Free This Christmas by Jane Green

Mr. Davito to you.”
    “I’m fine with Joe.” He smiles at her from under the table.
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yes,” he says. “They’re great kids.”
    “Thank you. They are. You said you had a son. Any other kids?”
    “No, just the one. But I’d love a daughter someday.”
    “Daughters are great.” Sarah smiles at Maggie, who’s now crawled out from under the table and has wandered into the corner to “make some lunch,” even though it’s nine o’clock in the morning.
    “Mom!” Walker whines. “Come under here. Look, there’s space.”
    “No, darling,” Sarah says. “Mommy has to talk to Mr. Davito about the wall.”
    “I’m sorry, buddy,” Joe says, as he crawls out from under the table. “Your mom’s right. We have to talk about the wall, but how about if you make a huge pirate ship for us to sail in when we’re done?”
    “Yeah! Cool!” Walker leaps up and down in excitement as he starts to rearrange the pillows, and Sarah leads Joe into the other room, thinking with a pang that Eddie never played with the kids like this.
    “You’re a natural with kids,” she says, as they walk into the family room.
    “I think it’s because I miss my son,” Joe says. “He lives with his mother and I only get to see him on weekends.”
    “Oh,” Sarah says, as a million thoughts go through her head. So he’s single. Or is he? Why is he telling me this? Does he want me to know he’s single? God, he’s cute. No. Don’t be ridiculous. You’re a middle-aged mother of two and he’s totally cute and wouldn’t be interested in you even if you were available. Which you’re not .
    But damn. I wish he’d stop smiling at me like that.
    “So”—Sarah, flustered, marches over to the wall—“so this is the wall I was telling you I want knocked down.”

Chapter Nine
    Something happened to Eddie today that hasn’t happened for as long as he can remember.
    There he was, dripping with sweat as he pounded on the treadmill at the Reebok Club, when he felt someone looking at him.
    Glancing up in the mirror in front of him, he caught the eye of a curvaceous, pretty brunette on the elliptical machine just a few machines away. She held his glance for a few seconds, until Eddie looked away. But Eddie remembered that look. Remembered exactly what that glance, held for just that tiny bit longer than was absolutely necessary, meant. That was the glance he used to give, back in the days when he was young and single. And free.
    He looked again to check, because nobody has given Eddie a look like that in a very long time, and, yes, she was still looking. And this time she smiled. Eddie smiled back.
    Not that she was his type. And even if she were, Eddie’s not looking. Eddie’s priority these days is work, and filling up the hours he should be with his family by working out and thinking about how he can best get back to being with his family.
    Nevertheless, Eddie is not a man immune to the charms of a woman who finds him attractive, and he found himself pulling in the little that’s left of his protruding stomach, and running just that little bit harder, little bit faster until he’d finished his five miles.
    “Hi. That looked like a big run.” The brunette was now climbing off the elliptical as he passed.
    “Yup.” He smiled, having forgotten quite what to do in the face of flirtatious friendliness, but she extended a hand.
    “I’m Jeanette.”
    “Oh, hi, Jeanette. I’m Eddie.” And as he shook her hand he saw her look quickly down to the third finger on his left hand, where he still wears his wedding band. He is, after all, still married.
    Jeanette saw that he saw her looking, and she gave him an apologetic shrug. “You have to try,” she said, as she walked off with a smile.
    Eddie walked home on a cloud. No one had flirted with him in years. No one had wanted to try anything for as far back as he could remember. He’s flattered and excited by the attention, but despite his colleagues’