How the Hitman Stole Christmas - Sam Mariano Page 0,50
need those things to visit my family for Christmas, but I had a hostage in the car—and not in the trunk where one would usually be, so… had to hurry.”
“Right,” I murmur like that’s a normal thing to agree with.
I pull the bag closed and start to zip it up, but then I realize he’ll need clothes, too, so I leave it.
“I won’t use all the hot water,” I tell him, flashing him a smile as I grab the rest of my clothes and head for the bathroom.
Nora made breakfast, so we all gather around the kitchen island and eat. Everyone is chattering about plans for the day, so most of us stand, prepared to take off and begin whatever else it is we’re doing.
Nora asks Amira what she wants to do today, and Amira stops gnawing on her messy, jam-covered toast long enough to announce she wants to build a snowman.
“You know who builds excellent snowmen?” Nora asks her, leaning over the counter.
“Who?” the little girl asks, her big eyes glinting with curiosity.
“Uncle Jasper. When I was a kid, he always used to help me build snowmen. One year I even got this snowman paint kit from Santa Claus, so we made a really colorful snowman on Christmas day. He had flushed cheeks and stripes across his tummy. He was super cute.”
“Ooh, I want pretty snowman,” she says, looking over at Jasper. “We build snowman, too.”
“Oh, will we?” Jasper asks, scooping up a spoonful of eggs.
Amira nods decisively and jams a piece of toast into her mouth.
“Would you mind?” Nora asks, shifting her gaze to her brother. “We have a few more presents to wrap, so if you could keep an eye on her for a little while, that would be amazing.”
And that is how we end up out in the massive front yard, rolling balls of snow for our adorable little taskmaster.
Amira wanted to build a snowman for approximately three minutes. She started rolling one snow ball, but it fell apart and that annoyed her.
She still wanted a snowman, she just didn’t want to do the work of building it herself. Leaving the grunt work to us, she grabbed the spray bottle full of tinted water that I made so we could give the snowman a pleasant blush and proceeded to walk around the yard, spraying it everywhere.
“What do you think, Amira?” Jasper asks, rolling over the snowman’s midsection.
I’m hard at work on its head, but I pop mine up to look over at his pleasantly plump snowman tummy.
“Bigger,” Amira demands. Then she turns back around and continues to spray patches of snow she hasn’t made it to yet.
Jasper shakes his head, but rolls it through some more snow to beef up the snowman’s tummy. “I guess Frosty had a few too many Christmas cookies this year,” he remarks.
I crack a smile and steal a peek at Amira over my shoulder. “You don’t think your mom will be mad about this, do you?”
By the time we decided to make a snowman, Audra and Tom had already left the house, so they didn’t hear about our plan to paint it.
Jasper glances over at me, frowning slightly. “Why would she be mad?”
My eyebrows rise and I gesture to the yard behind me. “She’s spraying that stuff everywhere. It looks like an army was massacred on your mom’s front lawn.”
Jasper takes another look at Amira’s work and then shakes his head dismissively. “That’s not what blood looks like in snow.”
I blink at him.
He looks at me like he doesn’t understand how I could say something so crazy. “Blood’s red.” He gestures to the mess Amira is making. “That’s clearly pink.”
“Blood can look pink,” I mutter, grabbing a handful of snow and mashing it against my snowman’s head. If his middle is going to be bigger, I guess his head should be, too.
Jasper shakes his head. “Trust me, I just saw some bloody snow Monday. Definitely doesn’t look like anyone was massacred out here.”
I stop working on my snowman’s head and stare at him. “Monday? You were with me Monday.”
“Before that.” He gives the fat ball of snow one more roll toward the base, then he pats it down. “I think this is big enough, Amira,” he calls out. “If I make it any bigger, it’s gonna break when I lift it.”
“Okay,” she calls back sweetly, bending down to pet the snow in front of her.
Jasper shakes his head. “She’s so fucking cute. When we have these two kids you want, are