A man stopped outside the open door. Danny couldn’t see anything but his back. His head was shiny. He didn’t have any hair. Probably a doctor since he wore one of those white coats and had one of those funny little hats in his hand. Danny wondered if Santa stopped at hospitals. If he did, he sure wouldn’t be wearing that kind of hat.
Danny wanted to go home. He wished his mom would wake up and tell his grandparents to take him home right now. If she woke up, maybe she could go, too.
The bald man in the white coat outside the door turned around. Danny looked up at him and the man winked.
It took another wink but then a smile stretched across Danny’s face.Daddy!He had known his daddy would come! He started to jump out of his chair, but his daddy shook his head and put a finger to his lips.
Danny didn’t move or say a word. Even tonight Santa would know if he didn’t obey his parents. Especially his daddy. He always did exactly what his dad told him to do.
His daddy pointed to his eyes, then his chest, and then at Danny.
I love you.
Danny nodded. He pointed to his eyes, then his chest, and then his daddy.
I love you, too.
His daddy put his thumb and finger to his mouth and traced them across his lips. He had told Danny over and over that it was very important to remember what that meant so nobody would find out their secrets. Danny hadn’t forgotten.
Don’t tell.
14
Wiggins, Mississippi; 6:50 p.m.
Penny Arnold parked in the driveway and just sat.
Exhaustion clawed at her. She couldn’t remember ever being this tired.
Through the arched window adorning the front wall of her living room she could see her sweet boys on the couch. Her husband would be hidden away in their bedroom frantically wrapping the last of the Christmas presents. A job that was to have been Penny’s.
He was angry with her.
And rightly so.
She’d been gone four whole days and three nights.
It was past six o’clock on Christmas Eve and she was only just now getting home.
Once the kids were in bed the arguing would start in earnest. She didn’t have the energy to fight tonight. But her husband wouldn’t let that stop him.
Her work took up too much of her time. Every argument began with that theme.
What kind of mother allowed her boss to send her to a real estate conference so close to Christmas?
The truth was Penny had volunteered to cover the Phoenix conference. Even more damning, the conference had ended yesterday. Pennyhad chosen to stay an extra night and day to get in a few career-boosting brownie points with the conference leader.
And to avoidthis.
She closed her eyes and exhaled a heavy breath. Her husband didn’t understand her need to succeed as a Realtor. Why wasn’t selling a house now and then enough for her? he would demand. Getting her own agency shouldn’t be her goal. She had two boys in elementary school. A husband who worked hard and made a sufficient living. Why couldn’t she be satisfied with her life?
He didn’t understand that she wanted to succeed in her own right. Why was that such a difficult concept to grasp? Penny didn’t want to be like her mother or her younger sister, both of whom relied solely on their husbands.
Penny wanted her financial independence.
She wanted to be her own boss.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her husband to provide for the family—he would throw that in her face, too. Certainly it wasn’t that she didn’t love him and her children. But what in the world was wrong with being successful in addition to being a mother and a wife?