Page 22 of Light Up My Life

“Ryan!”

He turned, a smile immediately lighting up his face when he saw me. He pocketed his keys and abandoned the door. He met me halfway down his walkway.

“Hey,” he said.

“I-uh-they-I-got-there was an extra,” I said, thrusting the second cup of hot cocoa forward. The liquid sloshed onto my hand once again, and the candy cane did a dance in the cup.

“Oh,” Ryan said. “Nice.” He relieved me of the cup. “A candy cane stir stick.” He must’ve remembered what I’d said in the pantry. I hadn’t been able to forget the pantry. Probably the actual reason I was standing here. I wanted to forget, though. I needed to.

“Straight from Buddy the elf,” I said.

“Who?”

I nodded over my shoulder toward the hot cocoa trailer.

“Is that his real name?”

“It is right now,” I said, pretty sure it wasn’t, but not one hundred percent positive.

“If my name was Buddy, I’d start a hot cocoa business as well.”

“It would be required.” I pointed to the hot chocolate. “Try it.”

Ryan stirred his drink with the candy cane before taking a sip. His eyebrows popped up. “Mmm. That’s good.”

“Right?”

“Very.” His eyes caught on mine. They had a smile in them, and I wasn’t sure if it was a mocking one or not.

I backed up a few steps, suddenly feeling stupid for being here. For giving him a drink he hadn’t asked for and demanding he taste it in front of me. “Anyway, like I said, there was… extra.” He knew there wasn’t extra. What kind of business gave out extra drinks? But I didn’t correct myself. I just backed up several more steps.

“Did you see my mouse?”

I stopped in my tracks and laughed out loud. “Yes. It was… something.”

“Are you making fun of my art skills?”

“Oh, are you calling them skills?”

He put his hand over his heart. “Ouch. And I assume you could do better?”

“Probably not,” I said, thinking about the still-empty canvas up in my room. I took another sip of my drink, looked at his cup that he’d only taken the one sip from, and reminded myself I was leaving. “Bye, Ryan.”

“You need to show me another one!” he called before I’d made it back to the sidewalk.

“What?” I turned.

“You said there are forty. I haven’t been able to find any aside from the two in your yard.”

“Mice?” I asked, making sure I was following the conversation correctly.

“Yes.”

He’d been looking for mice. I didn’t know why that thought made my chest expand.

“You haven’t been looking very hard,” I said. The chocolate from my hot cocoa coated my tongue, and the mint from the candy cane made my breath feel cold.

“I have,” he insisted.