Page 29 of The Holiday Disaster

NINETEEN

KINGSLEY

I didn’t believe in things like fate, but when Ethan told me the meaning of his name, it was hard not to think it wasn’t fate.

I’d always thought my name fit me. I was like a meadow: unrestrained and wild. My actions and thoughts flowing in the wind similar to the casual way I had treated life.

After learning the meaning of Ethan’s last name, it felt like everything was slotting into place. I was his meadow, and he was the one who reigned me in. He forced me to question what I really wanted instead of taking the easy way out.

I hugged Ethan tighter against me, thanking all the random events that had led us here. The other passengers were probably complaining about the plane’s engine failure making them stuck here instead of their final destination, but it was the best thing that could have happened for me.

If Ethan and I weren’t literally forced to be in each other’s presence, he would have continued running away from me, and the misunderstanding between us never would have been cleared up. And that would have been the true disaster.

The horse carriage drew up to a white farmhouse with the stereotypical red barn beside it. The sun had completely set despite it being only five in the afternoon. Even in the darkness, the barn glowed under the strung up lights and lamp posts.

Ethan and I thanked the driver and got off the carriage to meet in front of the house. He smiled up at me, the same expression of joy from when we established our relationship still lingering on his face.

My smile was probably just as goofy as his, and I didn’t do goofy. So I held his bare hand, stuffing both of them in my coat pocket as we walked toward the farm.

There was a large sign set up by the entrance that pointed us to the back. We followed the path and found an open space with dozens of large ice sculptures laid out in the center. The farm was decked out in Christmas lights, garden lights, flood lights, any kind of lights that one could imagine to illuminate the entire place.

“Wow, this wasn’t what I was expecting when Austin told us there’d be an ice sculpture contest. I was thinking it was something for kids, but these…” Ethan gestured to the life-size ice sculptures in front of us. “These are works of art.”

“They really are,” I agreed, but my eyes weren’t on the sculptures. I watched the wonder on Ethan’s face, loving how relaxed and full of excitement he was. It was completely different from the usually serious and studious Ethan I’d known.

“We have some talented folks here in Wintertown,” a voice spoke from behind us. We turned to find Jim’s bulky body waiting for us. He held a roll of raffle tickets in his hand and tore two off to hand us each one. “Heard you two might stop by. Glad you did. Here, these are to vote for your favorite piece.”

“Thanks,” I said, indicating the ticket. “Austin said you guys aren’t coming to the party tomorrow?” My curiosity about these two had me asking.

Jim rubbed the back of his bare head. “I should probably make some time. Austin and I usually go at least once a year, and seeing how tomorrow’s the last one before Christmas…” He trailed off in thought, and I didn’t think he was even talking to us anymore.

“Are you two together?” Ethan asked, and I mentally patted him on the back for asking the question I’d been dying to know.

Jim shook out of whatever thoughts he had and let out a booming laugh. “What? Me and Austin? Nah, we’re best friends and perpetual bachelors. Since we never had anyone to go to these parties with, we agreed to go together.”

I thought back to how Austin looked at Jim in the truck last night. The way his eyes couldn’t keep off of Jim reminded me of myself. I definitely looked at Ethan with more than just the friendly kind of gaze, and I suspected it was the same for the quiet man. No matter how much I felt for Austin, though, it wasn’t any of my business. I could only hope that things worked out for him like they did for me.

“Well, I’ve kept you guys long enough. Have a look around. We’re also selling hot drinks on the other side of the sculptures. Our homemade hot chocolate is the best in the state,” he said with a wink before turning to greet the other newcomers.

“Shall we explore?” I said, holding my arm out for Ethan.

He hooked his in mine with a smile. “Lead the way, my prince.”

I chuckled at that. I didn’t know if he called me that because I'd admitted I thought he was my princess when we first met, but I liked hearing that I was his. However, since learning how hurt he’d been when I called him “princess,” I was going to be careful not to make the same mistake again.

We strolled through the rows of ice sculptures, admiring the detailed works. There were arts of all different kinds here from life-size Christmas trees that bore a resemblance to the one on the main square to ice castles, angels, and more mundane actions like kids having a snowball fight and one of hockey players.

An ice sculpture of a man guiding a boy to hold the hockey stick correctly caught my eye. The scene depicted in the ice sculpture was so ordinary, but it still drew me in, and we were standing in front of it before I even knew it.

The artist was talented, and they were able to carve out the precise expressions of the two figures as if the people were alive and standing in front of me. The man had a warm expression as he patiently taught the kid, and the boy’s face was full of elation as he watched the hockey stick make contact with the puck.

Ethan stepped up and dropped his ticket into the opaque ticket container in front of the sculpture. There was only a tiny slit on the lid of the container, so that we had no way of knowing how many tickets each sculpture had.

“Elliott said you didn’t join any of the sports teams when you started college. Why is that?” Ethan asked when he stepped back beside me. He said it as a fact instead of sounding as if he were blaming me for not continuing sports like I had felt many of the people around me did.

“I thought you loved sports,” he said when I didn’t reply immediately. Ethan tilted his head up to me. I wondered if there would ever come a day when it didn’t feel like an electric shock went through my body whenever his gaze fell on me. I doubted it.

I shrugged. I’d been asked that question countless times when my friends and family found out I rejected the universities that recruited me for the football team and chose to attend a random school on the other side of the country and major in business, at that. At the time, it seemed like the safest option, especially since I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I never bothered explaining since I didn’t think anyone would understand.

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