O Holy Night.
Nicholas' mind instantly went to the recital where he'd sung this very song with Molly. The way she'd smiled and sung off key, yet beautifully at the same time.
Luke changed the station to something more modern and hip, shaking his head with a laugh. “Christmas music. Sorry, sir. It looks like you can’t escape it. I thought this was the indie rock station, too. Weird they’d be playing that song, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Weird,” Nicholas agreed. It was strange. He sat up straight in his seat. “Luke, you don’t believe in magic do you?”
“Magic magic? As in, witches and warlocks? Or do you mean pulling a rabbit out of a hat magic?” Luke asked, his focus on the wheel. “Of course, I believe in the latter, because magic in itself is defined as an illusion. But the former? Pointy hats? Chanting spells? No, I don’t think so, sir.”
“Right, because believing in magic isn’t logical,” Nicholas said slowly.
“Correct.”
Nicholas felt his heart calming down. The fact that the Christmas song he sang with Molly was playing on a station that never even played Christmas music was just a strange, random coincidence.
It had to be a coincidence.
Nicholas then tried to calm his heartbeat even further. He asked Luke a very flat, very boring set of questions. Something his logical brain could wrap around and concentrate on. “Luke, what do you think it’ll be like? Back in New York? When we start putting the money from the sale back into the business?”
“Busy,” Luke said simply. He grinned at his boss. “We’ll probably have to pull a few all-nighters, back to back, just to make sure everything’s ready to move forward. There’s so much paperwork to get through, too, sir. I know you weren’t expecting too much to cross your desk until after the New Year, but we’ll really have to speed things along if we—”
Luke’s sentence was cut off by the car coming to a complete stop in the middle of the road. He pressed the start button, but nothing happened.
“Oh.” Luke tapped at the dials for a moment and then hopped out of the driver’s side door. “Hold on, sir just let me check something...”
Nicholas followed Luke out of the car as well, and they both approached the front of the vehicle, arriving at the same time.
Luke popped the hood of the car, and he stared down at its inner parts. He reached in and touched a couple of things, testing and searching for a cause of the dead engine. But after a few, quiet moments, he began to shake his head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“What doesn’t make any sense?” Nicholas asked.
“There’s nothing wrong with the engine,” Luke informed him, bending down towards the engine once more. “I thought maybe, with the sudden stop, something had gone wrong with it, but it looks perfectly fine. And the gas was filled up before we even left town. So...”
“So?”
“It’s highly unusual, sir,” Luke said with a shrug. He brought his phone out of his jacket pocket and started dialing a number. “I’ll call roadside service, just to check, but this might take a while, especially with it being Christmas. Sorry for the delay, sir.”
“How long do you think it might take? To get everything sorted out?” Nicholas’ questions came out hesitant as he looked over at Luke.
“I’m not so sure, sir. Maybe a few hours?” Luke guessed with a shrug. “If you like, we can maybe call you a cab to the airport, and I can stay with the car.”
The realization of what he needed to do hit him like a ton of bricks.
“I have to go,” Nicholas announced to Luke.
“Pardon me, sir?”
“I have to go right now,” Nicholas told him, pulling on a pair of winter gloves from his pocket. “I’ll be back in a few hours. Call me if you need anything.”
“Uh, sorry, sir, but may I ask where you’re going without the car starting up?”
“I’m going back into town,” Nicholas replied, a grin starting to fill his face.
“You’re going back into town?” Luke asked confused. “But why?”
“Because this, all of this, the snow, the Christmas lights, the mistletoe, the song on the radio, the engine dying for literally no reason—” Nicholas began to laugh and the happy sound radiated through his chest. “I think it can only mean one thing.”
Scrambling, Nicholas reached into the backseat of the Jaguar, grabbing onto the stack of documents related to the sale of Christmas Wishes. He then folded the papers under his arm and he sprinted down the snowy street, headed in the opposite direction of the car.