Ice, Love, & Other Penalties

Chapter 40

Indie: My grandparents want to know if you guys will be spending Christmas with us.

Ty: I would love to, but I promised Myra that I would take her to the beach—got the tickets back in July.

Indie: Know you’ll be missed.

Ty: By you?

Indie: The family, obviously. Me . . . I could care less.

Ty: I can buy you a ticket and take you with us.

Indie: And miss Christmas with the Deckers? Nope. It’s a magical holiday no one should miss. The artificial pond is going up next week. We’ll be ice-skating and drinking hot cocoa all day long.

Ty: Of course you have a pond and a magical Christmas. How was the zoo?

Indie: Fun. We’re currently making ice cream sandwiches with the cookies we baked earlier.

Ty: My kid will be bouncing off the walls with that much sugar, good luck.

Indie: Good luck to you tomorrow evening when you’re back on daddy-duty—and I’ll be gone.

Ty: Check your calendar, babe. I won’t be back until Tuesday.

Indie: Great. I was looking at the wrong week. In any case, I have to go back to the kitchen.

Ty: Miss you.