AS WE WERE leaving, Tank put his arm over my shoulder. “I have to say, I was pretty proud of you in there, Dodge. You took the ball, ran with it, and made a touchdown.”
I smiled. “It was actually fun and hell, I learned some things in there, too.”
He winked. “I knew you would. That’s why I picked you specifically to play Santa.”
I raised my eyebrow.
“I thought you could use a little Christmas spirit. You seemed to have found it in there.”
“Yeah, I think I did,” I replied.
He patted me on the back and then started dishing out orders for the next day.
As I was leaving the parking lot, I looked over at the nursing home one last time and felt a sense of peace that I hadn’t in a long time.
