Page 8 of Rebel Moon

I glanced around at the men who were like brothers to me. Jack had his arm around Ivy. Rhett stood on the other end of our semicircle next to Madeleine and Holly. I’d been introduced to Holly before dinner, and I’d immediately liked her. She was tall, with legs that went on for days, long brown hair and big brown eyes. There was something reassuring about her presence, like no matter what disaster came our way, she’d handle it without breaking a sweat.

Apparently, Holly and Rhett were a thing back in high school. But that was a long time ago. I couldn’t imagine the two of them together now. He was slick and savvy and relentlessly ambitious. From what I understood, she’d gone back to Stonehaven after getting a degree and now was on a one woman crusade to save their dying hometown.

Luci and Grant stood in the middle of the group, talking quietly to each other. Grant’s expression told me too much. He had feelings for Luci. Not that he would ever act on them. His relationship with Jack and the rest of us was too important. The drummer in a band did not date the frontman’s little sister.

“All right!” Finley called out. “Everybody ready? We’ll count off together. On three. One⁠—

—two”—the whole group joining in⁠—

“three!”

The tree came alive. Thousands of warm-white lights waking branch by branch until the whole thing twinkled in the dark.

“Oh, how pretty,” Holly said.

Ivy clapped, bouncing on her toes. “So pretty.”

For a moment, I felt about six years old. I glanced over at Madeleine. She was staring up at the tree, her face tipped up, lips parted, eyes wide and shining like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It made me wonder—what had her childhood been like? She’d never said much about her personal life. I’d kind of assumed she didn’t have one, like maybe she’d just been hatched from some kind of egg grown in a lab fully formed, wearing a sweater dress and pumps. But at dinner tonight, Ivy had said she grew up poor. That was news to me. Was it possible we have some things in common? Like crappy Christmases with trees bought on the last day the lot was open so we could get the scraggly leftover little Charlie Brown trees for half off the regular price? Lights with only half the bulbs actually working?

She must have felt my stare because she looked over at me and rearranged her face into its usual composure. Just like that she was back to being Madeleine Price, savvy business woman instead of an awed little girl. I averted my gaze as quickly as I could, but she’d caught me staring for the second time that day. She hated me enough already without me staring at her like a creep.

I wandered away from the group, grabbed another beer from the drink cart one of the staff had magically placed not far from the fire pit and sat in one of the chairs around the fire.

Madeleine, with a glass of red wine in her hand sidled over next to me. I’m not sure why. There were plenty of other seats. She didn’t say anything to me, just crossed one shapely leg over the other.

The others got drinks and joined the circle. Madeleine turned to me and said, “You should grab your guitar.”

I blinked, sure I’d misheard her. “Why?”

“Because music and a fire pit go together,” Madeleine said. “And no one can make the strings sing like you can.”

Although flattered, my instinct was to resist. Regardless, I got up and went to fetch my guitar like the woman wanted.

By the time I returned to the fire, everyone was settled. Ivy’s parents and Jack’s mom had apparently gone to bed because it was just the young folks now.

“Oh, let’s play a game,” Ivy said after seeing that I’d brought my guitar. “Let’s see if we can stump Knox.”

“Stump him how?” Madeleine asked, sounding delighted by the prospect of pulling one over on me.

“We’ll throw out a Christmas song and see if he can play the first few bars of it on his guitar,” Ivy said.

“Y’all aren’t gonna win this one,” Grant said, his drawl bringing to mind a jar of warm honey. “My boy can’t be stumped.”

I grinned. “Let’s see about that, shall we?” Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Nick was filming us. Blake had her phone raised, doing the same thing. I decided not to care.

“Okay, first one,” Jack said. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”

“Child’s play,” I said, picking the first couple lines with ease.

“Give him a harder one,” Luci said. “One of you, because I can’t think of anything but ‘Jingle Bells.’”

“Fine, I’ve got one.” Rhett leaned forward, elbows on his knees, grinning. “Carol of the Bells.”

A couple of people groaned.

“Come on now, do you want me to show off?” I asked, grinning back at Rhett, knowing he’d chosen it because it was fast and hard to play. “My fingers were made for this song.”

“Let’s hear it,” Rhett said.