Page 84 of Light Up My Life

I put my finger up to my lips and then nodded. “My older brother’s room is down here.”

“I’ll be quiet,” he said, his voice barely audible.

I bit my lip but led him down the hall and into the living room. He did a slow circle, then walked to the Christmas tree. He immediately found an ornament from when I was in the first grade. It was a picture of me with reindeer ears on. He lifted it and mouthed, Adorable.

I put a hand under my chin as if putting my face on display and smiled. Then I made my way to the calendar on the kitchen wall. In big, bold letters the words Mom’s Office Party filled in the entire square for Friday. Right. My moms would be gone. Marcus would have to stay here and watch Harris. I could talk him into that … maybe. I wasn’t sure anymore.

Ryan pointed to another ornament on the tree. It was a clay handprint in the shape of Santa’s head, the fingers his beard, the thumb the point of his floppy hat.

“Harris’s,” I whispered, joining him by the tree. “I know you wish you could make one for yourself, but your hand is too big now. It would be too heavy for the tree. Sorry.” I smiled and pushed my hand flat against his as if to show him the size difference.

He curled his fingers over the tips of mine. “I’m super disappointed,” he teased back, then slid his fingers between mine.

We looked at each other for a beat, then he tugged me forward by my hand and placed a soft kiss on my lips.

Then he was looking at the tree again. “Is this one you?”

He freed a clear glass ball from a high branch. It was a baby picture of me, just the head, with a snowman body painted beneath.

“Yes. We can make one of those for you,” I said.

“I fear my head is too big as well.”

I held in my laugh. “We could shrink it to fit.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Would you hang it on your tree?”

“You want to be hung on my tree?”

“I want nothing more.”

I gave his chest a playful shove. “You gotta dream bigger.”

He covered my hand that was still on his chest. “It would mean something,” he said, serious now.

I gave a small nod. I knew what he was implying. It would mean my family knew about us, accepted us, even.

There was a banging sound from Marcus’s room, and I jumped. I hadn’t thought he was awake. There was no light coming from beneath his door. Maybe he had just hit the wall in his sleep.

My heart picked up speed, and I stopped breathing to listen.

“I’ll go out the back,” Ryan whispered. He was right, the back door was much closer, steps away. We headed there now.

“Don’t forget your ladder,” I said.

“I won’t.”

“Thanks for the dress.” Then I paused. “I hope it fits.”

“If it doesn’t fit, the lady at the store said you could exchange it.”

“You’re the best,” I said.

“I really am.”

I wrapped my arms around Ryan’s neck. “I think I’m going to say yes,” I whispered by his ear. “To the dance.”

“I know,” he said. Then we were kissing again, there by the sliding glass door, in my house, and I wanted to pull him back up into my room and not let him leave.