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And as for me, I didn’t want any connection to Dennville, Kentucky. I wanted to leave and never ever look back—in every sense. There would be no forming connections with dreamy-eyed girls who’d expect me to write them love letters from my college dorm. I planned to be kissing plenty of girls, now and after I left, but none of them would be Tenleigh Falyn. That’s just the way it needed to be.

I walked out of the library and shut the door tightly behind me.

It was a bitterly cold morning, snow still on the ground from several recent snowfalls, and I’d stupidly forgotten my gloves. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and headed toward the road home. “Hey, Ky,” I heard from behind me.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Shelly. “Hey.”

She smiled and increased her speed to catch up, meeting me and looping her arm through mine. She squeezed me to her and said, “Brr! It’s cold.”

I nodded, wanting to shrug her off but resisting. Shelly and I messed around when one or the other of us wanted to. It’d been going on since we were fifteen. I considered it casual, and I was mostly sure she did too. Although she didn’t seem to like it when she found out I’d been with someone else. Secretly, I hoped she’d find a boyfriend and move on even from our casual encounters. They were starting to bore me. Shelly never said unexpected things that caught me off guard. Shelly never got faraway dreamy looks on her face. But Shelly, like me, seemed to prefer casual. And Shelly met my other requirement too: she didn’t live up on the mountain—she was poor, but not the desperate kind of poor. Not poor like Tenleigh was poor. I felt an odd clunk in my chest and gritted my teeth. I didn’t need to worry about the survival of anyone other than myself.

“Where are you headed?” I asked.

“Well, I was headed to Rusty’s for an ingredient my grandma forgot to buy for dinner. But…”—she looked up at me flirtatiously—“no one will notice I’m gone if I don’t get back for a little while.”

“I’m headed home, Shelly. My mama needs me,” I lied.

Her expression fell. “Well, all right, then. Hey, wanna come with me to the play at school later? They’re performing A Christmas Carol.” She grinned. I knew Shelly liked to get out of her house whenever she could. She was stuffed in there with her dad and four brothers. Her mama had died when she was little. She described her home like it was a zoo, but truthfully, it didn’t sound half-bad to me—at least no one was ever lonely.

“Is it Christmastime already?” I asked. I knew very well it was Christmastime. And I hated it. I had successfully avoided the major funk I usually found myself in this time of year with the little book club Tenleigh and I had going on, but now I’d have to deal with it.

Tenleigh. Stop, Kyland. Stop thinking about Tenleigh.

I put my arm around Shelly and pulled her closer and she smiled up at me. “It’s the twenty-fourth, Ky,” she said. “Winter break started two days ago. Did you not notice?” she asked on a laugh.

“No. I noticed. I was just kidding.” And truthfully, getting out of my house later didn’t sound half-bad, and they always offered food at intermission. Some of it might even be more than cookies or cupcakes. Last year, they’d had these little pigs in a blanket…

“Yeah, all right, let’s go see the play tonight. Sounds festive.” We stopped in front of Rusty’s.

“Good! My brothers are going too, so I’ll meet you there.” She squeezed me tighter. “And if you’re free afterward…” She let that idea linger, letting go of me and blowing me a kiss as she walked away.

I met Shelly outside the school, my boots soaked from walking through the snow. I stomped them off and brushed the snowflakes off my hair as Shelly grinned at me and pretended to shiver as she pulled her red wool coat around her. “I’m freezing. Warm me up.” She latched on to my arm and pressed herself into my body. Her strong vanilla fragrance filled my nostrils.

We went inside the warm lobby, a large decorated tree in the middle of the open space. The school went all out for the Christmas play. Most likely, I thought, because many of the parents from Evansly, the ones who worked in the executive offices of the mine, would be there. As I looked around, I saw several of them, their thick winter coats and fur-trimmed boots and hats giving them away. Shelly took my hand and led me inside to some empty seats near the middle of the auditorium. There was a low buzz of voices—chatter and laughter—and the room was dim and warm. I was suddenly glad I’d trudged through the weather to come here. I looked forward to the refreshments that would be served during intermission—it’d been a rough month. Heating my house, at least enough to survive, became as much of a priority as eating. When I was younger, I used to chip coal off the highway embankment. But it was illegal, and a very public illegal act at that, and I didn’t think it was worth the risk. I was so close to everything I’d worked for…so close. I followed Shelly, scooting past the people already seated in the row she’d chosen.