Christmas Magic

by Lucy McConnell

  At that very moment, her heart thudded with warning beats. She set the paper down and backed up a couple steps. When he finished with the camera and saw the sheet, she darted before she could get trapped in his warm gray eyes again.

  A block away, she slowed down. Her heart kept right on racing, though, and it continued to do so every time she thought of Breck’s warm chuckle.

  “I’ll never see him again,” she mumbled in an effort to comfort herself.

  Another block and she stood up straighter. She’d survived an interaction with an attractive single man who’d flirted and teased with her. A smile crept across her face. Baby steps were still steps forward, and she was on her way to recapturing the parts of herself that had been lost.

  “Jingle Bells” spilled out of the toy store as she passed. Christmas was a time of healing—a time to find joy. Maybe she could find hope too—hope that her heart, which yearned to love and be loved, would one day find a home.

  “Thanks, Breck,” she whispered into the wind. He didn’t know it, but he’d given her a small gift today. It wasn’t a trick and didn’t have a fancy bow, but it did warm her soul. “Merry Christmas,” she added while blowing a kiss behind her. The street magician had brought magic back into her Christmas season with the snap of his fingers and a sexy smile.

  Chapter Three

  December 3

  Breck

  “Hey,” Breck said by way of answering the phone. His lifelong best friend, Jeb, must have just seen the Harmony video—as he called the video in his head. Officially, he’d posted the name A Magical Christmas Surprise. Keywords were important in titles, and he was throwing everything he had into this channel. His first MyHeartChannel attempt had flopped big time. It was Jeb, the marketing genius, who’d patiently explained that doing card tricks on camera wasn’t interesting. That was when Breck had come up with the idea of performing for a live audience and recording their reactions.

  “Hey yourself. Have you checked your numbers today?”

  Breck grinned. “About every twenty minutes.”

  “Congratulations on getting the commercial.”

  A commercial meant a video earned real sponsorship money and he’d have a deposit at the end of the month. MyHeartChannel’s algorithm figured out what commercial to show viewers—he had no control over that. The ad that popped up on his viewing had been for men’s body spray. “Thanks. I’ve got another street show planned for tomorrow.” Satisfaction fit like warm winter socks.

  There was a heavy pause. The longer it lasted, the faster the socks unraveled.

  “Okay, what?”

  “I’m reading comments.”

  Breck turned in his seat to belly up to the keyboard and started scrolling.

  What a great assistant!

  Can’t wait to see the two of you perform your next trick.

  Great chemistry!

  “They’re all about Harmony.”

  There were others, some asking him to reveal how he did the trick, others commenting on the fun holiday touches. Some were nasty, but there would always be trolls. The majority commented on Harmony and the way her face lit up with wonder.

  She couldn’t fake that—he’d delighted her. The thought made his stomach do a somersault. He’d picked her out of the crowd because, of all the people milling about, she was the one who’d seemed to need a smile the most. The closer she’d gotten to the table, the faster his heart had beaten. He’d never been good with beautiful women, and she was one of the most stunning women he’d ever seen.

  “I hate to tell you this, bro, but you need her back on your channel.”

  The stomach somersault stopped. “That’s a no-go. She was freaked out that I even asked for her number for the release form. I think she’d set up a restraining order if I actually called her.”

  “She’s crazy, huh?”

  It was Breck’s turn to pause, thinking back to the dejected look on her face as she’d studied the concrete. “It was more like she’s wounded.” Harmony’s round blue eyes appeared in his mind: wide, untrusting, and unsure. They vanished as the image of her running down the block came forward. “I totally scared her off.”

  “Dude, chicks don’t dig magic the way you think they do.”

  He laughed. “I figured that out in middle school.”

  “Oh my gosh, Sarah Bently.” Jeb laughed.

  “I’m glad my humiliation is still hilarious,” he said with a hearty dose of sarcasm. “Sarah had no idea what she was missing out on.”

  “Uh, I’m pretty sure she had visions of your mother’s basement, a top hat, and Saturday nights watching you fumble through card tricks. I heard she married some guy who’s a rock star at Apple. What I wouldn’t give to be a rock star at Apple.”

  “Your day will come,” Breck assured his friend.

  “Yours will come sooner if you get that girl back. What was her name?”

  “Harmony.” Saying her name out loud sent a thrill up Breck’s spine. He hadn’t actually said it to her when they were talking, because he’d not asked for it before doing the trick. He should have, and he was still kicking himself for losing his head over a pretty face. When he’d seen her standing in the back of the crowd with her head down, he’d had no idea how stunning she was with her pearly skin tinged pink by the cold. His first thought when she’d looked up had been queen. And not the queen of hearts, but a true queen, lost and out of place in this world of chaos and harshness.

  “Call her. See if she’ll be your assistant. The card tricks were great, but you need to up your game.”

  “Up my game?” The thought was as tantalizing as it was scary, second only to the idea of calling Harmony. “True stage magic includes an assistant, props, smoke and mirrors. How am I going to get all that on a street corner?”

  “Move to the park.”

  Move to the park … Now there was a thought. A big thought. Only the most talented and beloved performers made it at the park. There was a guy who played the sax; he’d been there for thirty years, and people loved him. He’d take requests, play love songs for couples walking by, and had even been involved in several proposals. The park was big time. “Easy for you to say!”

  “I’d help you if I was there.”

  “Location is my second biggest problem. Bro, Harmony is Sarah Bently all over again. She’s so far out of my league.”

  “Pay her.”

  “With what?”

  “Figure it out. But you’re not going anywhere without this woman.”

  Breck sighed. “I’ll try,” he managed weakly.

  “That’s giving it the ol’ college try.”

  “I’m hanging up.”

  “Get the girl,” Jeb insisted.

  “Bye.”

  Breck ran his hand down his face, then leaned down to pull the form out of his backpack sitting by his feet. He’d carried the paper around with him, not even sure why. He’d even pulled it out to look at her signature. She had big, loopy handwriting with a fat Y-tail. For a short time, he’d studied handwriting. It came in handy—pun intended—when he did a stint as a gypsy during a carnival to earn some extra cash one summer. Her large Y-tail meant that she needed a friend.

  He tapped his fingers on his knees like a nervous drummer boy before finally dialing the number. She picked up on the second ring, and he stammered through the hello. “I’m the owner of the Christmas Magic channel. We met the other day.”

  “Of course.” Her tone was reserved. “Is there a problem with the video or something?”

  “No. No. I, uh, wanted to let you know that it posted and is getting a lot of views. You’d said you wanted to show it to your family, and you can now, because it’s up.” He scrubbed his free hand down his side of his pant leg to wipe the moisture away, then switched the phone to the other hand and wiped the moisture off that one too. If only he could swipe away all the extra words running out of his mouth.

  “Thanks. I’ll be sure to send them the link.”

  “Great. That’
s really great.” He pressed his lips shut before he said the word great again.

  “Yep. It’s great.”

  Was she teasing him? It kind of sounded like it. He hoped so.

  “Is there anything else?”

  “Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “I, uh, I’d like to offer you a job.”

  “A job?”

  “As my assistant. See, my friend Jeb thinks that the reason the video did so well is because you were in it.”

  There was a blank space where his jumbled announcement hung in the air. Finally, she said, “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, you’re really pretty and you did a great job of including the crowd and stuff.”

  “You think I’m pretty?” she asked in the same tone he’d used to ask if she thought he was cute.

  Holy Rudolph! She was teasing him. He leaned back in the chair and grinned. “You have to know you’re gorgeous.”

  “Oh, so it’s gorgeous now?”

  “Always.”

  “Well, in that case …” She laughed off the rest of her sentence, leaving him wondering what she was going to say.

  His chest practically bulged with a sense of accomplishment for having brought out the melodious, bell-like sound. “So you’ll do it?”

  She sighed. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m not in a good place right now. I don’t think it’s a good time for me to commit to … you.” She paused as if holding her breath.

  Was holding her breath a good sign or a bad sign? She could be worried that she’d hurt his feelings. His shoulders caved in, and his chest deflated. He hated pity. Some girls were too nice to tell him he was a magic geek, and while they thought he was nice, they didn’t want to be tied up with him. “I understand. I hope you have a Merry Christmas.”

  “Merry Christmas to you as well,” she said quietly.

  Was that regret laced in her voice, or just wishful thinking on his part? He might never know, and he hung up the phone feeling heavy and rejected. So much for working with an assistant. He stared down at the cards in front of him, the queen of hearts smiling like the Mona Lisa. “She said no,” he told her. Feeling ridiculous, he typed the same words in a text to Jeb.

  Jeb replied with a Sorry, bro. Know any other beautiful women?

  Breck snorted. I wish. A generic beauty wouldn’t do, though. Harmony had something special, a light that drew in viewers—and him—for more.

  Join the club.

  Something will come up. He hadn’t told Jeb that this was his last shot at making a living with magic. He hadn’t told anyone. It was his burden to carry and his motivation.

  At least his parents would be happy if he quit. They never quite understood his fascination with cards and tricks, though they tried to be supportive in their way. More often than not, they asked him to put the cards away at the dinner table, though they’d smile woodenly through one of his if he asked. It was a hard way to grow up. If it hadn’t been for his grandpa, he might have quit magic before he even gave it a chance.

  He’d turned twenty-five this year, and being a quarter of a century old did things to his brain. It made him think about where he was in life, evaluate his decisions. He took a good, hard look at where he wanted to be by the time twenty-five more years passed by, and a wife and family were definitely on his priority list.

  A fear that obtaining his magical dreams would mean giving up the family he craved motivated him to practice his card tricks for the next street show, despite the stab of disappointment that Harmony wouldn’t be a part of it.

  Darn it all, he’d hoped she’d say yes. He really, really hoped she’d want to see him again, because as much as he’d tried to convince himself that he wanted an assistant, what he was after was another chance to look into those big blue eyes.

  Chapter Four

  Harmony

  Harmony slowly lowered the phone from her ear, feeling as if she’d lost her stash of chocolate Santas.

  “Who was that?” asked her cubicle mate, Jenny.

  Nothing was sacred in their three-by-five space. Harmony had heard all about Jenny’s breakup with Timothy last month—over Timothy’s obsession with Transformers collectibles, of all things. Jenny couldn’t handle the amount of money he spent on the toys. Tom bristled over her disrespect for his investment strategies. They’d finally decided that separating was the only way they could solve their differences. It was all very grown-up and methodical for a breakup right before Christmas.

  What Harmony would have given for a methodical divorce.

  She pushed the thought away. This very morning, she’d promised herself not to think about Sam. Each day was a new beginning, a chance to root his influence out of her life and regain the woman she’d been before he’d bulldozed through her heart.

  And … she pushed that thought away too. Positive thinking was half the battle. She wasn’t sure what the other half was, but she figured she’d get to it when she mastered the thinking part. “That was the street magician I told you about.”

  Jenny swiveled around in her seat. “You didn’t tell me about a street magician.”

  “I could have sworn it came up.” Harmony tapped her chin. She’d certainly thought about Breck enough to believe she’d spoken of him. Maybe she didn’t think of him quite as much as she tried not to think about Sam, but he was definitely on her top two list.

  “Spill,” Jenny demanded in that wonderful way only true friends can.

  Harmony explained about stumbling into the show and being called out of the crowd to help. Jenny insisted they look up the video—that very minute!

  Harmony typed in the channel name, and soon she was watching herself smile and blush. Good heavens, Breck was even cuter the second time around. His broad shoulders filled the frame, and his gray eyes sparkled like falling snowflakes during a romantic sunset. She found herself leaning on the arm of her chair to keep her balance.

  “Girl! He is so cute.” Jenny kicked off and made her chair spin.

  “I know.” Harmony stared at the screen, the rest of the workroom fading into the background. “He has this geek-a-licious thing going for him.”

  “Yeah, and he fills out that sweater better than a store mannequin.”

  Harmony’s cheeks flushed with heat. “I h-hadn’t noticed.”

  “Yeah, right, you didn’t notice.” Jenny shoved her. “What you need to cure your Sam blues is a big dose of magic.” She made humming noises and wiggled her fingers to accentuate her statement.

  Harmony shook her head. “What I need is a trip home for the holidays, my mom’s hot chocolate, and a visit from Santa on Christmas Eve.”

  “If you say so.” Jenny didn’t sound at all convinced. Perhaps that was because Harmony wasn’t all that sure of her plan either. Breck had given her a much-needed boost to her self-confidence in a way she’d never gotten from a gift under the tree.

  “Harmony?” Ms. Kepworth leaned over the side of the cubicle. “The boss wants to see you in her office.”

  Harmony barely held back her scowl. It wasn’t Ms. Kepworth’s fault that the boss was a wackadoo. Her office perpetually smelled of natural oils. That wasn’t the weird part, but it added to the overall picture. What was really strange about Ambia couldn’t be described in one word. The huge sequined infinity scarves with goulashes and belts covered in fringe helped paint a picture of Ambia’s need to stand apart from the crowd. If only her clothes were the strangest part about her. When she’d hired Harmony, who was desperate for a job, she’d told her that although her aura was decidedly blah tan with black dots, she had hopes because there were flashes of pink in there. Which meant that she could possibly be a red one day if she worked to root out her spiritual trolls. Harmony had assured her that she would do her best to rid herself of all trolls, and she was given the job.

  As she crossed the office, she prepared herself—and her aura—to be scrutinized. She knocked lightly on the open door and peeked inside to find an empty room.

  “Over here.” Ambia’s han
d waved from behind her giant oak desk. “Join me.”

  Harmony went around and found Ambia sitting cross-legged with her back straight and her eyes closed. Her shoes were tucked under the desk, and her bare feet were stark white with cold. Several precious stones circled her like a rainbow arch.

  “Join me, Harmony.”

  “O-kay.” Harmony sat on the floor with her back against the wall and her knees pulled against her chest, making sure she didn’t knock a stone out of place.

  Ambia opened one green eye. “Before we start, I’d like to do some deep breathing. We’ll breathe in for the count of four and out for the count of six. Begin.” Her nostrils flared open and she loudly sucked in air.

  Harmony followed her lead. Honestly, if she didn’t need the job, she’d be out the door. But it was Christmas, and she was broke, and rent was due at the beginning of the year.

  She breathed out with Ambia. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

  Ambia’s eyes drifted open as if they’d been relaxed to the point that it was difficult to lift them. Harmony had no such feeling.

  “There.” Ambia twisted, picking up a sheaf of papers from behind her. “I can’t help but feel—” She glanced at the top page. “—a large emotional black hole hovering over your cubicle.”

  “I’m sorry?” Emotional black hole—what?

  “Don’t apologize. We all struggle, and the holidays can be difficult for many people.” Ambia flipped the page.

  Was that a script? Harmony lifted her chin in an attempt to read the scrawled handwriting.

  Ambia tipped the page, blocking her view. “As such, I believe our overall productivity and customer service will improve with the removal of this black hole.”

  “Are you firing me?”

  Ambia’s head popped up, her eyes wide with curiosity. “Why would you think that?”