I’m pressed against the window, looking down at the large crowd gathered for the Torchlight Parade. “This isn’t going to work. We’ll never find him with all of these people.”
“Who are we looking for?” Jack asks. His little nose presses against the glass.
“Caleb.” I shake my head, realizing there’s no way my little nephew would know him by that name. “I mean Justin. You know, that guy you love playing with?”
“He’s right there.” Jack points out the window.
The gondola gets even more crowded as everyone pushes forward to see where Jack points. They all start talking at once.
“I don’t see him.”
“Where is he?”
“Jack, where are you pointing?”
His little finger hits the glass. “Right there. In that other gondola coming down the mountain.”
My eyes follow Jack’s finger, and in another gondola going down the mountain, across from ours, stands Caleb. Our eyes catch as we slide past each other. It takes him a second to notice me in the stuffed gondola, but when he does, his hands press against the glass. I smile, and he smiles, but we’re moving away from each other faster than we can communicate, and as quickly as I see him, he disappears from my sight.
My heart sinks. I missed him.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Aunt Carma huffs. She’s the only one who’s actually sitting in a seat comfortably. “I guess we should just go home.”
“No!” Erin groans. “We are seeing this out before I have to go back to Denver tomorrow night.”
My phone vibrates in my back pocket. I grab it, seeing Caleb’s face on the screen.
“It’s him!” I scream with excitement, and my sisters do the same. “Caleb?”
“Summer?”
“Caleb?” I can barely hear him with how loud my family is being. I try plugging my ear, but it doesn’t help. “Caleb?”
“Summer? I’ll come to you.”
“You’ll come to me?”
“Yes, get off at the next stop.”
“Okay.” I end the call and turn to my family. “He’s coming to us.”
There’s a big cheer, and my mom starts chanting, “He’s coming to us! He’s coming to us!”
My sisters jump up and down and hug me, and it’s like a party—a love confession birthday Christmas Eve party.
* * *
This hasto be the longest eight minutes of my life. We’re huddled together at lift four, holding our breath every time a new gondola goes by.
“What if he doesn’t come?” Rick asks. “What if he leaves you here on this mountain?”
“Rick, you’re being awfully annoying tonight.” My mother frowns.
“I agree.” I glare at him.
“I see him!” Hailey yells, pointing at the next gondola and we instantly forget about Rick and his annoying comments.
Caleb stands by the door with a couple making out on the bench behind him. Talk about being the third wheel.
