Chapter 3
When Luke bought his house two years ago, he had only been thinking of the financial investment. It was a great neighborhood with great schools. The yards were big. The houses were stately without being soulless. And his future buyers would pay a fortune for all that when the market went back up. Getting emotionally attached to this particular house was never in the plans.
Yet here he was, blocking off the end of the street with traffic cones for their annual neighborhood red wagon Christmas parade, and he was almost as giddy as his niece and nephew, who had come to help. He was so happy to be back in his house and his neighborhood, and to have the time to celebrate anything.
Luke smiled at his nephew. The traffic cone Beau was attempting to wrangle off the stack was more than half his size, but he was determined. The power to stop cars in their tracks was a concept the little super-hero-loving kid could really get behind.
“I wish we lived here,” Reina said with a sigh, watching the tripod lights go up to flank each side of the street.
Luke gave her ponytail a light tug. “You and your mama both.” His sister-in-law had hinted more than once that they should trade houses—a flippant comment that never failed to drive her husband nuts. They lived on acreage just outside of town, and Luke’s brother would as soon give up a limb. “We get the best of both worlds just the way things are, Reina. You come for the parade and get to play with my neighbors’ kids, and then I get to go chase your goats whenever I want to.”
“More like the goats chase you, Uncle Luke.”
“Even better.”
He placed the last cone and then offered to race them back to the house. “Time to perfect our wagons. I was thinking they needed more tinsel.”
“Yes!” Beau’s little legs took off like a jet, and Reina was a good sport, letting him reach Luke’s driveway first even though she was faster.
Heston was in his front yard with Hallie, helping her stack shiny presents inside her doll stroller and attach them so they wouldn’t fall out.
“My doll’s going on the top,” Hallie proudly announced.
Luke followed Beau and Reina next door where they carefully watched the process. Heston taped a wooden rod to the doll’s back so she would sit up instead of flopping over, and then secured her legs to the pile of presents.
“Now don’t take this off-roading, Hallie. You’ll have to walk her carefully through the parade.”
“I’ll be careful,” she promised. The three kids took it for a test spin around the neighborhood, giggling when the doll’s Santa hat would fall off and they’d have to stick it back on her head.
“So, lover-boy. Are you going to make anything happen with the music teacher?” Heston glanced around, probably to make sure Sarah wasn’t within hearing distance.
Luke rubbed his forehead. “No. I’m not asking her out so her aunt can hover over us the whole time.”
The way Heston laughed made Luke wish he hadn’t said it like that. Tara’s aunt wasn’t the real reason he was holding back, although she had put him in a bind with the gift she’d bestowed.
“There’s another problem. Her aunt gave me a Pez dispenser the night of the concert and she wouldn’t take it back.”
Heston shrugged. “So, you eat the candy and move on. I’m not following.”
“It’s a rare collectible Pez. You can’t get it anywhere else that I’ve found. It belonged to her husband and I have to return it. I can’t keep it. I’d never live with myself. I think she knows that. I think she’s hoping I’ll get down on one knee in front of the school and present it to Tara along with all my admiration and a pledge to follow her to the ends of the earth.”
Sarah came out their front door and Heston put his palms together in a plea. “Can we tell her?”
“Tell me what?” Sarah had supersonic mom hearing. Luke had been busted by his own mom too many times growing up to doubt its existence.
It was no use keeping her out of it anyway. Heston would break soon enough. It might as well be now. Luke waved her over. “I need your help, and you should like this. I need a no-contact way to return something to Tara, the music teacher at your school.”
“Done. What is it, and why do you have something of hers?”
Heston was practically dancing in anticipation, so Luke let him tell her the story, and after lots of jabs about Luke’s plastic toy candy collection and his life as a man-child, it was decided that Sarah would take good care of the Pez dispenser, guarding it with her life, and get it back to Tara on Monday.
***
Tara clapped in excitement when Aunt Sandy came into the foyer, decked out in her most ridiculous Christmas sweater. LED lights blinked inside a puffy wreath covered in ribbons and rhinestones.
Tara’s was not quite as loud, though just as festive. Her sweater featured Santa dunking a cookie in milk while two little faces peered out at him from behind a chair.
“Now where are we going in our Christmas sweaters?” Aunt Sandy asked. “Is it a contest? Because I have an uglier one, but it’s a bit itchy.”
