Page 14 of Storybook Christmas

After I shimmy through the bodies, I’m finally close enough to see the list when Bertha pulls me into a hug. “Good job, Lacy. I knew you could do it!”

“I did?” I let out a muted squeal as I hug her tight.

Yes—Fireflies Save Christmas will be on bookshelves by November of next year!

“It was my life coaching. You’re a force to be reckoned with.” Bertha squeezes me so tight I feel like I might burst.

With the scant air remaining in my lungs, I squeak, “I want myGrab Life by The Ballscertificate.”

“Not yet, my doe-eyed apprentice. To earn that, you must become unstoppable.”

When Bertha lets go, I finally take a full breath and make my way to the sheet to see it for myself. When I do, my face twists.

It lists both books—Fireflies Save ChristmasandRudolph the Red-Tailed Reinbot. “What?” I mumble.

Joshua and I…tied?

My happiness dissipates like fog hitting bright sunlight. I’m glad that the book I’m editing is getting published, but I also don’t understand. Joshua’s book didn’t do quite as well with beta readers. And isn’t it going to diminish sales on each to have both coming out? Maybe not because they’re so different?

“Let’s go to your office, Lacy,” Bertha says, her tone weird.

“Okay.” My words agree, but my body won’t move from the spot it’s in. As I stare at the page, Finn approaches, reading it before doing a fist pump.

I study him as his eyes light up like Christmas morning. Under the credits of the book, Rudolph the Red-Tailed Reinbot, his name’s listed under “Original concept.” He runs his finger over it.

My heart squeezes, and suddenly, I don’t care how or why Joshua’s book is getting published. Finn is seeing his name in print for the first time, getting credit for an original idea, and this clearly means everything to him.

And, for some reason, that makes my competitive bitterness evaporate.

I smile as I turn and walk with Bertha to my office.

# # #

ONCE BERTHA ANDI are sitting with my door closed, she leans in. “The reinbot pick was political,” she utters under her breath, as though she works for the FBI.

“How?” The neurons of my brain rapid-fire as I try to figure out why picking Joshua, or Finn, would have anything to do with politics.

“Isaac Sutton rubber stamped it, all the way through,” Bertha says, whisper soft.

Rubber-stamped?I mouth, looking at Bertha like she just sprouted elf ears. The Suttonsneverrubber-stamp anything.

She scans my office, clearly out of habit, as there’s no one in the room with us. “I heard Joshua and Isaac had Cubans at the cigar bar together.”

“That worm,” I snarl. “So, Joshua’s cozying up to Isaac?”

Bertha shrugs. “You can’t blame him for brown-nosing the boss. Hate the game, not the player.”

“I guess that was a good strategic move.”

“Which brings me to your next assignment.”

“Oh, no,” I grumble. “I haven’t completed your last one of being bold.”

“Right, sucks for you. Now, for assignment number two, you must stop being so stuffy and pull the two by four out of your…” she trails off, pointing to her tushy.

“Wow. Don’t beat around the bush, Bertha.”

She puts a finger on her chin. “Ironically, the place I’m describing is actually right around the bush.”

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