“You know the saying, seize the day. Live each day to the fullest.” He pulled into a parking space in the alley behind Mapleton General Store and threw his car into park. “I love what your dad was saying. It is the perfect outlook.” Without missing a beat, he jumped out of the car, pushed his seat forward, letting out the dog, and grabbed Rudolph. “Are you ready?” he called back from his place on the street.
I struggled to thread the seatbelt back through the door handle, so it didn’t get further tangled. I wasn’t trying to be a jerk, but I couldn’t help but sputter out a laugh as I replied, “I need a minute to unbuckle. This is a new thing for me.”
“Let me do it.” He sat back down on the driver’s seat, leaned across me, and reached for the belt. “I wrap it four times to use all the slack, so it doesn’t come loose.”
“I didn’t know there was a trick.” I straightened my spine, trying to flatten out against the seat while he practically laid his body in my lap as he unwrapped the belted door. Not sure why that sent a thrill through my body. It was a bit odd. His face was so close to mine, I could smell his breath. I’d known Nick for years, and we’d done many weird things together, but we’d never been in this position before. Luckily, he was an expert in unlatching a seat-belted door and he quickly opened my door, and finally sat up straight.
I bit back a giggle, as this seemed like it was so much extra work. “I can crawl through your door next time.”
He offered me a fake smile as I slammed my door as hard as I could and then patiently waited for him to latch the door back. By the time he joined me on the curb, the dog was back to doing his hangry howl. “Oh.” I pushed my hands into my bag, pulling out the candy cane treats. “I know what you want.” I gave him a smile and tossed him the candy cane that he caught midair. He swallowed it whole and ceased the howling, so maybe I had read his cues correctly.
“Nice doggie.” I patted his head with a super straight arm, trying to keep as much distance between us as possible. I wasn’t afraid of dogs, but I never had the chance to warm up to them. I wasn’t well versed in their language. The whole howling, slobbering thing was a tad off-putting. Now that he was happy, he bounced around, as if he had a tap dance he couldn’t hold in, I found him quite entertaining. Frankly, he was the distraction I needed, but even with this adorable dance, I couldn’t help but bite the inside of my cheek.
“All right?” With Rudolph tucked under one arm, Nick stepped forward, opening the store door for me. “We’re here,” he added, after the decorative strand of old-fashioned jingle bells were done ringing. “Let’s see if we can solve this enigma.”
seven
Charlotte
“Wecouldstartbyfinding some food for our best man.” I wandered down the narrow aisle that was completely bare on both sides. In college I’d spent some time working in retail and I knew the first aisle was always the most important to merchandise. It was odd that the storekeepers had failed to fill it with anything. I kept walking until I rounded to the next aisle. Everything was so crammed. I literally halted on my heel, the dog crashed into the back of my leg, but I barely noticed because I was scratching my head.
Why is this aisle so cluttered, but they had an empty aisle next to it?
Surely, they could spread out their stuff a little more. Shaking my head, I contemplated how small towns are peculiar sometimes. I continued to pace through the aisle, finding it seemed to hold a little of everything as most small-town general stores did. “Do they have stuff for animals here?”
“I’m sure they have a shelf somewhere.” Nick butted up behind me with a tiny shopping cart that reminded me of one of those child’s play ones. He had managed to stuff Rudolph into it, or well, he got the first two legs in the cart and then balanced the rest of it on top. I let out a small chuckle because it was one of those things that happened whenever I hung out with Nick. We could do the most mundane and boring things, like shop for dog food, and he always found a way to make me laugh.
His gaze scanned the bottom shelf with the largest bags and boxes of items. “I see birdseed down there.” He motioned to the very end of the aisle. “I’m guessing the dog food would be next to it.” He was already on it, and scooped up a huge sack and placed it in the bottom of the cart. “Got the dog food.” With the giant Rudolph still protruding out, the stuffed cart proved challenging for Nick to maneuver around the displays. “Now let’s see if we need to return this Rudolph.”
A lady stood behind the checkout stand, and I hadn’t thought about how awkward this would be to ask if we had stolen something. I mean, I’m sure we didn’t actuallystealit, but I couldn’t imagine another reason for us having guardianship of the missing Rudolph. I waited until she looked up and then pointed to Rudolph. I wondered what she already knew but I held onto a squeamish smile, hoping she was nice.
“I, or we, found this and we’re pretty sure it belongs here.” I motioned to the front store window display, which had a near-life-sized Santa’s sleigh with six reindeer lined up. A spot in the front of the pack was open and obviously missing a deer.
She remained quiet, and stepped closer to the window, eyeing the display. At this point, I wish I hadn’t said anything. We should have just dropped the deer off and run.Is she going to call the cops over something so stupid?This having to explain stuff was going to be tough. I glanced at Nick and he seemed to be thinking the same thing as he shimmied a little closer to the door. We took a step in unison but froze when we heard clapping rise up from behind us.
Even before I turned around, I could feel the noise directed at us. Nick pivoted first. His eyebrows quivered slightly, before fixing into a bent-down angle. I turned, my eyes were met with four people standing in a row, all clapping with giant smiles on their faces as if not only did they know us, but we had done the most amazing thing ever. They were wearing matching red vests, as they clearly employees, but that didn’t explain why they acted this way.
I flicked my hand up into a nonmoving wave, hoping to make the noise stop, but instead they cheered harder with one lady on the end calling out, “We love you!” She grabbed Nick’s hand and squeezed it so hard, it made Nick’s eyes nearly bug out of his head.What did we do?
That was strange. Surely, they had us mistaken for someone else, a celebrity, maybe? I mean, I get told all the time I look like a young Anne Hathaway. Feeling a little flattered, I ran a hand along my dark hair, smoothing it out, and smiled as sweetly as possible while flashing my best side at them. “Hello.”
They finally pulled the plug on the clapping, and the lady at the end stepped toward us. She pushed her shoulders back and locked eyes with me. “My staff told me about what you did yesterday, and I can’t express myself enough to say thank you. It’s truly a Christmas miracle.”
Pushing my thumb against my chest, I stuttered, “Uh m-me?”
She raised her hands out to us and exclaimed in a jubilant voice, “Both of you, of course.”
My eyes slid to Nick’s, hoping he had an inkling of what was going on, but the shrug he gave me told me he was equally as confused. “R-right.” I stuttered through gritted teeth. “What we did. Ha-ha.” A wave of terror crashed over me, crushing. Suffocating. I completely regretted even getting out of bed this morning. I should have just skipped today. Nothing was going well. I don’t remember seeing any of these ladies, let alone setting foot inside this building. “This is totally strange.” I continued to smile while I nudged the lady with a friendly elbow. “Say, um, do you mind tellinguswhat we did?”
Her lashes fluttered but she stayed mute as she stared back at me, and I tacked on, “We sort of can’t remember yesterday.” Wincing, I looked at Nick to rescue me.
He stepped forward while adding, “We’re missing a few hours, but we had Rudolph, so we thought we’d start here. We were hoping someone could tell us what happened.”
“Oh!” Her eyes rounded, while they continued to shine on Nick and me. “I could tell you, but it would be easier to show you.” Spinning on her heel, she hustled into the empty aisle, spreading her arms open wide in motion to the shelves. “Our store sponsors a Giving Tree for kids who don't have toys for Christmas. During the month of December, we stock toys, and collect donations from customers. This year's donations were drastically lower than expected. You guys walked in the door right as the town Santa came to retrieve the toys, and it startled you, seeing Santa. You accidentally knocked the tree over. Santa helped you put the tree back together, but when you saw so many kids who needed toys, you bought and donatedallthe toys to Toys for Tots. You cleaned us out.” Her smile was giddy when she added, “We were so grateful for the donation, we gave you each a candy cane, and that Rudolph as a gift.”
“A toy drive?” Then again small towns were so wholesome to do something like that. That was an extremely nice gesture from us, and I could see why they were happy to see us again because we had to have spent a fortune—“Wait a second,” my voice rushed out, as my chest filled with terror. “What do you mean, weboughtall the toys?” My throat flexed, tightening even more, and I barely squeaked out. “How did we buy them?”
My eyes met Nick’s, and we had a moment where I knew we were thinking the same thing. It was evident by the flaming hue of red which washed over his ears. His ears had always served as a barometer for his emotions, and I never had to ask what he felt. He was flashing that red-hot thing that happens when he’s holding in all of what is getting ready to explode out.
