Chapter 14

Fourteen

I love hearing our students sing as I walk through the halls! Ohana, we can’t wait to have you join us at our holiday festival. Mr. Bell has our students tuned up and ready for the festivities!

NOLAN

As December crept closer to the holiday festival, preparations went from flurries to a blizzard of activity, taking over all of my time at school and much of it outside of work as well. Rehearsals were well underway for the choral numbers I’d choreographed with help from Mx. Lennox, the dance instructor. Their classes would also be performing, and I was excited to see the results.

However, at the moment, I was concerned with getting my dancing surfer Santas from the sixth grade choir all headed in the same direction.

“And everyone to your left, to your left,” I directed. We’d moved to the courtyard to practice. The school lacked an indoor stage or auditorium, so the performances would take place in the courtyard. After enough days of rehearsals, I was honestly glad there wasn’t a stage, as at least I didn’t have to worry about kids falling into the orchestra pit.

“Your other left, Marcus,” I corrected as one of our Santas headed away from the rest.

“Sorry, Mr. Bell.” Marcus apologized, only to make the same mistake the next run-through.

“Remember you are Santa, jolly and generous!” I directed the students. “No cranky faces!”

“I don’t believe in Santa.” One of Legend’s crew, a spiky-haired kid in a perpetual bad mood, glared at me.

“Yeah, we’re not little kids,” another boy added. Sixth grade was apparently equivalent to all grown up if one listened to the students.

“All you have to do is believe in the magic of the season.” Smiling, I swept my hands wide. Only a few others smiled, and I groaned. “No? Not buying that?” I exhaled, trying to come up with a different angle. “Okay, think about the audience and how much they’ll love this number.”

“Think about how fun surfing is.” Legend sauntered up next to me like he was doing me a favor, clapping me on the back. “Listen to Mr. Bell.”

“Thank you, Legend.” I reached over my shoulder to peel off the Kick Me sign he’d placed on my back. I shook my head, feigning disappointment. “Really? Another tired prank. Try harder.”

The whole class laughed as the bell rang. On his way out of the courtyard, Ryder came up to me.

“See you tonight. Dad said you found a tree?”

“I did.” I smiled. “I’ll drop it off this evening.”

“Drop off?” Ryder frowned. “You’re staying to decorate.”

And with that proclamation, he was off to his next class. I was on to the seventh graders who were doing a multicultural salute to the winter holidays. Unfortunately, like with the sixth grade choir, I’d be better off herding some of the chickens roaming around North Shore.

“Now, drummers—” I directed, only to be cut off by several agitated voices.

“I wanted to drum.”

“Me too.”

“We can’t all drum.” I put as much patience as possible into my voice, even though we’d been over this many times.

“Why not?”

“Because.” I sounded exactly like my own father. Bah.

The eighth graders and their secular nod to solstice were hardly an improvement from the other choirs, as their dancing was less sprite-like and more that of angry water buffaloes.

“And we’re dancing, we’re dancing. We’re fairies. Light as a feather.” I moved among the students, demonstrating with my arms what we were trying to achieve. “And we’re singing at the same time. Watch the stomping, Liam.”

“I hate this song.” Kaitlyn hadn’t warmed up to me at all in the weeks I’d been at the school.

“I hate the costumes,” one of her friends added.

“And we’re singing anyway.” I waved my hands. “Your parents will love this.”

I hoped, at least. And finally, it was the end of the day, and I was able to head to Merry’s classroom. Despite Ryder’s request, it would undoubtedly be better to simply hand Merry the red foil tree I’d found at long last. It had taken some doing, but I’d stowed my find in the choir room closet and couldn’t wait to deliver it.

In stark contrast to the chaos of the choir classes, Merry’s shop classroom had been transformed into a peaceful winter wonderland. The palm trees now all looked like palm trees, the arches were curved, and the giant hibiscus were bright and cheery. The candy cane and surfboard props also appeared ready to go, and I had to clap my hands at the progress.

“Now, this is a treat after my day of rehearsals. Everything looks great.”

“You wanna do the honors?” Merry handed me a box with a switch on it. “I’ve got the lights all wired, but I haven’t tested them all at once yet.”

“Yes.” I was utterly delighted to flip the switch. All the clear bulbs lit up, dousing the room in the exact type of holiday magic I’d been trying to sell my classes on. “Oh, Merry, it’s beautiful.”

“We still have work to do. And transferring everything to the courtyard?—”

“It’s perfect.” I gave him a fast yet firm kiss. “You’ve worked so hard. I hope you know how much I appreciate it.”

“You’ve worked hard too.”

“Eh.” I waved the praise away. “Your decorations are marvelous. The choir performances… Well, we’ll simply have to see.”

“The parents will love it regardless,” Merry said loyally, earning himself another swift kiss. “And do you want to ride with me back to our place, or were you planning to check on Cara and the kids first?”

“I could ride with you. Cara texted that all is well there. But are you sure it’s okay if I come over tonight?” My mouth twisted. I didn’t like the idea of imposing or creating the wrong expectations. “I could simply give you the tree if you want alone time with the twins.”

“Nah. They both keep asking for you to come.” Merry shrugged. “And you found the tree. You deserve to help. And we have cookies.”

“Definitely coming for cookies.” And for Merry, but that went without saying.

Thus, I ended up riding to Merry’s apartment with him, the twins, and the box with the red foil tree. They lived in a ground-floor unit of a small complex that looked to be from the seventies or eighties with minimal exterior updating. The interior, though, was freshly white, with a more modern kitchen. Merry and the boys had a mix of furniture that reminded me of my own collection of various pieces.

As soon as we walked in, Barney was utterly delighted to see all of us. While the twins walked and fed the dog, Merry and I managed to use our mutually limited cooking skills to whip up some breakfast for dinner with pancakes and scrambled eggs. I had the idea of adding pumpkin spice to make them more festive, and Merry poured them in the shape of gingerbread men. The dining area was in the living room, so we flipped on an animated Christmas movie to watch while we ate.

It was delightfully homey working and eating together, and my chest ached with the sweetness of it all. After dinner, the four of us put together the small tree. It was a little bigger than a tabletop tree, around five feet, perfect for the space between their couch and TV.

“I love it.” Ryder stood back to admire our assembling skills. Or rather, Merry’s skills, as he’d done most of the work.

“It’s pretty cool.” Legend actually seemed impressed for once.

“It needs ornaments.” Ryder pursed his mouth. I was about to suggest my maternal grandmother’s old trick of salt dough when Merry headed to the hall closet.

“I’ve got us covered there.” He hauled out a cardboard box—the kind reams of paper came in with a separate lid. Removing the lid, Merry revealed a treasure trove of kid-made ornaments from preschool through the present.

“It’s all the stuff we’ve made.” Ryder’s eyes got big and round. “You saved them.”

“Of course I did.” Merry’s cheeks were pink, but his expression was pleased as the boys had fun strolling down memory lane. They held up popsicle-stick snowflakes and construction-paper flowers and shared the stories associated with each. Merry pulled out his phone and shared pictures of the twins at various ages to go along with the stories.

If I’d thought my heart was full merely cooking together, now it was Empire State Building huge and lit up like New Year’s Eve to boot. I felt included in something special, almost too special, like I’d intruded where I didn’t belong.

“It’s gorgeous.” My eyes burned as I took in the completed tree.

“Thanks for the help.” Merry smiled at me.

“Next year, I want even more lights too. We can outline the whole patio. And maybe Nolan can find us a wreath to match the tree.” Ryder was full of big plans, and a lump in my throat joined my stinging eyes.

“Nolan will be back in New York next year,” Merry said gently. “Remember? We talked about that. We’re lucky to have him this Christmas though, so let’s enjoy that.”

“Okay.” Ryder frowned and kicked at a stray piece of tissue paper.

“Who has homework?” Merry asked, and the boys disappeared to their shared room, followed by the dog.

“Good.” Merry grinned at me. “That should keep them busy for eleven point three seconds. Long enough to kiss you in front of the tree.”

I kissed him back, the sort of soft, comfortable kiss where we both knew we weren’t getting anywhere near the bedroom. We cuddled on the couch, trading kisses, until I forgot about my bittersweet feelings over the tree, at least temporarily.

“We need some real alone time.” I gave Merry a pointed look.

“Soon.” He let out a low groan. We’d had several of these sneaky make-out sessions, but it had been far too long since we’d had a locked door and some time on our hands. “If nothing else, the twins got invited to an after-festival sleepover.”

“I like the sound of that.” Certain parts of me perked right up at the thought of doing our own sleepover.

“Me too.” Merry snuck another kiss onto my cheek. “Put it on your calendar?”

“It’s a date.” We grinned at each other. I could only hope the upcoming holiday festival was as big a success as our little fling.