Happily Ever Christmas

~Eight~

The glass sliding door opened from the back patio and my kids, accompanied by all their little cousins, came spilling into the kitchen, the family dogs yipping and jumping all around in excitement.

It was a little moving tornado of destructive holiday mirth, and a lot of toes were being stepped on.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Olivia and Bradley ran over to me to tug on the hem of my red Rudolf sweater. "Frodo is gone!"

*~*~*~*

I was a wee bit tipsy at this point and it took a moment for me to register what my kids were telling me.

"He-he-he ran away!" Bradley wailed. "I told you he didn't like being here!" And my little redheaded son promptly burst into tears and turned to run to his great-grandma, who was Nana to him.

"Oh, honey!" I pleaded with him, heartbroken at what I was hearing.

Bradley wasn't exactly hard to read into. He was trying to tell me that he wasn't happy here, because his father wasn't home with us this year.

My grandma hugged him against her apron and gave me a small, sympathetic smile.

Everyone was watching us at this point, but I only cared about my children's well-being.

"There, there, kiddo." Nana said to him in her wonderful grandmotherly way. "I'm sure Frodo will come home when he's ready."

"No he won't!" Bradley wailed. My son could be quite dramatic sometimes, I don't know where he got it from. "He's left and he's never coming back, just like Daddy!"

Bradley whirled away and ran off through the house. Olivia hurried after him, no doubt looking to comfort him. I already knew how she felt on the matter, she didn't want her daddy to come home, not now that she was old enough to grasp that he had done something to hurt me. He had hurt all of us with his betrayal.

"Bradley, honey, wait!" I started after my son, but Steve smoothly stepped in my way, putting his arm out to bring me to a gentle halt. "Let him go. He just needs to be upset right now." Steve murmured to me. "Frodo is your dog, I take it?"

I bit my lip to stem back my tears and nodded. "He's a rescue dog and he used to run away at first, but then he stopped. I think the move has been hard on him. That must be why he ran away today."

Steve gave me a kind, understanding sort of smile because we both knew I was only partly talking about the dog. "Well, come on, I'll help you look for him. Frodo is a small dog name; he can't have gotten far, eh?"

I stared up at him in surprise. "You don't mind helping me look?"

"Not at all. Some fresh air and a walk sounds nice. Just let me grab my coat."

I glanced around at all my family members and got no offers to help from any of them, only encouraging smiles, and I sighed.

Of course, they all wanted to match me up with Mr. Charming Von Handsome who had just strolled in. That was so typical of them all. No thoughts spared to my tender feelings and that I might not want to be taken for a ride by a guy who, no hate on myself, but who was clearly way out of my league.

He was so dangerously attractive, he could get any woman he wanted; it was just obvious. He was charismatic, which translated into him probably being a player, and the fact that he even had my married sister flirting with him was downright alarming. He was a lawyer; I had always sworn I would never date a lawyer.

I'd gone to pastry school to become a baker; we couldn't be more different in terms of our career paths. And the man was cut; I had felt his muscles when he'd hugged me. Meanwhile I had been emotionally binge eating for the last year.