“I’m not in love with her!” Even within the confines of the closed vehicle, Holden was positive his shout was loud enough to rustle a bear out of hibernation. “I don’t see why we had to go there, anyway.”
“We needed snacks for our mission.” Lance pulled a packet of M&M’s from his pocket and lifted it to funnel the colorful candies into his mouth. He chomped down. “And I figured there was a chance she might be there. She used to work for her parents back in high school, you know. Thought maybe she’d clock in a few hours while back home. Plus,” Lance continued, “I wanted to get a look at her for myself. I’ve only seen pictures online. But man, she really has changed, hasn’t she?”
More than just Rachel’s looks had changed. Her entire demeanor had transformed. Sure, she was still determined as ever, but when that drive wasn’t directed at Holden, it wasn’t off-putting in the least. It was actually attractive.
“I think we’ve all changed,” Holden said.
Lance got out of the truck. His boots met the snow with a slushy, wet crunch. “So what’s the plan here, buddy?” He snorted. “Buddy. Ha! I think you need a new nickname.”
“I think I need more than that, starting with a reality check. Should we really do this?”
Lance leaned across the hood of the truck separating them. “If you’re asking if I think this is a good idea, no, I don’t. But if you’re asking if I think we should abort the mission, that is one big, fat, absolutely not. You made your old man a promise and we’re going to see it through.”
Holden rounded the vehicle to grab the pieces of the makeshift measuring stick. “We probably need a code word or phrase. Something to use if things go south.”
“I’ve got one. How about ‘Buddy the Elf’?”
“Will you please let that drop?”
“Okay.” Lance hunched his giant shoulders and huffed. “Cornucopia.”
“That’s a mouthful.”
“Fine. You come up with something.”
Holden blurted the first word to come to mind. “Mistletoe.”
Lance’s eyes tumbled one full roll. “Oh, sure. So original. Fine. Mistletoe it is.” Taking two gloves from his pocket, he fit them on and zipped his jacket up to his chin. “So, what’s our game plan?”
Holden had already given this some thought. “We’re going to come at it from the east, make a big arc, fanning out toward the back of their property, and scope out the situation from that angle. If I remember correctly, they planted the fir closer up by the house. And from what I can already hear, they’ve got outdoor music playing, so that should help with our cover.”
Even though they were still several blocks out, the faint hum of Christmas tunes filtered through the winter night like a trail of stardust behind a comet.
“We’ll assemble the pole when we get closer,” Holden continued, taking the lead as he started up the street. “I put a piece of tape around the twenty-foot, three-inch mark, which is the height of my parents’ tree. Anything under that, and we win. Anything over, and my dad might have a conniption.”
They trekked along the plowed edge of the road single file, cloaked in solid white attire and armed with a plan that felt as solid as Jell-O.
“So, you think you’ll ask her out again?” Lance piped up after a long quiet stretched between them.
“Ask Rachel out? That’d be a no.”
“But I thought the two of you were having so much fun together.”
“We were, but that was when I didn’t know who she was.”
“It’s when you didn’t know her name,” Lance clarified. “There’s more to a person than their name.”
“Rachel and I have a complicated history. And by complicated, I mean we pretty much loathed one another throughout our teenage years.”
A few more seconds of silence passed, then Lance asked, “Would you be opposed to me asking her out?”
The heel of Holden’s snow boot slipped out from under him and he had to use the pipes in his grasp like walking sticks to steady his stance and keep from landing squarely on his backside. “You want to ask Rachel out? Like, on a date?”
“I mean, only if it’s okay with you. But judging by your overly dramatic reaction, I’m taking that as a no.”
Holden didn’t have any sort of claim on her. They weren’t dating or in a relationship, and yet the thought of Rachel going out with someone else had his throat closing and heart stuttering. He almost felt sick.
“You can ask her out, Lance. Of course. That’s fine.”
