Page 8 of The Clause in Christmas
Cassie flushed and busied herself with refilling the box. “Truthfully, I haven’t seen either of those movies. So, I guess it’s just me, then. The only person in the world who doesn’t like Christmas.”
“What’s not to like?” Luke settled two reindeer figurines carefully in a bed of faux greenery, casting a sideways glance in Cassie’s direction. He couldn’t help noticing the way her brow creased ever so slightly, or the nearly inscrutable clench in her jaw.
Cassie waved a hand over the mess scattered before them. “It’s so excessive. I hate all the commercialism.”
Luke nodded slowly, although he could tell she wasn’t telling him the entire story. “Sure, there can be that aspect. But isn’t Christmas what you make of it? We have a choice to go overboard or focus on the things that really matter. Like family and friends.”
Cassie leaned back on her heels and stared at him like he’d grown reindeer antlers out of his head. Clearly, she had some issues with Christmas. Luke only hoped he could help change her mind.
“I can see Christmas decorating isn’t your thing. So, how about I help you out? I’m an expert at hanging Christmas lights. In fact, Clark Griswoldwisheshe could string lights as well as me.”
“Who?”
“Clark Griswold. FromNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
Cassie’s blank expression indicated she still had no idea what he was talking about.
“Wow. You reallyaren’tinto Christmas, are you?”
“I told you. And before you ask. No, I haven’t seenWhite ChristmasorMiracle on 34th Street, either.”
“Okay, Cassie Hayward. I’m about to give you a Christmas Calendar of my own. The twenty-five films of Christmas. Beginning with my favorite,Home Alone.” Standing, Luke reached out his hand to help her up.
Cassie grinned as he pulled her to her feet. “Home Alonesounds like a horror movie, doesn’t it? I can already hear a sinister voice saying, ‘The call is coming from inside the house.’”
Luke chuckled at her impression of the raspy-voiced intruder. “Let’s start with the basics, then. You decorate the inside of the house, and I’ll decorate the outside. Deal?” He held out his hand again, already missing the feel of her soft skin against his own.
“Deal.”
As they shook on it, Luke realized he didn’t want to let go.
Cassie didn’t seem to be in a hurry, either, until her phone buzzed in her back pocket.
Luke couldn’t bring himself to look away as her phone screen came into view.
He wasn’t sure what he expected to see, but he instantly felt the retribution for his curiosity.
No name appeared on the screen, only a number.
But the message…thatwas the real kicker.
It might as well have been seared into his brain by a pyrography pen.
Three simple words that weren’t simple at all.
I miss you.
Chapter 4
Cassie had only decorated for Christmas one other time in her life—when she was nine years old.
Armed with a wooden spoon and ceramic mixing bowl, Cassie uprooted a shrub from the alleyway behind their apartment building. After planting the foliage in the makeshift pot, she proudly displayed it in the center of the coffee table before scrounging around their studio apartment for random odds and ends to use for decoration. A few hair clips, a pair of her mother’s earrings, and a red satin bow she tore off her favorite dress all did the job nicely. The pièce de résistance was the star on top—a gold star, to be exact. A reward for lasting until the final round of her third-grade spelling bee. First place received a shiny blue ribbon, but she cherished her third-place plastic star as if it had been made of real gold. It was the first and only thing she’d ever won.
After nestling the treasured star near the top in the thin, prickly needles of the shrub, Cassie stepped back to admire her masterpiece.
She couldn’t wait for her mother to see it, hoping against all reason it would spark a glimmer of festive cheer in their otherwise dreary lives.
The next morning, Cassie woke to Donna Hayward passed out on the couch, the Christmas shrub in a pile of dirt and broken pottery on the floor. The gold star lay snapped in two pieces, as though someone had trampled on it, along with Cassie’s youthful hopes and dreams.
