Page 48 of Knotty, Nice, & Holiday Lights
I shoot him a pointed look. “You planning on ghosting me ever again?”
“Never.”
He answers so fast, I have to smile, warm joy filling my body.
“Then it’s not taking a chance. It’s a sure thing.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Is there anything you can’t cook?”
Izzy’s question comes between swirled forkfuls of linguine and white clam sauce, her lips glistening in the dining room's dim light.
I can’t help but laugh. “I don’t know. I’ve never not made something I set out to. They may not have all been good, though.”
“I’m definitely envious of your skill,” Matthew says before he sips his glass of soda.
“Do you cook?”
As he shrugs indifferently, Izzy grins. “He does when he feels like it.”
“It’s like having a muse.”
“A cooking muse.”
“Exactly.”
They stare at each other, sitting side by side, knowing smiles on their faces that make me smile, too. The energy at the table is so light, even more than on Thanksgiving. It’s obvious that the talk Izzy and Matthew had went well, and I couldn’t be more glad about it.
Asher takes a slice of garlic bread from the basket nearest him and savors a bite before turning to me. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we only have a few more weeks before Christmas.”
His words hit me right in the chest like a sledgehammer.
More than a week has passed since Thanksgiving, and I haven’t even put up a single decoration. With everything that’s been happening, I lost track of time.
I must look completely lost or deflated because Izzy rises up to reach my hand across the table and squeeze it. “Don’t worry about all that now,” she says. “Let’s just enjoy this delicious food, and then after we clean up, we can make a plan. It’s all going to be okay.”
I send her a grateful smile. She always seems to know what to say and do.
I don’t know how I managed before without her and my pack brothers in my life.
“Where do you want this box?” Matthew asks from below me at the entrance to the attic as he takes the lightweight box of ornaments from my grasp.
“Let’s put it on the floor in the dining room for now. We’ll have a surface to sort everything.”
“Roger that.”
It takes us about an hour to get all the Christmas decorations out of the attic, for inside and out. Once all the boxes, bags, andplastic containers are sorted into different rooms downstairs, we begin sorting through the things inside, starting with the giant ten-foot faux tree that goes in the entryway.
“That thing is huge!” Izzy marvels once Asher and Matthew have pieced it together and plugged it in to turn on the warm white lights. “Wow…”
I smile, wrap my arm around her waist, and kiss her temple. “Would you like to choose this year’s tree skirt?”
She gasps a little, turns wide, starry eyes up at me, and I laugh before leading her to the container where all the skirts are folded into triangles.
“And you can choose the topper, too,” I say. “There are three in the container next to that one.”
Izzy nibbles her lip. “Are you sure it’s okay? This is your stuff.”
