Page 74 of Lighting Up Christmas

“You look great,” he stumbled on the words and then found an escape hatch as he felt Brin’s curious gaze burning up his back. “Heading out to a party at Sophia’s?”

Her beautiful hazel eyes flared.

“Yes,” she said quietly, then her shoulders went back, and her chin lifted. “I just wanted to do a last-minute check that everything is working,” Riley said, her voice gaining strength. “And it is.”

“It’s spectacular,” he said. “More than I imagined you could pull off in such a short time, and I know you work miracles.”

Too effusive? Desperate? Words he wanted to say and couldn’t stuck in his throat.

“Great.”

“Zhang,” Jackson shouted out and with some help rolled the second barn door fully open so that more sights and sounds of the party spilled into the night. “You need to get in here. I’m not the only one making a speech. You promised.”

“Let’s go.” Brin tugged lightly on the back of his jacket.

“Riley.” Zhang stepped forward, not sure what he wanted to say and out of time to say it.

“Good luck,” Riley said, taking a quick step back and then another, like he was contagious. “See you around. Happy holidays. Oh, I almost forgot.” She swished her hair over her shoulder and returned to her truck, her walk fluid and her long limbs graceful. Her dark cardigan slipped off one shoulder, exposing her creamy, lightly freckled skin.

Riley reached into her truck. She paused, then stiffened and turned around, holding out a small, black box with metallic silver and gold curlicue designs.

“Thank you for your business,” she said formally. “This is a small gift as a token of my appreciation of your trust in me to complete the job you hired me to do.” The stilted speech hit him dead-center, harder than the tree had in the woods.

She pressed the box into his hands. “Enjoy your evening.”

And before he could process the present and the fact that she was leaving, Riley was in her truck and heading back down the hill away from him.

“What’s in the box?” Brin asked curiously.

“I’ll look later,” Zhang said, feeling like his insides were turning to ice. Riley had been right about creating the ice dragon.

“She was so strange showing up like that at a corporate party and then bringing a gift. Small towns,” Brin said. “The light show is unusual though. Aren’t you curious what she gave you?”

“Yes,” Zhang said, watching the red and white taillights descend the hill and feeling like he wanted to grab his truck and follow her and explain.

But what could he say? And when? So many people were counting on his next product. He and Jackson and the team had the party tonight and the presentation tease tomorrow. And then next week he was at the office and booked until Christmas Eve. His life was not just his to live.

Later that night, he stood alone in his bedroom and pulled the bow off the box.

A black and silver dragon was posed up on its hind legs, front arms up and out as if embracing the world or preparing to do battle. The silvery and gold glass eyes glittered, and the silver and black bow wings were massive. He picked up the dragon and tiny white lights winked up the dragon’s spine. A small heart-shaped light on the dragon’s chest lit up.

Zhang held the dragon in his palm. Even with all his brains, ambition, and money, he got the most important things in life so very wrong, and Riley got them very, very right.

He, too, had bought her a dragon—a spring-themed dragon. In just a couple of weeks, he and Riley were more in sync than he and Brin had been after five years of working together and three of being a “couple.”

He reached for his phone, thinking to call Riley, try to explain.

But actions spoke louder than words. And Riley deserved a lot more than any clumsy, hollow words he could offer up.

He could talk to someone. It was morning in London. He called his mother—not on his list of changes he’d planned to make, but she should have been.

*

“Are you sureyou’re alright?” Sophia asked, not for the first time the morning of the tamale-making party.

“I am,” Riley said, her heart clenching with the effort to pretend. “Or I will be.” She’d tried to avoid this conversation. This was Sophia’s busiest time of the year, and Riley was supposed to be her support system, not clinging to her, sobbing because she’d totally misread Zhang’s intentions and possible feelings.

She needed to avoid crystal balls and wishes and focus on facts.

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