Christmas Eve Love Story

Thirteen

On the fourth Christmas Eve

Fa-la-la-la-la. La-la. La—!

Annie popped up in bed like a jack-in-the-box, grasping her phone.

She stared down at its screen as light peered through her window.

Dec 24

Winter Storm Warning

This time she didn’t blink. She pushed back the covers, nudging Leo onto the floor. He landed on his feet and meowed.

“I know, I know,” she told him. “ You don’t remember yesterday, but I do.”

She swung her feet to the floor, pulling her right foot back as she reached down and picked up Leo’s wand toy. She shook it in her hand. “Not this time.” She set it on her nightstand and stood, heaving a deep breath before striding to the window.

Okay. No snow on the fire escape, which meant there’d be none out front either.

And there wasn’t!

Leo’s stocking also wasn’t filled. She stepped around a cat ball in the kitchen with a tiny silver bell in it. As if he needs more toys.

Her open laptop sat on the table.

Yep.

Dec 24 7:08 AM

She spotted the candy canes on the tree and something else. One of the cookbooks was missing from the bookshelf in the kitchen, leaving a rectangular gaping hole. Yes . There it was! Beside her electric kettle. So, Harrington? Could she hope that he’d really gotten that chili?

No. He couldn’t have. If this was Christmas Eve, he still hadn’t returned from Miami. Hang on. She peered into the sink basin and jumped! Only one empty mug sat in the sink, the telltale remnants of hot cocoa left in its bottom. What about Bea’s mug? Annie was certain she’d had her over. She was equally positive she’d had new conversations with Braden yesterday. Not only with him. With Harrington too, and Eric. Plus Jane.

But since it was the twenty-fourth, she’d have to start over again with everything. Her pulse skittered. Don’t panic. She could do the day over and do it better . Of course she could. Whether anybody else remembered it or not, she would. And, if today wasn’t good enough—

Noooo!

Annie caught her breath.

She couldn’t possibly be stuck here forever?

Her throat closed up.

Could she?

Leo wound himself around her ankles and meowed.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll feed you.” She did that carefully, responding to the intercom when it buzzed, announcing her package delivery. In a strange way she was looking forward to this day. Sure, it had its downsides, but there were upsides too. Annie felt like she was on a teeter-totter that was tilting in the opposite direction. It was enough to make her wonder whether enduring the bad parts of this time loop had been worth it.

No, Annie. Stop!

Seriously. What was she thinking? Nothing could have been worse than the chaos that unfolded at the store and having Veronica Lawson—of all people—happen upon it. Thank goodness she and Braden had been able to rectify the damage. Her heart fluttered when she recalled them working together, so seamlessly in tandem. She remembered her mission. The package, right, and coffee with Jane. Not romance with Braden. Although a few lilting thoughts hovered over that notion too.

Annie slipped into her coat and boots, remembering about the toilet paper. She walked into the bathroom and got the toilet paper roll, setting it on a high shelf in the bathroom linen closet. That door closed with a click. She grumbled to herself, “This is ridiculous.” She grabbed her name tag off her desk in the bedroom, pinning it on the black vest hanging in her closet. That door closed with a click as well. Leo followed along, watching her every move. “Not this time, Leo.” Today, she’d be better prepared for other things too.

Annie sprang back when the snow mound cascaded onto the stoop and picked up Jane’s package. A short time later, she sat in the stairwell with Jane outside Jane’s apartment. Jane handed her a coffee mug, and Annie remembered the candy canes in her coat pocket. “Oh hey! I brought us something.”

“Brought us?” Jane asked. “What do you mean?”

“Erm. I’ve got these.” She pulled out the two candy canes, and Jane laughed.

“Look at you, a walking-talking Christmas elf.”

Annie handed Jane one. “I used to stir these in my coffee back in high school.”

“Did you?” Jane stared at her treat. “Was it any good?”

“Delicious!” Annie unwrapped her candy cane and plopped it in her coffee.

Jane grinned. “All right. I’ll try it.”

“You weren’t kidding about Amazing Agatha,” Annie said. “I saw the doll at work. She’s pricey.”

Jane rolled her eyes. “Super pricey. We’re talking a whole week’s worth of rent.” She unwrapped her candy cane, adding it to her coffee as well and stirring it around a couple of times. She rested her coffee mug on her knee. “Well.” She shrugged. “If people will pay it.”

“Yeah,” Annie said. “Guess so.”

Jane drank from her coffee. “If only there really was a Santa Claus.”

Annie thought of the Santa at Lawson’s, but no. He wasn’t the Santa Claus. At best, he was some sort of wizard. She wouldn’t tell Jane about that, though, or mention time travel either. She’d learned her lesson about that from Braden yesterday. “That would be epic.”

“How old were you?” Jane asked her, “when you stopped believing?”

“Me? Oh.” Annie’s heart hurt. “Probably around nine.”

Jane nodded. “Guess that’s a typical age, though some kids wise up sooner.” She must have noticed the storm clouds rolling across Annie’s face. Jane leaned toward her. “Okay. Truth time. What did I say?”

“You?” Annie asked. “Nothing.” What did it hurt to give this tidbit up? Jane wouldn’t even remember it tomorrow. “I just”—Annie paused—“what I mean is, nine was a hard age. I lost my folks then.”

Jane’s eyes watered. “Oh, Annie. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right.” Annie picked up her coffee and took a sip. “Life went on.”

“Did you…?” Jane winced. “Go to live with relatives? What?”

Annie’s memories tugged her back in time.

Blue lights flashed in the driveway, painting streaks against the living room windows as heavy snow fell outdoors. Her sitter Debbie sat beside her on the sofa in silence, hugging her elbows to herself. Debbie’s mom sat in an armchair, and the lady police officer stood in the hall, while a second officer waited in their cruiser.

Tires crunched on the snow, and a car door popped open, slamming shut. Seconds later, Grandma Mable arrived in the living room, her coat and white hair dusted with snow and her face long. “Annie. Sweetheart.” She held out her arms and hugged Annie, but Annie couldn’t move. Or speak. She could barely think. All she could do was wish with all her might that none of this was real. Just a terrible, terrible dream—and that she’d soon wake up.

Jane laid a hand on Annie’s arm, and Annie turned toward her. “My Grandma Mable took me in. She was my grandma on my dad’s side, and the only relative I had in Red Bank at the time.”

“New Jersey?”

“Yeah.” She shrugged out of her coat. “My mom’s parents were still around, but they were older and in ill health, plus they lived in Canada. I guess the family thought that move would have been too big a change.”

Jane set her chin. “Sounds like that was the right call?”

Annie nodded. “I was able to stay at my same school and keep my friends—for a while.” Annie folded over her coat, setting it on the step beside her. “But, later in elementary school, that friend group pretty much faded away. I was the odd one out, I guess, and it was awkward for the other girls that I didn’t have parents—or even divorced parents, like some of them. Things got a little rough in middle school. The only one who never made an issue of my home situation was Tina. We met in the seventh grade.”

“Are you still in touch with Tina?”

Annie frowned. “Not at present. We sort of had a falling-out.”

“Ugh. Sorry. And your Grandma Mable? Is she still in Red Bank?”

“No. She died the year after I graduated from high school. I came to live in the city after that. Tina was in school here, and she encouraged me.”

“Jeez”—Jane stared at the ceiling—“and there I thought my childhood was rough because my brothers picked on me.” She said it lightly, like it hadn’t been a serious big deal, and Annie was glad for the turn in the conversation. Anything to take her mind off Red Bank and those difficult early years.

“Did they?”

“Only until I learned to whip their tails.” Jane held up her arm and flexed a muscle. “Brown belt in judo.”

Annie chuckled, liking Jane so much. This also made her feel a little guilty about Tina, but she wasn’t replacing their friendship. She was simply making a new friend, she hoped. Tina had always had other friends besides her, and Annie had understood. Maybe she’d been too dependent on Tina without realizing it. “Good for you!” She thought on this. “Do you get along with your brothers now?”

“Oh yeah,” Jane said easily. “We’re tighter than tight.” She winked at Annie. “That’s because they respect me.”

“Ha! Bet so.”

Jane took another sip of coffee. “Mmm, this is really good.” She grinned. “Minty.”

Annie’s tensions eased. “Peppermint-y, yeah.” She blinked when it hit her. She was tasting the peppermint—very strongly, and it was super good. She wondered about Jane and what her story was.

“I’m lucky, I know.” Jane’s face fell. “It’s just hard sometimes being on my own with Cari.”

“So Cari’s dad isn’t—?”

Jane shook her head. “We had a thing back in high school. When he found out I was pregnant, he wanted nothing to do with it.”

An arrow shot through Annie’s heart. That sounded terrible. So callous.

“But I understand,” Jane said. “We were just kids ourselves.”

“But aren’t there laws?”

Jane’s eyes were rimmed with sadness. “To what? Force him to participate? Make him want to be her dad?” There was no anger in her voice, only sorrow. This moved Annie.

Jane sighed. “I make more money than he does anyway, and his life hasn’t been good. He’s had trouble—with things.” Annie wondered with what. With the law? With drugs? She didn’t dare ask. She was touched that Jane was confiding in her.

“I’m sorry, Jane.”

“Life’s not all gloom and doom.” She looked up with an impish grin. “My ex’s parents are involved, and I’ve got Sam.”

“Boyfriend?”

Her grin broadened, and she got a salty look in her eyes. “Girlfriend. We’ve been together five months now.”

Even though she didn’t know Jane well, it did Annie’s heart good to know that she had someone. “So Sam’s in Brooklyn?”

“Sadly, no. Akron.” Jane crossed her arms. “We met online like pretty much everyone these days and are trying to make it work.”

“If it’s meant to be, it will happen.”

“Hope so,” Jane said. “Because I really like Sam. She’s stable. Caring. Plus, the kid loves her.”

“Well, that says a lot.”

Jane nodded. “It does.” She studied Annie a moment. “How about you? Got someone special?”

“I…did? But we were a bad fit.”

“Bummer.” She raised her coffee mug and took a sip.

“Roy had—opinions.”

“Uh-oh,” Jane said, clearly not liking the sound of that.

Annie blew out a breath. “At first, I thought it was good, you know? He was a little older, and I wrongly thought wiser. I was kind of adrift after losing Grandma Mable, and newish in a big city. Then along came Roy, promising to solve everything. In retrospect, he probably caused more problems than he solved,” she said, stewing over her painful rift with Tina.

“Sounds like he was a bad fit, in that case.” She toasted Annie’s coffee mug with hers. “Here’s to moving on.”

“Yeah.” Annie smiled, feeling stronger about that.

“How long ago was this?”

“We broke up last summer.”

Jane nudged her with her elbow. “So, hey. Maybe someone else will come along?”

Annie’s pulse fluttered. Someone tall, dark, and handsome with bright-blue eyes.

“Wait one New York minute!” Jane grinned. “Or maybe they already have?”

“Not sure,” she said shyly. “Maybe?”

Jane winked. “Good things happen at Christmas.”

“That’s what I hear.”

If only she could get there.