Page 118 of How My Neighbour Stole Christmas
“She would absolutely have a conniption if she knew that we were getting along.”
“Would she?” he asks. “Why?”
“Oh, you know, the whole ‘needing to win this for Aunt Cindy’ thing. I don’t think she’d appreciate me being friendly with the competition.”
“Well, then, I guess we have to go back to sparring.”
“I guess so,” I say.
“How did she feel about the fake dating?”
“Hesitant at first but then encouraged me, because she knew that it would help me in the long run.” I pause and think about it for a second. “Hey, that night when we were talking to Martha and she brought up your parents—that’s why you shut down, wasn’t it?”
He nods. “Yeah, wasn’t in the mood to really talk about it then.”
“Then why did you talk about it today?”
“Because…” He trails off, and I wait for him to say more. “Because seeing you in your car, scared and crying, I don’t know, it tore down the walls I’ve kept up. I felt like I needed to protect you in that moment. Not to mention the snowstorm, cars…well, it brought back all these memories, and I felt the need to, for lack of a better word,saveyou.”
“Well, I’m glad you did tell me. I wish you would have said something earlier. I might not have allowed you to put that many pineapple chunks in your fruitcake.”
“Saboteur,” he says, laughing. “You knew it was too many and you didn’t say anything.”
“It’s best when we learn from our mistakes, Cole. Also you neverwould have believed me. If I’d said something, you would have easily added more out of spite.”
“You’re right about that.” He passes someone on the left and then switches back to the right lane. “So what have you been doing the past ten years? Fill me in.”
Finding it completely adorable that he wants to know, I say, “Well, went to college, had a long-time boyfriend who ended up breaking up with me when he got his first directing job. Weirdly, I was okay with it because he was a tool anyway. I’ve found solace in editing Lovemark movies, taking care of my ficus, Alexander, and never leaving my apartment until Great-Aunt Cindy broke her hip.”
“Never leaving?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Yeah, I was a bit of a hermit. I would go on walks, but I really…I don’t know, I just didn’t bother with the outside world all that much.”
“Why?”
“I guess maybe because I didn’t need anything other than what I had.”
“And how do you feel about that now since you’ve been here?”
“Silly,” I admit. “Even though this has been stressful, and I’ve had to put myself out there more than I ever wanted to with this competition, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to interact, to know people around you. Living in California, especially in LA, I can be anonymous, and I kind of just stayed in my own bubble. But in Kringle, I’m forced outside of that bubble and required to talk to others even if I don’t want to.”
“So are you saying that you actually might like Kringle and not hate it?”
“Maybe,” I say, feeling very foolish. “Ugh, you know when you said you can’t let fear take over your actions…well, I think I let that happen. When I was a kid, I aspired to be something bigger, maybe even the person in front of the screen instead of behind it, but after the incident with Mrs. Fiskers, the embarrassment that followed, I lost all my confidence and, well, it just…trickled into my everyday life.”
“I don’t know, you look pretty level-headed and confident to me,” he says as he pulls off the highway, taking the exit to Kringle. “And I wouldn’t bullshit you, Storee. Ever since you’ve returned, I’ve noticed just how confident…how radiant you are.”
“Radiant?” I ask as I steal a glance at him.
“Yeah,” he says, his cheeks flushing adorably.
“Well, thank you. What have you been up to?”
“Taking care of the reindeer over at Evergreen Farm,” he answers. “I tried going to college, but I was only eighteen when my parents passed, and I couldn’t leave the house. The town rallied around me, the Maxheimers took me in, and I found comfort in being here, the place I grew up. I found comfort in seeing my parents in places all around town. Memories of them walking around Ornament Park, or having dinner at the Caroling Café, or going out for ice cream at the Polar Freeze. There were moments I didn’t want to forget, so I dropped out of college, completing only one semester, and the Maxheimers gave me a job working on the farm. Max’s dad taught me everything I needed to know about the reindeer, then I did my own research and, well, it just became my thing.” He shrugs. “I know it’s not much, but I find peace in it.”
“Why are you saying it’s not much?”
“Because I take care of reindeer.”
