Page 67 of Miss Humbug
Cara: You mean a mince pie? I bet you’ve never tried one.
Ashe:LOL
Shawn:Have too!
I rolled my eyes and flipped to another new message. This one from Ethan. My body instinctively warmed at the memory of last night in his truck. Talking, kissing, and thinking forward but only forward enough. He’d give up his world for me. That’s what he’d told me. Dream words any person newly in love with their oldest and longest crush would be desperate to hear.I’d give it all up for you.
Ethan was more than a crush at this point. We weren’t kids. We were adults with responsibilities and demands. And still, he’d give up what he had for me.
Ethan:I’ll be busy at the farm this week but I’m still in for the gingerbread contest.
Me:Gingerbread? In this economy?
Me:That was a joke. It’s a no on the gingerbread. The competition is over, so we’re off the hook. The…candy hook, I guess.
No one else in the family planned on continuing with the gingerbread house competition. For invented points that no longer mattered? No, thank you. I could use the supplies I already bought to make a janky gingerbread with the kids. No judging required.
A full minute passed before Ethan responded.
Ethan:Sure, if that’s what you want. I thought it might be fun.
Fun like caroling. Fun like a chaotic light show set to holiday music. I fell against my pillow. “Why do I hatefestivities?” I questioned to my bedroom’s four walls.
The walls stared back. They did not reply.
I tried to imagine a life where Ethan left to sing publicly at random people while I… What exactly would I do if I lived here? Crystal Cove didn’t offer the jobs and salaries I could make in San Jose. Not like I’d looked for any open jobs here, or any remote work either. Regardless, I was doubtful. Maybe the mega pharmaceutical company nearby had openings. My qualifications likely fit something there.
But I couldn’t see myself commuting from little Crystal Cove to the big business megaplex, taking what I did in my California life and inserting it here. The pieces didn’t fit.
And Ethan. I loved him. I loved his kindness. His familiarity. How we had so much to catch up on, but none of it involved explaining myself. He knew me and he knew my heart.
My cold, dark, holiday-loathing heart.
He’d told me he loved me anyway. How love was unconditional. Could we make it work during the holidays? He’d go a-caroling while I did anything else but? I didn’t hate baking, I just wasn’t very good at it. And driving around looking at holiday lights so long as we never visited that showboating nightmare with the timed music ever again.
Could it work? Couldwework? Ethan believed we could. Now I needed to believe it.
I heaved myself out of bed and headed for the shower.
My siblings and cousins were eager tofigure this thing outand showed up at the house by eleven a.m. We convened in the library with kids either elsewhere at friends’ houses or parked in the family room watching a movie.
Ashe stood in front of the built-in bookcases while the rest of us pulled in chairs from the dining hall. We settled in the room. Shawn positioned himself next to Ashe and stood to his full height.
“I have an idea,” Ashe stated.
“As do I,” said Shawn.
“Can you give it a rest and let me talk?” Ashe elbowed Shawn.
Shawn jerked out of his reach. “You’re not the only one with ideas. I can stand here and share ideas too.”
Cara left her chair. “Okay, here’s what we’re not doing.” She pointed between the two brothers. “You two—take a seat. I vote the spouses and Riley lead this discussion since you men can’t seem to stop bickering.”
True as her words, the men bickered that they couldn’t be trusted to lead the meeting.
“What about Marlowe?” Brianne asked.
Brianne, who I rarely spoke to because, well, she always seemed occupied by more important things, was the one to speak up for me. The person I spent the least time with in this extended family.
