Page 37 of Once Upon A Christmas Song

“Dawson West,” he said, clearly starstruck. “Huge, huge fan.”

“Thank you,” he said tightly, not nearly the same warmth in his voice as there had been with Nicole.

“Me too,” Mrs. Guidry chimed in, taking Dawson’s hand next. “Big fan. I have a concert T-shirt you signed for me when I saw you in London.”

“Well, after the holidays, I can send Cami with a signed CD or the album notes from⁠—”

“Oh yes!” she said excitedly. “The album notes from Gasoline, please.”

“Consider it done.”

She was beaming at him and then turned to me and grimaced. “Mr. Gardner, I understand you usually walk Cami home from school, but did you by any chance bring a car today for the cage?”

That fast, she lost me. “The cage?”

Dawson snickered, because he heard the surprise in my voice clear as day.

She pointed across the room at the large cage where a very cute white rabbit was sitting, looking back at me.

I leaned sideways, around Dawson, who was biting his bottom lip so he wouldn’t laugh, and shot Cami a look.

“What’s wrong?” she called over, sounding really guilty even as she tried to scowl me into submission. “Mom said it was fine.”

No way in hell had Georgine Joseph signed on to babysit the class rabbit during Christmas vacation.

“His name’s Otto. Isn’t that awesome? It spells the same backward or forward.” She was making conversation now, rambling.

“Don’t try and distract me,” I warned her, and mouthed the word liar just in case there was any doubt I knew the score.

She made a cutting motion with her right hand for me to zip it.

I crossed my arms, because I was not taking this crap from a six-year-old, and yes, I was, in fact, arguing with said six-year-old, but her mother would freak when she saw the rabbit.

Cami did me dirty then, because she darted across the room, stood right in front of Dawson, not me, quickly figuring out that he was the weak link, and hit him with the pleading Bambi eyes. It wasn’t fair.

“Aww, Chris,” he said, his eyes looking just as pleading as hers. I couldn’t possibly be expected to say no to both of them.

“We can drive you,” Mr. Amsel suggested. “It wouldn’t be any problem.”

“Oh yes, please,” Nicole said, taking hold of my wrist since my arms were crossed over my chest as I was figuring out what to do. “Really. It would be our pleasure.”

What was I supposed to say when everyone, even the adults, were so hopeful?

“Cami, where are your mother’s platters? She’ll murder us both if those don’t come home.”

“I already put them in a bag,” she announced, smiling big.

“Your mother is going to lose her mind,” I said under my breath.

“Not if you tell her it was your idea.”

I just shook my head.

I could not have carried the rabbit cage, the food, the bedding, and all of Cami’s gifts by myself. And really, the walk was nice, as was the conversation, but taking two flights of old, steep stairs down to the door that led outside toward another long schlep to the parking lot was not nearly as nice. But this was the reason I ran every morning and lifted weights three days a week, so my muscles would look good cording as I carried Otto. For his part, he sat there in his cage on the other side and just stared at me like he was planning something.

“He likes you,” Cami declared.

“He’s plotting my death, I can tell.”