CHAPTER 3

“O, Christmas tree, O, Christmas tree, how faithful are thy branches?”

—”O Christmas Tree”

Watching his foster dad was pretty entertaining. Though Gunnar was acting all cool and collected, Jeremy thought it was pretty obvious the guy only wanted to keep staring at Kimber Klein.

Jeremy thought it was funny. During the five months that he’d lived with Gunnar Law, the guy had never acted like he’d even noticed there were women in the world. The man was stable, methodical, and completely focused on three things: his work, his friends from West Virginia . . . and Jeremy.

Actually, he’d been really focused on Jeremy, which had been sort of nice but also a little overwhelming. He might’ve had a rough go of it, but he wasn’t a kid. He didn’t need Gunnar to worry about the little things like if he had eaten his breakfast or done his homework.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times Jeremy had told him that, Gunnar still made him bacon and eggs every morning—
and sipped coffee while Jeremy ate.

But now? Well, now, the guy was acting like Miss Klein was all that. Jeremy didn’t really blame him—Miss Klein was really pretty. But he’d seen a lot of pretty women in Bridgeport. He wondered what Gunnar saw in her that was so special.

After the tow truck disappeared and Gunnar was still frozen in place, Jeremy said, “Are you okay?”

“Hmm? Oh, shoot.” Gunnar shook his head like he was trying to clear it. “Sorry about all that. Probably the last thing you wanted to do today was help some lady with her vehicle.”

“I didn’t mind. She really needed some help. I’m glad you knew who to call.” He grinned. “She looked pretty clueless, standing there by her car and staring at her phone.”

“I thought the same thing.” Still not putting the truck into gear, Gunnar said, “Hey, I never asked. Do you know her well?”

Jeremy tried hard not to smile that Gunnar was fishing for information from a teenager. Starting to feel kind of sorry for the guy’s instant crush, he said, “I don’t know her at all. She helps out in the library when I’m working in there, but it’s not like we talk or anything. I’ve only spoken to her a couple of times.”

“Oh.”

“She seems nice, though,” he added, because they still weren’t going anywhere.

“She does. She’s got a heck of an accent, doesn’t she?”

Jeremy privately thought Gunnar was the one who had a heck of the accent. But he knew better than to say that. “I should’ve asked her if everyone from the city sounds like that.”

“It’s good you didn’t. That would be pretty rude.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” After a couple of seconds of silence, Jeremy cleared his throat and looked pointedly down the street. He was long past ready to go home. He had a ton of homework and was starving.

Finally taking the hint, Gunnar put the truck into gear and started for home.

Glad that they were finally moving, Jeremy leaned back in his seat, wondering what Miss Klein’s real story was. All he could think about was her comment about how she’d been adopted but her sister hadn’t. That didn’t seem right.

Though he usually would have kept his question to himself, his question bubbled out: “How do you think that works, with her being adopted and her sister going into a group home? What do you think happened?”

Gunnar glanced his way when he came to a stop sign. “I wondered the same thing. I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t know much about how the whole system works except for how things went with you. You probably know more than I do.”

He’d told Jeremy several times that after considering fostering for a good year, he called his social worker, who he’d known through church, and asked her questions. It turned out Melanie had been anxious to put Jeremy someplace better and had expedited the paperwork and house calls. Just six weeks after Gunnar’s initial call, Jeremy had been moving into his house.

“I thought I knew some stuff, but I didn’t think child services did things like that.”

“Did what, exactly?”

“You know, I didn’t think the social workers and courts split up siblings.”

“I don’t think they do anymore. That would make a hard situation even harder, I reckon.”

“Yeah.” Jeremy had always wished he’d had a sibling, but after hearing about Miss Klein’s situation, he was kind of glad he didn’t. What would he do if they were separated? “Do you think she was telling the truth?”

“I do.” He rubbed a hand over his face and seemed to contemplate that. When he looked at Jeremy again, his hazel eyes looked puzzled. “I mean, why would someone make that up?”

That made sense.

As Gunnar pulled into the driveway, he said, “Jeremy, since we’re being real honest and all, I have to tell ya that you caught me off guard when you pointed out that you were just my foster kid.”

“How come? It’s the truth, right?” What he didn’t want to say was that he was too afraid to call Gunnar his real dad. What if Gunnar changed his mind?

“You’re right. But we’ve been together for a while now. Five months.” He unbuckled but didn’t move. “Listen, when we talked about going through with the adoption, I thought you were on board with wanting to make things permanent too. But, if you think it’s too soon, or you’re not sure . . . you just have to tell me. There’s two of us, you know.”

Even thinking about leaving Gunnar’s house and getting stuck in some stranger’s house made him panic. “Are you saying you changed your mind?”

Gunnar shook his head. “No. No, not at all.”

“But—”

“Jeremy, bud . . . this is all hard enough without you putting words I wasn’t even thinking into my mouth. That’s not what I said at all. You know I want you with me, but you’re fifteen, not five months. You have a say in your own future,” he added gruffly. “I want you to feel good. Not just settle, you know?”

Jeremy knew what he should say. He knew he should say that he hadn’t changed his mind, that he liked Gunnar. That he wasn’t settling. But it was like all the words in his head got sideways before making their way out of his mouth.

So instead he just nodded. He felt like crap keeping silent, but he didn’t know if he had it in him to give Gunnar anything more.

“Okay. Glad we talked. Let’s go on in. It’s freezing.”

Jeremy climbed out, grabbed his backpack, and walked to the front door of Gunnar’s house. As he’d done every time since he’d first seen the place, he reflected on how crazy it was that he lived there.

Gunnar Law not only worked as an auto mechanic for Ace, he did carpentry work on the side. He’d built his house over two years, and it was cool. Like, amazingly cool.

For one, it was way bigger than it looked from the front. It was a sprawling walkout ranch-style house with four bedrooms, a media room, five bathrooms, and a kitchen–dining room combo that practically ran the length of the house. Crazier still, before Jeremy moved in, Gunnar had lived there all by himself.

He’d later learned that Gunnar had built it for a woman he’d been dating, but they’d broken up while he was building it. He’d finished it out with the intention of putting it on the market, but the real estate market was in a slump and no one was looking. Sometime after that he’d decided to just stay.

And now Jeremy had a huge room right next to the kitchen.

Crazy.

After unlocking the door, Gunnar motioned for Jeremy to go in while he punched a series of numbers on the keypad.

“I was thinking chili tonight. You okay with that?”

“Yep.”

“Do you have homework?”

“Yep. A ton.”

Gunnar raised his eyebrows. “You always say you have a ton.”

“That’s because I always do.”

“Do you need some help?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” Looking uncomfortable, Gunnar folded his arms over his chest. “I’m not too good at math, but I can help you study history or something. I wasn’t great in school, but I didn’t flunk out or anything. I also know a couple of people who could tutor you, so don’t be shy.”

“Thanks, but I’m good. I’m gonna head to my room now.”

“All right. I’ll call you when supper’s ready.”

Walking the short distance down the hall to his room, Jeremy walked inside and closed the door. And, at last, he felt himself relax.

The truth was, he wasn’t all that good at school. He wasn’t failing out, but he mostly got Bs and Cs. He’d always been okay with that, since he’d been basically just trying to get by. But now that it looked like staying with Gunnar could actually happen, he started thinking about other stuff. Like a future. He was a junior, halfway through the year even. If all went well, he could be graduating high school in a year and a half. Melanie, his social worker, had told him he should even start thinking about college or trade school.

Jeremy hadn’t ever believed he’d have the money for either, but now he was starting to think that she hadn’t been just giving him a pep talk. Maybe he was going to have a future after all.

His phone buzzed, pulling him away from his worries. Looking at the screen, he saw it was from Phillip. Phil was his best friend at Bridgeport High. They’d met in biology. Their teacher had made them partners when the class was dissecting a frog. Both of them had been trying hard not to gag but had somehow gotten the best grade on the test, which inspired them to work together again.

Which kind of turned them into friends. Now Jeremy ate lunch with the guy and his whole crew.

And that was really amazing, given that Phillip was friends with just about everybody.

Hey. Have you asked anyone to the Christmas dance yet?

Jeremy rolled his eyes. Bridgeport High held a fancy Christmas dance every year, a couple of days before Christmas. He thought that was a weird time to have a school dance, but everyone said it was tradition and that they’d been holding the dance in the school gym right before Christmas for decades. Some people even planned their vacations around it.

He hadn’t thought much about the dance for a number of reasons. But, he guessed if he was a guy like Phillip DiCenzo, he would be. Every girl in the school probably was waiting on him to ask her out.

No. Have you?

I’m taking Carson.

Should’ve known. Phillip and Carson weren’t official yet, but everyone knew that they liked each other. Phillip walked her to class every day after lunch.

Carson said that Bethany Seevers likes you. What do you think?

About Bethany? IDK

She’s hot.

Yeah. But I don’t really know her.

Get to know her so we can go together.

Whatever.

I’m serious.

Fine. I’ll think about.

Good.

Jeremy watched the screen for a minute more, but true to form, Phillip had signed off and was focused on the next thing.

Sitting down on the big La-Z-Boy that was in the corner of his room, Jeremy thought about Bethany. She was in their science lab too. She was hot. She had really long hair, and he’d always thought she was one of the prettiest girls in school. She didn’t have lots of curves like Phillip’s Carson. Instead, she looked kind of willowy.

But as he thought about Bethany, he realized he didn’t think about her looks all that much. Instead, he liked how she was so nice. A lot of people their age were only nice to their friends. Not Bethany, though. She seemed to go out of her way to talk to everyone.

Yep, she was really sweet. And that sweetness—combined with her light brown hair and green eyes—well, he couldn’t think of a better girl in the junior class.

But he didn’t know if he even wanted to go to a dance.

Girls, in his experience, liked to talk. She might want to know about him.

Then he’d have to tell her his whole story. About how Gunnar Law wasn’t really his dad and this cool house wasn’t actually his house.

And if she still asked him questions, he’d have to share that he’d been in four other foster houses and that he’d never had a dad. And that his mom had been real sweet until she’d gotten shot at an ATM.

He could just imagine how cool Bethany would think he was then. Obviously, not very.

Which meant before long, Bethany wouldn’t like him anymore—and worse, she would probably tell everyone about his parents and how he used to live. And then everyone would know how different he was.

That was something he wasn’t ready to deal with just yet. Shoot, he didn’t know if he would ever be able to deal with that.