It could be Christmas

Brittany did what she could at Clare's to get the room ready for Easy's mother. It was beginning to look like a hotel room. There were fresh flowers and a goodie guest's basket.

"I wouldn't mind staying here." Brittany smiled.

"What?" Clare looked at her a bit bewildered.

"Just kidding." Brittany hadn't meant to over step her bounds. Honestly, she didn't want anything from Carson's mother. It was just better here than all the fussing at her mother's house. "I hope its a good holiday, for all of you."

"Oh, I dunno about that." Clare gritted a smile. "What about you? Will little Theo have some time with his Dad?"

She shook her head, no. That was something she tried to forget, too. Theo never saw T.J.'s parents. They didn't like the fact that she was even getting child support from T.J.

"He's overseas. He's in the Army." It was best to leave it at that. "I mean, we're friends. We'll always be friends." It would sound silly to Clare (if she knew), they'd hooked up at a class reunion. "He was my first boyfriend in high school."

"Oh." Clare needed to get blankets folded and maybe vacuum the carpet once more.

"So..what are you and Carson doing for Christmas?" Clare asked a few minutes later.

"Well, there's Christmas eve at Ren's." She sighed, thinking she'd like to attend a church service, but Theo was too little to enjoy a candle lit service. "We went to see the lights, in the Old Market, last weekend." She'd coaxed Carson into going. She thought he enjoyed it with Theo.

A part of Brittany wasn't sure if Carson was faking or not. She'd hate for all this happiness in her head, to actually be nothing to him. He was hard to read, sometimes, but then he'd smile, and he seemed like he could be a good Dad to Theo.