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Brit nodded. “That would be the perfect spot.” She looked at Jasmine, “Can you give me a hand lifting this out?”
The teen trudged through the snow and together they lifted the baby Jesus in his manger and carried him to the front yard. Setting him down, Jasmine said, “We should get a bale of hay from the barn and scatter it around.”
“Good idea! If you want, take the ATV and go grab one, I’ll keep unpacking the rest.”
“Yes!” Jasmine fist pumped the air and Brit had to laugh at the girl’s reaction. She loved driving that thing around, and the reason why Brit suggested it.
“Where’s she going? Kim asked.
“To get a bale of hay for the manger,” she answered, pulling out a donkey next from the crate. “This is quite the nativity scene you have here.”
“Yeah, Dean made it years ago when he was living in the States,” Kim said, climbing down from the ladder. “Who would have thought he would be so handy.”
“It’s beautiful,” Brit said as she admired his handiwork.
“So.” Kim studied her face. “The house is almost decorated except for the main tree in the living room and the other girls already decorated theirs, when are you going to put yours up, Brit?”
Brit froze. How did she tell this woman that she hated Christmas? Hate was too strong of a word. More like disliked. She was fine when they had gone shopping but then the incident happened and with it brought everything she was trying desperately to forget.
“It’s the middle of November...” When she saw the look on Kim’s face she hurried on. “Umm... soon. I would just like to wait until closer to Christmas, you know. Makes it feel more like the holidays for me. Maybe Evelyn can decorate it?”
Kim wrinkled her nose. “She’s too busy with Tim over at the bar.”
The sound of the ATV returning had them both turning around.
“I got two bales,” Jasmine said, getting off the machine.
“Good, let’s get this set up. From the looks of those clouds, it’s going to start snowing any second,” Kim said, pulling one of the bales out of the wagon.
Together, all three set the nativity up and were putting the final touches on it when the snow started falling.
––––––––
LUKE WAS ON HIS WAYback to Pearl Lake. Having wrapped up his last gig of testing the next biggest hit for next year’s holiday season, he was free until mid January. And what better way to pass the time than going to visit his family early.
That wasn’t the only reason why. He couldn’t get Brit off his mind no matter how hard he tried. He’d even gone on a few dates with various women. But that didn’t help. He caught himself comparing them to her, even going as far as calling one of them by her name. That didn’t end well. All it got him was a glass full of wine thrown in his face in the middle of a swanky restaurant. After that, he gave up.
He had been driving, well, more like crawling for an hour in what looked like a tunnel because the snowbanks were as high as his driver’s side window. With the trees on either side of the road, the snowplows didn’t have much of a choice but to push it off to the side as best as they could. If that wasn’t bad enough, big fat snowflakes started coming down. “Great. Isn’t there enough snow up here already?” he grumbled to himself looking up at the sky.
He was a five-minute drive away from the village and with any luck, he would get there before the road got too bad, he thumbed the cruise control, increasing the speed. That was his first mistake. The second was hitting black ice. Never a good thing, especially when the car decided to hydroplane into a snowbank. The car came to a jarring stop. Feeling like he’d just hit a brick wall, Luke sat there for a minute getting his bearings, thanking his lucky stars the airbag didn’t go off.
Grabbing onto the door handle, he shoved his shoulder against it, but it wouldn’t budge. He unbuckled his seatbelt, reached across the passenger seat, and tried that door. Relief spread through him when it opened.
Reaching for his cellphone, he snatched it up and swiped the screen intending on calling Lane. “Damnit!” There was no reception.
Stuffing it into his pocket, he crawled over the middle console to the passenger seat. Getting out on all fours he stood on the snowbank looking down at his car with hands on his hips. It was no wonder why he couldn’t open his door. The snow was halfway up the driver’s side. He was lucky it stopped when it did because it was teetering on top of the snowbank, with a twenty-foot drop on the other side down to the frozen lake.
Not wasting any time, he carefully opened the back door and grabbed his scarf, wrapped it around his head, and then his gloves. Putting them on, he scowled at the swirling snow while cursing at himself for not bringing a winter hat. He bent down and grabbed his duffle bag that held his clothes and took out the one thing that would be missed if someone came along and decided to help themselves to the contents, Ava’s gift to Mark, the gaming system. The rest of his things and what small gifts he'd already bought would have to wait for the tow truck.
He debated on setting off across the lake. Take a shortcut, or the safe way up the road. He looked across the frozen lake, scanning its surface for any wet areas that would show open water and there were none. He could see the inn where Kim and Dean lived and further down the shore, he could see where Ava and Mark’s house sat and a few hundred feet away, his mom’s and Ben’s house.
Pulling the collar up on his coat, he hunkered down and started the descent to the lake below, gingerly making his way down, hanging onto tree trunks for support. Once he was standing on the shoreline, he took a moment to catch his breath. If he made good time, he should be there in less than five minutes.
He stepped onto the snow-covered surface and tested it with his weight. Knowing it was more likely to fall through the closer he was to shore than further out, he tentatively made his way out. When no cracking could be heard he bent down and brushed the snow away and saw that it was clear blue; lucky for him, as it was the strongest. Standing, he set off to the closest family member's house... Kim and Dean’s Inn.
He was three quarters of the way there when he heard a groaning sound coming from where his car sat. Turning around, he watched in stunned silence when he saw it slide down the embankment trampling the underbrush as it did. And then if he hadn’t already had the worst luck in the world, it made a nosedive right towards the shore. With an echoing crash it hit the edge of the frozen water. All was quiet for a second and if he hadn’t seen it for himself, he would never believe it could happen but then the ripple effect from the car's impact caused the ice to crack. Luke took off running in hopes he made it in time...
