Chapter 5
Gage
Then he loaded some bags and some old empty sacks
on a ramshackle sleigh and he hitched up old Max.
~ Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
“So, this is Tori’s house?” I ask.
Mitch parks in the driveway as though he’s been here before—more than once.
“Yeah.” He smiles widely.
I open my car door and follow him up the porch steps.
Tori opens the door and says, “Gooood morning!”
She pops the screen door open for us and walks back inside. “I’ve just gotta get my shoes on. Oh! Could one of you grab my water bottle? It’s on the counter in the kitchen.”
“Did she not expect us?” I say quietly to Mitch.
“Obviously, she expected us. She’s just putting on her shoes. Chill out.”
“I’m chill. You chill out.”
He chuckles. So unflappable.
“I’ll get the water bottle,” I volunteer.
I walk through the house toward the place I imagine a kitchen will be, but I end up in the hallway that leads to the bedrooms.
“Other way,” Tori says, holding a pair of bright green tennis shoes up in the air. “I’ll just be a minute.”
I turn and make my way back to the front room where Mitch has an amused look on his face. Then I turn left, walk through the dining room and through another doorway that leads into the kitchen. A filled flask sits on the counter next to a banana.
“Do you want the banana too?” I shout through the house.
“Yes, please!” Tori answers in a chipper voice. “I never remember if you should eat bananas before or after a run!”
“Both work,” I say quietly.
A colorful piece of paper catches my eye. It’s secured to the refrigerator with a wreath magnet.
I glance at it.
My Holiday Bucket List
is written across the top.
Is it nosy to read this? I’m curious what Tori thinks is important to do around the holidays.
Go to tree lighting
is crossed out at the top.
I quickly scan the other items on her list.
Get a Secret Santa.
Not checked off since last night. Of course not. She checks one thing and forgets to check the other—she’s so in the moment. The checkmark isn’t the goal. The activity is. I wonder who her secret Santa is. I can’t believe who I got.
I peek at the rest of the list.
Run in the holiday fun run.
Boil cinnamon and oranges daily.
That’s what it smells like in here. I smelled it when she walked past me. I thought it was her. It’s the house. Warm and festive. I wonder what my house smells like? Not warm and festive, that’s for sure.
I turn back to the list.
Mitch calls my name. “Did you get lost in there, Gage?”
“No! I’m coming!” I shout back.
I quickly scan the other items.
Buy someone an unexpected gift
Make a snow angel if it snows
Kiss under the mistletoe
Visit Sycamore Assisted Living and sing carols
Participate in pet adoption at the shelter
Go to Christmas Tea
Read a Dickens Novel
Watch The Grinch
Watch Elf
Watch It’s a Wonderful Life and cry when he finds ZuZu’s petal
Take each of my friends a gift
Bake sugar cookies and bring them to the fire station
Kiss under the mistletoe? Just kissing some random person? Or does she have someone in mind? Or is she in a relationship and I didn’t know? No. She’s not. He’d have been right there serving cocoa with her, hanging the ornaments together, going on this run. She’s single.
“I thought I left my flask …” Tori comes into the kitchen and stops in her tracks when she sees me staring at the fridge.
It feels like the time my sister caught me reading her diary.
“My list.” She tightens the pigtails she has in her hair. “It’s … silly.”
“Nah. It’s … great. If you like holiday stuff. Which you obviously do.”
“You should do one of these with me,” she suggests. “Maybe it will put you in the holiday spirit.”
Of all the items, my unhelpful mind pictures her under the mistletoe, head upturned toward someone, waiting. Nope. That’s not the one.
Mitch barges into the kitchen. “Hey. Are we going or what?”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
“What’s this?” he asks, pointing to the fridge.
“It’s my holiday bucket list.” Tori grabs the flask and banana from me and says, “Okay. Let’s go.” She hustles out of the kitchen.
Mitch looks down the list.
I try to cut him off at the pass before he reaches the one item that stood out to me.
“Mistletoe, huh?” he turns to me and wags his brows.
“Not with you,” I say.
He chuckles and brushes past me.
On the way to Waterford Elementary, the location for the starting line to this ridiculous race, Mitch brings up Tori’s list.
He’s one of my best friends. That’s a spot he earned over the years, not merely because he’s local, either. I’d easily live a friendless life. I like solitude, and too much time around people tends to wear me out.
Mitch made the cut because he’s funny, we like the same sports teams, and he’s loyal. He’s always got my back.
Some days Mitch makes me reconsider his status. He can slip into junior high mode faster than I can hit do not disturb on my phone.
When Mitch says, “Hey, Tori, so … that list,” Tori blushes.
She’s in the back seat, but I see her clearly in the rearview mirror.
It was my fault Mitch saw that list. If I had minded my own business, grabbed the water and the banana and walked back out to the front room, he never would have meandered into the kitchen.
I got her into this. I’ll get her out.
“She wants us to go to the pet adoption,” I say.
“The pet adoption?” Mitch asks.
“At the shelter,” Tori says with an excited bounce to her voice.
“Sounds fun,” Mitch says, smiling back at her in the rearview mirror.
“Really?” Tori asks.
“Yeah. I love animals. Let’s do it!” Mitch says enthusiastically. “Text us the details. We’re there. Right, Gage?”
“Yeah. Right.”
My tactic worked. Mitch drops the subject of Tori under the mistletoe and her holiday bucket list after that diversion. We pull into the parking lot, not far from the race starting line which is set apart with a red, white and green balloon arch.
“Hey!” Noelle runs over to hug Tori as soon as we walk up.
The rest of their friends are right behind Noelle, chattering and energetic even though it’s only seven in the morning.
I’m a morning person. I love waking early, grabbing a coffee, sitting on my back patio, staring off into the woods behind my house.
Or, even better, taking off on a flight just before sunrise.
I’m not a let’s-go-take-a-run-with-the-entire-town-before-breakfast type of morning person. Apparently, I’m in the minority.
I’m also underdressed. Or I didn’t get the memo.
Every single person, including Mitch, Carson and Liam has some configuration of red and green in their outfits.
I’m wearing a long-sleeved wicking shirt—in black.
And I’ve got on jogging shorts—also in black.
I look like the angel of death on his rare once-a-year-visit to the North Pole.
“You know how this works, right?” Liam asks me.
“Running? Yes. I’m familiar.”
Liam laughs. “Dang, Gage. You get snarkier by the day.”
“Do I?” It’s not my intention to be snarky.
“Anyway, I was asking if you knew how this run works.”
“Is there something special? Do we have to pull a sled or ride a reindeer?”
“Actually, yes.”
“What?”
“Not the reindeer. Though, there are antlers involved. It’s a relay.
You pull a sled then you tag team and get on the sled and your next teammate pulls you.
And then you hop off and they get on so the next person can pull them.
At each trade-off location, you’ll have to acquire and use a holiday item. Antlers are just one of the things.”
Liam looks tickled.
“We volunteered for this?” I ask, incredulously.
“We did. And we donated new toys to the toy drive as our entrance fee.”
“I didn’t enter.” The whoosh of relief that floods my body is indescribable.
“Oh, we knew you wouldn’t. We’ve got you covered.” Liam claps me on the back.
“Thanks.” My tone is dry.
Liam chuckles. “Your gratitude is overwhelming. But seriously, you’ll have fun. Remember fun? It’s where you smile and laugh and let go and enjoy the moment.”
“I have fun. Sunday afternoon watching games with the guys. That’s fun. Teaching someone to fly? That’s fun. This?”
“... will be fun,” Mitch insists.
Liam’s eyes meet mine, and without a word he tells me he gets it. And in that same look he says he’s not going to let me stay stuck here.
I don’t know my way out of the place I’ve been stuck in for months.
Darla crushed my heart. I’m not what I’d call bitter.
But I’ll admit a piece of me is missing.
Not because of her so much as the wreckage from not being able to trust my own judgment.
I should have seen her for what she was.
Or maybe she wasn’t as bad as I ended up perceiving her in hindsight.
We had a lot of laughs. Some good talks.
It all felt genuine. It might have been as real as I thought.
In which case, that other guy was a better match for her.
“Gage!” Mitch calls my name.
“Yeah?”
“You were zoning out, man.”
“Sorry. What’s up?”
“We’re in two teams. Liam and Carson with Noelle and Alyssa are on one. Then it’s you, Tori, Stephanie and me on the other.”
“What about Jennifer?” I ask, surrendering to my fate.
“She’s going with her family.”
The race is surprisingly well organized.
I’m the third man in our team, so I’m directed to an exchange zone where Mitch will get on my sled—a contraption on wheels that’s been decked out for the holidays by volunteers who obviously have no hobbies.
I’ll pull Mitch and then he'll get off and Tori will tug me to the finish line. Supposedly. At least that’s the plan.
Once we’re all at our assigned locations, the starting gun goes off. I can’t see the whole course. The other third-leg runners and I stand around waiting until our teammates come into view.
About ten minutes later, the first few sleds come in. Mayhem ensues as people dismount their sleds and switch places with their other teammates.