Sophie grabbed a wheeled luggage rack and threw the bags on. She didn’t owe that creep anything, especially not a conversation. Unless, of course, he was finally ready to give her the reason for him leaving and never coming back. She deserved that much.
Suddenly hot, she unwound her scarf and threw it on top of the bags. Why in the world did this have to be the one week she would run into that man. It was bad enough that he had broken their engagement with a text. A text! Who even does that? And obviously he was married with a kid.
She shoved the luggage rack a little harder than needed, managing to catch her scarf in the wheels. Sophie huffed an exasperated breath and untangled it. She moved into the activity room and began emptying her supples, arranging them by each day’s activity. Thank goodness this was a large resort. She shouldn’t have any trouble avoiding him. Or his full beard. Or mesmerizing eyes. One glance was all it took to remember what loving him had been like.
Letting these thoughts worm their way in was not okay. The man was married. And he obviously hadn’t wanted her in his life. Just as well. If he was willing to walk away from a two-year relationship, then he wasn’t the man she thought he was in the first place. She didn’t need him. She was doing just fine.
Sophie pulled out her colored markers and drew a festive border around the white board. She colored in the berries on the holly leaves and stood back to admire her work. She would do what she did best—throw herself into her work with kids. She would just ignore the fact that he was here. No sense getting her tinsel in a tangle.
She wrote the days of the week and the lists of activities. Tomorrow they would build snowmen. She looked out the window where white flakes continued to fall. There should be plenty of snow by then.
She arranged piles of plastic carrots, large buttons, scarves, mittens and. . . She put her hand on her chin. Some sticks for arms would be nice. She could look for those early the next morning. She looked at her bag of ribbons. She should take those too. Maybe the kids could think of something creative to do with them. Who knew? Kids always came up with interesting things. She checked the time. Better turn in. Hopefully tomorrow she’d be so wrapped up in the fun of kids that she’d forget all about him.
* * *
Sophie slid the key card into the door of her room just as her phone chimed.
“Hey! Claire. You are just the person I need to talk to.” She slid her bag off her shoulder and onto the dresser.
“What’s going on? Everything okay?”
“I wish. It was great, until…” Sophie kicked off her ankle boots, sending one flying across the room.
“Until what? What’s going on?” Sophie sat down against the pillows on her bed. “Three guesses as to who is here.”
Silence. “You there?”
“Yeah, I’m thinking.”
“I was unloading my car with all the activity supplies and who should offer to help me. Sam!”’
“Shut up.”
“Yes. Can you believe it? Here our trip to Europe is ruined by the strike and now my whole Christmas week is going to be ruined.” Sophie wound a strand of hair around her finger so tight the tip was turning purple.
“Woah now. It’s gonna be okay. Take a breath.”
“I’m not taking a breath. He has a kid! A little girl! The jerk’s married!”
“Oh my gosh. Sophie. I don’t even know what to say. What’s his wife like?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see her.”
“Did you talk to him? Did he apologize?”
“Are you kidding? He started to help me unload the car. I just told him to put the bag down in the lobby. I wasn’t going to give him the time of day.”
“How did he look?”
“Tall. Bushy beard. Handsome. Come on Claire. Don’t make me do this.” Sophie put her hand on her forehead.
“I always liked him. You need to talk to him. Let him explain. Maybe he had a perfectly good reason for breaking it off.”
“Are you kidding? He could have at least done me the favor of explaining— an email. A phone call. In two years of a relationship, wasn’t I worth that much?” Sophie rolled her shoulders. A hot bath was sounding really good.
“Yes, you were worth it. You still are. Take a breath. Hot bath. Bubbles. Watch a movie. I’ll call you later.”
* * *
Sophie awoke, not feeling as rested as she would have hoped. Too many thoughts squirreling around her mind. Please tell me it isn’t true. That was someone else I saw last night.
She dressed in a pair of jeans and a red sweatshirt with Best Christmas Pageant Ever written on the front and a picture of a girl with hair shooting out all over her head.
Sophie grabbed a chocolate glazed croissant from the lobby table and held it in her mouth as she secured her knit scarf. The snow had stopped falling, but it was still cold. She searched around the yard and made a stack of suitable snowman arms, then made her way inside.
She was just in time to see Megan, dressed as an elf coming down the hall followed by a dozen boisterous kids.
“Do you want me to lead them to the activity room?”
“Would you? That would be great. I’m going to start with story time.”
Megan placed name tags on each of the kids and sat them on the carpet.
“I am so glad you’re here today!” She eyed each child’s name tag and welcomed them. Wait. Wasn’t that the girl with Sam last night? His daughter? She swallowed.
“Uh, hi Darby. Glad you could come today.” Those big eyes. And dimples. She didn’t remember Sam having dimples. Must have gotten them from her mom. Sophie blinked.
“We’re going to start with a story and then head outside to make a snowman. Sound okay to you?” Choruses of yes and yay echoed off the walls.
“And the snow dad winked at his circle of snow family as the creators went home for the night.”
Sophie and Megan helped the smaller kids put on their gloves and then carried totes full of supplies for their snow people.
“I can help. Let me help carry that.” Sophie looked down.
“Uh, sure, Darby. Take one side of the tote.” Darby heaved it. “Are you sure it’s not too heavy?”
“I can do it. My dad says I’m really strong.” Yeah, I bet he does.
They headed to the back where the snow was thickest. Small bits of green peeked out of the snow-covered branches. A cardinal sat on a branch, its red plumage contrasting against the white.
“Miss Sophie, look at the snow. It’s sparkling like diamonds!” Diamonds. Yeah. About that.
Sophie directed the older kids to help the younger with forming their snowballs and they soon had a group of snow people awaiting faces and features.
Sophie walked slowly by each one, remarking on the placement of the eyes, their beautiful scarves and crazy branch arms. She came to Darby’s and let out a giggle. “You used ribbons and made hair for yours. That’s cute.”
“I made it long and red. See I made someone pretty to marry my daddy— just like you, Miss Sophie.” Woah now. What? He’s not married?
“Well, it’s very cute. I’m sure your daddy will love it.” Can’t wait to see what he thinks of that.