Page 128 of Meet Me on Mistletoe Lane

Leo sniffed.

“Nico told me he’s already building you decks.” I ruffled his hair. “And you’re going to help Mom out with her new location and make sure she remembers that coffee is not a breakfast food and that she has to pack herself a lunch.”

Of course, then she will actually have to remember to stop working and eat said lunch.

“But…Trent said middle school is horrible, Gianna.” He scuffed one of his socked feet back and forth on the floor.

“Screw Trent. It’s not that bad.” I set my plate on the nearest end table. “You just need to find your people. And you will. You’ve already signed up for band, and James told me music kids are the best kids.”

“He did?” He looked up.

“Mm-hmm.” I grinned. “But on the flip side, if anyone gives you trouble, it’ll only happen once, because we both know Marco and Nico will scare the crap out of them.”

He laughed before I gently pulled him in for a hug. “I won’t be far, and I promise to come home as often as I can, okay?” I pulled back and held up my pinkie finger, waiting.

He wiped his eyes and looped his pinkie around mine.

An hour later, I was hopelessly losing while Leo did surprisingly well, having successfully gone “low” in the last hand. Nico kept checking Leo’s lap under the table, convinced that somehow my eleven-year-old brother was clever enough to cheat an entire table of adults. Nona and Aunt Helen took turns smacking the back of Nico’s head to get him to back off while Uncle Gabe hummed “Eh Cumpari”—my Papa’s favorite song—on repeat.

I sat back and smiled.

What a chaotic but loveable mess they all were.

Okay, yeah, they were loud and meddlesome.

And yes, they were over-the-top.

But like James had said, they were mine.

And I knew that no matter where I went or what I did, the Mancinis would have my back, and I would have theirs.

Uncle Gabe took a turn shuffling and dealing the next hand, and the noise quieted a bit. Leo drew his feet under him before reaching for another slice of panettone in the middle of the table. “Nona, can you tell us the story about your grandparents immigrating to the United States? The one where they got lost in the city?”

Bianca and I smiled at each other across the table. Then she pushed her chair back to pour herself another cup of coffee. How she could have caffeine this late and not be wired all night was a mystery to me.

“Aren’t you tired of that story, cuoricino?” Nona asked, one eyebrow raised higher than the other.

Leo shook his head. “It’s tradition.”

The kid had a point.

Nona chuckled and then settled back in her seat as Uncle Gabe finished dealing the cards, even though he knew none of us would touch our hands yet. This was a story we had heard every Christmas Eve, but it never got old. My great-grandparents apparently fell in love in a small town north of Rome despite both of them being betrothed to others. They decided to run away to America so they could start a new life together. But when they got off the boat at Ellis Island, the crowds were too big, and they got separated.

According to Nona, her parents spent weeks in New York City trying to find each other, but it wasn’t until Christmas Eve that they finally did. Cold and weary, they attended the same small church vigil service on the Hudson River. And the rest was, well, history.

“Anime gemelle,” Nona said as she finished her story and picked up her hand.

“Soulmates,” Bianca whispered over the top of her coffee cup.

Leo picked up his hand and began to sort his cards. “Nona, can a friend also be a soulmate?”

“Absolutely.” Nona looked at me, the corner of her mouth drawing up in the smallest of knowing smiles. I flashed back to the last game of Scrabble that Sam and I had played, to his final word, and to the feelings I hoped he still carried in his heart.

Later that evening, soft snowflakes fell from the dark, moonless sky as I changed into my favorite red cable-knit sweater. My gaze trailed over the piles of notes on my desk and the maps that hung above it.

How was it already Christmas tomorrow?

It seemed only yesterday I was sitting in this very room watching Meet Me in St. Louis when the notification came in about my acceptance to the study abroad program. So much had happened over the last month.