Alone in the bunk room, they pulled on long johns and snow pants, getting into a suspenders-snapping contest neither of them won, but it made them both giggle like hyenas. Under orders from Grandma Marion, they made their beds. The beds never looked the same as when a professional grown-up did it.

“At least we made the effort,” Charlie said, mimicking his grandmother, which made them both laugh again.

“Hey,” said André, “can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Do you believe in Santa Claus?”

And there it was. That question again. Did he say yes and be accused of being uncool? Or did he say no and risk losing his Christmas dream?

“Do you?” he asked André.

“The whole world is all about Santa Claus, everywhere you look. Decorations, stockings, songs, school plays, everything. How could the whole world be wrong?” He frowned, then snapped his fingers. “We should figure out a way to prove it, once and for all.”

“Yeah!” Charlie said. “Let’s do it.”

“How? Do we set a trap or something? Or a camera?”

“What’s this I hear?” Darcy stuck her head in the doorway. “We’re talking about trapping Santa?”

Charlie’s cheeks felt hot.

“You know the part of the song that goes, ‘You’d better watch out’?”

Charlie and André nodded in unison.

She pursed her lips. “Well, what it means is that you have to be careful. Because if you start questioning his existence, you’re already in trouble.”

Chapter Fourteen

chapter fourteen

Logan had a crush on Darcy. He admitted to himself that it felt good. It was a big crush, maybe the biggest he’d ever felt, one that bounced around inside him as he went through his day. One that made him keep glancing at the clock and wondering what she was doing and wishing he was doing it with her.

Was she snowboarding on the fresh powder that had fallen last night? Having lunch with his sisters at the Powder Room? Sitting in front of her laptop, telecommuting to her job?

At his office in town, he had a meeting with Mason Bellamy, Adam’s brother and the finance guy who had organized the investor group for the resort. Logan was supposed to be going over business matters with him, but he had trouble concentrating.

“It’s that girl,” said Mason, nudging him after about the third time he drifted off, staring out the window at the snowy afternoon. “The one you were telling me about.”

He nodded, reluctantly pulling his attention back to the spreadsheets on the desk in front of him. “I’m having a hard time thinking about anything else.”

“Girls will do that to you.”

“You know what’s weird is that my family likes her.”

“How is that weird?”

“All my exes were girls my family disapproved of.”

“Maybe that’s why they’re exes.”

“I don’t want my family’s opinion to matter that much.”