Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
CLARA
I’d been stupid to think that all Silas needed was a good night’s sleep and a big hearty breakfast to come to his senses. I spent all morning on edge because I expected him to knock on my door with some grand gesture and apologize for being a cotton-headed, ninny muggins last night.
I really needed to stop waiting for Silas to do things.
His house was eerily quiet when I walked out to my car to head to school. Just as I pulled out of my driveway, I looked over to see that Pudgie was gone. There wasn’t a spec of Christmas to be seen at his house.
I sighed as I idled at the end of my driveway. I wanted to march up to his front door, pound on it, and demand that he put it back. After all, we still had eight hours left in our deal and he’d just broken it by taking Pudgie down…but I didn’t have the drive to fight Silas anymore.
I was trying to ignore it, but my heart had been broken. I’d allowed myself to fall for Silas, and instead of returning my affection, he decided to pull out my heart and stomp on it before throwing it into the blender and pulverizing it.
Silas had made his feelings pretty clear last night when he drove off and never came back. And now Pudgie? That was the final nail in the coffin of our relationship—or whatever we had.
Isabelle wasn’t at school, and most of the kids were down in the dumps that they never got to perform the play. I decided to just spend the day doing kid things. After all, winter break was just around the corner. No learning really took place the last few days anyway.
I was grateful for the weekend when the last bell rang and my kids shuffled out of the classroom. I helped with bus pickup but decided not to linger as I grabbed my jacket and purse and headed out of the building.
As I neared my car, I paused. A man was standing next to it with his head dipped down. For a moment, I allowed myself to hope it was Silas, but as I got closer, I realized it was Todd. I frowned as I dug my keys out of my purse.
“Can I help you with something?” I asked as I located my car key and stepped around Todd to shove it into the lock.
“Is there another city ordinance that you have decided to cite me for?” I glanced up at him, hoping that he would pick up on my sarcasm and just leave me alone.
I wasn’t in the mood to think about Silas.
“I’m here solely as a friend.”
I raised my eyebrows. “My friend? Or are you Max?” I didn’t have time for Silas’s makeshift wingman. If Todd was here to try to get me to forgive that man, I wasn’t going to bite.
Todd chuckled before he cleared his throat. My instinct had been right, he’d gotten my reference, so what was his story?
He didn’t look like he was going to just give me this information without getting something in return. He studied me for a moment before he said, “Will you come with me for a second? I have something I want to show you at my house.”
I stared at him while a war raged inside of me.
Part of me wanted to follow him because I was a curious person.
Perhaps Todd would finally explain how he knew about the Balsam Hill ornaments.
But the other part of me was determined to just keep my head down, finish out my time here in Grinchland, and then never look back.
Grinchland and I were like yellow and snow. Never meant to mix.
But Todd looked earnest, and he had come in clutch when I needed him for the play, so I kind of owed him.
I sighed and nodded. “I’ll follow you.”
Todd’s smile was wide, and I almost felt bad for my initial reaction.
I would have apologized, but he was quick to point out his Honda Civic, promising not to lose me before he headed to his car.
I pulled open my driver’s door and climbed into my car.
I pulled out of my parking spot and idled while he did the same.
He waved for me to follow before turning his car to the left and taking off.
Todd was true to his word as we drove the streets of Grinchland.
He was mindful of where I was and even pulled off when he got through a red light and I didn’t.
Eventually, we stopped in front of a small rambler with a large front yard.
A front yard that would be perfect for decorating with Balsam Hill ornaments.
I turned my engine off after Todd climbed out of his car and shut his door. He waited for me to join him before he nodded toward his house.
“Come on in.”
“Okay,” I said hesitantly. “I’ve seen a lot of murder mystery movies start off this way.” I laughed but there was a nervous hint to it.
Todd looked over at me. “I’m not going to murder you,” he said, his eyes wide.
“I know,” I lied. Truth was, I didn’t really know. But I had a hunch that Todd wouldn’t hurt a fly. “That’s why it was a joke.”
Todd studied me as he if needed visual confirmation that I trusted him. So I gave him a wide smile.
“You were going to show me something?” I raised my eyebrows in an effort to urge him to continue with why he’d brought me here.
Todd blinked and nodded like he’d suddenly been snapped out of the confused trance my joke had put him in. “Right,” he said as he hurried to the front door and pulled his keys from his pocket.
Soon we were standing in his foyer, and he was waiting for me to finish taking off my boots. When I was done, I straightened and smiled up at him.
“I’m ready,” I said.
He extended his hand to a dark oak door to our left. “It’s downstairs.”
I glanced from the door to Todd and then back to the door. “About the murder—”
“Just open the door,” Todd said with an exasperated tone.
“Okay, okay.” I reached out and turned the door handle.
I wasn’t sure what I thought Todd was going to show me, but an entire basement full of Christmas decorations that would have rivaled Gran’s collection in its prime was not on my bingo card. I didn’t know where to look first, and I felt like I was a kid in a candy store, just standing there, gaping.
“You’re…” I was struggling to catch my breath. “You’re a…” I turned to stare at Todd, whose smile mimicked that of a dad on the day of his child’s birth. “You’re a closet Christmas-er.”
He frowned, drawing his eyebrows together as if he were thinking about what I’d just said. “I, um, I wouldn’t call myself that.”
“Oh my gosh! You have the Hallmark Santa of 1995?” I asked as I sidestepped a life-sized Rudolph to pick up the coveted glass Santa that took Gran three years to finally get her hands on.
“Yep. Found it in a flea market in Jersey a few years ago.”
I reverently turned it around in my hands a few times. “Oh! Where did you find the complete Tinson Hall reindeer set?” I set the Santa down so I could give my full attention to the tiny tin reindeers in front of me. Gran passed before she ever got her hands on even one.
“That was a gift from my aunt.”
I glanced up at him. “It’s beautiful.” Thoughts of my own pieces back in Winter Springs made my heart ache. So many memories were wrapped up in those items. I missed them. I missed Gran.
I sighed as I glanced around. It was such a shame that Todd was forced to hide all of these things. “Too bad you live in Grinchland. These pieces deserve to be showcased.”
Todd studied me before he shrugged. “You don’t know the full story, do you?”
I paused as I flicked my gaze over to him and then back down. “About Nicole?”
“Nicole and Isabelle.”
I paused at the mention of Silas’s daughter. I knew bits and pieces, but not the full thing. And it hurt that Silas didn’t want to tell me. “I know some things.”
Todd reached out and grabbed a porcelain teddy bear and transferred it from one hand to another.
“Nicole was the biggest Christmas fiend that I’d ever met.
Her decorations rivaled Whoville. She was constantly dragging Silas all over the place in search of the next hot item.
On Christmas Eve three years ago, there was an accident.
Silas and Isabelle were in the car.” Todd paused. “Nicole passed away.”
My heart broke for that little family.
“But it wasn’t just that. Isabelle went from a happy, chatty two-year-old to not speaking for months. Silas took her to every psychologist he could to get answers. She finally came around, but the consensus was to keep anything that had to do with that night away from her.”
“That’s why he banned Christmas.”
Todd nodded. “How could we say no to a grieving husband and a terrified father? If it protected Isabelle, we, as a town, would do whatever we could.” He paused.
“And maybe we thought, after a few years, he’d realize that she was safe and bring it back.
” His gaze met mine again. “When you showed up, I thought for sure you’d be the person to help him see the sun and get him out from under his dark cloud. It seemed to be working until…”
“The play.”
Todd nodded. “The play. Now I fear he will never repeal the ban and we’ll be stuck Christmasless forever.”
“Do you think Isabelle was slipping back to the silence?”
Todd shrugged. “I don’t know. But Silas won’t ever take another chance.”
I glanced around before blowing out my breath. “What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t think there’s anything you can do.” He glanced around as well. “I guess I just thought you should know the full story. Maybe it would help you understand the history of Grinchland. The history of Silas.”
I studied the floor for a moment before I glanced up to meet his gaze. I didn’t know what to do with the story he’d told me. Not when I was pretty certain that Silas hated me. Whatever we had was over, even if I wanted things to be different.
“Thanks for sharing this with me.” I narrowed my eyes. “I knew I had another Christmas aficionado on my hands.” I shook my finger at him. “I was right.”
He chuckled. “You were.”
I spent the next fifteen minutes picking up rare Christmas decorations and gushing over the fact that he’d located them.
His cheeks reddened with pride as he relayed the story of how he acquired each one.
By the time I left, I was sad that I was leaving Grinchland. Todd and I had become fast friends.
He made me promise not to tell Silas that he was the one who told me the whole story.
I made an “x” across my chest and held up my right hand at a ninety-degree angle.
That seemed to appease him, and he waited with his front door open as I climbed into my driver’s seat and pulled out of his drive.
Once I was heading down his street, he waved and shut the door.
When I got home, I lingered in the driveway with Todd’s words rolling around in my mind.
My gaze kept slipping over to Silas’s house, where the curtains were still drawn.
Tears filled my eyes as I thought about the pain that little family had experienced.
And how I had been completely insensitive to what he’d gone through.
Suddenly, my lawn decorations didn’t bring me as much joy as they used to. Now, they were a representation of my thoughtless behavior. I wanted them gone. I wanted to give Silas a moment of peace. A moment to heal with his daughter.
The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt that little girl. I loved her so much. And if taking them down meant keeping her safe, I’d do that.
It was the least I could do.
After I put my keys and purse in the house, I made my way out to the front porch and reached down to flip off the power bank. All the lights in my yard went dark.