Christmas Candy

17- Early Christmas present

Harmony helped Jasper with the kids, and after she buckled Zoe into her car seat, she walked over to him, slithered her arms around his waist, and held him tightly as she looked into his eyes. "Take good care of my kids, okay?"

"Now, why would you say a thing like that?" He asked, looking confused. "You know, I would never do anything to hurt them. You should know me better than that."

She looked down, took a deep breath, and sighed, "I know you wouldn't. I'm not saying you would hurt them," she said, with her eyes moving back to his. "All I was saying was to take good care of them. They're all I have left."

He leaned closer and breathed, "They're not all you have left. You have me too."

She noticed the hurt look in his eyes and felt guilty for saying such a ridiculous thing, knowing he would never hurt her kids, and knew she better apologize. "I'm sorry. I guess it's just the mama bear in me coming out. And you must know I'm not used to another man taking my kids anywhere without me. Not even Nick will take them anywhere without me."

"They'll be just fine," Jasper assured with a genuine smile and forming his hand to the back of her head as he lowered his lips to hers. "They'll be in good hands," he said, parting from her lips, then leaned into her ear and whispered, "Think of it this way. They've never really had a father in their lives. And they've also asked for a dad for Christmas. So, I'm giving them a glimpse of what dads do with their kids, and what dads do and what they'll do for them at Christmas time."

"Jasp- "she started saying until he cut her off by kissing her.

He knew they had to get going and parted from her lips. He turned and looked at the girls, then looked back at Harmony, and with a smile, he quietly spoke, "I'm going to fill you in on a little secret of mine. And that is. I look at and think of your kids as if they're my kids. I'll see you in a while," he winked.

Harmony's hand covered her mouth, afraid to show him a smile. She knows how hard it is to find a man willing to take on another parent's responsibility, and with Jasper saying what he did about her kids, she thought it was extraordinary and heartening. She felt her eyes getting wet, and not wanting him to see his words moved her, she stepped back and smiled.

As he drove out of her driveway, she waved to the kids, then stood in the same spot for a minute or so, thinking of what Jasper said and what Gabriel would have said if he were in Jasper's shoes. He would have said the same thing, she mumbled.

Then the unthinkable came to her mind. Things she hasn't thought about doing in years. And that was to go Christmas shopping for the kids and Jasper and head to the grocery store to buy ingredients to make Christmas cookies. After being with Jasper all day and seeing the smiles on all the sick children earlier, she thought about her own kids and what kind of smiles she would see on their faces, Christmas morning.

Harmony ran into the house, grabbed her car keys, rushed out of the house, and hurried to her car. She didn't know how long Jasper would be gone with the kids, but if he took them to dinner, a movie, and somewhere after the movie, she knew she had a few hours to spare and wanted to get as much shopping done as she could.

Picking out gifts for her girls was easy. But for Jasper, she had no clue what to get him and went from store to store looking for that perfect gift. Then, a smile formed when she saw what she thought would be the best gift for him. A pocket watch that on the outside says time is the longest distance between two places, and on the inside it says, I love you for you. And what she liked the most was that she could put her with the kids' picture inside it. It saddened her to think Jasper would be leaving in less than two weeks, and to give him this pocket watch, with the sayings on the outside, the inside, along with her picture, she felt it would be perfect for him never to forget her or her children.