Page 29 of Silver Hills' Christmas Miracle

“Okay, okay, watch it, girl. You’re gonna get seltzer all over your shirt.” Melanie laughed, hugging Kitty back.

After a few minutes, Kitty slid back onto her stool and grinned. “This is amazing. With you on board, things are going to be ten times easier. Plus, if you said no, it would have made the posters look weird.”

Melanie paused, one hand on her dirty glasses. “I’m sorry, the posters?”

Kitty sheepishly dug into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled poster containing the design she’d spent all night making. She unfurled the paper and spread it out on the bar. Melanie snatched it up the moment she saw her name underCatering.

“How many of these did you make?”

“Five hundred.” Kitty smiled.

“And you knew I’d say yes?”

“I knew you couldn’t say no.” There was a smugness on Kitty’s face born from knowing exactly how her friend worked. “Or I at least had a lot riding on your saying yes.”

“You bitch.” Melanie laughed, balling up the paper and tossing it back to her. “One day, I’ll turn you down.”

“But not today!” Kitty declared in a song-song voice, then she grasped my hand. “Come on, Rook, we’ve got posters to hand out. See you later, Melanie!”

I said goodbye with a wave and allowed Kitty to drag me out of the bar.

We spent the entire afternoon walking around the town and handing out the posters to everyone we met. Each poster served as an invitation to the ball, although they weren’t a requirement to attend. The Yuletide Ball was now a free-for-all, and that was the hardest thing to get past her mother. Giving up that kind of exclusivity was difficult, but luckily, Kitty had charmed her mother with nostalgic talk of the old days. Bringing the town together one last time seemed to be the key to getting her to say yes.

What posters we didn’t hand out to people in the street were delivered to every shop still open. Most were happy to hang the posters in their windows and even take a few to give to customers. Unfortunately, there were a few places not happy to see Kitty, and they were so disenchanted with her father that they had no desire to have anything to do with the ball.

It was hard to see each rejection crush her a little more, but they also seemed to make her more determined that we were doing the right thing, and that was all I could ask for.

The smile on her face when we handed out the last poster was unmatched.

“I’m proud of you,” I said as we headed back to The Anchor. “You’ve put your soul into this in just a short time.”

“Thanks.” She smiled widely and her cheeks flushed red. “I feel like I’m actually doing something this time, y’know? Rather than sitting back and just sending a few emails. This feels like something could really change.”

“I hope so.” If only so Kitty could feel accomplished. She was my only personal connection to this town, and seeing her happy made me happy.

We reached The Anchor and walked inside to find that quite the crowd had turned up for the meeting scrawled at the bottom of each poster. It was a last-minute thing, but Kitty wanted to address as many people as she could in person. She wanted them to know she was genuine.

We approached the bar, and Melaine instantly slid two lemonades toward us. “I heard you guys were walking around town all day. You’ve earned these.”

It wasn’t until the first sweet sip of tart lemon that I realized how thirsty I was. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Melanie smiled. “You’ve drawn quite the crowd, Kitty. Would have been doubly awkward if I said no, huh?”

“Right?” Kitty giggled around her straw. “I never would have let you live it down.”

“Gee, thanks. Can’t I make a bad decision every once in a while?” Melanie affectionately rolled her eyes.

“Nope,” Kitty declared. “You have to be perfect all the time to live up to the image in my mind.”

“Woe to anyone who dates you.” Melanie snorted.

Heat shot down my spine like a bullet, and it took all my strength not to look Kitty in the eye.

“Fuck you.” Kitty laughed. “Now, can I get the karaoke mic? It’ll be the only thing able to let me be heard.”

As Kitty leaned up, her hand brushed my thigh, and I chose to take that as her way of comforting me for the dating comment.It wasn’t that I minded. I’d always been private, but after a taste of Kitty, all I wanted to do was show her off. Instead, I had to remain on the sidelines as she took the microphone and headed up to the stage. After an impressive yell from Melanie, the noise in the bar fell to a low hum and Kitty began.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” Kitty began. “Especially those of you I handed a poster to about twenty minutes ago!”

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