Holiday Sparks

“John. John Hartley.”

Chapter Fourteen

Ben entered the code and opened the door. Brittany was sitting next to Darcy and they looked good together. Cozier than he’d expected them to be after just meeting. His smile faded as he saw the cell phone in Darcy’s hand. “Darcy, I can explain.”

“You knew?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about this morning.”

Brittany looked between them. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, squirt. Adult stuff.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I hate when you say adult stuff.”

Ben smiled tightly. “I know, but this time it really is.”

“All right.”

Darcy tucked a lock of Brit’s messy ponytail behind her ear. “Hey, why don’t we go out in the girl’s department and see if we can find you a nice Christmas shirt. Does your dad take you to Mass or anything?”

Brit’s eyes brightened. “Yeah, we go to Christmas Eve Mass. And I’m finally getting this stupid thing off tomorrow.”

“That’s great. We’ll find you something pretty, how’s that?”

Ben frowned. He was waiting for Darcy to rip into him, but she simply stood and ushered Brit out the door. She stopped. “We’ll be talking about this when I get home.”

Fuck.

He followed them out the door and grudgingly past the exit to the girl’s department. It exploded with red and greens for the holidays as well as the dark colors of fall. Brit shoved her coat into his hands. “Can I get a dress, Uncle Ben?”

“Oh, Uncle Ben will be getting you whatever you like,” Darcy chimed in.

Ben’s jaw clicked shut. “Sure, short stuff. Get two.”

Darcy folded her arms across her chest and followed Brit as she weaved in and out of the racks. The click of hangers as she searched for her size reverberated in his head.

She had four dresses, three skirts and two blouses hanging off Darcy’s arm by the time Darcy convinced her to try a few on. Ben rocked back on his heels and didn’t say a word. In fact, he was pretty sure Darcy was encouraging her to buy more than the two dresses.

“Do you need help in there?” Darcy called out.

“No. I’m just slow.”

Darcy leaned on the door and stared daggers at him. He was a dead man. But she hadn’t booted him out of the store, so there was still hope.

Please God, let there be hope.

Thirty minutes later, the girls were chattering at each other as though they’d been friends for years. And he had about one hundred dollars’ worth of girl’s clothing in his arms for the yes pile.

“You don’t work on commission do you?”

Darcy lifted an eyebrow. “It’d be much worse if I did,” she said sweetly.

He groaned but said nothing more. Twenty minutes later there was more on the pile and he was one hundred sixty-four dollars poorer. Two shopping bags weighed down each hand.

“Dad is going to flip!” Brittany slammed herself into his side. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

He smiled down at her. “Don’t say I didn’t get you anything cool for Christmas.”