Page 81 of Merry Mended Hearts

“No,” Lacie said.

“So…” I didn’t know what else to say.

Lacie saved me the trouble. She pressed a hand to her forehead.

“Forget it,” she said. “But if you hear music from that fancy radio downstairs? Run.”

This warning prickled down my spine like a spider crawling down my back. A jolt of sizzling unease zinged through me, making me squirm. Because Boone and Ihadheard the radio play.

Lacie turned away, toward the door across from mine, but I stuck out a hand to stop her.

“Sorry, but what do you mean? The radio downstairs? Do you mean the one they claim was delivered here by Santa Claus himself?”

Conflicted rested in Lacie’s gaze, striking pity within me. Jared scrubbed a hand across his jaw.

Hm. Whatever was happening between these two, it clearly distressed them both. Did that mean they’d heard the radio play, too?

“I mean, that thing is wreaking havoc on our lives,” Lacie said, lowering her voice. “I’ve been snowed in here with my best friend. We were married by snowman, and now whatever supposedmagic—” She bent the first two fingers on each of her hands. “—is streaming from that radio, it’s gone completely crazy!”

She lost me at married by snowman.

“Hang on. You mean you were marriednextto a snowman?”

Lacie peered at Jared behind her. He was quite a few inches taller than she was. He gave her an it’s-up-to-you kind of shrug, and she moved in, lowering her voice.

“No. We were marriedbysnowman. I mean, a snowman pronounced us husband and wife. You know, like the song.”

She bobbed her head as if to lighten the impact of her words.

My brows shot upward. “You—asnowmanmarried you two?”

Was Lacie serious? Was this some kind of joke?

“Yeah. I know it sounds insane, but we were building a snowman outside, and then we heard this music and our snowman, likespoke.I asked Junie—you know, the girl at the desk. And she admitted they have this joke in their family that the radio is some kind of matchmaker.”

“Junie said that?”

Did Boone think the same thing? Was that why he’d gotten so angry at the radio that day?

Lacie went on. “Once that pass opens, we’re going home, but I’m not even sure that will do anything. Will everyone think we’re married, too? Are we going to have to get some kind of divorce now?”

Jared tugged on her arm, luring her away before she said anything else. The two of them stalked toward the mouth of the stairs before I had the chance to ask them anything else.

I stood there gaping for several moments. What was that about? How could the mix-up with our rooms happen the way it did without Junie being the wiser? And I couldn’t completely buy the claim about them not being married—was she for real?

“None of your business, Grace,” I told myself, shaking the questions away.

They’d have to sort things out for themselves. Besides, the other claim in their story was unsettling enough.

The claim that the music from the radio downstairs was the cause of all this confusion.

It would have been laughable if I hadn’t heard it play, too. If I hadn’t heard the strains of sound out in the woods.

I’d heard it chiming several other times as well—once, before I’d found the necklace that had made him so angry, and again right before the snow had blasted seemingly out of a cloudless sky.

My heart stopped in my chest at the thought. Impulsively, I dashed forward and caught Lacie and Jared on their way to the stairs.

“Hang on a second,” I said, slightly breathless.

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