“You needed a plate,” Mel said. “If you didn’t want me to get up, you should have gotten one before you sat down.”
“I thought my darling offspring would share with me,” he answered, and Aiden giggled again.
“It is too tasty to share!”
Mel smiled and winked at him. She’d known he would love this breakfast—and the twins loved it, too. Now that Aiden had stopped entertaining them playing with his food, they were chowing down at their plates with gusto. Only Subha’s husband, Paul, was not eating, and that was because he had scarfed so much down to begin with that he was already full.
“So…I’m sorry, what did you say you were all doing? Christmas tree shopping?”
Mel nodded, though her mouth was full, and Paul added, “Yeah, we thought it would be a fun family tradition to get the kids into, and we invited these two even though Gimpy here has a broken leg.”
Mel and Mitch said in unison, “It’s not broken,” and Paul laughed and said he knew. Mel realized Mitch hadn’t met everyone, so she made introductions and let everyone get back to their conversations. As they all chatted, Mel explained to Mitch that she would only select a tree, but not do any of the work of carrying it.
“I knew you wouldn’t approve,” she said, “and I honestly do respect your advice. But if I didn’t go now, I don’t know how I could possibly get a tree this year. I couldn’t fit one on my car, or carry it alone. So it’s now or never. You don’t want me to go without a Christmas tree, do you?”
To this, Aiden added, “Yeah, Daddy, do you?” Whatever Mel had done to make Aiden love her, she was glad she’d done it.
Mitch shook his head, eyes sparkling. “I would never want something so horrible to happen to anybody.” Mel laughed, and he leaned toward her and said more seriously, “You know I don’t want to be a hard-ass, and if I were in your shoes, I’d feel the same way. I just want your knee to heal up so you can get back to doing all the things you like to do.”
“I know,” Mel said, truly touched by his concern. “At first, I wasn’t sure about you. I mean—as a doctor. But now, I think you might be the best doctor I’ve ever had. You really care, and that means a lot to me.”
Mitch smiled warmly, and for a few moments they held each other’s gaze, and even though the room was crowded and noisy, Mel felt like she was the only person Mitch could see. But the spell was broken when Aiden had finished his breakfast and squirmed off his dad’s lap. “Thanks, Mel,” Mitch said quietly, smiling down at his plate. Then, he looked up again, a tiny smile quirking one side of his lips. “Hey, why weren’t you sure at first? About me as a doctor.”
Mel raised her eyebrows, but Subha, who had started listening to them again after Paul had taken the twins to wash their hands, saved her the trouble of replying and said, “Are you serious? How about, because you answered messages on your phone instead of examining her, then forgot to schedule an X-ray for her, and then let her think she could run in that stupid turkey trot—”
“It’s okay, Subha—I got this,” Mel interrupted, glancing at Mitch, who had been stunned into silence by this litany of his many failings. “I only said I wasn’t sure because…. Well, actually, Subha pretty much covered it. But I would have been nicer about it,” she added pointedly, and Subha had the decency to very lightly blush.
Mitch looked chagrined. He said, “You caught me on a bad day. A really bad day. Bad month, really.” Then he smiled a smile that made Mel’s heart race. “But so far, this month is turning out a lot better.”
Aiden, returning from washing his hands (proudly, without any help), said, “Daddy, this is only the fourth day of December.”
“Wow, buddy, you know the days of the month? How did you learn that?” Mitch asked, rising from the table to clear plates—and snatching Mel’s from in front of her before she could try to clear it herself.
“Sam taught me,” he said proudly.
Mitch’s jaw tensed and he gave Aiden a look that Mel thought was much more stern than the situation warranted. Aiden, only five years old, was old enough to know when he’d made a parent very unhappy. His face fell, too, and he looked suddenly close to tears. Mitch, meanwhile, turned away. Mel stepped in impulsively.
“Wow, Aiden, I have to say, you are one smart kid. I’m really impressed with you,” she said. “I bet you’re so smart, you know how to put away leftovers. Do you know how to do that?”
“Sure!” Aiden said. He hurried toward her, eager to be cheered up. “You just cover ‘em up and put ‘em in the fridge!”
“That is exactly right. I knew you would know. Do you think you and your Dad can take care of the rest of this Monkey Bread for me? I have a little dish all ready for it in the kitchen.”
Mitch had taken the moment or two while Mel spoke to compose himself, and he approached his son with nothing but smiles, kissing the top of his head. “Why don’t you grab the dish, and I’ll get ready to scoop the food inside?”
“Okay!” Aiden dashed off, and Mitch sat in a chair beside Mel, suddenly seeming exhausted.
“Thanks,” he said. “I’m really sorry about that. I’m just not used to hearing about him, and now—now he’s spending all this time with my kid.”
Mel understood how horrible that must feel—or really, she didn’t, but she still felt for him. But focusing on it now would only make Aiden sad. She decided to encourage Mitch to focus on the positive. “Well, you guys are here now. Maybe you can show him so much of a good time that he won’t even think about—other people.”
“Sam,” Mitch corrected with a gentle smile.
“I remember,” Mel said, “I just wasn’t sure if you wanted to hear his name.”
Mitch shrugged. “The guy my fiancée dumped me for? No, I don’t mind hearing his name. To be honest, I’m not even that jealous of him.”
Mel raised her eyebrows, caught off-guard by his sarcasm.
Mitch picked up on her expression and shook his head. “Sorry. I shouldn’t take it out on you. I definitely shouldn’t talk about it where Aiden might hear,” he added in a lower voice, glancing around.
“I’m sure he’s still in the kitchen,” she said. “The boys are in there with their parents, and I’m guessing they’re all banging pots and pans.”
“Oh, that’s what that sound is.” There was a continual clanging sound coming across from the kitchen, and while Amos wasn’t always the most careful dishwasher, Mel thought it was a safe bet that it wasn’t him making the sound. The twins came over frequently enough that nobody asked permission to ransack her kitchen anymore—and truthfully, she wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“Where does he get his read hair from, anyway?” Mel asked. “Is your ex a redhead?”
Mitch smiled. “No, not at all. She’s blonde."
“Then where?”
Mitch was digging his phone out of his pocket. He scrolled around for a bit, then handed it to Mel. On screen was a family: an older man and woman, a young couple with a little girl, and Mitch. Of the six people pictured, the only one who wasn’t a redhead was Mitch.
Mel looked up. “These are your parents?”
“And my brother, who married a redhead and had a redheaded daughter. In our family, I’m the weirdo.”
Mel laughed. “Maybe don’t let Aiden hear you say that.”
Mitch laughed, too. “Oh, right. Well, he’d know I was only kidding. I love his red hair.”
“How come he isn’t in the picture?” Mel asked, handing the phone back to Mitch. “You don’t look too much younger in it; it can’t have been taken that long ago.”
“It’s three years old,” Mitch confirmed. “I came for my Dad’s seventieth birthday, and we got a portrait done.”
“Ashleigh and Aiden didn’t come?”
Mitch looked a little uncomfortable, and he rolled his eyes. “No. It was ‘family only.’”
Mel frowned. “What on earth does that mean?” She really didn’t like the sound of it.
“We’re a good, old-f
ashioned family,” he said. “They didn’t like that Ashleigh and I weren’t married. Aiden wasn’t born in wedlock, so…”
Mel was totally horrified, but she didn’t know how to respond without making a comment about Mitch’s family that he might resent. To pressure their son unfairly was one thing—not necessarily a good thing, but it was at least admissible. But to reject his son, too! Melody didn’t always agree with Annie and Gary about everything, but she knew they would never do anything like this.
Mel was saved the trouble of responding by Mitch, who could see all her dismay in her face. “I know,” he said. “I only seem okay with it now because eventually, I came to terms with it. But I know. It isn’t fair.”
“It really isn’t,” she said emphatically, and she realized that she had folded her arms and was hunched over the table with tension. As an aunt with two kiddos she adored and another niece on the way, the thought of any child feeling unwelcome was totally abhorrent to her.
Just then, Aiden finally skipped back into the room holding the Tupperware dish she’d sent him for, with a train of adults and toddlers behind him announcing that the kitchen was clean and it was time to leave. Her heart flooded with sympathy and affection for the sweet, smart, quirky kid who looked just like the family that rejected him.
At once, Mel grabbed Aiden and gave him a big hug. “You,” she said, “are such a great kid. I’m so glad you came to visit me.”
Having taken a liking to her right away, Aiden returned the hug enthusiastically, saying, “I can visit anytime! I can come over anytime! Right, Dad?”
Mitch walked over and put his hands on Aiden’s shoulders. “You need permission to come visit somebody’s house, buddy. That’s just good manners.”
“But I love it here!” he pouted, dramatically slumping against his dad’s legs. “I want to sleep in the bunk beds some more!”
Mel sighed, worried that she had crossed a line and made Aiden upset at the thought of leaving. But then, she remembered that Mitch hadn’t actually said anything about leaving. Mel was the one who had just assumed it, but maybe it wasn’t what Mitch had planned.
“Do you guys want to stay all weekend?” she offered. Aiden cheered, and Mel added, “Only if your dad doesn’t have something else planned for you, kiddo. For all we know, he has something even more fun in mind.”
Aiden turned to look at Mitch, who smiled and said, “I don’t have anything planned. We’d love to stay. Seeing as you’re helpless,” he added with a smirk.
Mel’s heart warmed. Maybe the holidays wouldn’t be so bad this year, after all.
Chapter 6
Mitch and Aiden spent the weekend with Melody. After picking out a tree with Mel’s friends, they had lunch at a small café near the farm, then headed home in Mitch’s pick-up truck to set up the tree and decorate it. As Mel had predicted, Mitch was eager to step in and help her do something that he was fully confident she could not do on her own with her knee still recovering, but was equally confident she would probably try anyway if he didn’t offer his services.
Aiden helped Mel string popcorn for the tree on Saturday night. Although the television and games were all downstairs, Aiden decided to stay upstairs when he realized Mel couldn’t make the trip to the basement on crutches, and they listened to Christmas music from Mel’s cell phone while they worked. Meanwhile, Mitch ran to the grocery store to pick up holiday foods, and returned to serve pot roast, potatoes and carrots, and eggnog.
It was the perfect little pre-Christmas celebration, and Mel enjoyed it so much that it made her heart hurt a little to think that none of it was real. This wasn’t her family, or even her boyfriend’s family; this was just her kind-hearted knee doctor and his kid whom she would probably never have any reason to see again after her knee healed up.
But still, she enjoyed it. She was on the floor, leg stretched out and balanced atop a pillow, mug of eggnog in hand, as she watched Aiden and Mitch work on decorating the tree. Aiden seemed to have a very exact way of doing things, probably based on what he had learned from his mother.
“Daddy, that’s a heavy ornament, so you have to put it close to the bottom.”
“It’s fine, buddy.”
“No, it isn’t! The tree could tip over if it’s top-heavy.”
Mitch looked at Mel and said, “You don’t care where the heavy ornaments go, do you?”
She smiled and said, “No, but it sounds like maybe Aiden knows something I don’t know.”
Mitch ignored him and put the ornament on an upper branch, then laughingly consented to move it lower when his teasing made Aiden begin to cry, “Daddy!”
Mel was a little put off by Mitch’s not seeming to know how to interact with his son. He’d been engaged to Ashleigh for Aiden’s whole life; presumably, they’d all lived together. Mel was far from a parenting expert, but as an aunt, she knew not to tease the kids when they were actually doing something smart and responsible—it happened so rarely that when it did, it was cause for celebration, not ridicule. That, combined with this morning’s tension, made Mel begin to wonder about Mitch’s parenting skills. She decided to reward Aiden herself with a little praise, and hope that Mitch would notice and get the right idea from her.
“Hey, kiddo,” she said to Aiden, holding out her hand. He trotted over to her, bravely sniffling back his tears, and let her tuck his unruly curls behind his ear. “Thanks for making sure we decorate the tree the right way. You are very smart about this kind of thing.”
He beamed. “Mommy always lets me help.”
“That’s great! Does she let Daddy help, too?”
Aiden shook his head. “Daddy has to work.”
“When? Not on Christmas?” Mel glanced up at Mitch, who was staring quietly at the tree.
He shook his head a little and gave Mel a serious look that conveyed how sure he was that she had misunderstood. “He just has to work. He has to work.”
“Oh.” Mel glanced up at Mitch briefly. It was clear that Aiden was used to reciting those words, even though he wasn’t quite sure what they meant. It was as though “has to work” was a part of his dad’s identity to him. The guilty look on Mitch’s face convinced her of it. “Well, he isn’t working now,” she said more cheerfully. “Isn’t that great?”
Aiden’s face brightened and he nodded.
“Let’s keep decorating, but this time, you can be in charge. Wherever you say an ornament should go, that’s where your daddy has to put it. Deal?”
“Yeah!” Aiden skipped back to the tree to put his dad to work, insisting that Mel had made the rules and Daddy had to listen because it was her tree.
Mel was a little bit embarrassed that the conversation had gone in the direction that it had. She never meant to place herself in a seat of judgement on the family, although that was what her gift was making it necessary for her to do. She tried to engage her adorable houseguests in conversations about other things, hopeful that her positive demeanor would be contagious and would lighten some of the moodiness that was threatening to creep over Mitch. It seemed to be working, as Aiden was already genuinely feeling better, and his bright happiness was contagious.
But as they worked, Mel couldn’t help but reflect on what she’d just learned about the doctor. In light of what she wanted to do to help Mitch and his family, this was important information to know. It sounded like things weren’t working out in Mitch’s relationship because he wasn’t putting in the time and effort needed to make things work. But then again, there are two sides to every story, and it was perfectly likely that Aiden only knew his mom’s side. Of course, on the other hand, if he only knew his mom’s side, that was pretty revealing of how he spent the majority of his time. That impression was reinforced by how Mitch occasionally acted around his son. It wasn’t that they didn’t get along or like each other; it just seemed more distant a relationship than Mel would have expected.
After the tree was decorated, Mel asked Mitch to plug in the lights. She normally sang a carol around the
tree, but today she thought it would be best not to. Not quite yet would she take the risk of granting this wish.
While Mitch walked Aiden downstairs to get ready for bed, another thought occurred to Mel. If Mitch was so inattentive and not present, then why was he being there for Mel? She couldn’t reconcile his behavior toward her with the way his son represented him, and the way all three of them had gotten along today. Was it that he had learned from Ashleigh to be suspicious of Mitch? Or was Mel herself the difference? What else was going on? She thought and thought until her head hurt, and she was just contemplating crawling across the floor to get her crutches and hobble off to bed when Mitch came back upstairs.
“Hey there,” she said. “Is Aiden asleep?”
Mitch rubbed his hand over his hair, making it stand up in tufts, and launched himself past her onto the couch. “Yep. Out like a light. You wore him out today.”
Mel laughed.
“I’m serious. You are like the energizer bunny, even without two working legs. Do you ever get tired?”
Mel frowned, actually taking a minute to think about it.
“I’m kidding,” Mitch interrupted her answer. “I’ve spent days with you, so I know you don’t.”
Mel laughed.
“But,” he went on, “you showed Aiden a really great time today. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I had a great time, too. You guys are totally welcome here anytime.”
Mitch nodded. “I appreciate that, Mel. I really do.” He was quiet for a moment. Then, he said in a more serious tone, “You probably think I’m awful with him.”
Mel wasn’t sure what to say, but Mitch seemed to be waiting for a response. “You don’t owe me any explanations,” she finally said.
He scoffed. “That’s a yes.”
“No!” Mel protested, not wanting to offend. “You definitely aren’t awful. I guess I’m just used to the way by brother-in-law is with his kids, and how Dad was with us…” Mel trailed off. Saying he was bad by comparison wasn’t really any better than saying he was bad, was it?
Christmas Melody: a romance for the holidays Page 8
