“Don’t make me fall in love again if he won’t here next year”
She’d refused the thought of jeans and a sweater. Instead, Eleanor had elected for the peacock blue dress with the scoop back and bow sleeves. They’d brushed through her curls and tied them back with a matching bow and her favorite Mary Jane shoes. There was no question that Eleanor had been raised both girly and proper. Her daughter was quite something else.
Looking over at the little girl she looked both frustrated and perplexed as she turned around in the line to see Santa, searching the crowd not for the man in red but for the man that mattered most to her. Her adoration for her father was entirely something else. Wave couldn’t help but wonder if it was the bond that Fi and Richard had had when she was little, or if this was something entirely unique to Jude and Eleanor’s situation.
“What’s going on baby?”
Reaching out she pulled at Eleanor’s curls, brushing them back from her bright blue eyes as she studied the little girl.
“I just want daddy”
Her heart squeezed for a moment. Separating the little girl from her father was nothing Wave had intended to do. But they both needed to learn how to be better FOR her. She couldn’t imagine how confusing the past three months alone had to have been for Eleanor more so than anyone else.
Leaning down she kissed the top of Eleanor’s head, placing her hands on her shoulders for a moment. What exactly could she say to the three year old? She’d probably already confused her enough as it was. The perky little girl had soured today, acting far poutier than she had in the past.
“Uncle Charlie’s annoying in the morning. I miss daddy.”
She wasn’t wrong, B’s Christmas songs in the hallway bright and early at eight AM were enough to make her want to strange him to death. She’d forgotten that he was both a morning person and a night person. He didn’t seem to have a button that ever shut off and it was obnoxious.
At a loss for what to say to Eleanor she looked at the line in back of them again, checking to see of any sign of Jude. It wasn’t like him to be late for things. Clicking the side of her phone she checked the time again, she’d told him fifteen minuets ago. Her worry was beginning to increase. That was probably something that wouldn’t ever change for her, worrying when he wasn’t there. She was just trying to get used to it.
“Daddy’s gonna be here”
Turning to look at the line of kids and parents who stood waiting for Santa at the Macy’s on the Tuesday before Christmas was just about as long as she’d expected. This was new to her, taking a child to see Santa, waiting in the long line, somehow it seemed fitting to her.
“DADDY”
Turning her head immediately she spotted him, still deep in conversation with a blonde beside him on the escalator. Though as the little voice hit his ears she watched as his head turned hers and Eleanor’s way without a beat being missed. A smile etched across his face as he ran a hand through his hair.
“So I couldn’t help but notice you don’t have a wedding band on”
Though before she could smile at him she caught the words of the woman beside him and she found herself creasing her brow in interest of the smoky toned stranger beside him.
“No, not married”
Tightening her grip on Eleanor’s shoulder she kept their daughter from running right over to him. Instead she let him have his space, yet listened intently to whatever was going to come of this whole conversation. She could already feel herself gearing up while she attempted to remind herself that she had no right to interject or say anything. They weren’t together, it wasn’t a thing, she needed to respect that.
“Listen, my ex husband has our son Saturday night. There’s a bar in the city, Yesterdays… friends and I are going to some Christmas party that night…”
Their eyes met then as the blonde in front of him mentioned it. Well maybe Oliver needed to start scanning the guests that came through the door, maybe she’d make note to enforce that one. Maybe she needed to stop being so petty with everything.
Taking her eyes off of Jude she decided to be better than that and block it all out. Instead of wondering what the reaction was going to be she reached down and pulled the three year old into her arms. Leaning forward and kissing Eleanor’s forehead as the child tried everything to get away from her, anxious to be in Jude’s arms instead of hers, trader, her preference was clear.
It was a second later that the three year old was out of her arms and nose-diving into another set of arms.
“DADDY”
Well if she was worried about no one knowing who Jude was to them before she surly didn’t have to give that the slightest of thoughts now. All was right in the world again for Eleanor as she cuddled herself into his arms, happy for the first time all day. Perhaps her expressive child had their best interests in mind after all.
“Are you excited to see Santa, baby?”
As father and daughter interacted she looked around to find the woman from the elevator, making a mental note of her face to potentially water down drinks if she needed to. So much for being the bigger person in the situation. She couldn’t help it if her jealousy clawed through.
“What’s the matter Beautiful?”
Not that he even had to ask, he had a plain as day smirk across his face. Putting Eleanor down on her feet he let her run over to the line as she stood watching him for another moment instead of following after the three year old right away.
“Are you meeting a girl at my bar this weekend?”
She questioned, working on keeping her tone even as she asked the question. Her miserable failing couldn’t have been lost on him as her words came out snappy and bothered.
“If by girl you mean you, possibly. Depends on a certain brunette…”
Reaching out to her, he adjusted the necklace she’d put on in the morning so that the clasp was behind her neck, Eleanor’s name on a single gold bar with her birthstone at the end of the lettering, a present that she’d opened up along with the mistletoe the night before.
“She’s with Papa and Gigi Saturday night”
She’d promised Viv that they’d get her for a day before Christmas, so that whatever Christmas traditions they wanted to pick up with the child could be started. She knew that Vivian had been buying books to read with her for days.
“Who’s that forward with a guy just because he doesn’t have a ring on?”
Her feelings were getting the best of her as she mumbled. This was going to be one that she held onto for awhile.