Page 19 of Can't Miss Christmas

Grace had told him to go, so he’d gone. Why did that feel so…wrong?

Now his seatmate was shaking his wrist. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“Graham,” he said.

“Well, Graham, sounds like you two had a rocky start, and a bad thing happened. But that you’ve somehow managed to reconnect.”

“It was a mistake,” he said. “We got…carried away.”

She laughed.Laughed.“Do you still love her?” Alethea asked.

“I’ll always love her,” Graham said without hesitation.

“Well, when you imagine your life, is it better or worse without her?”

The loud whoosh of the hydraulic doors clattering shut punctuated her question, but before Grant could blink, the driver rolled the wheel and pulled out of the bus stop.

Grant thought about this morning, how he’d awakened tangled up with Grace, her sweet-smelling hair against his cheek, her familiar body curved into his. How perfect that had been, how peaceful. Howright,and he could swear she’d felt it too.

Something kept tugging at him. When they’d been arguing and she’d been standing by the window, Grace had lookedfrightened.

He’d never been very good at reading between the lines. And Grace was a complicated woman. Maybe too complex for a face-value kind of guy like him.

But maybe he’d be frightened to take a chance too, if the people who were supposed to love him the most—his parents—had never showed him unconditional love. Grace’s parents had moved on, built new lives, and left her behind. Why would she believe him to be any different?

He slumped down a little in his seat and shoved his hands hard into his jacket pockets. His right hand hit an edge of cardboard.

It was the lottery ticket from the gas station that he’d bought at the beginning of their trip.

Once upon a time, they hadn’t been afraid to take a chance with each other. But life had gotten hard and they’d both made mistakes.

Now, on Christmas Eve, fate was dangling a second chance right in front of him. He could show Grace what unconditional love was. He understood her terror and her fright, but he believed their love could overcome that. How to make her believe it too?

Suddenly, an idea hit him. All he had to do was be a little crazy. A little out of the box. Not his usual forte for sure.

His seat partner was smiling at him. “True love always finds a way,” she said solemnly, shaking a finger for emphasis. “Especially at Christmas.”

Graham looked around at the passengers. Many were reading or scrolling through their phones—college-aged kids, grandmas, middle-aged men. A man had pulled a baseball cap down over his face and was snoring softly. A young woman was trying to soothe her crying baby.

He didn’t belong here, on this bus; he felt that clear through his bones. Nothing in his life was right without Grace. He just needed to summon the courage to do something about it.

Graham stood up, energized by a sudden burst of adrenaline coursing through his body, along with equal bursts of terror and bravado. “Stop the bus!” he shouted.

The passengers hushed their conversations. Even the baby stopped crying. The driver checked him out in the big mirror. “Sit down, son. You have too much to drink before you got on board?”

Graham walked forward, clutching the silver metal poles in the center aisle.

“You don’t understand. Please stop. I need to get off.”

“I’m not permitted to let out any passengers except at a designated stop. You’re going to have to sit down, buddy.”

He was officially causing trouble, which he’d never done before, and it was…exhilarating. “Please…it…it’s Christmas. I have to go back.”

“Oh, come on, Ed,” Alethea said. “We’re just ten minutes out. Let the guy go after his sweetheart.”

The driver’s eyes narrowed in the mirror. “No stops, Alethea. Not even for you. I can’t go turning the bus around when I’m on a tight holiday schedule like this.”

“Hey, come on,” a woman from across the aisle said. “It’s Christmas. You heard her, he has a sweetheart.”

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