“Mean.” I turned toward the tree. “Don’t listen to her. You’rebeautiful.”
“Ugly-cute atbest.”
“Just because you and Jean always pick such perfect trees doesn’t mean this one should go to waste. At least it doesn’t havetarantulas.”
Myra frowned. “Crow?”
“Crow.”
“And he’s not in Ordinary anymore?”
“He said he had just stopped in to see me. He left town as soon as he sold me thetree.”
She shook her head and handed me another ornament. “So why now? Why do you want a tree thisyear?”
I didn’t say anything as I hung three more bulbs. That was a good question. I had a good answer, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to shareit.
“It’s Ryder,” she supplied. “You’re doing this because of him, aren’tyou?”
I could argue, but she’d know I was lying. Inodded.
“He told me that when he was little, he loved the lights on the Christmas tree. That it’s one of his favorite parts of the holidays. I didn’t want him to come home to a dark living room. And even if it’s only for a couple days, we—he—should have a tree. That’s not too ridiculous, isit?”
“No. That’s…” Her voice went soft. “That’s sweet. That’s good. That’s…love.”
Neither of us said anything, but the dragon by the fireplace snuffled loudly, then squeaked atSpud.
Spud had been crouched in front of the dragon, ears up, tail wagging. He now crept forward, belly-crawling toward the pig with a small stuffed frog in hismouth.
The dragon seemed to enjoy watching the ever-cheerful dog cautiouslyapproach.
They’d been going at this since I’d driven the dragon around yesterday and it had finally just trotted into the house and straight to the fireplace, as if it were perfectly happy to livehere.
At first Spud had barked. Then, after one deep rumble from the pig, which, yes, it is sort of startling to hear a pig roar, Spud had wagged his tail like it was going to propel him to themoon.
All of Spud’s running around and barking at the amused but unmoved dragon yesterday had turned into Spud sneakily offering to share his stuffed toy hoard with the pigtoday.
This, it appeared, might be a winningtactic.
The pig had already been gifted with a stuffed hamburger, a flounder, and a one-legged cow. It looked very, very pleased with its growingstash.
Myra nodded. “He’ll love it. When is Ryder supposed to behere?”
I tried not to let my worry show. “A couple hoursago.”
“That’s not toobad.”
“More like five hoursago.”
“Weather?”
“That’s what I’mguessing.”
As if to punctuate the point, the wind and rain battered the west facing windows hard enough I could feel the sturdy little cabin take thehit.
The near-freezing rain had flung onto shore last night with seventy-mile-an-hourgusts.
The storm had already galloped east over the Coast Range and dumped five inches of snow there, iced up the valley, and according to weather reports, was in the process of slapping blizzard warnings across the CascadeRange.
