That gave her pause. “Huh.The Muppet Christmas Carol?”
He shook his head. “Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas.”
She couldn’t decide if he was pulling her leg, but if there was any word she associated with Gavin, it washonest.Sometimes painfully so. In her less generous moments, she would say he lacked the imagination to lie.
“The choice of a true Jim Henson die-hard,” she said. “Respect.”
He shrugged. “There’s something about its simplicity, and the way it comes down to…being willing to take chances for the people you love. At least, that’s how my mother always…”
His voice faded out as his face clouded over, lost in a memory. Finally, he muttered, “Maybe it’s just that I saw it first.Christmas Carol’s good too…”
When it was clear that was all he was going to say on the subject, she came away curiously disappointed. Pushing away feelings, she reminded herselfagainthat this was Gavin McCreery, and that she had no reason to concern herself with his feelings about family, the holidays, and what one did for people you loved.
No reason at all.
Desperate to fill the silence, she said, “So, where did you come in from?”
“The Bay Area.”
“You moved there for school, right?” She vaguely recalled he had gone to Stanford to study business, like his father had planned for him.
He nodded. “And got a job in the area after graduation.”
“Doing what?”
“I’m a financial consultant for nonprofits.”
That gave her pause. “What? Really?”
He chuckled. “Yes, really. We help them with financial resilience.”
“So, is that for real, or is it a tagline?”
His reply was serious, even though Rowan had intended to tease. “Very real. Most people who get into that line of work aren’t exactly business savvy. We help them make a plan. So that they can keep doing what they do for years to come.”
“Before capitalism catches up.”
She’d half expected him to roll his eyes, but he chuckled instead. “Exactly.”
Well, then—he might have gotten the degree his father had pushed him toward, but she doubted it was how the old man planned for him to use it. Maybe there was hope for him yet.
“How about you?” he asked. “Engineering, right? Build a better solar panel yet?”
The question threw her right back into a low period of her past, where she had cracked under the weight of upper-level engineering courses. They would have been a challenge even if she’d been able to use the spells for focus she’d had in high school, but without them, it had been a complete disaster.
“Started that way,” she said. “Failed…pretty hard. Switched to a general degree in sustainability. I’ve been working for environmental groups since then. Still trying to do something to get the world off fossil fuels.”
“Always trying to save the world,” he murmured in a surprising tone—affection?
“Yeah, well, turns out I’m not so good at that either. I completely messed up this huge fundraiser speech tonight.” She stuffed her face into her crochet project.
“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”
“Trust me,” she said, voice muffled by the yarn, “it was worse.”
“Well, if it was anything like your graduation speech, I’m sure it was memorable.”
Her face shot up. “You remember that?”
