Page 129 of How My Neighbour Stole Christmas
“No,” I answer. “But…she doesn’t live here, and I know she apologized for saying she hates this town and that she didn’t mean it, but it still worries me. What happens when Cindy is better? Does she go back to California to be with her ficus?”
“She has a ficus? Nice. Do you know if it’s a fiddle leaf?”
“Really, Max?”
He bashfully smiles. “Sorry. I just love all trees and plants.”
“Right, so what happens when she leaves?”
“Well, you could follow her.”
I shake my head. “No, I couldn’t.” I pause as we stand in front of a tree that’s about an inch taller than me. “I can’t leave Kringle.”
“If you’re worried about me,” Max says with a smile, “I can handle being on my own. I might cry into my pillow every night knowing my best friend left me for his lady friend, but I’ll survive.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” I say and sigh. “I can’t leave here because this is where I feel my parents the most. I feel their presence. And I can’t leave the house. That’s…that’s all I have left of them.”
“Is it, though?” Max asks. “You have sheets covering the furniture so it doesn’t collect dust. You still live in the finished attic because it was your teenage bedroom. You don’t even open the door to your parents’ room, and you haven’t unboxed the Christmas decorations in ten years, not since my mom and I put them away for you. I love you, man, but you haven’t been really living. You’ve been shuffling through the day-to-day.”
“I know,” I say while tugging on my hair. “And I’m trying… Doing this competition, seeing her again, I don’t know, it’s making me feel like I don’t have to hide all the time. That I don’t need to avoid the holiday. But what if…what if I put myself out there and she leaves?”
“Valid concern,” Max says. “And if she does, then we look at it as maybe she was brought here to get you out of your funk. Maybe you needed that blast from the past to shake you free of the weight you’ve been carrying, the weight of your parents’ death.”
“Maybe,” I say.
“Hey.” Max grabs my attention away from the tree that I’m pretending to study. “Cole, I haven’t done you any favors as a best friend when it comes to making sure you move on, and that’s why when you wanted to do this Kringle thing, I was all in. Do you really think I wanted to pant like a dog while you pranced around in lederhosen?” I chuckle. “I didn’t. But I saw a spark in you that I haven’t seen in a really long time, and I knowcredit goes to her. So don’t let this opportunity slip by. If you like her, go for it, and see where it takes you. Living situations can be reworked. What can’t be reworked is the way you feel about someone.”
I let out a heavy sigh and look my friend in the eyes. “When did you become so wise?”
“I always have been,” he says with a puff of his chest. “You’re just finally opening your eyes.”
I pull into my driveway with a Christmas tree in the bed of my truck as I spot Taran and Storee in their driveway, packing up the car.
Suitcases.
Pillows.
Dread immediately fills me.
Is she fucking leaving?
After one kiss, she’s leaving?
Trying to keep calm, I hop out of my truck and remember the position I need to take—reverse fake dating.
I move around my truck, lean against it, and fold my arms as I stare over at them. “Leaving so soon? What a shame.” The sarcasm in my voice is heavy, but the pounding of my heart is nearly making me want to walk up to Storee and pull her into my chest so she can’t leave.
Not yet.
Not when things have just started.
Storee looks up as she’s putting a suitcase in the car. She’s about to say something when Taran steps in. “I’m taking Aunt Cindy into Golden for a doctor’s appointment. Not that you need to know that, but don’t go thinking we’re out of this competition.” She shuts the trunk of her car and turns toward me. “We are totally in it, and Storee has been coming up with a candy cane idea that’s going to blow your lederhosen right off.”
She crosses her arms, and Storee steps up next to her, looking cute as shit as she adds, “Yeah, blow your lederhosen right off.”
I hold back my smile as I lift off the truck. “Doubt it. I saw your candy cane-making abilities. Good luck stretching the sugar—you’re going to need it.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Taran says to Storee. “You’re going to kill it. And don’t let him mess with your mind when we’re gone. Stay strong.”
