do what I’m now realizing is an even larger favor than I thought it was. Aubrey broke the paperback snowman before she could give it to my mom, and she’s just beside herself. I know we could probably figure out how to make one ourselves, but she really wanted to come in and have you help her again. Jill asked me to call you to see if you were open tomorrow and could fit her in. But it’s Christmas Eve, and it’s a Sunday. Your day off.”