Page 103 of Meet Me on Mistletoe Lane

I made a face at Jo as Sam turned to leave, but she ignored it and pushed me to go join him.

Sam popped into Eve’s Drop and bought us both a hot cocoa as people hurried past me on the sidewalk, mumbling clues and arguing over what they could mean.

“My front and back may matter, but I am nothing without my spine?” Marco read to Nico in the middle of the street. “What the heck does that mean?”

I put my gloved hand over my mouth to cover my chuckle.

“Well, the F in ‘front,’ the B in ‘back,’ the M in ‘matter,’ and the S in ‘spine’ are all capitalized…” Nico took the riddle and angled it into the nearest streetlight. “I know this…I know this.”

“It’s a book!” Marco yelled.

Nico smacked him. “I would’ve figured it out if you gave me like two more seconds.”

Marco pushed him and hurried toward the Between the Pages Bookstore. “We don’t have two seconds! Come on!”

Sam came outside with the steaming hot cocoa and handed me a cup.

“Thanks,” I said, cupping my hands around it to warm them before I took a cautious sip.

We walked slowly down the street, stopping occasionally to let people pass on the way to their next clue, as the sounds of door chimes rang all over Mistletoe Lane.

“This was a great idea.” I took another sip, savoring how the cocoa warmed me up all the way to my toes.

“It was,” he said, stopping to fix a bow on one of the light pole wreaths. “Did you get some packing done today?”

“Kind of.” I kicked a small stone toward him with my boot. “Mostly, I just made some lists.”

“Lists are good.” He kicked the stone back to me, and the two of us kept at it as we walked toward the end of Mistletoe Lane. It had been years since we’d done this. We used to count how many touches we could get before someone either messed up or ran out of sidewalk.

As we stopped outside of the bookstore, Sam turned to me, and said, “Twelve.”

I smiled. “Not our best, but not our worst.”

He picked up the stone before we crossed the street and then dropped it back on the sidewalk, where we started our “game” again. A group of middle-school-aged girls passed us on the way to Hal’s Hardware.

“ ‘Our silver and gold aren’t worth much, but we can help you nail down your measurements,’ ” one of them said. “It has to be Hal’s!”

I hated not being in on the riddle-making, but Jo really did do a great job.

I was just about to text James to see how it was going with his dad when I glimpsed them across the street, coming out of Eve’s Drop. Mr. Bailey had four candy canes in his hand, wearing a proud smile on his face.

I pointed toward them. “They’re already down to the last riddle!”

“Guess he was right to call it ‘light work.’ ” Sam chuckled. “By the way…” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a candy cane. “Snagged one for you.”

“Thanks!” I tossed my empty cup into the closest trash can and opened the long end of the candy cane, letting it hang out of my mouth. “Remember when we used to pretend these were pipes so we could be like Papa and your grandpa?”

Sam unwrapped his and began to fake smoke it like we used to, making popping sounds with the front of his lips. I copied him and pretended to blow smoke, making him laugh.

“Do you think they’re together?” Sam asked as he kicked the stone back to me. “Wherever they are?”

I looked up at the cloudless, starry sky and smiled. “I think so. I think that’s why they went together, you know?” I kicked the stone back to him.

“Yeah.” He twirled the candy cane back and forth before speaking again a bit softer. “I miss him…especially this time of year.”

“Me too.” And Dad.

Grief was hard that way.