Page 50 of All in for Christmas

We retrace our steps indoors. I also remove my coat and check under my sweater, but the necklace is clearly not in the house—or on my person. “When’s the last time you remember having it?” Dean asks as we stand in the bungalow’s living room.

“At the market, when we were looking at the starry night mug.”

“Then we should go back there and check. Park in the same spot or nearby, and watch our footfalls along the way.”

“Okay.”

Dean’s cell phone buzzes in his pocket and he checks his text.

REALTOR: Sorry! Emergency. Don’t worry about the house. I’ll remotely lock the door. Did you love it?

DEA N: Yes.

I’m heartened by Dean buying this house. Is it a sign about the future? Our future? I’ve made mistakes in this world and don’t want to repeat them. Although Dean will have to want a future with me as badly as I want one with him for things to work out.

I put on my coat and Dean helps me slide my arms into the sleeves. The motion brings his face extremely close to mine. His dimple deepens when he smiles. “Don’t worry,” he says about the necklace. “We’ll find it.”

But the sad fact is, we don’t. We scour the inside of Dean’s jeep, looking under the front seat where I rode and in crevices around the passenger door and console, but it’s not there. Not anywhere along the sidewalk during our walk to the market either, although it could have gotten buried in snow.

“Maybe someone else picked it up?” Dean says when we stop at the Santa Claus photo station, scanning the crowd.

“I bet Mary Christmas might know.” But of course she’s not here.

When we saw her before, she said that was her last visit.

She disappeared, enigmatically suggesting that when two realities diverge you have to make a choice.

Since no one can be in two places at once, does the same go for inanimate objects?

Dean searches the area and then says, “Maybe we should try to contact her?”

If only it were that easy. “Might not work.”

“We can try,” Dean says softly. He whispers into the air, “Mary Christmas?” He cups a hand beside his mouth and tries again. “Mary Christmas!”

I do the same, turning the other way and calling out in hushed tones. A man walking a dog stops in front of me and smiles. “Merry Christmas, young lady.”

“Oh no, I—”

Dean casts me a glance and turns up his palms.

“And merry Christmas to you,” an older lady utters to Dean as she parades by.

Dean’s neck turns red and then his ears.

I cover my mouth and giggle. I step up beside him. “So much for getting the real Mary Christmas to reappear.”

Dean’s mouth twitches when he says, “Maybe she’s at the North Pole baking cookies?”

“Cookies!” I exclaim. “I have to make some for the holiday party.”

“Wait. Didn’t we already attend one of those?”

“Not the one for Walton faculty,” I tell him.

“The one for my students. We’re having a party on the last half day.

” Which gives me tomorrow evening to prepare.

I’m going to be busy, organizing my items for the Paws and Read party, too.

But that won’t take long and will mostly involve loading boxes into my SUV.

“Ah, yeah. I generally allow my students to have a party. Although, I encourage them to do the baking, so I won’t have to.”

I meet his dark gaze. “Crafty.”

“No. Crafty was Mary Christmas, both in making her calendars and now in vanishing into thin air.” He surveys the tent with its bustling booths, then studies the ground near our boots.

The earth is parched and bare where the layer of winter grass has been worn thin and dusty.

“I’m really sorry we didn’t find your necklace, Paige. ”

“Maybe we’re not meant to find it?”

He turns to me. “What do you mean?”

“The time split limitations might not only apply to me and you,” I say. “Mary Christmas intimated neither you nor I could exist in both realities. Maybe it’s the same for the necklace?”

“Then how did it slip through this way?” Dean questions.

“I don’t know.” The problem vexes me. “Maybe I needed to see it?”

“Maybe I did, too. After all, touching that necklace was how I came to believe you, because I got that uncanny glimpse of that other reality we shared.” Dean wrinkles his forehead.

“So do you think the necklace has gone back there? Been returned to the other realm, where it’s gone poof ?

” He chuckles at the absurdity of what he’s saying and shakes his head, but I can tell he’s buying into it. Completely.

“Hmm. Possibly?”

We start walking back toward his jeep, exiting the big tent and getting lightly pummeled by swirling snow. I consider his time in Boulder. “Did you teach the first semester in Colorado?”

“I did.” He nods. “But it was a private school and it let out for the break a week earlier.”

“What made you decide on public education?”

His grin charms me. “I had a good feeling about working at Walton.”

“Dean. Were you aware I taught there?”

He shrugs and says mildly, “Might have heard something through the grapevine.”

“What grapevine?”

“It’s called social media.”

I swat him with my scarf and tease, “You stalked me?”

He wears a playful frown. “‘Stalking’ is not a very nice word. Unless you’re talking about Christmas stockings.”

I twist up my lips. “Punny.”

His laughter rumbles. “No, seriously. I applied to the entire district and Walton was where they had the opening in physics. I was going to move next summer, but I thought, why not now? There’s something pretty magical about new beginnings at Christmas.”

I stare up into his dreamy eyes. “Yes.”

My cheeks warm when I add, “I have a confession to make. I might have peeked at your profile once or twice, too.”

He lays a hand across his chest. “Only once or twice?”

I laugh. “Well, how many times did you check in on me?”

“Dozens.” He pauses dramatically then adds, “Daily.”

I roll my eyes, not believing him. “Bet that got to Wendy.”

“Wendy? What?” His mouth drops open but then he laughs. “You’re a little jealous, aren’t you?”

I gasp. “Am not .”

“What about you?” He eyes me curiously. “Any serious boyfriends, or such?”

“Not a one.”

“Why not?”

I hug my arms around myself as we’re walking. “Maybe I was waiting for you.”

“Hmm.” His eyes twinkle when he says, “I’m glad.”

“So?” I nudge his shoulder with mine. “Still want to go out for a bite?”

“I’d love to.” His smile warms me. “And I do want to hear about that other place, as much as you’re willing to tell me.”

Later that evening, Dean walks me to my SUV.

“I’m really glad we spent this time together.”

I sigh dreamily. “Yeah. Me too.”

“And Paige.” He lays his hand on my cheek. “Thanks for telling me more about that other world. It sounds like a dream.”

“It was, in some ways.” I cover his glove with mine, holding his palm against my face. “A hugely chaotic but happy one.”

He steps closer, lowering his mouth toward mine. “That Santa’s sleigh ride move was kind of sexy, huh?”

I flush deeply. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you everything .”

His dark eyes twinkle. “Maybe you didn’t have to. Maybe some of it was in that zip file I received.”

My cheeks burn hot. “What?”

“No worries. Your secrets are safe with me. All of them.” He covers my mouth with his and his kiss is tantalizingly warm. “We haven’t forgotten how to kiss,” he murmurs softly. “That’s pretty clear.” He lays another sizzling kiss on me and I melt.

“ Dean .” I slide my arms around his shoulders and link my hands behind his back. Wintry winds blow but I’m sheltered in his embrace.

“Paige.” His lips meet mine, so silky smooth. “I have to see you again.”

“Aren’t we going skating tomorrow?” We talked more about the calendar over dinner.

“Yes.” A lopsided grin. “But I was thinking about after that. Maybe for dinner on Tuesday?”

“I’d like that.”

“We have so much more to discuss.” He pulls back to grin at me. “Like Missy Peabody, Boss Lady.” He wears a smirk. “Who knew?”

“Oh stop!” I laugh and shove his chest. “And please, don’t you dare tell a soul what I told you about her.” I purse my lips and giggle. “That part might not even be true in this realm.”

“The other aspects you told me about seem to jive.” He shrugs. “More or less.”

“Okay, fine.” I give him a quick peck on the lips. “But things are also different. Look at the two of us, for instance.”

“Hmm, yes.” His eyes dance. “Just look.”

As much as I hate to break things up, I know I need to go.

“We should probably say goodnight. We’ve both got school in the morning.

” Though he’s not teaching yet, he mentioned at dinner he has meetings in the morning with Principal Peabody and his department head.

He also has to complete some paperwork and check out his laptop.

“All right. It’s true.” He kisses me one last sexy time and helps me into my SUV. “Drive safely,” he says before shutting my door.

Fifteen minutes later I basically float into my condo.

“Hi, Elroy.” I pat the robotic dog’s head. “How are you?”

“ Arf! Arf! ”

My heart pings sadly when I think of Scout, and then of Eleanor and Henry.

But no. I won’t be sad. I should be overjoyed by these new possibilities.

Dean and I are together again in a way I never imagined only a few days ago.

Maybe Mom was right, and Dean and I are fated?

She’s such a great mom and I love her dearly.

She has got to be okay. That’s the only thing that makes sense.

Maybe I didn’t understand her as fully as I should have beforehand in this realm.

Sometimes I questioned what she might have done better with me parent-wise, but that was before I’d grasped the rigors of parenting myself.

While we’ve always been close, I feel even more bonded with Mom after getting to know her in the alternate reality.

Plus, she gave me such dynamite advice about holding on to the good things.

I need to stop lamenting what I lost and be grateful for my present opportunities.

It’s exciting to think I could have a happy romantic relationship with Dean along with the full life I’ve worked for.

One marked by the accomplishments of education, my teacher career, and the important bonus of starting my charity.

It’s a real dream come true. Who knows how things will transpire over time?

Maybe we’ll eventually have a family, and a sweet pup like Scout?

Even as I think that my heart thuds dully.

Silly to miss what’s never actually come to pass in this world, so I push those feelings aside.

I stroll into my galley kitchen and flip on the light, peeking in the fridge and freezer.

I’m looking for homemade meals that have been put away.

Enticing leftovers, or homemade Christmas cookies.

But of course there are no yummy snacks here.

I’ll need to grocery shop tomorrow so I can make holiday treats for my class parties.

Maybe those delicious peanut butter sandwich cookies that were dipped in white chocolate? I can probably find a recipe online.

A piece of paper catches my eye on the refrigerator door.

My old daily schedule, dismayingly enough from December nineteenth.

I close my eyes and breathe, breathe . I don’t need my days planned out in such excruciating detail anymore, but I do need a formal lesson plan for my teaching these next two days, in case the principal requests to see it.

I pour myself a glass of wine and haul my laptop over to the sofa. I was so swept away by Dean, I neglected this important duty, and it’s not like me to be unprepared. Except for when I’m thrust into an alternate universe without warning, which was totally not my fault, to be fair.

I open my laptop and hunt down my lesson plans file.

I’ve taught this topic plenty of times, and there’s no better time for this lesson than right before the start of winter break.

It’s an easy ask of the students, a short novella and a simple overnight read.

I’d love to learn what my students think of our hero’s predicament, which was eerily similar to mine.

I raise my wineglass to the ceiling and toast Charles Dickens for his genius. Fiction imitates life, they say, and truth is stranger than fiction, but I wonder if Dickens ever experienced a journey as transformational as the one he gave his character Ebenezer Scrooge.

I glance at the advent calendar hanging in my kitchen, understanding my view on logic has changed.

I never would have believed such a fanciful experience to be possible previously.

And maybe I’m still imagining my time with Dean, Eleanor, Henry, and Scout.

But something in my heart says, I don’t think so .