Page 5 of Promise Yule Be Mine
“Aw. Tell them I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For living in Hoboken of course.”
I laughed again. I loved my mom. She was not only our rock and mama bear, she was also funny and sassy, which made for quite the combo.
“Okay, got to go, Mom. Need to get a cab. Love you, leave you, byeeee.”
I could see her rolling her eyes on the other side of the phone as if she was right in front of me, and that put a smile on my face.
I tucked away my phone and headed for the taxi rank, walking straight to the first car in front of the line when a woman opened the door mere seconds before me.
“Excuse me!” I said and the woman turned.
She was a petite thing with long black hair, honeyed skin tone and expressive eyes I’d have recognized anywhere in the world. She was also in a deep maroon dress that looked like a flight attendant’s uniform.
“Jenna?” I asked at the same time as recognition lit up her face.
“Nova?” She said a second after me.
“Oh my God!”
“You’ve grown so much!” She immediately wrapped her arms around me and gave me a squeeze for good measure.
“Well, of course I would. It’s been…what? Fifteen, sixteen years?”
“More or less. Gosh. That’s a blast from the past. Look at you! Love the hair.”
I instinctively ran my hand through my short but bleached ‘fro and smirked. “I’m nothing if not stylish, darling,” I told her with extra flair.
She chuckled. “I see that. What are you—” she started when the driver cleared his throat.
“Are you in or out?”
“Shoot. Sorry. Where are you headed?”
“Hoboken.”
“I’m headed to Manhattan. Wanna share?”
“Don’t mind if I do,” I replied and we both got in the back.
Jenna gave her destination first and the guy took off, which gave us a solid hour to catch up before she had to get out.
“So…still live in Queens? Or have you moved to Hoboken?”
“No. Still live with Mom and the boys.”
“Gosh. Aunty Nomi! I miss her so much. How is she? And how on earth can all you boys still live in the same house? You barely fit as it was back when you were all little.”
“Tell me about it. What about you? Last time I saw you, you were moving to California.”
She shook her head. “Yeah, that never happened. Mom lost that job as soon as she got it so we moved to Chicago for a couple of months and then to Christmas Falls where she got a job as a vet tech and we’ve been there ever since.”
“Christmas Falls?” I raised an eyebrow. “What the hell is Christmas Falls?”
“A small town in Illinois. We’re all about Christmas. It’s sort of our thing.”
