Page 59 of Once Upon A Christmas Song

Wooden floors, fireplaces, crystal chandeliers I told Cami were made of diamonds, and a huge chef’s kitchen. Originally, there were two entrances, but Georgine turned the second doorway into windows and put in more of the wrought-iron guards. I liked it better now, and that was where Cami and Henry sat a lot of the time, on the steps together, contemplating whether they wanted to walk to the park or play in the courtyard in the back, the open gate there connecting Georgine’s home with Seth’s.

Once Dawson and I carried in Otto, taking him to Cami’s room, where I put him on the floor near her reading nook—complete with window seat, throw pillows, and a light machine—I came back out into the living room, where I was pleased to see that Dawson had brought in everything else. Cami’s loot was there, and she was already showing it off to Henry—black-haired, blue-eyed, with adorable wire-rimmed glasses. Cami, with her voluminous curly afro and big brown eyes, a miniature Georgine, was explaining to him all about stickers you put at the edge of your eyes to make them pretty.

“Okay,” he agreed because that was his way.

Cami went to work on stickering them both up.

“Don’t you just love my house?” Georgine prodded Dawson. “Isn’t it charming?”

“It is,” he agreed, sounding wistful. “I love it.”

She was smiling at him.

“There’s a lot of light.”

“Are you going to get a house here?”

He grimaced. “No. I learned my lesson the first time.”

“What happened?”

“Electric guitar amp,” he explained. “Once I write a song, I have to play it, and sometimes that’s at, like, two in the morning.”

“Which can get noisy for your neighbors.”

“Exactly. That’s why Simone’s place is perfect. It’s soundproof, which, if someone is trying to murder me will suck, but for writing music, is great.”

“Murder you?” she asked him.

He shrugged. “I’ve only had a few stalkers, but the third one got into the bus when we were on the road. I had the flu, and he came out of the bathroom… It was spooky for a second, but Enoch is a black belt in karate, so that was the end of that. Cami said she does karate. I’m sure E will wanna come see her tournaments.”

She nodded. “I would love that.” And then she did a slow turn to me and mouthed the words I love him.

I squinted at her. That was not helping at all.

“So…Chris is starving. Is it okay if I get the pizza ordered, or is it too early for the kids to eat?”

“No, now is fine,” she assured him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t cook for you.”

“There will be other times,” he told her. “Like, say, tomorrow night. We usually do two sets and take a break between them. There’s five of us, so if that’s too much, we can just⁠—”

“Not at all,” she said, smiling at him. “I’ll have you guys try my new recipes. That’s fantastic.”

“Just keep in mind that we’re all kind of spice guys.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning what’s hot for other people is like nothing to us.”

“Is that right?”

He nodded, grinning at her.

“You and the band, you all like spicy food?”

“Yeah,” he said, then walked over to the kids. “What kind of pizza are we wanting?”

Georgine turned to me. “I am going to blow their heads off tomorrow with my jambalaya.”