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“I guess your dad stole something from my mom back in high school. So it wasn’t a stretch for my parents to look at the evidence and make some conclusions.”

“The evidence? Drag marks and sticks?”

“That’s what they said. I was too little to remember.”

“Me too,” he said, his voice soft. “This is going to be harder than we think, isn’t it?”

“Telling them about … this?” I pointed between the two of us.

“Yes,” he said.

My eyes shot from his to the shed then back again. “You’re right. It will be.”

I dreaded the thought of it, but at least Christmas was a while away. Until then, we’d keep this secret.

“Where have you been?” Marcus asked as soon as I came into the house. He was in the kitchen warming up some water in the kettle on the stove. The fire was popping and crackling in the fireplace, and Harris was sitting in front of it with his hands up. My frozen fingers ached.

Our moms were Christmas shopping tonight. Maybe that was the real reason I’d allowed myself to throw snowballs at Ryan’s window. I knew they wouldn’t catch me. But Marcus, he was getting suspicious.

“I invited Mr. Lenny to Christmas dinner. Oh, and I volunteered us to shovel his walk once the snow lets up,” I said with a double-row-of-teeth smile. It wasn’t the answer to his question, but it was the truth. I set my clipboard on the kitchen island, then peeled off my coat and hung it on the rack by the door.

“What’s up with you this year? You’ve never felt sorry for Mr. Lenny before,” Marcus said.

“I obviously wasn’t really paying attention before.” I joined Harris on the floor in front of the fire, imitating his hands-up pose. My fingers started to sting from the warmth. “It’s sad to be alone on the holidays. That’s how you’re going to feel next year.”

“Thanks,” Marcus said with sarcasm in his voice.

I threw him a smile over my shoulder. “You don’t have to go to college. You could stay here forever.”

“Is that what you’re going to do?”

“Yep. I’m never leaving.”

Harris thought this was funny and started to laugh. The kettle screamed on the stove. I really could stay just like this forever. Nothing had to change.

Chapter 24

“Mrs. O’Leary told me you’re conducting a survey for school?” Momma asked me the next morning when I came down for breakfast. School was not, in fact, canceled, despite the snow.

Marcus was sitting at the table with a bowl of oatmeal and scrolling on his phone.

Mrs. O’Leary was such a tattletale. “Oh … uh … yeah.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to harass the neighbors without decorations. People have many reasons for not decorating, and they don’t need to justify it.”

“I know, Momma. I’m being very kind in my questions, I promise. I just thought it would be an interesting topic for this … assignment I have for my art class.”

Marcus cleared his throat. I didn’t think he was listening, but he obviously was.

Maybe this didn’t all have to be a lie, I realized. I really could add what I was doing to the essay portion of my art assignment. If Christmas lights and decorations were my inspiration, maybe my essay could be about why they weren’t an inspiration to some. The opposite opinion or something.

“Also, Mr. Lenny texted earlier this morning,” Momma added. “He thanked us for the invite but declined.”

“He declined?” I asked, surprised.

“I didn’t know you were going to invite him to Christmas dinner.”

“Sorry, I was going to tell you. Why did he decline? Is his daughter coming?”