Baby, It's Cold Outside Read Free Page A

farewell speech when a little girl came up to him and tugged his hand. He remembered giving her an art pad and pens earlier.
    “Santa, you’ve given everyone a present, but you haven’t gotten one, so I made one for you with the one you gave me.” She handed him a picture of himself with a huge smile on his face.
    It was the first time he’d ever been given a drawing by a child. “Thank you, honey, that’s lovely.”
    He stared at the picture. It shocked him to the core that it actually made him want to fly out west and see his sisters and the kids—to see their faces when they opened their presents, instead of keeping his distance and being too busy to reply to the text messages they sent to his cell phone to thank him.
    Maybe, Mitch thought, he’d gotten Christmas all wrong.
    Maybe Christmas itself was a gift.
    Not that he was going to admit that to the Chief Elf. He was pretty sure she’d have something to say on the subject, and it wouldn’t be in the slightest bit complimentary to him.
    …
    “Ellie, it’s snowing. I mean really snowing,” Janet, one of the helpers, said, her face etched with worry.
    Ellie went over to the window to discover huge, fluffy flakes floating down. It had been years since she’d seen snow like this. It was already starting to settle on the lawn and the trees, and it looked magical. “A real white Christmas,” she said softly. “How perfect.”
    But it would also mean problems for people getting home, unless all the roads had been sanded. There hadn’t been anything on the weather forecast about snow. The forecasters had simply said there might be a little rain, and Ellie had swallowed her disappointment that her first Christmas in America was going to be just like her normal Christmases in England. But now it looked like her dream for a white Christmas would come true after all.
    Janet bit her lip. “I just checked online. Apparently it’s a freak snowstorm.”
    And everyone here at the party except her had a family to get home to, Ellie thought. It wouldn’t matter if it took her ten times as long to get back to her godmother’s house, because she only had herself to think about. But it would make a huge difference to everyone else. “Janet, tell everyone to go home. I’ll clear up.”
    “You can’t possibly do it all on your own.” Janet shook her head. “It’ll take you ages .”
    “It’s fine, really. Go home now, before the snow gets any worse.”
    “Well, if you’re sure…” Janet looked doubtful.
    “I’m sure,” Ellie said with a smile.
    “Thank you. And for all your help today. You’ve really done Betty proud. Merry Christmas.”
    “Merry Christmas,” Ellie echoed with a smile. Though hers was going to be quiet, rather than merry. Her first Christmas in America. Her first Christmas on her own.
    As parents collected their children one by one from the party, Ellie focused on clearing up. The paper plates all went into a rubbish bag, and she put the remaining nibbles on a tray ready to take through to the nursing staff.
    “What’s next on the list of things to do?” a voice said beside her.
    She looked up to see the stand-in Santa. “I thought you’d gone.”
    “I just changed out of my costume. I didn’t think it would be right for the kids to see the man in red cleaning up. Where’s everyone else?”
    “I sent them home.”
    He frowned. “Why?”
    “Because it’s started snowing and I didn’t want them to be stuck here when they need to be at home.”
    “What about you?”
    “I’ll be fine.” She brushed his concern aside with a polite smile.
    “Okay.” He glanced around the room and gestured to the broom propped against the wall. “Do you want me to sweep the floor?”
    Oh. So he’d actually meant it about helping. “Yes, please. Though this isn’t in the job description.”
    “Well, hey, I can’t let Santa’s Chief Elf down, can I?” He actually smiled then—and Ellie discovered that he was breathtaking when he did.