Page 49 of Christmas Crisis
We turned to see a man with curly brown hair lumbering toward us. I knew I’d met him before, but I couldn’t place him.
“Kase! Hey.” Miranda clapped her hands together, looking down at the two preschoolers giggling and clutching his legs. “I see you’ve developed a parasitic condition.” I recognized the small boy and girl as Katy’s kids.
The man chortled. “Alright, you hooligans,” he said, peeling them off his jeans. “Go find Mommy.”
As the kids scampered to where Katy waited by the counter, he walked over to us with a tentative smile. Miranda had no such hesitancy, pulling him into a hug.
“It’s so good to see you!” she enthused. Turning to me, she asked, “Leo, have you met Kasen yet? He’s a…friend of Marley’s,and all of us, really.” To Kasen, she said, “This is Leo, James’s brother.”
Kasen shook my hand. “Hey, man. I think we met at the wedding reception, right?”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s it. I was trying to place you. How’s it going?” I recalled hearing that Kasen and Marley used to date before she met James, and he’d known Miranda since she was young.
“Can’t complain.”
Miranda looked at where Katy was setting up her kids in a booth with a tablet and two headsets. “Babysitting?”
Kasen crooked an elbow to grab the back of his neck. “Yeah. Rosie, Braxton, and I are good friends. Since I mostly work from home and we’re neighbors, I help out when I can.”
“That’s so sweet of you,” Miranda said.
“Really, it’s no big deal. They’re great kids.” Suddenly, Kasen’s features changed like he’d turned on a mental lightbulb. “Oh, shit! I just remembered I read about you two online. Everyone’s talking about it. My parents even mentioned it.” He grinned at Miranda. “Your sisters are going to flip when they find out.”
She rolled her eyes. “About Stone? They don’t care who I’m friends with. They’ll understand why I kept it quiet.”
“Not that. They’re gonna be pissed that you two have been dating in secret this whole time.”
I curled a protective arm around Miranda’s shoulders. “We had our reasons. They’ll get over it.”
Kasen lifted his hands. “Hey, man, no judgment here. I think it’s great. Miranda’s like a little sister to me, and if she’s happy, then I am too.”
Katy’s younger child, the little boy who’d tripped Miranda at the party, shouted across the room, “Sen, come watch with us!”
Kasen smiled. “Duty calls.” He slapped my shoulder and nudged Miranda into another quick hug. “See you soon, I hope.”
We watched as he sat down with the kids and Katy brought over plates of mac ’n’ cheese for them.
“I’m glad he seems good,” Miranda said. “He was a little weird when Marley and James first got together.”
“Yeah, James mentioned that. I guess enough time has passed.”
“Sure. Time heals heartbreak and all that.” She looked at the picture of her parents again. “Then again, Mom never dated again after losing Dad. One great love was enough for her.”
A shrill ringing invaded the air. Katy went behind the bar and picked up the handset of a heavy, old-fashioned phone.
“I can’t remember the last time I saw a landline,” I said as Miranda and I slid back into our booth.
“If that gets you going, you should check out the pay phone at the bowling alley.”
“Seriously? I’m totally doing that.”
“Such a city boy,” Miranda chided.
“And you’re not a city girl?”
She shook her head. “As much as I love Los Angeles and even Seattle, I’ll always be more comfortable here. It’s hard to explain, but I’ve been all over the world, and no place makes sense to me the way Coleman Creek does. It’s like it’s magical. I know that sounds corny, but it’s true.”
I took in the pictures of Coleman Creek citizens plastered to every inch of wall space. While The Landslide's interior was clean, no one would describe it as “modern.” But there was something cozy about the mismatched chairs and weathered booths, like the unfussiness welcomed everyone. A Christmas tree in the corner glittered with baubles and homemade ornaments. It listed to the side under the weight of a beer can star. Strands of twinkle lights looped around light fixtures with no rhyme or reason. It was the opposite of picture-perfect.
