Page 81 of Meet Me on Mistletoe Lane

And meanwhile, I’d be overseas, dreading coming back home because I wouldn’t recognize it when I did.

“Hey, hey, hey.” James took my hand. “We’re not done yet. There’s still time. We can do this.”

“How can you say that when failure is literally staring us in the face?”

He smiled. “You see failure. I see opportunities.”

I sighed.

Not really a concrete plan, but it wasn’t like I had anything better to go on.

Leo hurried over a second later with two more medals in his hands. Sam moseyed up behind him, eating a funnel cake, as James let go of my hand.

“I love these games!” Leo squealed, chocolate around his lips.

Mom gently lifted his chin. “Were you in Ms. Louisa Mae’s chocolate again?”

“No.” He stepped back and smirked before adding, “I was in Eve’s!” He laughed and hurried off.

Sam chuckled. “I offered to carry the medals for him, but he wanted to keep them close.”

“Why doesn’t he just wear them?” James asked.

Sam and I spoke at the same time. “Doesn’t like the feel of them on his neck.”

We stopped and smiled awkwardly at each other before my mom stepped closer.

“Sam, I was going to take them to Ringing Rudolph. Would you like to join us?” she asked him.

“Thanks, but I told Mom I’d give her a quick break at our table so she could get some funnel cake.” He held his now-empty paper tray.

“Those were ridiculously good,” James said, his focus now on Phineas’s stand. “He must be a magician or something.”

“Phineas adds a pinch of nutmeg to his powdered sugar.” Sam pulled out a napkin from his back pocket and wiped his mouth.

“Ooooooh, that’s why it tasted like Christmas,” James muttered to himself.

Sam and I exchanged a knowing smile before he cleared his throat. “I should be going. I’ll catch up with you guys in a bit.”

Ringing Rudolph was our town’s version of a ring toss, except you had to get the highest number of rings on Rudolph’s antlers. I explained to the Baileys that the reindeer’s face and body were made from logs donated from the Holt Christmas Tree Farm and the legs were dowels donated from Hal’s Hardware.

“Who carved the large antlers?” Mr. Bailey asked. “Those are pretty impressive.”

“Thank you,” my mom replied, her cheeks going red.

“You?” Mr. Bailey did a double take.

“It’s not a big deal.” Mom waved a hand in front of her face and took a sip of her cider.

“She actually is a pretty big deal around here.” I looped my arm around her shoulder.

“You should see her studio,” James added.

Mr. Bailey walked closer to one of the reindeer and ran his fingers over the antlers. “I know some interior designers in the city who would pay top dollar for this, Alice—”

“My work is here.” Her voice had gone cold, hard.

James raised his eyebrows at me before snapping his fingers. “So, guys versus girls again?”