Page 146 of Again, In Autumn

“But, what if he doesn’t even want to talk to me? What if being burned by me twice is two times too many?”

“You’re just going to let him slip through your fingers?” she asks.

Zander sets up a tabletop tree with crystal ornaments. He waves at a guest entering the store and says he will be right with her. To me, he adds, “You have to get your man, girl, before someone else snatches him up. Like Selena Gomez. I heard they were dating.”

I drop my jaw when he returns to the checkout counter. I snap at Heddy, “You told him?”

“I tell him everything. He’s in my will.” She frowns at my appalled face. “Don’t worry honey, he’s only getting my succulents.”

I groan and glance around the street at the colorful lights and festive cheer.

Fake snow sprayed on doors. Paper stars hanging in window displays. Wreaths made from fresh pine branches, wrapped in velvet ribbon.

It’s all so romantic and lovely.

I complain, “This isn’t how it’s supposed to go for me and Adam. It’s supposed to be magical and perfect, like this. Insta-stalking him isn’t magical.”

“When did you get to be such a romantic?” Heddy untangles a string of lights.

“I’ve been watching Hallmark.”

She drops her eyes. “Oh, honey.”

“I know.” I notice a coffee truck pull up at the end of the street. “I’m going to get a drink, what do you want?”

“Iced mocha peppermint with a little bit of gingerbread drizzle, cinnamon dusting, and green sprinkles.”

I make a face. “Okay sugar elf, I’ll see if they have something like that in the workshop.”

“They do,” she answers. “I insta-stalked their menu.”

I leave her to buy two lattes for me and Zander. They give me a paper tray because Heddy’s Christmas Explosion cannot be contained, and I return to find Heddy hurriedly putting her phone away and a giddy expression on her face.

“I just had an idea,” she announces.

I hand over her drink. “I hope it was to not drink all of that.”

“I’m going to go up to the lake for a few days before Christmas. Why don’t you join me? We’re still waiting for Fran to cool off and tell us the plan for Christmas Day, anyway.”

I hold on to the warmth of the mug and wait before drinking it to say, “You don’t think she’ll still be mad at me by Monday? She wouldn’t keep me from the kids on Christmas, right?”

“No.” Heddy waves me away. “I’m sure she’ll get over it. In the meantime, you and I can snuggle up together like snowflakes from the same cloud, drink hot chocolate, watch a sappy movie.”

I take a sip of coffee.

Back to the lake house and the empty house next door. The dining room where my father has twice now called Adam a piece of shit. The bedroom where I cried myself to sleep.

Reading my mind, Heddy says, “I’ll sage it before you get there.”

What else do I have going on for two weeks?

“Okay,” I answer. “Christmas at the lake house. Sounds…magical.”

Chapter Forty-One

I’ve packed cookies and breakfast pastries, with the intention of spending most of my time in the kitchen, drowning myself in sugar. Heddy said she will check on the Loxley shop for a few days. She can bring the excess amount of baked goods with her.

I pull into the driveway and notice that the trees are completely bare now. No more red and orange leaves shining in the sunlight. They’re scattered on the grass and in the woods, ready to decompose, as if they never belonged to the big strong tree in the first place.

---