“Care to elaborate? Because out there,” he pointed out the window, “the entire population of Evergreen Lake would disagree.”
“You’re not a Grinch because you bought my daughter a tree. You let us decorate your house. You even dug out your old ornaments. I hate to break it to you Chris, you mightn’t be the biggest fan of the holidays because … actually, I don’t know why. But you don’t hate Christmas. Maybe you just don’t like how alone it makes you feel. And before you ask why I’d think that, it’s because I understand.”
“How can you? Noelle is …”
“My everything. Don’t get me wrong, that girl is my whole world. But some days, some nights, all you want is a little adult conversation and a cuddle.”
I should’ve been embarrassed by spilling my heart out on the table to practically a stranger, but maybe that’s what made me do it. Knowing Chris was a stranger made it easier to be honest. To be real. Or maybe I thought I saw my own struggles in his.
He leaned over and bumped his shoulder against mine. “So, you’re a cuddler, are you?”
I felt my face burn.
Out of everything I said, that was the part he picked up on. Typical male.
“I … I …”
My words were cut off when the lights flickered and went out, and Noelle screamed.
“Guess the storm’s here,” Chris declared, springing into action.
eight
CHRIS
Noelle squealed.
Holly tried to calm her.
“What do we do?” Holly asked quietly.
“We’ll just give it a few minutes and see if it comes back on. Might just be a short thing,” I lied.
I’d been watching this storm gathering momentum on the radar for days. The whole town knew it was coming. We just didn’t know when or how hard it would hit.
“You guys finish your dinner and I’ll find some candles,” I offered, taking a bite of my pizza and turning on the flashlight on my phone.
The first thing I did was check the battery. If we were going to have to get downstairs and settled in before it died, I needed to make sure we had enough light to get us there. The last thing I needed was someone slipping down the icy stairs in the dark and cracking their head open.
“Mom, I’m scared,” Noelle whispered through the darkness.
I turned and shone the light on them. Holly abandoned her pizza without a word and sat on the floor by her daughter,wrapping her arm around Noelle’s shoulders. Holly was a good mom. I might not know much about her, but I knew that.
I grabbed the candles and set them on the counter. When I walked over to the window and looked across Evergreen Lake, everything was covered in a blanket of darkness. The streetlights were out. No festive Christmas lights were flashing. Even the bright yellow star on the top of the town Christmas tree had gone dark.
“How bad is it?” Holly asked, her voice shaky.
“Honestly?” I asked, swinging my phone around so I could see them. Holly nodded as Noelle burrowed into her side. “I think we’re better off packing up what we need and heading downstairs.”
“That bad?”
“Look, the power may come back on, but I have no idea how long it’s going to be until it does. We might as well start moving while we’re warm as opposed to waiting until we’ve turned into popsicles.”
Noelle turned to Holly, looking serious. “Mom, I don’t want to be a popsicle.”
Holly smiled, the most beautiful smile I’d seen in a long time. “You won’t, sweetie,” Holly assured her.
“But Chris said …”
