Page 5 of Yule Tied Up

It’s something only the two of us share. No one else can understand the depths of torment we went through, or the way we helped each other.

We approach another stall, and her blue eyes light up. “Ooh, hot chocolate. I’m getting one. Do you want one?”

I shake my head. I’m thirsty, and a can of Coke will do me.

She orders her hot chocolate, topped with cream and marshmallows, and I look around. A few stalls down I find what I’m after. The chestnuts. I wait until Dom and Tino join her, always aware of her safety, and then wander away to order some. They aren’t the same chestnuts that Americans used to eat, the ones that are sung about in that famous Christmas song. The American chestnut tree was practically wiped out by disease, so these are imported. We learned this at the college in our first year when we were taken to a local Christmas Fair. I order some now, my mouth watering. They sell drinks too, so I grab a Coke.

An arm links through mine, and I turn to see Mackenzie standing beside me, hot chocolate in her other hand. Dom has his arm around her shoulders and Tino has disappeared.

“Where is he?” I ask.

The other two know who I mean without me having to say.

“He’s winning me a stuffed animal,” she says with a giggle.

I grin and suddenly feel so full of love, for her, and Dom, and Tino, and our tiny baby girl back home with her grandfather. Life is good.

We eat our snacks and wander the stalls. I sense how we attract attention from the locals. I guess it’s hard not to stand out when you look like the four of us. Even Mackenzie is tall, at five feet nine, but I tower over her at six-three. People probably think we’re just a group of friends hanging out. They’d have no way of knowing the truth behind our relationship.

Mackenzie goes on a buying spree of stuff she doesn’t need, and Tino holds the massive stuffed polar bear he won her. As we near the end of the stalls, Dom turns to Mackenzie, a wicked glint in his eyes.

“How about that horse and wagon ride?”

“Oooh, yes,” she breathes.

He hooks his arm around her neck and kisses the top of her head. “Come right this way.”

What the hell is he planning?

CHAPTER 3

Dom

The horse pullingthe Christmas wagon is a beautiful white mare. She’s decked out with bells, so every time she moves, she jingles. I’ve always been a little nervous of horses. Someone—who loves them—once told me that a horse is like an unpredictable toddler who has the capacity to break your bones, if it chooses, and I’ve never been able to think of them any other way since.

The horse snorts, its breath creating white plumes in the cold air, and stamps its hoof, as though impatient to get moving.

“Whoa, girl.” The driver gives a tug on the reins. He’s not much older than we are, but he’s bundled up against the cold, and I can’t see much more about him. “She’s wanting to get going.”

“Beautiful horse,” I tell him, mainly just being polite.

“Thanks. You folks here for the holidays? You don’t look local.”

“We’re not,” Mackenzie says but stops there.

None of us are going to tell him where we’re from.

We settle into the wagon, and I pick up the cream knitted blanket that’s on the opposite seat before Kirill sits on top of it.I drape it carefully over Mack’s knees. Tino makes to sit next to Kirill, but I shake my head.

“There’s room next to Mackenzie, right here.” I indicate the spot I mean.

Kirill huffs. “Am I contagious or something?”

“Or something, for sure,” I reply mysteriously.

I wink at him, and he smirks and sits back.

Clearly, he gets the message.

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