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“Busier than I thought it would be on a Tuesday night. Did you guys have a lot of presents to wrap tonight?”
“Holy crap, did we.” She sighed and sank into the chair on the side of my desk. “Every year, I say that I’m going to find someone else to manage this, and every year, I find myself cutting, folding, taping, and making bows by the hundreds. You know, at this time of year, I can do it in my freaking sleep.”
I chuckled. “So you don’t want me to bring mine in for you to do?”
She gave me a stern look. “Not if you want me to continue to be your friend!”
I leaned back in my chair and kicked my feet up on the desk. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Besides, I enjoy wrapping—”
“You want to trade jobs? I think I could rock the Santa suit.” She grinned.
“No, I do not. I was going to say, I enjoy wrapping my ten or so gifts. I would not enjoy wrapping hundreds. And unless you can grow about ten inches, you would be swallowed up by the suit. You know the only reason they asked me to do this was that I was tall enough and they wouldn’t have to have the suit adjusted after Mr. Griffith passed away.”
A dramatic sigh escaped her. “It was worth a try.” She lifted her face to mine. “Is that the only reason you do this?”
“No.” I laughed. “I do it because you asked me, and I enjoy helping.”
“Speaking of helping, we haven’t gotten as many requests as we normally do. I bet we are going to have a mad rush over the next couple of days.”
I glanced at the two envelopes on my desk, and Donna followed my line of focus. “What are those?”
“Two more letters.”
“Where did they come from?”
I picked them up, staring at the arrangements of stickers all over them. “Do you remember Jeremy McMillian from high school?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Do you remember Faith?”
She rolled her eyes. “Who wouldn’t remember Miss Perfect? She was pretty, nice, popular, athletic, and smart. I wanted to hate her, but I couldn’t.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, that’s her.”
“Why are you asking me about them?”
“Well, because these letters are from Faith McMillian and her son, Luke.”
“What? No way! Did they come back to town? I swear I remember Faith saying she was never coming back here.”
“Well, it looks like they did. Faith didn’t know it was me, but she dropped the letters while Luke was on my lap. I told her I’d take them.”
“Well, are you going to open them and see what Mrs. Perfect and her son want? I doubt we can help them, but who knows.”
I tore open the envelope from Luke and pulled out the piece of paper. The handwriting was rather neat for a young kid, but it was still a little all over the place.
“Dear Santa, it’s Luke McMillian. I moved. I hope you find me! I have been good this year. I had to be so that my mom wouldn’t be sad. I really, REALLY want the Mighty Mark Conquers the Ocean set!! You can take it in the water and everything! I also want a new skateboard and helmet because mine got sold. A bike would be good. I’ve never had a bike before. And if you can make my mom happy, I’d like that too. Maybe I might like that more than a bike or skateboard, but not as much as the Mighty Mark Conquers the Ocean! Here is my new address so you can find me 675 Elm Street, Merryland. Bye, Santa, Luke McMillian.”
“Wow!” Donna said when I finished reading it out loud. “Maybe Faith and Jeremy got a divorce.”
I frowned as I skimmed over the letter again and stopped at the part about making his mom happy. Why was she unhappy? That thought bothered me. “Looks like she’s back at her mom’s house. Maybe they did get a divorce.”
“You going to visit?”
“Yeah, of course. Faith and I were good friends. I wasn’t just friends with Jeremy.”
She gave me a sly smile. “Yeah, I know how much of afriendshe was to you. You forget thatwehave been friends for a long time, and you had more than once drunkenly expressed your feelings for her when you were in college.”
