As they took glasses down from the cabinet and Christina popped open a bottle of prosecco, she whispered, “Looks like we’ve got a romance going on.”

Mimi whispered back, “Christmas magic.”

They carried the bubbling drinks back to the living room. For the next hour, they sang and revised and sang and always Harriet’s sweet pure soprano spiraled high, leading the way.

When the three other carolers left, Christina went to bed.

With her phone in her hand.

She waited ten minutes, enough time for Mimi to get home, then tapped Mimi’s number.

“Mimi,” Christina said as soon as her friend answered, “what’s going on with Harriet and Jacob?”

“Isn’t it wonderful? Harriet brought us hot soup for lunch yesterday and Jacob asked Harriet out to dinner and I’d bet my bottom dollar they’re in love.”

“Christmas magic,” Christina agreed.

When they said goodbye, she snuggled down into her covers, feeling a bit like a Secret Santa.

Chapter 18

Christina woke up hungry. She sat up, threw off the covers…and yesterday evening’s events came flooding back into her mind. Today she felt much more optimistic about life in general. That’s what singing Christmas carols can do, she thought, and she was grateful for it.

Downstairs, she started the coffee brewing and checked her cellphone while she waited. Louise had called twice. So had Jacob. And Mimi.

And Andy.

Her optimistic mood sank, not completely, but slightly, so she reminded herself that she was hungry and set about making scrambled eggs with cheese and bacon and toast with slabs of butter and cherry jam. Simply working in the kitchen lifted her mood. She remembered all the times she’d been downhearted as a child, and her mother had said, “Oh, you’re just hungry. Find something good to eat.”

It was a wonder she didn’t weigh three hundred pounds. On the other hand, her mother’s advice had almost always worked.

The coffee and breakfast filled her with energy for the day. It would be super busy, and she had to get in early to do the books for yesterday, which she hadn’t gotten done because of the Oscar incident. Outside her kitchen window, she saw that snow layered everything in a thick cover of sparkling white. The wind had stopped howling and the sun was out, making the icicles dangling from the trees shimmer like prisms.

She flicked on the radio and sang along to the Christmas carols as she made a thermos of hot coffee and a quick and easy peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Upstairs, she dressed in her warmest clothes and pulled a wide woolen headband over her hair. She pinned a snowman to the headband, slipped on her dangling Christmas earrings, and for extra protection against the cold, she tied a wool scarf around her neck.