Page 31 of Wishing Stone

5:06 PM, Me:Nothing for now. Krystina’s surprise will have to wait. We can work on how to fix this over the weekend.

5:07 PM, Hale:Okay, boss. Sorry your night got messed up.

Pocketing my phone, I shook my head.

Me too, Hale. Me too.

“Change of plans, angel,” I said, turning her body toward the path back to the house. I looped my elbow through hers and tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice. “We’re going to have to do this another day.”

“Wait, what?” Krystina asked with a mix of confusion and incredulity. “What do you mean?”

“Things aren’t working today, okay?” I snapped, failing to hide my irritation this time.

Pulling free from my arm, Krystina ripped the blindfold off her face before I could stop her. I watched her eyes widen as her vision adjusted to take in our surroundings. It didn’t look like much when it wasn’t lit up, but I was sure she got the idea.

“Alex, what is all of this?”

“It’s nothing now. The lights aren’t working for some reason.”

My fists clenched and unclenched at my sides, thoroughly disappointed and angry that things were not going as planned. Glancing down, I bent to pick up a small rock and side-armed it into the pond. It made a brief splash before disappearing beneath the surface when it hit the water.

“Why aren’t the lights working?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. I plugged them in and got nada. Hale checked the breakers, and all is good there too.”

To my surprise, Krystina began to giggle.

“Awww. Are you having a Clark Griswold moment?”

“Who is that?”

“You know. FromChristmas Vacation. At least we don’t have flying squirrels!” she joked.

My eyebrows pushed up in confusion. “I’m sorry—flying squirrels?”

“Yeah! You know the part when Clark is standing by the tree, then Aunt Bethany hears a squeaking sound and—” she stopped short, shook her head, and laughed. “Never mind. I thought I’d made progress on your movie knowledge, but I guess I missed this one. I’ll have to add it to the list. Cousin Eddie is must-see TV.”

“I’m glad you find this amusing,” I said dryly. Krystina’s pop culture knowledge far surpassed mine—a fact she loved to remind of and relished the experience of educating me. Sometimes I enjoyed it, other times it was torture. Somehow, I though any character named Cousin Eddie would fall under the latter.

“Okay, I’m sorry. I won’t tease anymore,” she said. “But seriously, why do all of this? I mean, most people decorate the front of their houses. Nobody can even see this.”

“I don’t care about everyone else. I did this for you. I’ve been working on it for the past few days. You love Christmas so much—especially seeing all the decorations in the city. But you know why I don’t want you venturing down to Rockefeller Center. There are just too many people. So while I know this isn’t the same, it was my way of bringing the extravagant decorations to you. If you’re feeling down about being stuck in the house, I thought this could be a little escape.”

“You did all of this for me? As in—you did it all yourself?”

Picking up another rock, I skipped it across the water. I threw it with less venom this time, as feelings of disappointment were beginning to dwarf my anger.

“Sort of. Hale helped me with it,” I told her. I pointed to our left toward a clear dome bubble tent. “Do you see that over there?”

“Yes. What is it?”

“It’s a garden igloo. I thought we could spend Christmas Eve out here, under the stars with all the lights around us. It will be warm enough inside that we won’t have to worry about the cold. I also spoke to Vivian about it. She said she would figure out a way to serve us dinner there if we wanted. And—” I stilled when I saw Krystina’s lip quiver and her eyes suddenly fill with tears. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry, Alex. I don’t mean to cry,” she said through a sniffle. Her gloved hands twisted together in front of her, a tell-tale sign that she was anxious or nervous about something as she looked at me through glassy eyes. “Even though the lights aren’t working right now, I know what you’re trying to do, and I appreciate it so much. In fact, my heart wants to burst just from knowing how much you care.”

“I sense a ‘but’ in there somewhere,” I said hesitantly.

“Hearing you talk about spending Christmas Eve out here—with just the two of us—was another reminder that Christmas won’t be the same.” She rested her hand on my arm. “I just really miss my friends and family, you know?”

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