Page 11 of No Business Like Snow Business

And yet I said it.

“Or, if you want me to walk in there arm-in-arm with you so he realizes he’s got no chance, I volunteer my services.”

Whatever burst of self-confidence had allowed me to make the suggestion, I’d used all of it up in that moment and was left with a prickling heat in my cheeks and a tongue that could no longer form words. I looked out the window at the endless array of blow-up snowmen and wire reindeer in the yards we passed.

Harvey laughed—not quite his usual bright laugh, but a decent effort. “I think that would only give him more to hound me with.”

Of course. Of course that had been a stupid thing to even joke about. Even though I hadn’t actually been joking. Also, fuck this ex for thinking Harvey’s current or future love life was any of his business.

“But I wouldn’t say no,” Harvey added quietly.

I looked over at him, surprised. He was staring straight ahead, focused on the road. But he spared a quick grin for me.

“If you’re really offering.”

“Yeah.” I was too stunned to be more eloquent than that. “Yeah, absolutely.”

“We just can’t let Chloe see. Or Martha. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Part of being an amateur detective is being sneaky,” I said. “It’s what Trixie and Nancy would do.”

Harvey glanced over, smiling once again, and it occurred to me as we headed back into the sparkling lights of Christmas Falls that I liked Harvey’s smile a lot, and I hoped to see more of it.

Harvey was right. Festival Hall was busy when we got back. There were carolers on the front steps as we approached, greeting people with bursts of song. They were all dressed in old-fashioned clothes. The men wore top hats, and the ladies wore bonnets. I might have been taken aback at justhowChristmassy it all was, except I’d seen a reindeer earlier today and, frankly, it’d take more than some carolers to top that.

Harvey jammed his hands into the pockets of his coat as we walked inside the building.

So much for making his ex jealous.

I told myself I wasn’t disappointed, but that was probably a lie. Christmas Falls just felt so unlike the real world that I’d already started to fall under its crazy spell. Why not get distracted by the cute guy from the museum? Why not pretend to be his boyfriend to make his ex jealous? Why not fall in love and live happily ever after? It wasChristmas.

Huh.

Maybe I’d hit my head when I’d driven my hire car into the ditch, and this wasn’t a flight of fancy I was entertaining, but a symptom of concussion. That would certainly make more sense.

Light and music spilled out of the doorway across the hall from the museum, and I stopped for a look. The hall was full of tables where vendors sold handmade crafts: Christmas decorations seemed unsurprisingly popular.

“I like the crafts,” Harvey said. “But my favorite time of year is the Christmas Tree Festival. Once all this clears out, the trees will arrive. The businesses around town all sponsor a tree and decorate it.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s your favorite thing?”

He laughed. “You buy tokens to vote for your favorite tree. All the money raised goes to charity, and the business with the best tree gets bragging rights for the year. It gets super fun and competitive.”

“Is there a tree for the museum?” I asked curiously.

He laughed again. “No. We barely have a budget for toilet paper. That’s way out of our league.”

He knocked me with his shoulder, and we crossed the wide corridor to the place in question. Harvey had to use his key to let us in, and a glance at the opening hours on the door showed the museum was closed for the day. Harvey threw a look over his shoulder as he ushered me inside and closed the door behind us, then let out a long sigh of what sounded like relief.

That he’d dodged the ex, probably.

“Newspapers are this way,” he said, leading the way through the rooms of the museum, flicking on lights as we went. “We’ve got two hours until I need to pick Grandma up, so we might as well see what we can find out about Blitzen’s, right?”

His smile was bright again as he went into full Trixie Belden mode, and I couldn’t help but return it, because despite everything that had happened recently, or perhaps because of it—starting with my grandfather’s death and funeral and culminating with me driving a car into a ditch—this was the most fun I’d had in ages.

four

HARVEY

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