Page 88 of Jam and Jingle Bells
“Thank you,” I said again as she waved and left, pantomiming for me to lock the door and shut the lights off. I laughed and locked the door, walking back to Ellis who shut down all the lights but the emergency ones.
“This town,” he whispered against my ear as we trudged up the steps.
“Is pretty incredible,” I finished, my heart once again buoyed by the power of love.
.
“I needed this.” We lay by the tree on a nest of blankets and he held me tightly. The lights of the tree twinkled to calm my nerves and bring a little bit of peace back to my soul. My phone was close by and we were getting hourly updates from everyone. “I feel a little bit guilty lying here warm and safe under these blankets, though.”
He stroked my arm soothingly and kissed my neck. “Don’t feel guilty. No one out there wants that. They want you to feel safe and loved. Anything else is an insult to their devotion to the community. I know for a fact if this was anyone else being targeted, you’d be doing the same thing they are. Oh wait, you already did.”
I laughed softly to make sure I didn’t bother Holly who was out like a light. “I guess you’re right, but it’s hard to settle my swirling thoughts. For an instant, there was terror like I’d never experienced thinking you’d been shot, then relief when you were okay, then terror again when we heard about Officer Wilson. I can hardly stand it. All because my skin is a little bit darker than yours. The simplicity of it is what makes it so hard to wrap my mind around. How terrifying it must be to live in a big city and try to let love rule over fear.”
He snuggled me in closer until we practically became one. “I lived in a big city. In a big city, everyone is out for themselves. I’ll take a town like Bells Pass any day. We have everything we need here and I’m not talking about things to do or places to go.”
“You’re talking about community and love for each other. Putting us before me.”
He nuzzled the nape of my neck with his nose. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“Addie,” a little voice said from the doorway of the spare bedroom. “I have to go potty.”
Ellis stood and motioned for me to stay. “I’ll take her down. She doesn’t need any help.”
“Hurry back and you can lay under the tree with us,” I said as she took Ellis’s hand and her sleepy head nodded.
While they were gone, I checked my phone for an update, but there weren’t any, which in this case was a good thing. I stood and grabbed the pillow from Ellis’s bed, making a little nest by me for Holly just as they walked back in the door and locked it behind them.
I patted the spot and she lay down, snuggling in next to me while Ellis snuggled in behind me. “Is everything okay, Addie?” she asked, her voice tiny and scared. “I saw lots of people outside with guns when we came here tonight.”
I held her and kissed her temple, Ellis’s arms tightening around my waist. “Everything is fine. You’re safe here. Watch the lights of the tree and sleep. You have school tomorrow.”
“I heard Mom and Dad talking,” she said and I sighed, resigning myself to the inevitable. “They said your door got broke because someone doesn’t like that you’re dating Ellis.”
Ellis spoke before I could. “We don’t know why they broke the door, Holly, but there are lots of people out there who will make sure they don’t come back before morning.”
“I think I know why,” she said, her head nodding. “I was thinking about it when we first got here and I saw the tree.”
My eyes traveled to the tree and I noticed Ellis raise up on one elbow. “What about the tree?”
She pointed with her tiny finger at the jingle bells. “Just like mine.”
I glanced up at Ellis and he grimaced but recovered quickly. “Jingle bells are everywhere and they all look the same,” he told her with feigned confidence.
“You’re wrong. I know because I touched them,” she added, her hand tucked back under the blanket. “I touched them and they had the same magic in them that the one Santa gave me had. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I met Santa and I figured it out.”
Ellis raised a brow. “You figured what out?”
“I figured out that you’re Santa,” she said smugly.
Ellis waved his hands around in the air, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. He prepared his denial, but she didn’t give him time.
“I mean like, you’re Santa on Saturday and on Christmas Eve, but you’re Ellis the rest of the time. My friends say the mall Santas aren’t real. They said there’s a Santa at every mall every day and Santa can’t be in all those places at once. The time continuum doesn’t work that way.”
“The time continuum,” I said, chuckling. This girl. Even at two a.m., she can surprise me like no one else can. I noticed Ellis was silent, barely breathing in fact, and needed help to fix this.
“Ellis isn’t Santa, Holly. He’s a yoga instructor, and,” I said, tickling her side until she giggled, “he’s my boyfriend!”
She rolled her eyes until she could see her forehead and rolled her head back and forth on the pillow. “Duh, Addie. I know he’s your boyfriend. He loves you. He told me that when we were doing yoga.”
