Lib Novel Page 55
No, she told herself firmly for the hundredth time. Don’t think about him.
“We need some music,” she told Sylvester, who was sitting on the floor by the tree, gazing at his presents.
She had expected him to be shaking them and turning them this way and that, trying to figure out what was in the pretty wrapping.
But he only looked through them with a vacant expression.
He didn’t answer her about the music either, and she wondered if he was tired already. It was only midday, and they had just gotten home from the last day before the winter break. He should be excited.
He’s probably crashing after the sugar high from all those cupcakes at school, she told herself.
“I’ll put on the radio and we can dance,” she decided, figuring it would be good to wear him out and get him ready to eat something sensible.
She headed to the kitchen, grabbed the radio, and brought it back to the living room. When she turned it on, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” was playing.
“Perfect,” she told Sylvester. “Come on.”
“No thank you,” he said politely. “I don’t really feel like dancing right now.”
Taken aback, she studied him, tilting her head.
“Shall we read your book?” she offered. “I can read to you, if you’re tired.”
“I don’t want to finish it without Jared,” he said, the disinterest in his voice finally collapsing into sadness. “Why doesn’t he come to visit me anymore?”
Her heart sank as she realized the real reason her boy was feeling so down was the same reason she couldn’t seem to get into the spirit herself.
“I’m sure he’s busy with his own family’s Christmas traditions,” she said carefully, sitting down beside him.
“But he likes to share his traditions with us,” Sylvester said.
She felt a pang of sadness, realizing how perceptive her son was. She was going to have to be a little more honest with him.
She wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
“Jared is a good friend, but he’s been here an awful lot,” she told him. “He’s not part of our family. And sometimes it’s nice to be just us, right?”
Sylvester shrugged. She could see his hand moving in his pocket and she knew his little thumb was rubbing his father’s keychain for comfort.
Better that than him being in more trouble in school, or getting hurt because I let him spend too much time around a man who isn’t careful.
But the thought was cold and empty in her mind. Jared was a good man and he had treated them kindly.
You can’t have it both ways, she tried to tell herself.
“You really like him,” she murmured, buying time.
“He makes things fun,” Sylvester said. “And he never talks to me like I’m a little kid.”
Cora smiled in recognition. That was true.
“And he makes you laugh,” Sylvester said. “And helps you do things we don’t usually do.”
“Like what?” she asked, wondering which of the new things they’d done lately had won his heart.
“I don’t know,” he said. “We got a real Christmas tree, and we went to his house, and I played with all the kids, and we went to the town celebration, and you didn’t worry about my asthma even once.”
She smiled, feeling tears prickle her eyes as her son gazed up at the tree, wonder and pride in his expression as he looked at the pretty decorations the three of them had made together.