Before Grandma Jo got any further, Dr. Raymond pounced. “Then that leaves me and Jo in the other car! We’ll get there first and add Skippy to the reservations, which I made yesterday.”

Dad’s eyes narrowed at the never-used nickname of his nickname.

Dr. Raymond was already onto getting Grandma Jo to himself. He waved his hand in the direction of the front doors. “After you, m’lady.”

A slightly stricken look flashed in my grandmother’s hazel eyes but she mustered up a smile. “Of course.” To the rest of us, “We’ll see you there.”

Pretty sure I read a Please hurry hostage energy off her before she and Dr. Raymond exited the lobby.

Which left Dad, Aunt Esha, Arthur, and me.

“Have fun, y’all,” Ayisha said to us, with a big smile that could have lingered on Arthur longer than was necessary.

Arthur returned her smile until he caught sight of me and then he looked momentarily uncertain whether he’d breached some unknown protocol.

Not that I cared. He could do what he wanted. Date Ayisha, not date Ayisha, it was no skin off my nose.

I grabbed a peppermint for the road.

The four of us bundled into Dad’s Jeep Cherokee, adults up front, and me in the back with Arthur.

Last night I’d found it hard to sleep, so I scribbled down some ideas for what to do while he and his aunt were in town. I’d even managed to order three pounds of fresh chestnuts from a farm in Michigan. Ha! Take that, just “dropped in your lap.”

As Dad pulled the Jeep out of the inn’s parking, I was about to reach in my coat pocket to retrieve the paper when Dad glanced in the rearview mirror.

“Arthur? Did you find a book?” he asked.

“Yes, sir. A Spell for Chameleon.”

“Love that one. Starts the whole Xanth series. Kinda heavy on the bosom talk and the guy never met a pun he didn’t like, but it’s pretty fun. Let me know what you think.”

“I will indeed.”

Aunt Esha shifted in her seat as we drove down Merry Street, the town’s main thoroughfare. I saw her peer out the window at the storefronts as we passed, most of which had been painted either red, green, or white since the town’s name change. Though they weren’t maintained equally and the whole strip bore little resemblance to the photos on the website.

Dad must have noticed the direction of her gaze, too. “This your first look around Christmas?” he asked.

Aunt Esha turned a polite smile in his direction. “No. Arthur and I went for a walk not long after we checked in two days ago. Such an interesting town.”

Dad’s laugh was a borderline guffaw.