Page 11 of December Wishes
Frankie softened beneath Elaine’s touch. “Sorry.” A girlish giggle came from places Frankie didn’t know she had. “I’m… I’m shy, you know.”
“Oh, I know.” Elaine chuckled, lowering the mistletoe. “Which means you know we’re closer than you ever imagined.”
“It takes a bit for me to open up…”
“Honey, I’m just giving you a kiss. I’m not asking you to take me to bed right now.”
Frankie nearly fainted.
“We would need a way bigger sprig of mistletoe for that!”
To the sounds of Elaine’s cackles, Frankie flung herself down on the couch. She refused to explain to Dominic what had happened when he came back out of his room, but he could probably figure it out from the absence of mistletoe in the hallway. The kid was smart, after all. Way too smart for his own meddling good.
Bless his heart.
Chapter 7
SKYLAR
For some ungodly reason, Skylar was subjected to a Bossa Nova version of “Auld Lang Syne,” probably because she hadn’t been to church in ten years and the Big Man upstairs wanted to passive-aggressively torture her into finding the nearest confession booth.
Nobody had control over the radio station that played in Paradise Pizza, though. That included John the manager, who had been running the place for the better part of a decade, knew how to change the station, let alone possibly skip a song. It was one of those mysteries that used to gnaw at Skylar, but only now made her feel more sorry for the middle-aged man who had “manager of a pizza parlor” as the crowning achievement of his résumé.
Like she was any better off…
Obviously, it was the owner who controlled everything, from the temperature to the holiday music pumping through the speakers as soon as Thanksgiving turned into Black Friday. An owner Skylar had only seen once, since he no longer lived in Paradise Valley but kept an eye on things through the security cameras and phone calls from John.The owner should sell the place to John.Not that John could afford it. This was a man who claimed frugality as the reason behind his old 1993 Ford Fiesta, although it was rougher than sandpaper and sounded like it drove through the bowels of hell. While Skylar saw the sense in paying cash for a car until it gave up the ghost, there came a point when a man had to admit he was broke and nothing more.
It was a slow Friday night when Skylar wanted to bang her head against the hot case. Carrie mentioned that most of her classmates were out of town for Christmas shopping and early visits to grandma’s house, and the adults around town likewise took off early for their holiday vacations or decided to cook hot soup for dinner. Honestly, Skylar hadn’t seen such a slow Friday night since June, when school got out and kids packed their bags for summer vacation.
“Got any good plans for Christmas?” Carrie asked, filling the silent void with small talk. “My aunt and uncle spent the better part of this week decking out the house. They say they want a ‘normal’ Christmas for my cousin. I’m not sure what he’s done to deserve any kind of Christmas. I know what my aunt bought him, you know. Bunch of video games he can play offline. I don’t get it. If I had been caught doing what he does, my parents would have left me to rot in juvie. Never mind getting Christmas presents.”
Weren’t you caught doing something yourself?Skylar didn’t have all the details, but word on the street – and from Carrie’s lips – was that she had done something “hell no” in Alabama and had to get out before her family’s reputation was in the toilet. Skylar was pretty sure it was something to do with an inappropriate relationship, and knowing how well Carrie fit into the world of Paradise Valley, it was probably gay.
What’s it like to be a kid and know you’re gay?Carrie claimed to have known since fifth grade. In fifth grade, Skylar was still playing with dolls and holding back the urge to eat paste. She wouldn’t call herself a late bloomer, though.Can you be a late bloomer if you start puberty at 11?Her first boyfriend was in eighth grade and lasted two weeks. They had done nothing more than hold hands and go to the movies a couple of times. The whole “sex” thing hadn’t come into play until she was an upperclassman in high school, but when she attempted to make up for lost time in college, she stalled at the thought of doing it with “just” any guy.
Then you meet women like Mik, who seemed to do it with any ol’ girl.That had been Skylar’s first real exposure to a lesbian who was as unapologetically promiscuous as a lot of guys. Of course, it turned out that Mik was using women to continuously get over her old relationship with her ex Ariana, but back then, Skylar saw someone who knew what she wanted and went after it.
She had never been like that. Skylar was pretty enough that she attracted attention at clubs and with online dating, but everything was so shallow. She never knew if a guy liked her forheror because she was a potential, forgettable lay. Learning that hard lesson a few years before had brought her love life to a crashing halt. The only relationship she had since then was a long-distance disaster with a guy in Seattle. While he was rich enough to come down to Portland on the weekends or invite her up on Amtrak, his demeanor and high expectations of any woman expecting to be his tech-wife had been a huge impetus for Skylar finally cutting ties with her old life in PDX and joining Mik on her excursion.
Here she was again, in dire need of a change.
“Ladies!” John called from the counter. “We’ve got a nice big delivery to make out at Waterlily House. Guess their oven fritzed out at some party they’re having and they opted to write some pizzas off their taxes. Who wants it?”
Skylar’s hand shot in the air. She’d brave the twenty-degree wind chill if it meant getting out of this place for a few minutes.
Carrie muttered that she would like the opportunity to see her girlfriend, who volunteered at Waterlily House and was probably at the party that night, but Skylar pulled her seniority points in the end. Besides, Carrie usually made the deliveries since joining the pizza force, so Skylar sweetly said this was a way to “give Carrie a break.”Yeah, right. I simply can’t stand to smell this place for another ten minutes.By the time the pizzas were boxed and loaded into her car, Skylar was practically giddy for reasons that only depressed her later.
Waterlily House was about a quarter mile out of town, but as soon as Skylar passed the laundromat and the empty ground broken for the Dollar General that had been abandoned almost a whole year ago, the world was so dark that she fidgeted to turn on her high-beams. The first few times she drove out of town after the sun had gone down, she had a whole load of creeps travel down her back and remind her that she wasn’t in the city anymore. She wasn’t in SoCal, where the countryside was still illuminated with light pollution. She was in the darkened dead of night, where deer were known to leap across the highway and drunk drivers sometimes swerved from one lane into the other.
Oh, well! Still better than being stuck back at work!
Skylar kept her eyes out for deer as she turned down the winding road leading to the large bed and breakfast overlooking an open meadow. A small sign that read “Welcome to WATERLILY HOUSE Paradise Valley” lightly swung back and forth in the nighttime wind. When Skylar parked her car behind a filled parking lot, she noticed her car was also subject to a little rocking.The wind, man.
“Hey! The cavalry’s here!” That’s what greeted Skylar when she ascended the porch steps with three large pizzas stacked in her mittens. Sunny Croker, whom Skylar knew about as well as she knew the UPS guy who dumped her Sephora orders on her doorstep once a month, was infused with a warm, happy glow as she reached for the pizzas and passed them to one of the high school teachers. “Seriously, you’re helping us out like you don’t know.” Sunny fished out her wallet and counted ten dollars in tips. Skylar’s eyes widened. While cash tips were expected, she was lucky to get two Washingtons or, God willing, a single Lincoln. A freakin’ Hamilton? No wonder Carrie wanted to run these pizzas over so badly!
“It’s really no trouble.” Skylar didn’t know what else to say. “Thank you for the order. I hope you guys enjoy your party.”
“Why don’t you come in and get a hot drink, hon?” Sunny threw open the door, a blast of hot fireplace air meeting the icy chill outside. “I know you gotta get back to work, but one cup of cocoa or tea shouldn’t be too much. We could make it to go for you!”
