Page 84 of Meet Me on Mistletoe Lane

I started toward him, but Sam surprised me by doing it first, crossing the room in just a few steps. “Does your dad have a favorite Christmas song?” he asked him.

James shook his head. “Not really. Not anymore.”

“But he must’ve had one once, right?” I asked, walking over to join them.

James stared off toward the wall of windows for a long moment, his lips pinched together, before he came back to us. “ ‘In the Bleak Midwinter,’ ” he said. “He and my granddad used to listen to it on repeat every December before he passed away.”

Sam slowly turned to look to me, his face illuminated with a new idea.

What?

Oh.

Hope began to bubble inside of me.

“Great idea!” I clapped him on his shoulder. Wish I had thought of it first.

James raised an eyebrow at us. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

“Don’t worry. Sam’s got it,” I said, taking James’s hand and squeezing it. “Right, Sam?”

Sam’s focus briefly dropped to our clasped hands before coming back to James. “Right.”

Nona had apparently signed Sam and me up to work the ball cage for bingo like we did last year, so after James left to go FaceTime his mom and stepsister, Sam and I headed back downstairs to take our places on the stage.

The room was now filled with long tables draped in burgundy. Dozens of people sat in folding chairs with their bingo cards and daubers with red ink. Although everyone smiled at each other and made small talk, tension lingered among them.

I didn’t know what it was about bingo, but it always brought out the drama in Mullings Creek.

“You ready for the chaos, G?” Sam asked, pulling out the chair next to him.

I sank into it and took a swig of water from a bottle he had grabbed for me. “Let’s just hope Marco keeps his shirt on this year.”

“I think Jo would hope otherwise.”

I smacked his arm as he pulled a new book out of his back pocket, laying it on the table next to him.

“A Christmas Carol?” I touched the cover. “Didn’t you read that last Christmas?”

“And the one before that.” He tapped it. “It’s a good book to read this time of year. A reminder of the important things.”

“I get that.”

Ms. Louisa Mae hurried over to the stage. “Oh, Sam, I’m glad I caught you before we got started.” She beamed up at him. “I wanted to let you know that the Lord of the Rings trilogy you donated for the silent auction received the highest bid of the day!”

Hold up. What?

“Donna thinks that money alone should really help offset some of the back taxes Arthur left behind,” she added.

Sam donated—

Mayor Moore clapped and tapped the mic at the end of the stage. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you’ll take your seats, we will begin Blitzen Bingo in just a few minutes!”

Ms. Louisa Mae waved at Sam and thanked him one more time before hurrying back to her bingo cards.

“Why the heck did you donate your Lord of the Rings books?” I asked him. “Aren’t they, like, super valuable?”

He waved a hand at my question and then jumped up. “Crap, we still need the cage and master board.”