Page 29 of Back Home For Christmas

“Yes, we just drove three hours in it to get some chocolate,” he said.

“I knew we had good chocolate, but I didn’t think it was that good,” he said. Hardy-har-har, I thought. He sounded like my dad.

“Listen, we get chocolate from you every year for our special Christmas cocoa. It’s kind of important that we have it.”

“I already closed the till,” he said.

“I’ll pay you double,” Jay said.

“No,” I whispered, yanking on his sleeve. “We cannot afford to pay double.”

“It’s fine. I’ll pay for it myself,” he said. “I’m boring, remember? I have nothing else to spend my money on.”

“No,” I said. “I don’t want to owe you like that.”

“You won’t owe me anything. We just need to get the damn chocolate.” While Jay spoke, the guy was already sliding the chain out of the door, opening it wide and motioning for us to come in. I definitely didn’t want to owe Jay, but we couldn’t show up back home empty-handed, so I begrudgingly followed along as he bought the chocolate and loaded it into the car.

“See, hero,” he said after we had gotten back in the car.

“I should slap that smirk right off your face,” I said.

“I didn’t think you were into that kind of thing, Cat,” he said, clutching his chest in mock scandal.

“I’ll make an exception for you,” I said, my cheeks burning red despite the chill that still lingered in the car.

“You know I can’t drive us home through this, right?” While we were inside, the sky seemed to dump another foot of snow.

“You have to,” I said. “We have to bring the chocolate back, and we can’t stay here.”

“We have to find somewhere to stay for the night. By tomorrow the snow will have stopped, and the plows will have gotten the roads cleared,” he said, cranking the heat all the way up.

“I definitely don’t want to do that."

“That’s a real shame for you,” he said. “Buckle up. There are a few inns on the Main Street a couple roads away. We’ll drive slowly and find some rooms.

“There aren’t going to be any rooms. We are two days from Christmas,” I said.

“We’ll find something.”

“I’ll check Airbnb to see if there are any places taking last-minute bookings.

All of his attention turned to maneuvering the car safely through the snow, through the cute beach town. It was similar to the one that I called home, but each town that dotted the shore had its own unique feel, which drew loyal tourists who would argue for their favorite beach’s superiority until they were blue in the face. It was something I loved about living at the beach, how attached people were to the place that they vacationed.

The streets were empty save for a few families and couples braving the weather to go for walks or play in the snow. Some shops looked open while others had shuttered their doors, losing out on the potential holiday sales to get their staff home safely. Jay parked the car in one of the many spots along the side of Main Street. Under normal circumstances, we would never have found parking. Lucky us.

We walked along the strip of houses, shops and quaint storybook B&Bs, stopping in each place that looked like it was open.

“I feel like goddamn Joseph and Mary searching for a place to sleep,” I said after our third rejection as we were stomping through the too high snow that threatened to reach mind calf in the taller drifts. I worried that frozen snot and tears were plastered to my face from the wind, but there was nothing I could do about my looks at that moment. I was sure my normally perfect cat eye liner was smudged to hell, but we had to find a place.

“Woah, language,” Jay laughed. How he could make jokes at a time like this was beyond me.

“Very funny,” I said. “What do we do if nowhere has a place?”

“Sleep in the truck?” He said with a shrug.

“I’m going to die out here after all.”

Chapter Twenty-One

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