Page 75 of Lighting Up Christmas

“I won’t lie. I cried on the way home,” she admitted. A big revelation, because she’d grown up with three brothers and two cousins. Tears would have screamed that she needed to be culled from the herd in the ultra-competitive, loud, joking, loving world she’d grown up in.

“But I’m glad that I played it cool.” Sort of. “And gave him the present like it was no big deal.” And didn’t cry until she was down the mountain. Almost.

Riley had finished making the traditional eggnog and now she was pouring it into the ornate glass bottles through a funnel and then stoppering them up. She was glad she had something to do so that she wouldn’t have to look at Sophia while sherecounted her story in more detail now that they were all together at Sophia’s house for the pre-Christmas Eve ritual.

“It just sucks,” Sophia said. “I don’t think we read his attraction wrong. I don’t.” Sophia sautéed the veggies that would go into the vegetarian tamales while Hannah was handling the carnitas.

“I do,” Riley said firmly. She was tired of hope. After the first two days with no text from Zhang, she’d started avoiding her phone. The payment had hit her account with no comment. “It was just business.”

“Going out there and playing it cool even though you’d misread the situation took ovaries,” their friend Jas from the Caffeinated Goat said as she wrote up the gift tags for the eggnog.

“Yay, ovaries!” Hannah shouted out.

“I’m embarrassed,” Riley admitted. “And I assumed way too much, but still.” She jammed in the last cork and tied on the gift tag. She sniffed the fragrant onions, various peppers, butternut squash, zucchini, and corn mixture that Sophia stirred one last time appreciatively. “I feel like I tried, like I left my heart on the table, and I don’t regret trying.”

She’d designed a friggin’ light scene for him. And built a permanent vineyard of lights in his tasting room for free. And modified the clay dragon so that it too lit up. She’d all but handed him her heart.

And received nothing in return.

“I asked you if you wish you’d never met Enrique so you didn’t have to live with so much pain,” Riley said in a low voice as Jas, Hannah, and Suzannah headed off to pour a second spiked Mexican ponche.

“Yes.” Sophia turned off the stove and slid her arm around Riley’s shoulders.

“I wasn’t really sure I understood your answer at first, but now I do. I’m happy I met Zhang. Happy I got to know him. And happy I fell in love even if he didn’t feel the same. I feel different.” She touched her chest. “Less afraid to put myself out there.”

“Then that’s a win.” Sophia pressed her forehead against Riley’s.

Riley hugged her back. It didn’t feel like a win. But someday she knew it would.

Chapter Fourteen

Riley was normallyup before dawn. Her job started early, but if she was going to get any exercise in during the week, that was her time.

Christmas Eve morning definitely counted as a holiday, but she had a plan—an embrace the holiday alone plan—guaranteed to chase any hint of loneliness away. She’d talked again with her family yesterday, and each of her brothers last night. Today was for her. Even though she was alone, she’d still decorated the inside of her bungalow with swaths of evergreens and lights and baskets of cinnamon pinecones. She’d bought the holiday blend of coffee beans from the Caffeinated Goat, and the coffee was on automatic brew. Already the house smelled of evergreens, cinnamon, and coffee.

Riley dressed in thick leggings, a sports bra and tank, and athletic pullover shirt. The only question she had was vest or no vest before she went for a run, because her day was planned—planned to chase away even a second of feeling sorry for herself. Because she wasn’t.

She was young. Strong. Smart. She had her own business—even though her father and uncle were going to want to come back and “play,” a few days a week. Let them. She was going to build up new clients and find landscape lighting design opportunities. She’d signed up for an online course starting in January, and a company in Medford had said that she could intern with them once a week if she wanted. And next Christmas, she was going to create her Christmas Garden of Lights in thedowntown park. After that, she’d be hip deep in clients, even if it was just a Christmas house and business decorating boom.

Life was good.

The future was bright.

She tied on her athletic shoes. Her house might be small, and it had definitely been a fixer-upper that almost every Flanagan had helped her with, but it had a wonderful location—a quiet, older neighborhood, a half-acre plot near the creek that she could eventually find the time to do something to, and easy walking or running distance to town.

“Let’s get my Christmas Eve day started.” She pulled her hair up into a high ponytail—she loved to feel it swish against her back as she ran.

She had a full day planned—run, coffee by her firepit looking out at the creek, making muffins—yes, Zhang with his multitude of muffins had inspired her to try her hand at baking until she got it right. Then she was going to deliver tamales to the families of her three mentees and come home and listen to music while she decorated the small live tree she’d bought. It was going to be a perfect day alone.

“Let’s do this,” she murmured like her high school basketball coach. “Let’s get it done,” she answered like she and her teammates always had.

She left her bedroom and walked to her front door, but as she turned the knob, something in her yard lit up. Riley yipped. Paused. And then peered through the large front window that her dad and brothers had installed for her after knocking out and rebuilding the front wall of the bungalow.

What?

She opened her front door.

Her bicycle tree stood in her front yard, lights on the wheels spinning madly as if the bike was racing to Christmas Town. Zhang, in the act of staking in the bike’s mount, straightened.She stared at the bike and then at him. He’d bought her tree? She’d known he’d bought his because she’d seen it when she’d created the lighted vineyard scene inside his tasting room. She’d left the Christmas Market early after seeing Zhang with Brin and had never bothered to learn who’d bought her tree and for how much.

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