“Jack has the church. Connor?”
“I wouldn’t mind the tunnel and pathway,” he replied
“Okay, I’ve got Santa’s House. Let’s finish up eating, and then we can make a start,” I said with a smile. I hoped my happy attitude fooled everyone apart from Sunny. He knew exactly what I was feeling.
Sunny
I’d put my damn foot right in it. Callie was making it very clear I was in her bad books, although she was keeping up a front. I did not like her having reassigned me at all, and if Callie thought that I’d obey for one single second… it wasn’t happening. As everyone got up and checked their equipment, I singled her out.
“I ain’t going with Jack.”
“No? Then stay with Harry,” Callie retorted.
“Nope.”
“Then stay in the hotel room. I don’t really care. I thought Jack picking the church would have been right up your alley. No Christmas shit there!”
Okay, I’d underestimated how angry Callie was. Now she was going to understand me! “I’m not letting my pregnant woman run around a haunted town without me at her back.”
“You're notletting?” Callie seethed, and I inwardly winced. I could hear the warning, ‘Danger,Will Robinson,’ screaming in my ear from that old TV show. Too late.
“I said it and meant it.” I dug in.
“You have been the most miserable asshole since we arrived. I’m tired of your shitty attitude. You claim you don’t like Christmas, but I know from Cherry and Liv that you did. Why you’re being so… Grinchified… is beyond me.”
“Grinchified?” I asked, amused despite myself. “Is that even a word?”
“It damn well is now,” Callie snapped.
“Callie, it’s just… I’m older and prefer quiet Christmases now Liv has grown up.”
Callie reared away as if I’d slapped her. “You were aware I wanted a family,” she whispered, paling. Instantly, I saw how Callie had taken it. Like she’d trapped me.
“Babe, no!” I exclaimed, but the damage was done. Callie withdrew, and I felt it. I realised the walls were coming down, her barriers shooting up, and understood she’d pulled back emotionally from me. Fuck, I’d hurt her and hadn’t meant to.
“You’d best stick with Jack; I really don’t want you around me,” Callie murmured and turned on her heel and marched away.
“Wow, you fucked that right up,” Solace proclaimed, slapping me on the shoulders. It wasn’t a gentle slap either.
Connor
I was surprised when I saw Kit, one of the drivers who’d brought us here, outside with a small six-person sleigh.
“What’s this?” I asked, bemused.
“To get to the tunnel, we use these. First off is the drive through the woods with the grotto, and then we hit the tunnel. Fiona has said that you might need to do it several times. I volunteered to be your driver,” Kit said with a warm smile.
“That’s great. I didn’t think about how we were going to get there,” I admitted.
I climbed up with Solace, Cherry, and Merrick. Solace was once again filming. Cherry was carrying a Spirit box, a device that picked up on words that we couldn’t hear. It made a lot of static, so we didn’t turn it on until needed. I had my Ovilus, which Freddie had tinkered with and added more words to. Merrick carried a REM pod and Touch Ball, which lit up much like the REM pod.
“Where was activity first noted?” Cherry asked Kit.
Before he could reply, I jumped in. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not know. That way, if we see something, it adds to the genuineness of it.”
“Don’t you usually get a heads-up?” Cherry asked.
“Yes. But in this instance, there’s so much spread out over such a large space, I think it would be nice to be surprised.”
