Page 15 of Why Not Now?

Ava shrugs. “I guess so. If you like that kind of thing.”

I turn my attention to her, staring until she finally looks at me. “Who are you and what have you done with Ava?”

“What?”

“You love Christmas.”

She looks down at her camera but doesn’t take any more pictures. “Things change.”

“What changed? How do you go from the girl who wants Christmas to be every day of the year to someone who doesn’t care at all?”

She hesitates, then looks back up at me, her head tilted. “I just haven’t had any good Christmases lately to carry that cheer forward.”

“Since when?” Something inside me is shouting that I need to fix this. How could she have lost her love for Christmas? How do I give it back to her?

“Since the last one with you, I guess.” She looks away, taking a few steps toward the other end of the rooftop. “When Mom and Dad were still alive. Making sure Christmas is good for Lacey is kind of exhausting. Getting her presents, the decorations, the dinner.” She shakes her head. “It’s more of a chore now.”

Has no one ever helped her? No other boyfriends or friends? Why hadn’t they noticed? Why hadn’t they done something? Has she never let anyone?

“Well, I’ll have to change that,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

She stops walking and looks back at me. I note the way her eyes stray to my shoulders, and I swallow and remind myself I’m not doing this to try to sleep with her. I’m doing this because we were friends and I’m more certain than ever that she still refuses to ask for help.

She clears her throat, meeting my eyes again. “What exactly are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to remind you why you loved Christmas.”

She rubs a hand over her face and, for the first time, I notice how tired she looks. She takes another few steps away from me. “Derek, that’s nice of you and all, but I’m really busy.”

“I’ll work around your schedule,” I offer. I don’t want to make her life more difficult, but I do want to give her this one thing.

“Why is this so important to you?” she asks, turning toward me.

I draw in a breath. “We were friends once, Ava. I’d like for us to be friends again. Get me your schedule. I’ll find some spots in your overly detailed plan for the month to do a few fun Christmas things. Just a few.”

“What do you mean, my overly detailed plan?”

I give her my most skeptical look.

“Maybe I don’t do that anymore,” she says, lifting her chin.

I snort. “Ava. People change. They don’t change that much. You’ve probably got the next thirty or so days planned down to the minute. What app do you use?”

She narrows her eyes and glares at me. Then she huffs. “TaskMaster.”

I laugh at her. It’s been a long time since we were friends, since I’d known everything about her and she’d known everything about me. But it’s nice to know I still know some things.

“Print it out,” I tell her. “Bring it over tonight. Lacey can come, too, if she wants. We’re a pretty tame group.”

Ava shakes her head. “She has gymnastics Monday nights.”

“She’s still doing that?” I ask. “That’s great. Well, everyone will show up around six. Once I have your schedule, I’ll sort out the rest.”

She purses her lips. “I don’t have any extra money to spend on doing a whole bunch of Christmas events.”

“If there’s an entrance fee, I’ll pay it.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t let you do that.”

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