Chris

This whole thing was ridiculous. I’d been planning it for months, this special getaway vacation for the two of us. We’d taken a few days off from classes, and, of course, the one thing I forget to check goes completely wrong. But who thinks to make sure there’s snow on the ground at a freaking ski resort?

I was so pissed, but it wasn’t just the cold woman behind the reception desk I was mad at. I was mad at myself for letting Jason down. I knew how much he loved Christmastime. He had almost a terabyte of Christmas music and movies and recipes and dream board pictures on his backup drive.

For most people, Christmas started after Thanksgiving. For the department stores, it started after Halloween. But for Jason? Christmas started the second the weather began changing in September. He’d packed scarves and hats and fingerless gloves special for this trip. It hadn’t been cold enough back home to get all bundled up, but we thought for sure in the mountains it would be cold and there would be snow on the ground.

Jason grew up in the Midwest where some years his family was snowed in for an entire week, and he loved it. He always got this glazed-over look in his eyes when he talked about his family huddled up in blankets and winter clothes around their wood stove when the power would go out. I knew he missed the snow and the crisp wind on his face, and everything else that went along with winter holidays. We had that in NYC, with the exception of the woodsy outdoors and the cozy lodge fireplace, but I really wanted to give it all to him. I wanted this to be a Christmas he’d never forget.

But this wasn’t the first time I wouldn’t be able to give him what he really wanted, and that thought made my heart ache.

“I saw a sign back on the main highway,” Jason said. “Forty-nine bucks for the night.” His chipper tone made my heart sink even deeper into my stomach. Jason, always the optimist. But I could hear the disappointment in his voice. And no way was I was going to take him to a run-down, flea-bag motel. Not for our vacation.

“I’m not headed back that way,” I said. “I thought we’d take one of the secondary highways. It’ll be a nicer drive.”

“But it’s so dark. We won’t be able to see anything.” Jason cleared the fog off his window with a fast food napkin. “Whoa.”

“What?” I asked, flipping the defrost on to high. My car was on its last leg. Well, it had been for the last five years. The heat and defrost were iffy at best, especially if there was any moisture in the air.

“There’s snow on the ground,” Jason said.

“You’re kidding. There’s no way that’s possible. We’re at a lower elevation than up at the lodge. It has to be a reflection from the moon or something.” I fished my trusty windshield rag out of the pocket in the driver’s side door and wiped away a layer of condensation. “I don’t think I can drive all the way back to New York like this. I can barely see a thing.”

“I’m telling you, Chris there’s snow on the ground out there. And not only on the ground. It’s in the trees too, and coming out of the sky!”

Just then I saw the large flakes on the windshield and turned on the wipers. “No way.”

“And look,” he said, pointing up ahead of us and to the right. “A bunch of Christmas lights off in the distance up there. Can you see them?” Jason asked, an adorable childlike lilt in his voice.

I looked in the direction Jason was pointing and, sure enough, I saw the Christmas lights and snow all over everything. The last thing I saw before I hit my blinker and turned off the highway was a sign for a bed-and-breakfast. A picture of the old house took up most of the sign, and it was exactly the thing to pull this vacation out of the toilet.

“What are you doing?” Jason asked.

“I’m going to check out that bed-and-breakfast. What was it called? The Dozing Dragon? Maybe we can afford one night, and as a bonus we’ll be able to eat before we hit the road tomorrow.”

“I’m pretty starving now.” Jason rifled through the glove compartment, pulling out almost everything. “Where’s the Power Bar that was in here?”

“Long gone. I ate it after my failed attempt at the 5K in the park a couple months ago.”

“That was in July,” Jason said, closing the glove compartment. “Wow, yeah. Now that I think about it, I did see that thing in there for months.” He laughed out loud. “I can’t believe I’m bummed over not finding food that had been sitting in a car for who knows how long and was probably expired.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, gripping Jason’s thigh. “We’ll get some food. Maybe we can find a store with something cheap.”

“Christmas ramen?” Jason had the cutest giddy smile on his face.

“No,” I said with a laugh. “Never again. Turkey lunch meat and canned cranberry sauce were never meant to mix with chicken-flavored ramen soup. We’ll walk around town for a while. Did you see what it was called?”

“Vale Valley,” Jason said as he looked around with wide eyes.

“So, we’ll walk around Vale Valley for a bit and see what they’ve got. It looks like there might be a fair of some kind going on in that center square over there. Maybe we can find some cheap street food to split.”

“Oooh, an adventure! That sounds exciting! This place is so neat. Everything is so cute and quaint.”

“It is,” I said, silently thanking the universe for bringing us here. I just hoped we’d be able to afford to stay the night.

As I followed the signs to the bed-and-breakfast, cozy little homes popped up along the tree-lined streets. It was the first weekend of December, and everything was already decorated to the hilt. It was one of those sweet, old-timey towns where they hung huge, old-fashioned reindeer from each lamppost and had strings of lights across every intersection. Not to mention on every business and house. It was like a magical Christmas wonderland.

And the farther we got into town, the deeper the snow became. I didn’t understand how there could be snow in this one area when the surrounding hills were completely bare, but there it was. The streets and sidewalks were all clear, but there was at least a foot of snow on the ground everywhere else. As I passed the cars parked on the streets I was impressed by the town’s excellent snow-removal service. Much better than New York City where your car could get blocked into a snowbank for a week if you weren’t careful.

I turned off at the final sign for the bed-and-breakfast. It was down a long drive, which meant it would be perfectly secluded. Not that there was much noise in this little town. It was so peaceful and quaint, and, for a moment, I wished we lived in a town exactly like this. That we would never have to go back to our dingy apartment in NYC.

As we got out of the car and approached the steps, Jason marveled at the old decorations filling the yard and the porch. “Those are those really old-fashioned outdoor lights, Chris. You can’t buy them anymore. See how warm the colors are? And the plastic Santa and snowman. Those are really old too. I love this stuff so much,” he said as he stared at the glowing statues in the yard.

I watched the colorful lights twinkle in Jason’s eyes and moved my hands around the back of his neck. “You’re really happy, aren’t you?” I said, lowering my lips to his.

“This place is so … special,” he said with the same dazzled look in his eyes. “Don’t you feel it? I mean, the snow, the lights, the air. It just feels so good here.”

“It does feel good here. I just hope they have a vacancy.”

“But what if we can't afford it?”

“If this place makes your eyes light up like that, I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure we can stay the night.”

“Really?” Jason snuggled closer into my arms.

“Really,” I said. “I love you so much, Jason.”

“I love you too.” Jason brought his lips up to mine one more time before we made our way to the top of the porch. The front door had a huge wreath in the center that was covered in clusters of berries and small birds. When I pushed the door open a bell sounded off above our heads.

“Welcome to The Dozing Dragon.” A man with a warm smile ducked in through a doorway lined with glittery garland and colorful lights.

“Hey,” I said, glancing around the front room. Every doorway was lavishly decorated with garlands and lights and ornaments. And in the center of it all stood a huge tree. It was incredible. “We wanted to see if you had a room available.”

“We sure do.” The man walked to a desk and flipped open a large calendar. “Just one night?”

“Yeah, one night,” I said, stepping closer to him. “This is a great little town.”

“Vale Valley is a really nice place to live. Or stay overnight, as the case may be. I’m Sebastian,” he said, extending his hand.

“Hi Sebastian. I’m Chris, and this is Jason.” I glanced over at Jason, and he was completely distracted by the ornaments on the tree. “He really likes your vintage decorations.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet both of you. Those decorations all belonged to my mother. She was a bit of a collector, you might say. There were so many up in the attic, and I wasn’t sure which ones to use. So, I wound up putting up everything she had,” Sebastian said with a laugh. “It might look a little cluttered, but they all remind me of her.”

“It’s not cluttered at all.” Jason joined us. “It’s really special.”

“Well, I’m glad you like it. So, one night will be fifty dollars. Will that be cash or credit card?”

“Wow, that’s really cheap. I was expecting a place like this to cost a lot more,” I said, taking my wallet out of my back pocket.

“These are my mom's rates. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to raise them yet. I’m getting use to the business right now.”

“Well, we really appreciate it. Now we have money for dinner,” I said, looking at Jason and raising my eyebrows.

Sebastian turned the registration book toward me and handed me a pen. “Well, we do happen to have a special coupon for guests this weekend. This is the first weekend of the Christmas fair. It goes on in the town square until the end of the year. If you present these coupons to any of the vendors, you’ll get a free meal of your choice.”

“That’s so awesome,” Jason said, taking the coupons and studying them. “Look, little baby dragons in Santa hats,” he said, pointing at the hand drawn images on the paper. “So cute!”

“Thanks, that’s my own handiwork,” Sebastian said with a grin. “But don’t fill up on dinner. We have homemade popcorn balls, Christmas cookies, hot spiced cider, and hot cocoa down here in the lobby all weekend long. And we'll keep the fireplace lit all night so the two of you can come down anytime and get cozy.”

Jason grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze. “Oh my God, Chris, this place is amazing,” he said, clutching my entire arm to his chest. “I don’t know if I ever want to leave.”

“You may not want to,” Sebastian said with a smile. “I hope you enjoy yourselves.” He handed me the room key and pointed over my shoulder. “You can take these stairs up to the second floor. Your room faces the front of the building, so you’ll have a view of the town square from up there. It’s very festive at this time of year. Do you have any bags you’d like me to carry up?”

“No, I can handle our bags. Thank you so much, Sebastian.” We shook hands again, and I gave the keys to Jason. “I’ll go grab everything and meet you upstairs.”

But as I turned to head out the front door, I heard the bell.

“Good evening,” Sebastian said to a well-dress man who walked in. “Room for the night?”

“I’m looking for Robin Wallace, the woman who owns The Dozing Dragon. She's been one of my best customers for years, and I haven’t seen her in quite a while, so I thought I’d drop by and see how she was doing. I’m Rafe Montgomery. I own the antique store on the way out of town.”

“Oh, yes, my mother mentioned you quite a few times. She was a big fan of yours too—you and your store.”

“Was?” the man asked, a note of worry in his voice. “Don’t tell me …”

“Yes, I’m afraid she’s passed away. I'm her son, Sebastian Wallace. My mother left The Dozing Dragon to me, and I recently took over. I’m still catching my breath from the transition.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that. Your mother was a beloved member of this community. She'll be dearly missed.”

For some reason, Jason and I were frozen in place as we listen to the conversation between the two men. So frozen we'd both been standing there staring at them. Well, mostly at the well-dressed man. At least, I was. But I had a feeling Jason was too.

Suddenly, the man turned around and looked directly at the two of us. I couldn’t breathe for a moment when I saw the way his stare burned into Jason's then my own eyes. Almost as if he was trying to hear our thoughts. After a moment, he turned back to Sebastian.

“It was very nice to meet you, Sebastian. And you have my deepest condolences.” He said those words to the man at the desk, but then turned back and looked right at me. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again.” Then the man quickly turned and headed to the front door.

“It was nice to meet you too, Mr. Montgomery. You’re welcome back anytime.”

After the man was gone, Jason and I stared at the place where he had been standing, and it took me a few moments to realize Jason’s hand was tightly gripped around mine.