Chapter 1
Danielle
Today is my favorite day of the year. Second favorite, if we’re being precise - but then again, I’ve never been a very precise person. Anyway, it’s Christmas Eve.
Two weeks since I started decorating my friends and families’ houses, baking every treat from Holiday Baking Championship, and staring up at the sky hoping for it to snow already. One week since my living room started smelling like a thousand Yankee Candles because a real fir tree really does smell that good. Twenty-eight years since my parents brought baby me home from the hospital, crying bloody mary, just for me to shut up the second the rainbow lights filled my eyes, scent of pumpkin bread filled my nose, and the warmth of the hearth coated my skin as the everlasting love of Christmas first settled itself firmly into my heart.
“Danielle!”
Yep, that’s right: my birthday is two days before Christmas. Suffice it to say, my birthday is my third favorite day of the year.
“Danielle!”
“I’m coming!” I huffed as I set my last tupperware of sticky toffee pudding in the gigantic bag by the front door and raised my head to peer out of a clear fragment of the door’s small stained glass window. Three hours since the first snow of the season started falling from the sky and burying every inch of ground in a thick layer of milky white beauty.
I smiled to myself as the snow started to lighten, a small break forming in the dense clouds above. A bright, nearly full moon peaked out behind the clouds, backlighting the gently falling snowflakes with a magical light somewhere between blue and icy white. My clear fragment started to become less clear, and I peered up above the door frame. Yep. Like every time it snows, the ledge above the door had created a massive snow bank that would inevitably fall onto the doorstep’s next unlucky inhabitant.
“Oh good, you’ve already got the bags.” My mom, Amy, stormed into the foyer from the neighboring kitchen. She doesn’t normally storm places, but it’s hard not to with the military-grade snowboots she’s got on.
I picked up the bag, heavy with home cooked food, and turned to my mom. “Let’s take the back door. Front’s about ready to rain snow.”
I looked at her feet.
“Mom, you’re the one who taught me not to wear shoes in the house.”
“Oh hush, they’ve been in the closet since March, they’re hardly going to dirty the floors.” She replied, looking behind her. A veritable trail of dirt-turned-dust follows her.
“Well, there’s no time to clean it now. The weather report says the snow will only get worse, so we’d better try and beat it.” She explained, grabbing her coat from the closet and beginning to pile scarves on her neck. “Ed! Adam!”
Before either could respond, Mom jumped in the air, spilling scarves onto the floor, as a loud DING echoed through the house. We both turned to look at the front door.
“It’s Christmas Eve!” My mom said, very much as if this was supposed to be new information to me. I gave her a half grin and then turned to the door and carefully opened it.
With a quiet thump, the entire upper bank of snow fell to the ground until all I could see was a human-shaped mound of snow. I gasped and quickly covered my mouth with my hand, not really out of shock so much as to conceal the peals of laughter rippling through me at this poor soul’s misfortune.
The person in front of me took a few steps back and violently shook off most of the snow. I could now tell this was a man. A gentle shake took off the rest, and a light brush across his face and hair told me all I needed to know.
Not a poor soul. My goddamn ex-boyfriend.
