Ready to set out for her shop, she paused. She hadn’t returned anyone’s calls. Well, she’d see Mimi and Jacob on the wharf, and Louise would assume Christina was busy and overwhelmed with her store, which was the truth.

She drove carefully to the wharf. The sun was coming out from behind puffy white clouds. Houses and shops wore sparkling white hats and the trees were frosted with glitter. Christina smiled, remembering what Wink had said when Christina asked her what she wanted for Christmas.

“I want a makeup kit and a sparkly slime-making kit!” the little girl had declared.

And that’s what it was to be nine, Christina thought, poised between childhood and tween-hood. Nine years old was such a perfect time. It was too bad it couldn’t last for three or four years.

She slid her Jeep into a parking place across from the A&P and stepped out into the snow. The sun was almost completely out now, and it sparked off the windows and snowdrifts like scattered diamonds. The harbor water was a calm, innocent blue, as if it hadn’t been a black explosive cauldron last night.

Really, the little shops, with their Christmas wreaths sprinkled with snow and their windows bright with decorations, seemed like a vision from a fairy tale—one with a happy ending.

Christina stopped, got out her phone, and snapped some shots. No one else was open yet, and she was early, wanting to catch up on the work she hadn’t done yesterday.

She opened her shop door and stepped in to what felt like a refrigerator. She turned on the lights and the electric heater. Soon the place would be tolerably warm. She sat on her stool as close to the heater as she could get, and put together the checks and cash for a bank deposit. She had done well yesterday, and she’d do well today, she knew.

She was walking around her shop, straightening, organizing, turning dolls to face front, when her cell buzzed.

“Hi, Delia,” she said happily. “How’s Oscar?”

“He’s just like he always is. I’m calling to tell you that Wink might stop in to see you today. She says she misses you.” Delia’s voice was completely neutral, not her usual snobby pinched-nose cheese-grater sound, but not especially friendly, either.

“Oh.” Wink missed her? Christina couldn’t speak for the lump in her throat.

“Okay, then. That’s all.”

“Merry Christmas!” Christina chirped.

“Merry Christmas,” Delia replied, and somehow she made the words sound like “whatever.”

Christina went back to her organizing with a heavy heart. She missed Wink’s company. Really, she’d let herself get too attached to the child, a foolish thing to do. Now, not only would she lose Wink’s friendship, but she would lose her shop, too.