Page 40 of Silver Hills' Christmas Miracle

“Here he is.” I passed him up to her and watched as she settled him in place. He would be a little secret, only visible to those with the keenest eyes. As the world darkened outside and the garden lit up with floodlights and more, I stretched my arms above my head until my spine clicked.

“Wow.” I yawned further. “I swear, time is moving faster than we are.”

“That’s how it always is,” Mom replied with a smile. “Especially at this time of year. It gets dark so early that we’re already ready to wind down and it’s only…” She paused and balanced with one hand to check her silver watch. “Four thirty. We’ve still got plenty of time before dinner.”

I eyed the remaining trees still void of baubles and nodded. “Easy peasy.”

Luckily, the team on the other side of the room was nearing the end of their trees and would come to help us before long.

“What the hell is this?” Dad’s voice suddenly bellowed across the ballroom, echoing impressively and making me jump out of my skin. My mom clutched at the ladder and out of the corner of my eye, I watched Rook stiffen. He was always alert, always ready to jump in and yet, ever since that night in his truck, he seemed a littletooready. Not that I was complaining. It felt nice to be protected as a person and not just a paycheck.

“You cannot be serious. I give you one job. One job! And it’s already so screwed up that I can’t fathom what the hell you are playing at!” Dad’s face was a dark shade of purple as he stormed toward us, and I quickly ran through all the crimes I could have been caught on.

Did he know I was helping the protestors? Did he know about me and Rook?

There were simply too many options, and I was running out of time. To my surprise, though, Dad stormed past me and grabbed the bottom of Mom’s ladder.

“I want answers!” he yelled, brandishing a crumpled sheet of paper in one hand. “What the hell is this?”

“Samuel,” Mom sighed calmly, looking at him over her shoulder. “Try and remember what the doctor said about your blood pressure.”

“I don’t give a shit about that. I want to know why the guest list has changed so much!”

“I told you it had changed,” Mom replied, slowly climbing down the ladder.

“When you told me there had been adjustments, I thought you meant Mrs. Scythe no longer wanted to attend the same function as her husband’s mistress or that the Franks were now bringing their children!” He shook his hand, causing the paper to wave back and forth. “But this? This is insanity!”

My heart jumped slightly into my chest and I stepped forward. “It’s not insanity. We decided to invite the whole town.” Had my Mom not told him the extent of the changes? I had always viewed them as two peas in a pod, so it was surprising that she had left such a detail out.

“Why?” Dad snapped, whirling to face me. “What is the point of this? Are you trying to make me look incompetent?”

I bit back a smirk. “Don’t worry, your horrible little friends are all still invited. We just made some additions so it’s no longer just your rich guests. A good thing, I think.” I clenched my jaw as I spoke. “It would do you good to rub shoulders with some real people.”

“Why, you little?—”

“Samuel!” My mom didn’t raise her voice much, but it was enough for my dad to turn and face her. “The Yuletide Ball is my event. It has always been my event. And it’s Christmas, a time to celebrate and relax with people we care about. Kitty suggested increasing the guest list, and I agreed because, quite frankly, ithas been too long since I have seen some of the people I care about.”

Mom’s face was mostly unreadable, but as she spoke, there was a hint of something in her voice—a sadness that I felt deep down in my gut.

“Melody, please—” Dad started, but he was cut off once again.

“Don’t worry. All of your guests of honor will still be taken care of in any way you want them to, but I, for one, am tired of missing out on the life of Christmas. Unless you plan on calling everyone on that list one by one and canceling? You might as well hang up that mayor cap right now because your re-election is hanging by a thread.”

Dad crumpled the paper further, then he turned and stormed away down the ballroom while smashing the paper into a tight ball. I stared after him, watching his back until he slammed his way out of the room, then I turned to Mom.

“Holy shit, I thought for sure that he was going to make us cancel.”

“Oh, no, dear.” Mom smiled, and she placed her hand on my cheek. “Your father isn’t as scary as he seems. He’s all bark and no bite. Sometimes, I think he never got over being the uncool kid in school, so he tries a little too hard.”

Mom returned to the ladder with fresh baubles in hand and started to climb.

I tossed a miniature sleigh back and forth in my hands. “I also, uhm…” Hesitation caught my words. “I didn’t know you saw the ball that way.”

“What way, dear?”

“As so lively with all the people and everything. I thought that was just me.”

Mom smiled over her shoulder at me, then set about sliding red baubles onto the tree. “When your father changed theYuletide Ball, I agreed because it made him happy. I thought, in the long term, it would be worth it. But the people of this town bring a certain liveliness that I miss, and when you brought this idea to me, I realized just how much I missed it.”

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