Read Online Santa's Secret by Serenity Woods - Free Book Online Page A

lashes lifted as she
looked up, and her dark brown eyes studied him. He was beginning to enjoy her
calm manner, her lack of fuss about everything. Perhaps because she was an
actress, Vanessa always heightened everything into a drama, and at his office everyone
was busy and stressed. It was refreshing to spend time with someone so laid
back.
    As if on cue, Oscar wailed, and they turned
to see Isabel pulling him away from a large toy reindeer.
    “Let go!” he yelled, trying to tear his arm
away from her grip.
    “Isabel!” Rudi said the words harder than
he’d meant, embarrassed that she was restraining another person’s child.
    “He was going to run off with the toy,” she
protested, letting the boy go.
    “Thank you, Isabel,” Eva said smoothly,
crossing the room quickly to catch Oscar’s hand. “Come on, sweetie. Time to
go.”
    Oscar threw a tantrum. Lay on the floor and
screamed and kicked his feet, right in the middle of the shop.
    Isabel moved to Rudi side and he held her
hand tightly, uncertain what to do. Didn’t only two-year-olds have tantrums? He
hadn’t been around much when Izzy was that age and he could only remember her having
an outburst once in a supermarket. Vanessa had been absolutely horrified and
completely incapable of dealing with it, and he had been just as bewildered.
He’d picked Izzy up and carried her out, but she’d fought him the whole way,
pulling his hair and kicking him, and he’d found the whole thing terribly
embarrassing and traumatic. He’d had to fight the urge to smack her, which had
upset him even more because normally he would never have dreamed of laying a
hand on her. And anyway, when they got outside and Vanessa had done just that,
giving the shrieking girl a sharp tap on the backside to try and shock some
sense into her, it hadn’t helped at all and had in fact only seemed to make
things worse.
    Shortly after that he’d gone away again
frequently on business, and with Vanessa working it would have been his mother
who’d dealt with any other outbursts.
    People started to look over, Oscar’s
screams loud enough to carry down the chain of stalls. Eva dropped to her
haunches by his side, but she didn’t try to pick him up or restrain him.
Instead, Rudi heard her tell the boy quietly that she would wait for him by the
door, and when he was ready, she had some chocolate for him and he could have
it outside. Then she just got up and walked the short distance to the door,
leaving him in the middle of his paddy, and calmly flicked through a book from
one of the stalls.
    Rudi and Isabel exchanged a glance, not
sure what to do. He didn’t want to interfere in a situation that Eva had
obviously handled before. So he turned away and pretended to look at the
nearest stall, and Isabel joined him.
    “Is she just going to leave him screaming?”
Isabel whispered in Finnish.
    “She knows what she’s doing,” he replied,
hoping that was the case.
    And sure enough, after about another thirty
seconds of screaming, Oscar obviously realised he wasn’t getting any attention,
and he sat up, rubbed his face, pushed himself to his feet and ran over to his
mother. She calmly took his hand and led him outside.
    Rudi followed, Isabel in tow, and saw them
both sitting on a bench overlooking the snowy forest. Oscar sat picking
chocolate buttons out of a packet, quiet as anything.
    Rudi walked over to Eva and sat beside her,
while Isabel scrunched through the snow, making patterns with her footprints.
    “Are you okay?” he asked Eva quietly.
    She grinned at him. Her cheeks were just
the tiniest bit pink, which told him that she was a little embarrassed. “I’m
fine. Sorry about that.”
    “It happens.”
    Oscar tugged her hand. “Can I go and play
with Isabel?”
    “Of course you can.”
    He got off the bench and ran off to join
the girl, sticking sucking chocolate buttons, and he walked around behind her
in her footsteps.
    Eva sighed and gave Rudi a wry look. “I
hate it when that