Chapter 25
amber
The sun was shining when I finally rolled out of bed. James and I had worked on the last song late into the night. Add in the ungodly amount of food I’d eaten, and I was deep into slug status.
I’d checked in with Tate a few times, but his texts had been one-word replies.
I wasn’t sure if it was because he was worried about the opening or because he’d gone to see his dad. It was one thing he didn’t talk about. I couldn’t imagine losing my mom and my dad at the same time.
Being home had reminded me just how much I missed them. I grabbed my phone off the charger on my way out of my bedroom. James wasn’t moving quite yet, but that wasn’t surprising. She didn’t show her face before noon unless there was food involved.
I texted Lindz to let her know that James was still behaving. She was planning to head back to Winchester Falls today after we took a twirl through Wonderland. I wanted to wait until the initial crowd dispersed. I still didn’t trust that my appearance would help in any way.
I didn’t want anything to take away from the actual Haven Winter Wonderland.
I went downstairs and made a cup of strong coffee before showering and dressing for the day.
It wasn’t overly cold, so I went with jeans and a sweater with boots against the leftover mud from the good soaking we’d gotten the day before.
I did a full face of makeup just in case I ended up on camera, but I did skip anything sparkly or glam. I was just Amber today.
Hopefully.
As I was leaving my room, James was shuffling down the hall to the bathroom.
“Morning.”
She just grunted at me.
“I’ll make you some coffee.”
She grunted again and closed the bathroom door. I took that as a yes for coffee and went downstairs. My mother and father were already up and out of the house. She’d been too excited about seeing Tate’s masterpiece.
Since the television wasn’t on for the first time in days, I put on my rock playlist and made us a leftover platter. James liked her version of a girl plate with tons of finger foods. We still had a bunch of leftover appetizers and a metric ton of turkey.
When she showed her face, her hair was freshly washed and in a braid. She’d forgone her usual dark lined eyes and red lip, which completely changed her look. I was one of her longest friends and I just might have walked by her.
“You look like a small-town girl.”
“Okay, never mind. I’m going up to do my makeup.”
I grabbed her arm. “No, that’s perfect. No one will know who we are.” I dragged her over to the kitchen island. “I made food.”
“Okay, fine.”
“So, how’s it look out there?”
“I’m afraid to check.”
She rolled her eyes and stomped outside to look. “Holy shit.”
I blew out a breath and followed her. My jaw dropped at the line of people out there waiting in line. “God, I hope all of that is because of Wonderland and not me.”
“Not everything is about you, Sparkles.”
I wrinkled my nose at her. “I know that, but the local newspaper shouted out that I’d be there.”
“Oh. Well, I guess that could be a factor, but it sure sounds like people are enjoying themselves. Think they’ll have kettle corn or funnel cake?”
“It’s not a fair, James.”
“Fine. I can live in hope.” She went back inside and started demolishing the plate of food I’d made.
I was too nervous to eat much but managed to have a few pieces of turkey before we cleaned up. James’s guitar case and suitcase were by the door, ready for her to leave after she got a look at Tate’s masterpiece.
I made sure to go around the side entrance between our two properties and snuck into the village.
I felt a little bad cutting the exceptionally long line, but it was better than making a scene.
We ended up behind the knitwear booth when we popped out.
Instead of slipping into the foot traffic, I pointed to the top of the hill where the large photo options were.
“Think the lumberjack would be mad if I mounted the nutcracker dude?”
I snickered. “Don’t you dare. There are children here.”
“Lame.” James tucked her hands into her jacket. “This is pretty impressive. If he did the same thing in the city, I bet people would love it.”
“Imagine what that would cost? I’m pretty sure this cost way more than he expected.”
“He does have his own Sparkles to help out.”
I elbowed her. “Shut up.”
I imagined that Tate could do anything he wanted to in the end, but there was a magic to Haven that I wasn’t sure could be matched.
I might be biased, though. We walked around at the individual photo op areas.
I caught Valerie taking photos for the official social media channels.
I hooked my arm through James’s and steered her away before Valerie could see us.
I didn’t trust that woman at all.
She was always angling to find a way to get Tate. It didn’t even matter that he wasn’t interested even before I came into his life. In her mind, I was just a nuisance that needed to be dealt with.
Since she was distracted with the whole Santa situation, I was able to circumvent the whole crowd with James in tow.
She spotted the food and dragged us toward the large, festively decorated structure.
It was double the size of the retail spaces and I smiled when I saw Rudolph’s face painted on the sign for Reindeer Run.
Kettle corn and funnel cake were, in fact, on the list. I was pretty sure James was going to start clapping like one of the dozens of children running around.
“And you said there would be no fair food.”
“I stand corrected.”
Arms laden with sweets, James and I walked around the middle level of the village. She used her credit card with impunity and both of us carried all the bags with her purchases.
“Stop looking at me like that. I’m supporting local businesses.”
I laughed. “You sure are.”
“Hey, I have more people to buy for these days. All my band members keep pairing off. Ugh.”
“That’s a bad thing?”
“It is when they come with families. So annoying.”
There was happiness under the grumpy words. I led her down to the lower level where the crowd had thinned out a little. We ducked in and out of the smaller retailers. I ended up buying more ornaments for the little tree I was planning to put up in my room.
And maybe one at Tate’s.
I was minding my own business, shopping and laughing with James, when I first heard the murmurs. The hum of change put us both on alert. We’d been famous long enough to know the signs.
The murmurs were first. Then came the whispers. Then the phones came out.
I took James’s hand and pulled her out of the shop. Weaving through the crowd, we both moved quickly and efficiently as possible with an armload of purchases.
I felt the videos, more than saw the cameras. I glanced over my shoulder, knowing I shouldn’t. And instead of a stranger, I spotted Valerie. She was still on the hill where the photo op stations were. She was holding the stabilizer and zeroing in on me.
What the hell?
Suddenly phones came out of purses and pockets as the murmurs turned to excited voices. People were twisting their heads and scanning the crowd.
“Shit.” James said and nodded to the bottom of the path near the entrance.
I followed her gaze and swore. A fleet of people poured off a bus wearing my merch. Where the hell had they come from? Many of them had their phones out doing videos as they panned around the Wonderland. The first excited yell left me in a cold sweat.
A wall of people behind me, and to the left of us had accumulated while my attention was on the distant problem.
“Ambrose? Oh, my God. Can I have a photo?”
“Can we do a selfie? It’ll just be a second.”
“Ambrose, I love you. Are you going to sing ‘Christmas Fire’? Oh, my God.”
“Is she singing?”
They started closing in on us. Then the reactions doubled as they recognized James too.
“You two are friends? Is there a collab?”
“Are you a couple?”
My eyes widened. That was going to have legs on the internet.
“Now we’re boning?” James’s voice was amused as she turned until we were back-to-back. “Shit, they got close.”
“Yeah.” I glanced around, but there was no sign of Tate.
He was probably dealing with a million and one fires of his own.
I tried a genial smile. “Hi. I’m just shopping today.”
“Just one picture, please?”
The faces started blurring as people pushed forward. A child’s startled cry had me backing up.
“I’m sorry.” A woman in her forties sidled up toward me and held her phone up. “My daughter is going to just die. Hi sweetie, look who I ran into.”
The phone was on Facetime.
The scream through the phone created a chain reaction as phones came out and a wall of voices all started at once. Live streams, Facetimes to friends, Snapchats—all of it was getting twisted up until the voices didn’t make sense anymore.
The excitement turned to anger, as I didn’t react right in their minds.
“I knew she was stuck up.”
“Too good for her fans.”
“Sorry,” I whispered.
James was not of the flight category. She pushed back, her voice a snarl. “Back off. There’s a kid down here.”
It was too late; the crowd was already getting out of hand. Worse than the orchard by tenfold. The distant voices from the entrance of the village were now raised as the bus load of people realized I was in the crowd.
Our bags were torn out of our hands as the pushing got more dangerous.
“Rudolph,” I said aloud.
James shouldered back a pair of teens who were pushing forward in tears.
“Ambrose, please.”
I took her hand and between the two of us, we were able to push through a hole in the crowd. The only problem was the hoard was following us in a chase.
I had one plan. Get to Rudolph.
Rudolph was safety.