We Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by Brenda Novak

head. “I wish I knew.”
     
    B ORED . B ORED . B ORED . God, she was bored. She’d been working for Cole more than two weeks, and every day she had less to do.
    Covering a yawn, Jaclyn checked the clock on the wall and counted the hours and minutes until five: three hours and eight minutes—six minutes less than the last time she’d looked. She synchronized her watch and straightened the few items on her desk, then stared at the phone, silently pleading for it to ring. She’d already interviewed all those who had called about the sales position and had made her recommendations to Cole. He was planning to meet with the final three candidates tomorrow, but she hated to see him hire someone so soon.
    Then the only task she’d been given of any consequence, besides the filing system index, which she’d finished long ago, would come to an end. Cole had promised to train her at some point, but ever since Rick had quit, he hadn’t had the time. He was doing his job and his brother’s, too, and was either gone on appointments or shut away in his private office until late at night. Which left Jaclyn with nothing to do but answer the phone and hope the opportunity to do another interview would break the tedium, despite all the things piling up on Rick’s desk. If only she had a few minutes of Cole’s time, or the permission to dig through the stack of work and see what she could do to help, she might be able to accomplish some of the items that neededattention, but most days Cole was too engrossed to even speak to her.
    The phone rang, and Jaclyn snatched it up. “Perrini Homes, Oak Ranch Estates.”
    It was Margaret Huntley, one of the real-estate agents she’d recommended to Cole, returning her call. Jaclyn set up a time for her to come in tomorrow and meet with him, then hung up and wondered what she was going to do until the phone rang again. Finally she picked up the receiver and called the kids.
    “Mommy, we’re fine. Why do you keep calling?” Mackenzie asked when their sitter, Holly Smith, brought her to the phone.
    “I’m just missing you,” Jaclyn said. “How’s Alyssa?”
    “She’s fine.”
    “How’s Alex?”
    “Good.”
    “Does he want to talk to me?”
    Mackenzie didn’t answer directly, but her voice nearly broke Jaclyn’s eardrum when she yelled for her brother. In the interim that followed, Jaclyn heard Holly encouraging Alex to come to the phone, but he must have refused, because Mackenzie spoke to her again instead. “He’s playing Nintendo,” she said. “He wants to know when you’re going to get to drive your boss’s car again.”
    “Probably never. Our car is working fine since I bought the new battery. There’s no need to borrow anyone else’s. Does Alyssa want to say hello?”
    “She’s outside on the patio riding her trike with Travis.” Travis was Holly’s son, an only child just six months older than Alyssa and one of two other children in the neighborhood.
    “Okay. No need to bother her. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
    Mackenzie said goodbye, and Jaclyn hung up. So much for talking to the kids. They were beginning to get annoyed by the number of times she’d called. After working atJoanna’s, where she’d been running every minute, the sudden standstill was driving her nuts. She’d wanted this job so she could learn real estate and build a future for herself and her children. She didn’t want Cole paying her twenty-five hundred a month just because she was an old friend he couldn’t refuse. If only she knew more about office work, she’d start to dig through the things on Rick’s desk the way she had the filing. But she was afraid she’d mess something up or overstep her bounds.
    Unfortunately the only thing she was really good at was running a household. She could cook and sew with the best of them. She could can and bake and decorate. And she could clean. Not that any of it was very useful in her current situation. Or was it?
    Suddenly Jaclyn had an