Dan’s Female Christmas Present

Widower gets a special visitor on Christmas Eve.

By PaulStevens. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy stories.

Dan felt like a small child, sitting up watching his phone for alerts that his midnight delivery had arrived. It was like he was waiting for Santa or something, well in his case, more like a Mrs. Claus. Not that Elly was as saintly as the real Mrs. Claus, but she was getting him out of a jam with his 9-year-old daughter this year, and that made her saintly enough.

In Jane’s last difficult months of life, Elly was her faithful friend. In the months since Dan lost Jane, Elly continued to help him navigate the challenges of raising 2 kids alone.

For Elly, it was a blessed distraction from her own failing marriage.

Finally, Dan heard his phone buzz, and looked down to see the text; ‘Here’, on his screen. He hopped up and went to his garage and let Elly in the side door, before leading her into his shop, where he knew they would not be overheard, should someone be awake & snooping.

“Evening Elly, did you get my delivery?” Dan asked. “Everything look okay?”

“Yes, absolutely.” Elly said, cheerfully. “It looks fantastic, thank you so much for assembling that. You were a life saver, just sorry I missed you. Gracie will be thrilled when she sees it in the morning.”

Dan was mesmerized, staring at the glorious pair of jugs protruding from under Elly’s red silk blouse. He quickly recovered himself. “Glad I can help! Assembling dollhouses I can do, clothes buying and fashion, not so much. Did you have any trouble at the mall?”

Elly smiled, “Nope, as I told you, I was buying for Gracie and Josie anyways, picking up a few things for Samantha was no problem, and you do fine. Seriously, I’m not great at trends either, but at least they’ll all match each other, so they can suffer together. I got some of Sam’s stuff a size up from what you said by the way, her birthday isn’t for ages, and she won’t make it to the fall in the size she’s in.” Elly said handing Dan a stack of packages that, he noticed she had wrapped neatly for him, another thing off the list, tonight. “I hope you don’t mind?”

“Oh, not at all, I hadn’t noticed, clothes were clearly not my department. Jane usually;” he stopped; thinking of his late wife; and fighting back the grief, “anyways, thanks.”

“Hey, Dan don’t feel bad, like I said, you’re doing great. These are minor things considering what you three have been through, given Jane’s passing. Speaking of clothes, I also brought this,” she held up a paper grocery bag, “for Owen, I noticed his clothes are getting a tad small, when I picked him up the other day. I had my sister put together some of my nephew’s old clothes, these should hold you for a bit. If you want more; let me know, she’s got plenty. She’s just going to donate them, if you don’t need them.”

“Wow, sounds great, and thanks for everything, Elly; you’ve been a life saver.”

Elly smiled, “right back at you Dan, if I had to hear from Charlie, one more time about how I can’t handle a dollhouse because I can’t use tools, I was going to scream. Not that I can’t, I just had zero time or space to do that without ruining it for Gracie.”

Dan chuckled, “Charlie should know plenty about tools, that guy is the biggest one I’ve ever seen, how he ever got you, will always boggle my mind. As for the dollhouse, no problem. You should see the stuff in my living room, it looked like Santa’s workshop in there, this month.”

“Umm; a workshop full of toys and Christmas eve delivery, you sure you’re not Santa?” Elly winked.

“Late night gift delivery, perfectly wrapped I might add, thank you for that by the way, saved me time tonight. You sure you aren’t Mrs. Claus?” He said, smiling.

“Nope, just a friend helping out a friend, and as for the wrapping, same with the buying I was on a roll, figured you wouldn’t mind, besides, given I missed you tonight, it’s the least I could do. I’m just glad my sister invited us to stay with her, so I could drop these by last minute.”

“So, you are at your sister’s place for Christmas?”

“Yeah, Isabelle didn’t want me being alone this Christmas, especially with Charlie being such an ass about the divorce all year. So, she convinced her kids how fun it would be to have their cousins stay.”

“Well, should make for a joy-filled morning for sure. Let me know how the house goes over.”

“Will do, same with those clothes.”

“Elly, no kid is excited about clothes,” Dan said, chuckling.

Elly rolled her eyes, “Umm, 9 year-old girls are, hence why you needed my help.”