“What I see in the candle isn’t a wish,” she said. “It’s just what’s going to happen.”

All I could see was that Grace was giving way too much attention to my little brother.

“Now it’s time for my present,” I said.

“There’s more?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I climbed halfway outside the door and pulled in the box. It wasn’t wrapped but I had folded its paper sack around it.

“It’s really big,” Joel said proudly.

“It sure is,” Grace said.

“Yeah. I didn’t have a chance to wrap it.” I pushed the box her way. “You take it out.”

She lifted the box from the bag and set it on the ground for all of us to admire. It was a General Electric brand electric space heater capable of 2,500 BTUs of heating power.

“This is for me?”

“Yeah. That should keep it plenty warm in here.”

“Omigosh!”

She was clearly more impressed with my gift than she was with Joel’s dumb baseball card.

“Where’d you get it?”

“Kmart. I bought it.”

“You bought that for me?”

“Yeah. Let’s try it.” I opened the box and pulled out the heater. It was about two feet wide, two feet high, and the beige color of surgical cabinets with a chrome net face. I set it in the corner, unplugged the nightlight, then plugged in the heater, turning the dial all the way to high. There was the whirring of an internal fan, then the coiled metal filaments began glowing red followed by a rush of heat. For the first time that winter the clubhouse became comfortably warm.

“That is awesome,” Joel said.

Grace said, “I’m so happy. I’m going to take my coat off!”

Her pleasure pleased me. “It works good,” I said. Joel and I took off our coats too.

I looked over at her and she was looking at me with that look again. The one that made me feel funny inside.

“You shouldn’t have,” she said, which was what my mother always said to my father on birthdays. “That must have cost a fortune.”

I nodded. “Pretty much.”

“I don’t know what to say. You are the best man in the whole world.” Tears welled up in her eyes as she smiled at me.

Joel looked back and forth between us. “Can we eat the cake?”

“Sure,” she said.

I retrieved the cake cutter from my coat and cut three large servings. It was an incredibly perfect moment. I had the admiration of a beautiful girl and chocolate cake. I had never before had the former, rarely the latter, and never simultaneously.

“Ah,” Grace sighed with pleasure. “This is so delicious.”

Joel had frosting smeared around his mouth. “Yeah, this is the best cake ever.”

“There’s plenty,” I said, feeling even more magnanimous than before.

“We need milk,” Joel said.