Page 35 of Stay this Christmas
“We have to tackle your list, too.”
His dimples shone out, perfectly unfazed. “I don’t have a list.”
“You will. The one I’m going to give you to make you like Christmas again.”
TWELVE
sam
I heaved a full-body sigh.Should have seen this coming. Harper always had been sharp. Competitive, too. No way would she just accept a scenario that put her at a perceived disadvantage.
“You can’t make a person like Christmas. Could I ever make you like pineapple on pizza?”
She grimaced, and we might as well have been at Slice of Delight years ago when I tried to convince her that the tropical fruit was just as worthy a topping as Canadian bacon or, God forbid, spinach.
“Heck, no. Fine, you don’t have tolikeChristmas, but you need to participate in some of the Christmas traditions around town. You can’t just bah-humbug your way through the season.”
I groaned, letting the sound drag out. I’d hoped to avoid as much of that nonsense as I could this year. Especially here, where I’d first seen behind the tinsel, so to speak.
“How many traditions are we talking?”
“One for every item we do off my list.”
“I try to do a nice thing, and this is my reward? Karma is a lie.”
She smiled sweetly in response, and that right there made me decide to agree to her trade. She’d given me so few true smiles like that since I’d been back, I was hungry for them. I would have agreed to pose as Santa himself and sing Christmas carols in town square if only she’d keep on looking at me this way.
“What do you have in mind?”
“I don’t know yet. The usual. Baking cookies. Watching a few select Christmas movies. The holiday market downtown. Decorating a tree.”
I banged my head on the bar top. I was hosed.
“I mean, it’s either that or a haunting by three spirits type thing, and I don’t have those kinds of connections.”
Smart-aleck Harper had come out to play right when I needed to stay strong. I straightened up and stared her down, narrowing my eyes on her as if I could get her to relent. I’d never had that much sway over her, though, not when she dug in her heels. I would either endure a little Magnolia Ridge Christmasing to help her with her adventures, or I’d get nothing.
“Those are my terms.”
Oh, that sassy little twitch at the corner of her lips. Yeah, I was definitely hosed.
She couldn’t possibly understand just how much I disliked Christmas, or why. Couldn’t know she was asking me to do things that just a few years ago actually turned my stomach. But if it meant spending time with her? Being close to her? I could only give one answer.
“Okay, yes. I’ll do it.”
She did a little fist pump like she used to do whenever she beat me at something. We’d played a lot of board games back in the day, and she rarely lost. Her brain was just too good at puzzles and strategy while mine always had about a hundred tabs open so I could barely focus on each move. Ordinarily, I didn’t even like board games, but for her? I played.
I’d just wanted to spend time with her. Even as a kid, I’d recognized that being with Harper was a rare privilege. She didn’t let many people in, but once she did, you realized she’d given you the key to a kingdom you didn’t ever want to leave.
And, like the ultimate fool, I’d abandoned it.
She pulled her list back out of her purse and read over it again. Then she got out her pen and started making additions.
“What are you doing?” I tried to see over her shoulder, but she twisted away from me, blocking my view.
“I’m writing down the conditions.”
After a minute, she swiveled back around, and her knee knocked mine. A jolt shot through me at that small contact, my body waking up even though the smarter side of me knew it meant nothing. She adjusted back so we no longer touched, but the damage had been done.
