Stuck in Christmas (Holiday Magic #1)

Chapter 14

Fourteen

It was another beautiful December day in my personal holiday hell. The sun cast a sparkle over the bustling outdoor ice skating rink. Laughter and cheerful chatter filled the crisp air, mingling with the faint sound of holiday music from nearby speakers. The entire town seemed wired with them.

The rink, framed by tall pines dusted with snow, glimmered like a sheet of glass, reflecting the joy of skaters gliding skillfully across the surface. And the requisite hot chocolate stand was doing brisk business toward the entrance. I could almost taste the cocoa and tiny marshmallows.

I held Eli's hand tightly, excited and nervous, as he led me onto the ice. His smile was contagious, lighting up his face as we glided along the surface to stop in the far corner of the rink.

“You’re a ringer. I had no idea you were such a great skater,” Eli said. “You made it seem like you didn’t know how, and I was going to be your savior.”

I patted him on the jacket and smiled up at him. “I never said I couldn’t . I said it had been a while. When I was younger, I was in love with the Winter Olympics. I wanted to be a champion figure skater.”

“Wow. You are a woman of many talents, but I haven’t heard you talk about winning gold. What stopped you?” Eli prompted.

I laughed. “I realized I didn’t like the cold very much.”

He took my hand and began slowly skating around the outside of the rink, avoiding the showboating teenagers and rookie skaters who would be trip hazards if we went any faster. “It’s hard to be an ice skater in the summer.”

“Exactly. Plus, New Orleans isn’t exactly known as the ice skating rink capital of the world. If I were serious about that, we would have had to move to Wisconsin, where they have training rinks,” I answered.

“Wisconsin is freezing in the winter.”

“Not much warmer in the summer,” I snorted. “But don’t worry about me. Not long after I decided to give that up, I found my life purpose.”

Eli slowed to a halt along the edge. “Telling stories.”

I nodded. “Yes. Telling stories. Even as a kid, people would approach me and tell me their story. And not like they were talking to a child either, but like a grown-up. They had wonderful stories - places they’ve visited, people they met - and the more I heard about them, the more I wanted to tell others about them.”

“You are a pretty good storyteller,” Eli admitted.

“You read my writing?” I blinked a few times. When did he have time to do that? More importantly - how - did he do that?

He shrugged. “I might have looked you up.”

My jaw dropped. “Your internet is working?”

“I read it on my phone.”

“You have service?”

Eli’s brow furrowed. “Sure. Don’t you?”

I pulled my useless phone out of my coat pocket and showed it to him. “No bars. I haven’t been able to tell anyone where I am.”

The blood drained from his face as he considered what I just said. “Oh, no. I’m sure people are wondering where you are.”

I sighed. “I know they are.”

Eli held his phone toward me. “If you want to borrow my phone, here you go.”

I snatched that phone out of his hands so fast that the momentum nearly sent me to my backside. Thankfully, Mr. Strong-And-No-I’m-Not-Thinking-Of-His-Hard-Spots Marine caught me before I could crash to the ice. I barely registered it as I stared at his phone, and my heart sank.

“You don’t have bars either.” I reluctantly handed him back his phone.

Eli angrily shoved the phone into his jeans pocket and skated away from me a few inches. “Sorry. Guess you’ll have to wait a little longer to call your boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” I frowned. “Who said anything about a boyfriend?”

He shrugged. “I assumed when you said people were wondering where you were.”

I bit back a smile. Jealousy was adorable on this guy. “No boyfriend. The spa I had reservations for is probably wondering where I am. I was supposed to be there days ago.”

“Days ago? You just got here yesterday.”

I closed my eyes and tipped back my head. Was I praying? Asking for guidance? It’s not like any of those tactics worked in my previous nine days stuck in this hellscape. “It’s a long story.”

“I like your stories.”

“You’re not going to believe me when I tell you.” I shook my head.

“Try me,” Eli urged, his blue eyes boring into me.

I took a deep breath. “I’m stuck in Christmas, Mississippi.” I held up a hand to stave off the protests that Eli always gives me when I say that. “Now, before you get all bent out of shape about me saying ‘stuck’ - I don’t mean it’s a terrible place to be. I mean, I’m stuck . I keep re-living the same day over and over again.”

He glanced around the rink. “So, we’ve been ice skating before?”

“Well - no.”

“I’m confused.”

A teenager barrelled straight toward us, and I pulled Eli out of the way. “Every day is a little different. I start in the snowbank outside of Bonnie’s.”

Eli pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry about that. I should’ve shoveled.”

I put my hand over his mouth. “Stop. That’s not the problem. I start in the snowbank, then the next morning, Joe or Bonnie sends us on one errand or another.”

“Errand? Like what? ”

“Picking a Christmas tree, baking cookies, sledding.”

“Sledding is an errand?” Eli asked.

I laughed at that one. “You suggested that as a reward for the cookie baking.”

He nodded. “That sounds like me.”

“That’s because it was you. Well, the you of yesterday. Or today, but another you,” I sighed. “But, ice skating today - that was my idea. I thought it might move things along if we checked off the holiday movie BINGO faster.”

Eli tilted his head. “How are you stuck?”

“There comes a point whenever you and I get close, something happens, and I fall right back into the snowbank,” I said.

“What happens?”

I felt the warmth flush over my face. “I can’t tell you that.”

Eli’s eyes narrowed. “Can’t or won’t?”

I looked toward the sky again. Waiting for divine intervention. Or, maybe I was looking in the wrong direction if this was indeed hell. I looked at my feet. “I don’t know why the day keeps resetting. I am doing everything right. There’s a hot guy with a truck, precocious kid, romantic Christmas-y things going on.”

“It is a romantic time of year,” Eli agreed.

“And just like that.” I snapped my fingers. “Back in the snowbank. I know this is all a dream, and I’ll wake up soon.”

“Doesn’t feel like a dream to me,” Eli’s voice dropped. It made me not think of dim lighting in bedrooms with soft beds and smexy pajamas .

I smiled at him. “Of course, the figment of my imagination would say that.”

Eli shook his head. “Hold on. I’m no figment of anything. I’m real flesh and blood.”

“Right.” I nodded.

He tenderly took my hand and placed it over his heart. “Does that feel like a figment of your imagination?”

I felt his heart beating quickly, matching my racing pulse almost perfectly. I swallowed. “No.”

Eli hugged me, his warmth surrounding me and those strong arms holding me tight. “Does this feel like a figment of your imagination?”

I closed my eyes, wishing I could make this moment last forever. These moments were the best part of this whole mess. If only I could have more of them. “Of course not,” I whispered.

Eli dipped me back, presumably to kiss me, but the movement startled me. I turned my head at the last minute, falling out of his embrace and smack dab in the middle of a snowbank.

“Snickerdoodles!” I yelled.