Page 24 of Grinchland
I was starting to see what my future would look like with her as a teenager, and it was terrifying.
Now alone in the hallway with Clara, I glanced over at her. She hadn’t walked away yet, and I wasn’t sure how to interpret that. She didn’t look like she wanted to talk to me—she was looking everywhere but at me—so I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to address her or not.
I hated that I felt awkward. I wanted to go back to how things were when we weren’t talking. It was easier. I shifted my weight, and the heaviness of the collar shifting in my pocket drew my attention. Remembering that I’d removed it from Dog this morning, I pulled it out and held it up.
“Did you change my dog’s name?” I asked.
Clara’s face flushed as she studied the collar and then shifted her gaze back to me. Her expression turned sheepish, but she didn’t move to take the collar from me. Instead, she just folded her arms and shifted her weight to one hip.
“It’s not fair that his name is Dog,” she said.
I studied her. Who was this woman? Why did she insist on coming into my life and blowing everything up?
When it became evident that she wasn’t going to take the collar, I resorted to staring at her. “Is this part of our deal?” I asked. “Me changing my dog’s name?” I quirked an eyebrow.
Clara fought a smile, and for the second time today, I found myself rejoicing that I’d elicited that reaction in her.
“Yes,” she said with a resolute nod.
I studied her for a moment and then wrapped the collar up and stuck it back into my pocket. I’d promised to be a team player, and I was a man of my word, even if I thought what she had planned was ridiculous.
“Fine,” I said as I emphasized the word.
“Good.”
We stood there, staring at each other. Even though our conversation had ended, neither of us seemed eager to leave. Finally, the noise from her classroom rose, and she glanced over her shoulder and then back to me.
“I should get going,” she said.
I nodded. “Same.”
She turned and grabbed the door handle but then paused. “Come to my house tonight after the town council meeting. It’s time for the festivities to begin.”
I nodded. She smiled, pulled open the door, and disappeared. Now that I was alone in the hall, I blew out my breath and pushed my hand through my hair. Whatever that had been…had been unexpected.
I turned and started walking toward the front doors. For the first time this morning, the thought of spending time with Clara didn’t fill me with dread.
For the first time, I was actually…excited.
TWELVE
CLARA
I managed to sufficiently distract myself after school. I made myself dinner. I ate said dinner. Then I took my time trying to decide what we were going to do for the night’s festivities. My normal Friday night traditions in December were to watch a Christmas movie and string popcorn for garlands, so that was what we were going to do after we finished putting up the decorations in my house.
Decorating wasn't normally a task for December because, most times, everything was up by mid-November. And that was if I had put anything away to begin with. Much to Abbie’s chagrin, most of my decorations stayed up all year round.
Decorating seemed like the perfect activity to ease Silas into my Christmas antics.
I set down the last box of Christmas decorations that I’d brought in from the garage, blew out my breath, and glanced over to the grandfather clock in the living room. Why was I nervous? Time felt like it was both standing still and moving at lightning speed. In 20 minutes, Silas was supposed to be knocking on my front door.
I was in the midst of popping my sixth bag of popcorn when I heard a knock at the door. I glanced at the clock to see that time really did fly when you were distracted. It was 8:45, which meant it had to be Silas. But in this town, I never really knew.
Butterflies erupted in my stomach as I hurried to wipe the popcorn butter off my hands before I made my way to the front door. I told myself those butterflies were just nerves. I was inviting the Grinch into my house, and I was about to share what I loved most about the holiday with him. But my head knew better. I literally heard the words, girl, please echo in my head.
I pushed both thoughts out of my mind. This was neither the time nor place to try to dissect what had happened this morning between me and Silas, so I wasn’t going to try. I was going to focus on the task at hand, and only that.
I turned the handle and pulled the door open, getting ready to greet him with a flourish, but when he quickly pressed his finger to his lips, I obeyed. He pointed to Isabelle, who was wrapped in a blanket and passed out on his shoulder.
