Chapter Twelve
Sleigh Ride
Later that evening, the Annual Light Up Climax competition went ahead as scheduled thanks to the power being restored with only minutes to spare. When the electricity wasn’t back by noon as first promised, poor HL was beside himself with worry.
Hawk took him off to pick up some dry ice to keep the food in the fridge from spoiling. That had HL close to tears, remembering that the last time dry ice was needed the power had been out three days. Nora tried to distract him by having him help her cook a pizza on the grill while she prayed to the power gods. Thank goodness someone was listening.
Relief rushed through Nora as she watched HL jump with excitement from one foot to the other. Thank goodness. She’d felt queasy a few hours ago when the light competition was in jeopardy. Because Nora knew her own naturally competitive personality had spooled HL up. They’d both gotten carried away, but come on, HL was eight. He was allowed to get carried away with the magic of Christmas. Nora, on the other hand, was supposed to be the calm, responsible adult. The one who pointed out the true meaning of Christmas. Except—why bother to have a light competition if you didn’t try to win?
The event was so crowded it seemed as if half of Climax showed up in the park at the center of town. The Ladies’ Historical Society served hot chocolate. The Christmas cookie competition was set up inside the large gazebo, making it easy to walk around the circle and sample all the entries before voting.
“Here come the sleigh rides!” HL’s giddy squeal joined all the other kids’ loud excitement. The “sleighs” were actually horse-drawn hay wagons driven by some of the local farmers. Each wagon held about thirty people. Since most of the older generation stayed in the gazebo sampling cookies, it left plenty of room on the wagons for families with young children.
The wagons took a leisurely circuit through the streets of Climax enjoying all the Christmas lights, making sure to stop before each house entered in the decorating contest in order to give the town council time to vote. HL made sure his family got into the first wagon. He wanted to be front and center.
Hawk sat next to Nora for the hour excursion, his hard body something to anchor herself to as the wagon swayed around corners. HL sat in the front with his friend, Jordy, and Heather sat on Hawk’s other side. The mild night made the ride pass quickly as everyone oohed and aahed over each light display.
Hawk leaned into her and whispered, “I have a very special memory of this sleigh ride.”
His deep voice in her ear set off a fluttering in her stomach. Turning to him, their faces inches apart, her gaze fell to his lips before lifting up to his eyes. The heat she saw there warmed her from the inside out. “Our first kiss.”
HL plopped onto Hawk’s lap. “Here comes Brian’s house.”
Nora turned to look. Yep. The Ralph’s house was pretty spectacular. Lights and moving parts and even a projector with a light show up against the garage door. It was going to be tough to beat them.
The sleighs stopped long enough for the judges to mark their score cards before moving on to the final house in the competition: theirs.
“Our turn!” HL’s hand slipped into hers and squeezed with his excitement, which only ramped Nora’s higher. The wagons rolled down to stop in front of their house and Nora took in the gingerbread house lights, the nativity scene, and the fun inflatables—smiling at the festive display—when everything went dark. What?
“What’s happening?” HL asked, panic in his young voice.
“Power went out again,” Hawk said.
One of the judges moved down the wagon to them. “I’m sorry, Hawk. The rules state you have five minutes to fix a technical difficulty. After that we must judge the house as is.”
“But there are no lights.” HL’s chin trembled and turned to hide his face in Hawk’s chest.
“Look, Herb, we just had an ice storm, and the power’s out.”
“Rules are rules. I’m sorry.”
The happy feeling just moments ago snuffed out like a wet blanket over a flame. Nora’s stomach twisted like when she lost a close, hard-fought match. Worse, really, because she’d driven this whole thing. She was the one who suggested they enter. She was the one who said they could win. She’d built up HL’s excitement only to have it crash down onto him. Boy, she’d botched it and HL was paying the price.
Heather tugged gently on the sleeve of her jacket as Nora watched Hawk whisper in HL’s ear. Tearing her gaze away, she turned to Heather.
“Nora, the candles.”
“What?”
“The candles that you ordered by mistake.…”
“The candles? The candles. You’re brilliant.” Nora pulled her into a hug. “Thank you, sweetie.”
“We’ll take that five minutes!” Nora called, jumping from the wagon before reaching up to help Heather down. She turned to Hawk. “We’ll need a lighter.”
Hawk swung down next to her, still hugging HL tight in his arms. “Promise you aren’t setting the Ralph’s Snoopy house on fire.”
HL giggled from his dad’s chest.
“Promise. And could you ask everyone to come gather around the nativity.” Nora turned toward the house, but Heather was already coming back with two of the boxes piled in her arms.
With the help of many of the neighbors, people gathered in the yard where Heather and Nora passed out the candles. Hawk lit HL’s candle first, but instead of using the lighter to light the rest, they passed the flame from candle to candle in the quiet night.
Each candle lit the next, the light spreading through the crowd until all the candles glowed like fireflies in the dark.
Someone in the crowd began singing “O Holy Night” and everyone joined in, the voices and the glow from the candles both cutting softly through the dark night turning a “technical difficulty” into a beautiful, uplifting display.
When all the scores were tallied, the Ralphs won the contest for the fifth year in a row. Thanks to Heather’s quick thinking the Savages did win an honorable mention. But for an eight-year-old boy, that didn’t come close to lifting his disappointment. For a thirty-one-year-old woman, it didn’t assuage the guilt.
And then it turned personal. Because Brian Ralph’s father made sure to walk over to Nora and offer a smug, “If it makes you feel better, we would have beaten you even if you hadn’t lost power.”
She had a few choice words for Mr. Ralph, only she couldn’t share them on account of she was trying to be the perfect example of a good loser. If there was anything Nora hated, it was losing. And the only thing she hated more than losing was losing to a cocky winner. A classless winner who shoved it in your face.
* * * *
An hour later, they were home and gathered silently in the kitchen. HL sat at the island looking like someone had burst his balloon. Nora was slumped on the stool next to him looking an awful lot like the one wielding the sharp pin and very distressed about it.
“Sorry about that, guys.” Hawk passed out small dishes of warm applesauce with raisins to the kids. “Your decorations were terrific. And that was some fast thinking with the candles. An honorable mention is outstanding.”
“That was all Heather,” Nora said as she and HL looked at each other, shaking their heads. “I’m afraid HL and I are 0 for 1.”
Hawk looked around at their sad faces. Even poor Heather stood leaning against the counter, subdued and biting her bottom lip. This family needed to be rescued. Quick. “We aren’t done yet.”
Nora rested her chin in her hand. “We sort of are. We lost.”
Heather’s frown disappeared as she figured out what Hawk was talking about. “Dad’s right. The Reindeer Games are tomorrow.”
That sat HL up straighter. “We’ve never joined those before.”
Nora looked around at all their faces. “What are the Reindeer Games? I don’t remember that.”
“It’s only been around about five years,” Hawk said. “It’s sort of like a Christmas Olympics.”
That perked Nora up. “Do the Ralphs win it every year too?”
“Yep,” HL said, rolling his eyes.
“Then sign me up.” Nora stretched her hand out in front of her over the island. “Who else is in?”
“Me!” HL put his hand on top of Nora’s.
Heather nodded and added her hand. “Me too.”
They looked at Hawk who couldn’t stop the grin on his face because something special—something damn near awesome was happening here—and Nora had been the spark.
“Absolutely.” He joined his hand to the stack. “I’m in.”
Once both HL and Heather were in their beds, Hawk poured two glasses of wine, which Nora carried into the family room while he started a fire in the fireplace. He planned to relax on the couch with Nora as close as possible without being on his lap.
“How about we watch TV? I’ll give you two choices to pick from.”
“Sounds good as long as one of them is a Christmas movie.” She sat on the couch with her glass of wine.
“Okay. Option one: I’ve got your silver medal winning match on DVD and I’d consider it an early Christmas gift if you’d watch it with me and talk me through everything that happened.” He gave her his hopeful little boy look, the look every man keeps in their arsenal for desperate times.
She didn’t look very excited about that option. “Or?”
“Option two: We watch Die Hard.”
“Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.”
“Ask any guy; he’ll back me up.”
She sighed, narrowing her eyes at him. “I have a better idea, let’s just talk and if we run out of conversation, we can make out on the couch.”
“And option three it is.” Hawk added two bigger logs to the fire now that the kindling had taken. When he sat back on the couch, he sat in the corner, stretching his legs out and settling Nora up next to him.
“So when did you get so—big?”
He flashed a wicked grin at her.
“I’m talking about your muscles. You’ve obviously worked out for years.”
“You know I played sports in high school.”
“Do I ever. I used to sneak away from volleyball practice to watch you on the lacrosse field.”
He sent a hot look her way. “I worked out a lot in the army. It gave me something to do when I was deployed. And I kept it up once I transitioned to the police force. I’m part owner of a gym in town.”
“What? Since when was there a gym in Climax?”
“Since Quinn, Gage, and I bought the old Woolworths building a couple years ago and turned it into one.”
“I’ll have to check it out. It’s nice to know it’s available.” She pulled her eyes from his. “I mean, not for me, but, you know, for people in town.”
“I don’t get it.” He ran a hand down her arm until his hand captured one of hers. “You say you might be done with volleyball, and you don’t have another job… Have you thought about moving back to Climax?”
Nora’s hand jerked in his. Her ocean green eyes darkened into deeper waters. Uncharted depths. He dove in anyway.
“I guess what I’m saying is I’d like you to give serious thought to me. To us.”