Wow, okay, I had to be bad if Jack had snapped at me. He was one of the easiest to get on with. If I’d upset him, then I was way past miserable. Unsure how to answer and not wanting to piss off the team I spent a lot of time with, I kept quiet.
“We’ll compare the two shots when we get back, but they’ve certainly moved,” Freddie said, sending me a glower as well.
“Let’s keep filming and head to the church; we might get activity now,” Jack replied.
Moving past them, I stomped forward, and something hit the back of my head. I spun around in temper; one of them had thrown a snowball at me. Instead of seeing guilt, they all gaped at me.
“Who threw that?” I snapped.
“Nobody,” Freddie answered.
“Someone did,” I insisted. Out of nowhere, a second snowball smashed into my chest, and I looked down.
What the fuck? I’d been facing them all, and none of them had moved.
“Who is out there? Who did you work this out with?” I demanded.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Sunny, I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died, but shut the fuck up. This area is well lit so that you can see all around us. If someone were throwing snowballs, we’d see them!”
Suddenly, four snowballs smacked into me. A childish laugh rose in the air and was quickly cut off. My temper snapped, and I bent down and rolled a large snowball and threw it back in the direction mine had come. A squeak sounded as the snowball hit something in mid-flight and splattered.
“Damn. Sunny hit a ghost!” Freddie exclaimed.
I stood, feet planted and arms crossed, daring anyone to throw more snowballs. Big mistake. Around thirty snowballs headed toward me all at once, and I couldn’t defend against them. They pounded into me, and I stumbled back.
I heard Freddie laugh, but it was cut off as she took one to the face.
Jack growled and took three snowballs. He crouched, making some of his own. I stared at Diaz, hoping she’d take my side. Nope, mischief crossed her face. The sharpshooter everyone had feared in the army bent down and began launching snowballs with the precision of a crosshair.
Before I could blink, a war had broken out, and the team’s laughter mixed with the children’s and adults who were invisible to us. I stomped to one side, even as my heart warmed at hearing the joy in the children’s voices. I moved away and sat on a rock as everyone cavorted in the snow. Woo hoo, a snowball fight! Talk about a Christmas tradition. Jesus, could you get any cornier?
My glower encompassed the entire scene, human and ghosts alike. I wasn’t charmed, amused, or even heartened by this, andI didn’t bother withholding my disdain. Not even when more snowballs than I could count hit me at once and signalled the end of the fight twenty minutes later.
I wiped snow from my face. Nope, still hated Christmas.
???
“Are we going to talk?” I asked Callie as she got ready for bed.
“What’s there to talk about? You’re determined to shit all over this, and your attitude is not helping. If you’d go, I’d send you back to New York State to wait for us.”
“Wow. Thanks, babe,” I replied sarcastically.
“Yeah, now you know how I feel.”
“Callie, I can’t help it. I can’t stand Christmas, but it doesn’t mean I don’t love you or the baby,” I said.
The fight left Callie, and her shoulders slumped. “This whole village may seem like a cliché, but to me it’s magical. I’d love to visit here at Christmas with the kids, but you’re destroying that dream for me. I had desired to take my kids to Lapland. Those dreams got me through many lonely, cold nights, Sunny. And you’re just pissing all over this and not even trying to hide how you feel.”
“Babe, this is a huge cliché, you’re right.”
“But can’t you find the magic in this? For me?” Callie almost begged.
I wanted to say yes, but I shook my head instead. Callie’s face fell, and I felt like a total asshole, but I’d not lie to her.
“Then I guess the baby and I will be celebrating Christmas without you and not as a family,” Callie replied and climbed into bed. She turned on her side away from me as her words struck fear into me. Did she mean she’d leave me alone at Christmas to live her dreams? What the fuck? This was not what I envisionedfor our future. Maybe I needed to get my head around what she wanted and what it meant to give it to her. Would it really break me to at least try?
Connor
