Chapter 9
Thursday, December 6
When my alarm went off on Thursday morning, I stretched, yawned, and rubbed my eyes before remembering this was the first day I’d open an Advent calendar task without my sister in town. Given that I’d decided to work from home today and wasn’t in any rush, I got up and brushed my teeth before making coffee and moseying over to the stack of boxes.
Dazey gave me a nonchalant glance from her perch on the sofa before putting her head down and curling her tail directly over her eyes. I gave her ladyship a curtsey and searched the colorful array of packages for the one marked with a number six.
A wisp of childlike anticipation surged, sparring with my I’m not celebrating this season attitude. Even days were task days, and while I was still hoping for the holidays to come and go as quickly as possible, I also found myself wishing that whatever Anita had planned for me today would require Marco’s assistance.
I grinned as I recalled the deal we’d struck yesterday at Candy Cakes. His surprise offer to help with the Advent calendar tasks had been more than welcome. Not only did it mean that I had a new friend in Fallbrook, but I also didn’t have to carry out Anita’s eccentricities alone.
It had been fun chatting with Marco yesterday, talking about Game of Thrones , books (he was an avid thriller reader, too), Switzerland and other European destinations we wanted to visit, both of us deciding that Paris and Santorini were at the top of our lists. The conversation had flowed so naturally, neither of us noticed the time until I happened to look at the clock on the wall and saw it was almost ten.
Moving my attention back to the Advent calendar, I searched for the next surprise, which turned out to be a cylinder about twenty inches long and five in diameter, the whole thing covered in jolly Santa motif wrapping paper.
“What the…?” I said, tearing off a long strip of paper and revealing a lime-green plastic tube instead of a box. At first, I thought my sister had given me a yoga mat because the object appeared to be about the same size, but the material was too thin, too smooth, and had zero cushioning.
When I fully unrolled what seemed to be a plastic mat, I spotted the two round handles at one end with a label stuck between them. As I looked at the diagram, I gathered this was a carpet sled. I’d seen kids whiz down hills on them at tremendous speeds in Pineville, and I had an inkling of what Anita had in mind. All became clear with her note.
Today’s mission:
Brace for impact & spread some joy. We’re sledding at Lions Valley Park at 7 p.m., and we must get strangers to race us!
Glancing out the window, I knew there’d be more than enough snow for this challenge, and I now understood yesterday’s snow globe gift wasn’t only for me to reminisce about the epic day we’d enjoyed when we were kids, but also for me to recreate another. But on this thing…?
Although it wasn’t quite 8 a.m., Anita would be up by now, so I picked up my phone and tapped on her number. “Hi,” I said when she answered. “How’s Orlando?”
“Sunny and quite warm yesterday,” she answered with a bliss-filled sigh. “The hotel’s great, and I’m going to try everything on the breakfast menu at least once. Enough about me. How was your date with Marco?”
“It wasn’t a date ,” I spluttered. “It was coffee.”
“All right, how was coffee ?”
“Delicious. Did you know Candy Cakes buys their sweets from Dessert Dudes? We’ll have to go when you’re back. It’s a great place.”
“Come on ,” Anita moaned. “Throw me a bone about your non -date date.”
I grinned, unsurprised by sister’s need for gossip. Too bad for her there wasn’t any…or was there? When I’d gone to the restroom at Candy Cakes last night and looked at him over my shoulder, I could’ve sworn Marco had been watching me walk away. Hardly a significant detail. Definitely not something I’d share with Anita for fear she’d make a fuss.
“We talked about the company finances,” I said. “I offered to help in exchange for desserts on tap.”
“That’s it?”
“Yup, uh-huh,” I answered, a little too quickly. I could tell Anita wasn’t buying it and, needing to control the narrative, I added, “Oh, yeah, and Marco offered to help with the Advent calendar tasks.”
“ Yes ,” she whooped, probably giving herself a high five. “I knew it. He likes you.”
“You’re wrong. Marco and I are just friends.”
“Did you actually say those words?”
“We didn’t need to,” I said, my tone a little on the sharp side.
“All right, I guess I’ll drop it…for now. Did you open your calendar?”
“Yes, that’s why I called. I’m wondering if I should make a will.”
Anita laughed. “You’ll have a blast. Make sure you send evidence of task completion. I want photos or a video. So…when will you tell Marco about your hot sledding date?”
“You’re impossible,” I said with a laugh. “But you already knew that.”
Five minutes later we hung up, and my phone immediately dinged with an incoming message. I figured it was Anita trying to goad me again, but it wasn’t.
Marco: Good morning. Got the scoop on the Advent task?
Me: Sledding at Lions Valley Park tonight at 7. Seems this Advent calendar’s really going downhill.
Marco: Sleigh safe
Me: Lol. You just can’t help yourself, can you?
Marco: It’s a disease. Still OK for me to be your wingman?
Me: Yes!
Marco: See you there
The rest of the day went by in a flash as I worked on accounts receivables and prepared as much as I could for the year-end closing. Once I’d eaten dinner and fed Dazey, I pulled on my boots, hat, jacket, and gloves, and set off with my so-called sled under my arm.
Temperatures had plummeted, but there wasn’t a cloud in the dark sky, so I walked the mile and a half north to Lions Valley Park, where I’d played volleyball with Anita, Joe, and their friends in the spring and which was renowned for having the best sledding hills in town.
Seemed other people had the same idea because as I went over the small wooden bridge that crossed Sixteen Mile Creek, I heard shrieks of laughter and spotted kids and adults sliding down the fifty-yard illuminated hill on snow tubes and traditional wooden toboggans. Someone had built snow jumps to launch themselves into the air, shouting and whooping as they landed a few feet farther downhill.
I’d arrived fifteen minutes early, and although I felt a little ridiculous as I trudged up the hill—a grown woman out sledding on her own—by the time I reached the top, unrolled my green death trap, and sat down, I started to grin.
“I love your sled,” a little girl with two missing front teeth said as she came up next to me, pulling a giant inflatable polar bear behind her. “My friend Tommy has one.”
“What does Tommy think of it?” I asked. “Is it good?”
With an emphatic nod, she plopped herself inside her bear sled, saying, “He told me it goes really, really fast.”
I grinned. “How fast, exactly?”
She shrugged, hands and arms moving up and out like a marionette’s. “I don’t know.”
As I gripped the handles, my heart thumping, I said, “Want to find out?”
After ensuring the hill was clear, I pushed off and leaned forward. When my body weight shifted, it propelled me down the slope at a speed I hadn’t anticipated. Whoever Tommy was, he was right—this thing did go really, really fast.
I squealed as I zipped across the snow, all too quickly skidding to a halt a short distance from the path at the bottom of the slope. When I turned around, the young girl arrived in her polar bear, her cheeks flushed from the wind.
“Whoa,” she said, eyes wide. “It’s almost as quick as Ted. He’s my polar bear.”
“What’s your name?”
“Miranda.”
“I’m Callie.” Remembering Anita’s Advent calendar instructions, and my determination to carry them out exactly as asked so she’d stop trying to set me up on dates and not badger me about going to Pineville for the holidays anymore, I added, “Want to race?”
With a loud whoop, Miranda turned and darted up the hill, with me close behind. On the next run down, she took a video of me on my phone, and I sent it to Anita, who wrote back, Where’s your partner in crime? Didn’t you invite him? followed by a chicken emoji.
I was about to reply when I looked up and saw Marco waving at me from the bottom of the slope. When he joined me at the top of the hill, his face lit up with excitement.
“I’m glad you let me crash the snow party,” he said. “I couldn’t miss the opportunity to be a kid again.”
“Where’s your sled?” I asked. “Want to borrow mine?”
“Nope.” He whipped a garbage bag from his pocket and shook it out. “Trust me, nothing beats one of these.”
“Are you sure?” Miranda piped up. “Because we’re going really, really fast.”
“Challenge accepted, young lady.” Marco took a seat on his garbage bag. “See ya down there!”
Laughing, the three of us pushed off with our feet, trying to gain as much traction as quickly as possible. Both Miranda and I easily zoomed past Marco, who got stuck ten feet down the slope. He booed loudly, which made Miranda giggle so hard, I thought she might topple Ted.
After a few more runs, others joined our friendly competition. Miranda, who turned out to be a fearless contestant, suggested having a kids-versus-adults challenge, but no matter how hard we tried, the grown-ups lost almost every time.
“How are those tykes so darn quick?” Marco chuckled as we trudged back to the starting line after another stinging defeat. “I can’t keep up with any of them.”
I turned to him. “ Now do you want to try my sled?”
“Yes!” Miranda jumped up and down as she clapped her hands. “Go on it together. I want to see if I can beat you.”
Marco looked at me. “I’m game if you are.”
I readied the sled and sat down. Marco took his place behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist as I grabbed hold of the handles. I could feel the firmness of his entire torso pressed against the length of my back and smell the scent of his woodsy aftershave mixed with what might’ve been a hint of icing sugar—all of which seemed to be making my heart race a little bit faster.
I loved how he’d come here so spontaneously, how he wanted to seize the opportunity to be a kid again. When I’d met him at the Christmas tree market, he’d shared that he could do with a bit more joy in his life, and I had a feeling my sister’s Advent calendar task was surreptitiously working its magic on him tonight, too.
“Ready?” he asked, his voice low, his minty breath tickling my ear.
“I’m ready,” I whispered.
We pushed off the slope again and whizzed down the hill. Marco tightened his hands around my waist as I pulled on the handles to lift the sled and make us go faster. All too soon, we reached the bottom, a good few seconds after Miranda.
“You lost again,” she said with a laugh. “You two are waaaaay too slow. Mom says we have to go now. Thanks for racing me. Bye!”
After Miranda sped off, Marco got to his feet. As he held out a hand to help me up, his eyes fixed on mine, he said, “I think we need a rematch or five, you know, to be sure who won between the two of us. Maybe best of ten?”
Half an hour later, my legs and knees throbbed, my lungs were sore from the freezing air, and my stomach hurt from laughing so much. I didn’t care. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done something this childlike and fun—or when I’d felt so carefree I was practically weightless.
In comparison, Oliver and I had always been so grown-up when it came to hobbies—or mature as he liked to call it. My ex didn’t enjoy my jigsaw puzzles and only read for education, rarely pleasure. We’d played tennis and squash, had dinner parties with friends, and hiked in the countryside. Enjoyable, yes, but…serious and always planned in advance.
Anita had often joked that Oliver and I were like an old married couple living in each other’s pockets, which we’d interpreted as her saying we were dull. Now, and with fresh insight, I had to admit her assessment had been at least partially true. It wasn’t that Oliver and I never had fun, because we did, but not often like Marco and I were today. I’d almost forgotten how awesome spontaneity could be.
We took our separate positions—me on my sled alone, and him on his garbage bag—and off we went. I leaned even farther forward, trying to gain speed, and without Marco’s weight added to the sled, I zipped down the hill faster than ever. As the wind rushed past me, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that he was already stuck near the top.
“Watch out!” somebody yelled, and when I turned my head, I saw two kids running across the middle of the track, only fifteen yards away. I yanked on the handles of my sled and turned a hard left, sending myself directly over the large snow jump I’d thus far chosen to avoid.
With a sharp yelp, I became airborne for a few seconds before landing on the ground with a hard thud, my hands still clinging to my sled. I yanked on the handles again, pulling so hard one of them snapped, and instead of stopping, I hurtled toward a metal garbage bin. There was only one way out of this, so I launched myself off the sled, my body rolling twice before I finally came to a standstill, face down in the snow.
“Oof,” I said, thinking it was hilarious until I felt the sharp, shooting pain in my hip.
“Oh, my goodness. Did you hurt yourself?”
The female voice sounded familiar, and when I pushed myself onto my back and looked up, Sarah Barratt stood above me with Oliver by her side, his forehead crinkling into a deep frown.
“Callie?” Oliver said. “What on earth are you doing? Are you okay?”
This couldn’t be happening. What were the chances of us being here at the exact same time with them witnessing me careening off my sled? Where was a good old-fashioned sinkhole when you needed one?
“I—I think I’m all right.” I sat up and winced as the pain in my side hit me full on. I tried a smile, which felt closer to a bizarre grimace, and added what I hoped would be a somewhat casual-sounding, “What a surprise seeing you here.”
“Yeah,” Oliver said. “Um, Callie, this is Sarah.”
“Nice to meet you.” I aimed for another bright smile but didn’t quite get there.
“Callie!” Marco rushed over. “Wow, you really wiped out there. You okay?”
“Let me help you,” Oliver said, ignoring Marco completely as he held out a hand. Although I couldn’t be certain, I thought I saw a frown cross Sarah’s face.
“I’m fine, honestly. I just whacked my hip,” I replied, except when I got to my feet without Oliver’s help, I wanted to sink to the ground again. Trying not to limp the few steps across the path to a snow-covered bench, I hobbled as best I could and slumped down.
“You look like you’re in pain,” Marco said as he came over.
“Who are you?” Oliver asked, his voice so sharp it made me raise an eyebrow.
“This is Marco.” I hoped he wouldn’t ask me to elaborate. The entire situation was already awkward enough. “Marco, this is Oliver and Sarah.”
“Pleasure,” Marco said, turning back to me. “Do you think you should get checked out?”
“No.” I winced again. “Honestly, I’m only a bit bruised.”
“Did you drive here?” Oliver asked. “If not, maybe we can take you—”
“Honey.” Sarah put what I immediately interpreted as a territorial hand on his shoulder. “We’re expected at the engagement party venue in half an hour, and it’s a twenty-minute drive.”
“Oh, right.” Oliver looked at me. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I said. “I’m perfectly okay to get home by myself.”
“It’s all right,” Marco said. “I’ll drive you.”
Oliver stared at him for a few seconds, then jokingly said, “Might be a good idea. We wouldn’t want Calamity Callie to have any more accidents today, would we?”
“No, we certainly wouldn’t.” I gave him a pointed look, thinking the way he was talking down at me—quite literally as I was sitting on a bench—was slightly reminiscent of Grant’s attitude at the office. I didn’t like it.
Oliver turned to Sarah. “Callie has a history of these kinds of accidents. One time in elementary school, there was a juice box incident right before a Christmas concert. It was quite hilarious, and—”
“Would you like us two to have some hot chocolate, Callie?” Marco asked. “I think I spotted a food truck around the corner.”
“I’d love to,” I replied, thankful he’d cut Oliver’s story short, but also wondering if my ex had always been this condescending. Maybe his posturing was an act to impress his sophisticated fiancée, except in my opinion, it was making him come across as an ass.
“Yes, we’d better get going, too,” Oliver said, chest puffing up. “Bye, guys.”
“Don’t kill me,” Marco said as we watched them walk away, “but the food truck left fifteen minutes ago.”
I laughed. “All is forgiven. I’m sorry for things being a bit weird just now.”
“Nothing to apologize for.” Marco took a seat next to me on the bench. “I figure there’s history between you. Oliver’s your ex?”
I nodded. “Yes, and we’re still at the same company here in Fallbrook.”
“Oof, that’s tricky. My ex-girlfriend Ruby helped us with Dessert Dudes’ admin for a while, but after we broke up, it was too difficult to keep working with her.”
I brushed the Ooh, Eggnog Man’s single voice in my head away and said, “It gets worse. As of yesterday morning, we work on the same floor, and they got engaged over the weekend.” I shook my head. “Sorry. That was a bit much to unload on you, wasn’t it?”
“Not at all. Had you been together long?”
“Ten years.”
He let out a whistle. “Wow.”
“Yeah. We split up in April, four weeks after moving here together. It was completely unexpected, and I swear it’s put me off dating completely.”
“That’s…a shame,” Marco said quietly, and I wondered if I’d caught a look of disappointment on his face or if it had been my imagination.
I waved a hand. “What about you and Ruby?”
“We dated for almost a year and a half. Things ended two months ago.” He shrugged. “I thought we were serious until I suspected she was seeing someone else.”
“Ouch,” I said, wondering why anyone would cheat on Marco when he seemed so kindhearted and genuine. “That must’ve been painful.”
“It was. She denied it, but I knew. There were small things, you know?”
“What made you suspicious?” I was suddenly curious if he’d picked up on signs in his relationship with Ruby that I’d completely missed in mine with Oliver. My ex had always maintained nothing happened between Sarah and him until he and I had split up, but I’d always wondered.
“It started with her never leaving her cell phone out in the open anymore,” Marco said. “Then came whispered calls she’d end as soon as I showed up. The final straw was a mysterious bunch of flowers. She insisted they were a mistake, but I could tell she was lying, so I ended things.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was for the best. How about you? What happened between you and Oliver?”
My turn to shrug. “He met Sarah. At least he was up-front about it, I guess.”
“Doesn’t sound like it was an easy breakup for you, either.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Are they ever?”
“Not in my experience,” Marco replied as he got up. “How’s the hip?”
“A little better, I think,” I said, stretching out my legs and wiggling my feet, but when I stood and took a step, I winced, trying not to pull a face.
“Need some help?” Marco asked. I nodded, and he gently put his arm around me to support my weight. “Would you like me to drive you home?”
“That would be great, thank you,” I said, and after a moment’s hesitation I leaned in. Pressed against his side, I relished Marco’s warmth, his strength, and I couldn’t help noticing how well our bodies moved in tandem as we made our way down the path. I pushed the notion away, reminding myself that he was simply here as a friend, helping me out. “Thanks for sledding with me. I had so much fun.”
Marco laughed, the warm, genuine sound making me smile some more. “No need to thank me. I had a great time, too, despite getting my ass handed to me repeatedly by the most competitive kid I’ve ever met. Next time, remind me to bring my own polar bear.”