*I guess what I’m saying is, thanks for the opportunity. I owe you one.*
Jasper blinked. *You’re thanking me?*
*Sure. We all had a great time. I think I even saw Hardwick smile. Don’t tell him I said so, though.*
*And you owe me one?*Jasper thought fast. *Good, because I have another idea…*
The week raced past. There were the ordinary life things that still had to be done: work, groceries, helping Ruby with her latest madcap schemes, bailing Ruby out of her latest madcap schemes.
Then there were the ordinary Christmas things: helping his friends and family hide their Christmas present shopping from one another through a complicated system of having parcels mailed to each other’s houses and picking them up without anyone noticing—always difficult in a small town, more difficult when half the people you knew were psychic and your daughter thought the best part of a surprise was telling everyone about it as soon as possible. Finishing decorating the house, an activity that actually never finished, because every time he stepped out the door, he stepped back inside with a new ornament or idea for a Christmas craft they could make together.
Which was where he’d gotten his latest idea. A way to bring even more Christmas to theentiretown.
His dragon nosed at him with a huff of sparks. He frowned. Yes, of course, this was a good idea. How could it be a bad one?
“You want towhat?” Hardwick crossed his arms.
Jasper wasn’t even entirely sure why he was having this conversation with Hardwick. “A Christmas tree decorating competition. We’ve done them before.”
“Yes. You’ve done ones where people send in photos of the trees in their own houses. One year, you did one where people competed in teams to decorate pre-selected trees in the Christmas village.”
“This is basically the same as that!”
“Except instead of one tree per team, it’s—”
“All the trees in and around town, yes.”
Hardwick stared at him. Jasper stared back. Their inner animals stared at each other, too. Admittedly, Jasper’s inner dragon had also been slightly hesitant when he first came up with this idea, but the thought of exactly how sparkly and shiny the town would become had won it over.
Hardwick’s griffin did not appear to be being won over.
Hardwick dropped his head into his hands, groaning something that sounded like ‘health and safety’.
Out loud, he grumbled, “And you want to plan this when, exactly?”
“I’ve planned it all already—”
“Of course you have.” Hardwick raised his head. His eyes narrowed as he cast a strange look at Jasper. “Have you and Abigail actually talked about—”
“Talked about what?” Abigail’s cheeks were pink as she came in, and Jasper had a sudden, wonderful memory of the last time he’d made her cheeks go that color. Surely not that long? “Hi, Hardwick!”
“Hi, Abigail. How’d your shopping trip go?”
“In the interests of answering that without lying, I’m going to say it wasalmostall great.” Abigail had gone to the next town over—one that was more of a city—to stock up. She flashed Jasper a grin, and he pulled her close for a kiss. “What are you two up to?”
“Planning,” Hardwick said flatly.
Abigail stiffened in his arms. “Planning what?”
She sounded as upbeat as before, but Jasper couldn’t ignore the way she’d gone tense when Hardwick let the cat out of the bag. Not that he’d let the whole cat out. Barely a whisker.
“Something incredible,” he reassured her.
Hardwick made a disbelieving noise.
“Is this what you were up all last night doing?” Abigail asked.
“You caught me.”
