My head spun as I tried to understand what I was seeing. It was like gazing directly into the past. Over the years, I’d pretty much forgotten what he looked like. But now it all came back. The horn-rimmed glasses. The good-natured smile. The wisps of graying hair around the edges of his otherwise bald head.
“But how . . . ?” I whispered.
I looked at the note framed beside the photo. The writing was unfamiliar.
Dear Lexi, it said. I was so touched and honored when your boyfriend contacted me and told me your story. I’m retired now, but naturally I immediately remembered the bright little girl who was so interested in my lab all those years ago. I’m so glad to know that your mother is still doing well, and am especially thrilled to hear that you intend to pursue a science career yourself! I hope you will enjoy this photo—I don’t know if you recall, but one of the nurses snapped it that day just by chance. When I retired a few years back, she included it in the scrapbook they all made me. And now I want you to have it. Always stay curious, and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you ever need anything. Best wishes, Dr. William J. Ericsson.
Tears filled my eyes as I read the note a second time. I couldn’t believe Cam had done this. How long had it taken him to track down the right doctor? I couldn’t imagine how he’d managed it.
My emotions were going crazy as I thought about it. I was so touched by his thoughtful, personal, caring gift that it gave me a sudden surge of new energy—and a new idea. . . .
A few people turned to stare as I walked into the festively decorated fireman’s hall a short while later. And no wonder. I was dressed as a reindeer—hind end only. I’d hitched up the extra fabric of the costume with Dad’s Christmas suspenders, which were decorated with little wreaths.
The Ball was in full swing. At one end of the hall, a live band dressed as elves was playing a rousing version of “Deck the Halls,” and tons of people were dancing and singing along with the “fa la la la la” parts. The walls were draped with the garlands and swags we’d all worked so hard for the past couple of months to make, the ceiling dripped with mistletoe and blinking holiday lights, and the squat blue spruce behind the band was so heavily decorated, there was hardly a needle in sight. The bar and refreshments area was doing a booming business; Mom’s shrimp canapés seemed to be a particular hit, since I saw at least three people enjoying them within the first thirty seconds after I arrived. People had been creative with their costumes as usual—in addition to the expected elves, snowmen, and Santas, I spotted an icicle, a potted poinsettia, and a couple of wrapped gifts.
But I took all that in only peripherally, with the detached, perpetually observant part of my mind. Most of my focus was on finding Cam. I looked around for him, but it was hard to see very far in the dense crowd.
I took a few steps farther into the room. “Hi, Lexi,” someone said from nearby. “Merry Christmas!”
“Same to you,” I replied, glancing over and recognizing my ninth-grade history teacher, who was standing with her husband. They were dressed as what appeared to be a Victorian-era Santa and Mrs. Claus. Or maybe it was Elizabethan era. History was never my best subject. Either way, I gasped as I suddenly caught sight of a couple dancing a few yards beyond them. “Um, would you excuse me?”
I rushed past them and over to the other couple, so shocked by what I was seeing that all thoughts of Cam, the future, and everything else had been wiped out of my mind, at least for the moment. Because that other couple was Allie and Nick. They were dancing together, which was no huge surprise. But they were also kissing!
“Hey!” I blurted out, skidding to a stop in front of them. “What’s going on?”
Okay, so it wasn’t the most tactful approach. But I’d had a rough day. Make that a rough couple of months.
They sprang apart as if I’d hit them with a Taser. “Lexi!” Allie cried, her face immediately going bright red.
Nick kept his composure a little better. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “I thought you were, ahem, ‘home sick.’”
“I was. I mean, I—Don’t change the subject!” I exclaimed. “I saw you guys—you were totally making out!”
“Would you believe us if we blamed the mistletoe?” Nick asked, squinting upward.
I crossed my arms over my fuzzy reindeer chest. “Try again.”
“We’re so sorry we didn’t tell you, Lexi,” Allie cried, grabbing my arm. She looked totally adorable as the Xmas Genie, by the way. The costume suited her much better than me. “We didn’t mean to keep secrets. But you were so bummed out about the whole Cam thing, and then once a few weeks had gone by, it just seemed kind of awkward. . . .”
“Wait, what?” I was really having trouble taking this in now. My scientific mind had already started plugging the strange little scene I’d just interrupted into a logical sequence. They’d come to the Ball, neither with another date; they’d danced together, gotten a little carried away . . . But no. It sounded like there was a lot more to it than that.
Nick took a deep breath. “Okay, here’s the deal,” he said. “Allie was really cool to me after Rachel and I broke up. Especially since, um, a lot of people were, you know, kind of distracted by other things.”
I felt a pang of guilt. Come to think of it, I hadn’t really paid that much attention to Nick’s heartbreak after the first week or two. Not only had I been distracted by the whole Cam situation, but also by the SATs, the Simpson Scholarship, my classes at school . . .
“Anyway, we started getting kind of, you know, close,” Allie picked up the story. “Then a while ago, the two of us spent a lot of time together working on the kids’ room decorations, remember? That’s when we realized we were starting to like each other as, um, more than friends.”
“Oh.” I blinked. “Wait. So like, that time I stopped by your house when you guys were making the paper chains . . .”
I paused as Allie giggled and shot Nick a glance. He grinned.
“Yeah, that was interesting timing,” he told me. “If you’d barged in about thirty seconds earlier, you would’ve interrupted our first kiss.”
“Really?” I thought back, trying to remember the details of that day. I’d been pretty wrapped up in my own stuff at the time, what with having just survived that disastrous dinner with Andrew and realizing how colossally wrong I’d been to let Cam go. Even so, how had I missed the clues? If I’d been paying more attention, would I have caught them sooner?
Allie was peering at me with concern. “Are you mad at us for not telling you?” she asked. “We wanted to. But we weren’t sure you were ready to deal with it. You know, considering your state of mind with the Cam thing and all.”
“Yeah,” Nick said. “We figured it would be better to wait until you and Cam were back together.” He shrugged. “Who knew it would take so long?”
I wasn’t sure what to say. My cousin and my best friend, a couple . . . I was awed and confused and surprised and a little weirded out by this unexpected romance that had happened right under my nose without my ever noticing. So much for my observant scientific nature. Not to mention my worries about not wanting anything in our tight little group to ever change.
“Oh,” I said. “Um. Well, I can’t say I’m not surprised. But I’m pretty sure that once my brain is working again, I’ll think this is a good thing.” I smiled. “Congratulations. I’m happy for you two. And I might forgive you for keeping this secret if you promise to tell me everything now. Or, rather, a little later. Right now I have something I came here to do.”
“Really?” Allie shot a look at Nick. He raised his eyebrows curiously. But neither of them asked any questions. That was a couple of really good friends for you.
I gave them a wave and moved off through the crowd. My shock at what I’d just found out was fading a little, and my mind was getting back to the reason I was here.
It only took another minute or two to locate Cam and Jaylene. They were standing at the edge of the dance floor, watching the action out there
and nibbling at a shared plate of snacks. Cam was dressed as a very handsome Nutcracker. Jaylene looked even more incredible in her Naughty Elf costume than she had at the store. Seeing them standing there together, totally wrapped up in each other, I almost lost my nerve. But I shoved that aside, took a deep breath, and walked right up to them.
“Hi, Lexi! Merry Christmas.” Jaylene scanned my half-reindeer getup, looking a little confused. “Uh, cute outfit.”
“Thanks. Yours too,” I replied. “Um, can I borrow Cam for a sec? It’s important.”
“No problem, Lexi.” Jaylene seemed as unperturbed by my presence as usual. “Ah was just going to visit the little girls’ room anyhow.”
She wandered off. I grabbed Cam by the arm and dragged him away, barely allowing him enough time to set his plate down on a table nearby.
“What is it, Lexi?” he asked. “And what happened to the other half of the costume? If you thought I still had it, I brought it over to your house weeks ago, remember? Although it’s really made for two people, so I don’t know if—”
“No, it’s not that.” I turned to face him. We had just left the main hall and were now in a quiet hallway that led back to some dark and empty offices. “I only wore the bottom half of the costume on purpose. That’s because I realized I’ve been a real ass lately.”
“Huh?” He looked startled.
“It all started a few months ago at that big last-day-of-freedom party at the lake the night before our first day of senior year . . . ,” I began.
And then I proceeded to tell him the truth. About deciding we would be better off splitting up. About setting him up with Jaylene. About all the crazy things I’d done since then trying to win him back.
“So basically, I’ve been a total moron,” I finished. “But it’s all because I didn’t really appreciate what I had with you until it was gone.”
He hadn’t said a word all through my confession. By the end he looked as stunned as someone who’d just been run over by Santa’s sleigh, including all eight reindeer.
“Wow,” he said at last, his tone and expression completely blank. “I can’t believe it.”
My heart sank. Had I just blown it? Judging by the look on his face, I was afraid my earlier fears had been right. Now that he knew everything, it could very well be the end of any chances we might have had.
But then: a Christmas miracle. Cam smiled.
“Wow,” he said again. “I know how hard that must have been for you.”
“Huh?” I said. “You mean being apart from you?”
He chuckled. “No,” he said. “Well, okay, maybe that too. But I was talking about how tough that must have been just now—you coming out like that and admitting your mistakes. And your fears about the future. And your lack of control.”
Okay. So maybe he did know me pretty well.
“Um, yeah. Kind of. Maybe,” I admitted, realizing it was true. All this time I’d been using his own honesty as an excuse not to tell him the truth. And that really had been part of it. But maybe another part had been not wanting to admit I was wrong. I’d been a straight-A student for a long time. I wasn’t used to making many big mistakes.
He gazed at me, still smiling. “A lot of people probably don’t realize how cautious you can be about some things, Lexi,” he said. “You’re so direct, it’s easy to assume you never have any doubts or fears about anything. But I’ve seen the way you can sort of hide behind that directness, you know?”
I didn’t, actually. At least not until he said it. But again, I realized he was right. Maybe sometimes I did just plow ahead when I might be better off admitting I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I would have to think more about that later.
“I didn’t want you to know what I’d done,” I told him, not ready to let myself off the hook just yet. “I figured you’d be shocked and horrified by how I’d been so manipulative and dishonest and stuff.”
“Horrified, maybe.” He winked. “But actually, now that I’m clued in, I can’t say I’m really all that surprised. Science geek or not, nobody can say you’re not creative!”
I laughed a little, finally starting to relax as I realized he really wasn’t going to hold this against me. But then my nervousness returned as I realized we were still dancing around the main point.
“So,” I said, calling up that directness he’d just been talking about. “I guess I’m asking you to make a choice here, huh?” I swallowed hard, trying not to picture Miss Sexy Elf waiting for him back in the other room. “Me or Jaylene.”
He glanced down at the floor for a moment. Lifting one hand, he ran it over his face and up through his hair, dislodging the little soldier’s cap from his Nutcracker costume. I felt queasy. This was it—after he answered, I would know my fate for sure. If he chose Jaylene, I only hoped he’d let me down easy. . . .
Then he looked up again and met my eye. “Don’t be an idiot,” he said, his voice suddenly hoarse and low. “That’s no choice at all, Lexi. It’s you. It’s always been you and only you for me.”
I gasped, relief flooding through me so violently that my knees wobbled and I was afraid I might have to sit down. “Really?”
“Of course. These past few weeks have driven that home more than ever.” He blew out a loud sigh. “It was killing me to think things might really be over between us. The only reason I went along with the whole Jaylene thing in the first place is because she was so totally different from you in every way. I thought maybe that would distract me a little once I got to be pretty sure you were pulling away.” He smiled rather wanly. “See? I can pick up a hint. And I knew if you’d decided you didn’t want to be with me anymore, there was no point trying to change your mind.”
“That sounds just like what Nick and Allie keep telling me,” I murmured. “Am I really that stubborn?”
“Let’s just call it determined. Anyway, I figured it was better to let you go with some dignity if you’d made up your mind. That way I figured at least maybe we could still be friends.”
“Yeah. I always definitely wanted us to stay friends too. I couldn’t imagine not having you in my life.” I gazed at him thoughtfully. “But listen, Cam, if you really thought I was making a mistake or treating you unfairly or whatever, you should have said something. It may seem like I want to make all the decisions all the time, but I don’t. Especially not if it means you might be unhappy.”
He bit his lip. “I hear you. Guess maybe I need to stand up for myself a little more from now on?”
“Yeah.” I smiled at him. Okay, so maybe we both had a few things to work on. But it was worth it if it meant being together.
That reminded me . . .
“Oh,” I said. “Um, so who’s going to break it to Jaylene?”
“I don’t know.” Cam sounded dubious. “I mean, she has those long fingernails, and I’m pretty sure her dad owns a shotgun. . . .” Seeing the startled look on my face, he laughed. “Kidding! I’ll take care of it. As long as you promise never to put us through anything like this again.”
I quickly crossed my heart with one finger. “That’s a promise I’m happy to make.” My heart leaped with something—tidings of comfort and joy, maybe?—and I was itching to grab him and kiss him just to make it all official. But I had a feeling he wouldn’t be comfortable with that quite yet. Not until he’d settled things with Jaylene. He was that kind of guy, after all.
“Be right back,” he promised.
“I’ll be waiting.”
He hurried off. As soon as he was gone, I dug into the waistband of my reindeer butt and fished my cell phone out of the pocket of the pants I was wearing underneath. I was bursting with my good news and couldn’t wait to share it, but I also wasn’t ready to go out there and risk running into Jaylene at the moment. So I quickly sent a text message to Allie’s phone.
She texted back within seconds. Her message was so full of exclamation points that I could hardly decipher it. I guessed that meant she was happy for me.
It wa
s only a few minutes before Cam returned. “Well?” I demanded.
“She took it pretty well, actually. Guess that means I wasn’t the man of her dreams after all.” He smiled wryly. “In fact, she’s already comforting herself by dirty dancing with Bruce.”
Easy come, easy go. That seemed to be how Jaylene viewed her love life. Then again, maybe there was something to Allie’s Dozen Dates Theory after all. . . .
Cam saw me smiling. “What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “I’ll tell you later. Right now, I’m still trying to figure out why it took me so long to just be honest with you. Maybe—maybe it’s because I wasn’t being honest with myself when I decided I needed to break up with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I might be a little more nervous than I wanted to admit about that fabulous future I have planned for myself.” I shot him a sheepish glance. “I know I always talk about how I’m looking forward to going away to some great school, living in a big city . . . but it’s going to be a huge change, you know?”
He nodded. “I know. But you’re going to be great. I’m sure of it.”
“Thanks. But if I’m out there and you’re still here—”
“It won’t matter,” he put in. “Lexi, nobody can predict the future. We’ll just have to take it as it comes. But I can promise you one thing—I would never make you choose between going after your goals and being with me.” He shrugged. “I know I talk about that little restaurant on Elf Street. But you have to understand, my heart isn’t set on that the way yours is on your career stuff.” He reached for my hand and smiled that open, honest, easy smile of his. The smile of a kid on Christmas. “Nope, the only thing my heart is set on is being with you. Whatever it takes, we’ll work it out.”
Stepping forward, I wrapped my arms around him. I felt his encircle me in their familiar way, strong and gentle at the same time. He bent his head toward me, and as soon as we kissed, I knew he was right. Whatever it took, we could do it. Together. It was Christmas Eve in Claus Lake, all was right with the world, and the future could wait.
The Twelve Dates of Christmas Page 14
