“Hi,” she breathed as he neared. Then, realizing how breathy the word had come out, cleared her throat. “Are you ready to tackle this?”
He took a deep breath and looked out at the copious Christmas decorations surrounding them. Towering Christmas trees filled the open area, with giant nutcrackers standing at attention around them. Archways of lights and garlands led into the hallways in all three directions. Reindeer were grazing in fields of puffy cotton snow. Every pillar was wrapped like a giant candy cane, and every kiosk was transformed to look like it belonged at the North Pole.
“I’m pretty sure that if we handled getting the ad campaign for Lelepali Luminaries up and running, we can handle this.”
Noelle laughed. That campaign had nearly killed them all before they made it to the end. She didn’t think he entirely believed that they’d make it to the end of this, but she’d get him there. “Who do you need to buy for?”
“I’ve already ordered something for the employees, so just Rachel and Aiden and a couple of friends. And Rachel asked me to pick up some things for her.”
“Do you know what you want to get any of them?”
He shook his head. “Rachel gave me her shopping list, but for the gifts I need to get, no.”
“Well, I have some ideas for Rachel. There’s a store that’ll be perfect down this way.” As they walked down the giant candy cane- and garland-lined hallways, she couldn’t stop thinking about his list. It was such a small group of people to shop for. Her own list was wonderfully, ridiculously, overwhelmingly long. Then she realized something about his list that he hadn’t mentioned. “No gifts for parents?”
“No. They passed away.”
“Oh.” The words felt like a stab. Why had she brought it up when he hadn’t mentioned them? “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s fine. It was a long time ago. They were in a car together when they got in a terrible crash.”
“Was it at Christmastime?” She wondered if that was why he seemed to really dislike the season.
He shook his head. “Summertime.” She didn’t think he would say anything more—and she definitely wasn’t going to ask—but after a long pause, he spoke again. “My parents didn’t get along great, so they seldom went places together. But they had gone to an outdoor concert and crashed on the way home. I was fifteen, and Rachel was eighteen. She had just graduated from high school, and the courts allowed her to be my guardian. So for a long time, it was just Rachel and me. Until Aiden came along, of course.”
Noelle stopped outside of the store she had been leading them to. “And Aiden’s father?”
“He’s never been in the picture.”
She nodded. She’d guessed that had been the case. As they walked inside, she said, “My Aunt Sharon went through chemotherapy a few years ago. I remember that she was really grateful to have a silk sleep mask that she could use during treatments. Oh, like those over there.
“And if you want to get her some fuzzy socks or a really soft blanket, this would be a good store for that. Maybe even an electric blanket. And there’s a great store just a little further down where they have some moisturizers to die for. My aunt had complained about dry skin a lot. And lip balm. Some comfy sweats. Maybe some ginger candies for nausea—I bet we could find some in a candy store or something. Oh! A HEPA air purifier might be good, too.” She paused. “What?”
He was giving her a strange look that she couldn’t quite interpret. She liked what it did to the corners of his mouth and the brightness of his eyes. Even the slight tilt to his head. But had no idea what it was.
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug but kept those bright eyes on her. “You’re really good at this.”
She might have blushed. But she hated blushing, so she waved off his comment, commanding her body to do the same, and said, “You haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until you witness my ability to find the exact clothing size needed when there doesn’t appear to be any. It’s legendary.”
It wasn’t legendary—it just happened sometimes. Why did she say that? She was probably going to get a chance to back up her words with action on this shopping trip, and it was going to be embarrassing when she failed.
He selected a sleep mask and an unbelievably soft electric blanket that would make even the most workaholic insomniac snuggle up and fall right asleep. As they were in line to pay, he said, “Tell me about your grandma. You said she was the most important person to you? And the reason why you took the job to help Aiden?”
All the feelings of loss that she’d been suppressing while being in this mall at Christmastime came rushing back to her at once. She knew she had to get a handle on them quickly or she’d be a sobbing mess. That was very much not how she wanted this shopping trip to go.
She swallowed hard. And then, instead of focusing on how much she missed her right now, she focused on the great memories they had together.
“Gran-gran was ... my person. The one who got me. You met my three older sisters—Becca, Hope, and Julianne—at my parents. They’re each just under a year and a half apart in age, but because of when their birthdays fell, they’re only a year apart in school. Which meant that they went through a lot of the same milestones very close to the same time. Sports, dance lessons, starting to date, school dances, getting driver’s licenses, deciding on a college, and all those kinds of things. They just took a lot of attention, and all three of them needed a lot of it at the same time.
“I am three years younger than them, and Katie is three years younger than me. She got a lot of attention from my parents, too, just by being the youngest. And I was kind of ... forgotten. Not purposely,” she quickly added. “My family isn’t like that. I just kind of got lost in the middle of it all.”
Jack nodded, his face looking thoughtful, but he stayed quiet, waiting for her to continue. But then it was their turn at the register, so she held off on her story until the items were paid for, in a bag, and they were heading out of that shop and onto the next one.
“Gran-gran was a middle child, too, and she knew entirely too well what that felt like. She always made me feel not forgotten. Important. But not only that, we just got along really well. Like from the moment I was born. She always used to say that we’d been best friends in heaven and that I sure took my sweet time coming to earth so she could get her BFF back.”
Jack chuckled. It was a good sound. And it made her realize how good it was for her to talk about all of this. As much as she thought that doing things like this that she used to only do with Gran-gran would be painful, doing them with Jack was actually helping her heart. Like it was nourishing it and allowing it to heal.
“She loved Christmas more than anything, so of course, I did, too. And we did a lot of Christmas traditions together. The cards I got from her were the things we used to do together, painted by her. I still have no idea how they showed up on my doorstep, but I know that she wanted me to continue doing them.”
