But two hours later, both of their searches came up short. The closest recognition January could find was regarding Saint Nicholas, who was a real person. There was no mention of the holiday, Santa, or even any of the other religious connotations regarding the Christmas celebration. It was as if the entire holiday never existed.

Pushing away from the desk, January slumped in the office chair in defeat.

“I just don’t understand. I didn’t make it up, Deckard. It was a holiday that meant so much to so many people. It couldn’t have disappeared.”

Deckard looked at her with pity and she hated that feeling of questioning herself. She couldn’t blame him. Even to January, her story was beginning to sound a bit far-fetched.

“Hey, we still have a list of sections that seem to ping a few articles that we can look at. We just need to search through the shelves,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, okay.”

Dust filled the room as they went through a few boxes of older papers, many dating back to when the town of Pineville came to be. There were mentions of a religious celebration on December 25, but nothing specifically related to Christmas.

Everything regarding town-wide festivals were centered around the winter solstice. She could see where the Christmas celebrations she hated for so long had been changed into a different theme.

She frantically sifted through more and more boxes, not finding anything to ease her frustrations. January was close to tossing each and every paper into a pile in the corner in her haste to find an answer.

“Hey, hey. Calm down,” Deckard consoled with a soft touch on her arm.

“Deckard, I. . .I just don’t understand.”

He pulled her away from the box of papers she had been sorting through and held her in his arms, trying to ease her disappointment by taking it into himself. He was prepared to be her anchor and she was willing to allow him to act like it.

Because though he wasn’t saying it, she was afraid she had gone crazy.

“Come on, sweetheart. We’ve been here for three hours. Let’s grab some lunch and maybe we can get some clarity.”

“Maybe. . .” she began to say, doubt seeping into her skin causing her to question herself.

“Don’t, January. I believe you. If there was something special that we’re missing out on, I want to know all about it. Maybe it will help.”

“Yeah,” she murmured against his chest as he continued to hold her close. January allowed his touch and smell to soothe her. His hand rubbed up and down against her spine, leaving trails of heat across her back.

Together they walked away from her office toward the bakery across the street. The air smelled like snow and cookies and January closed her eyes to take a deep breath. Deckard was careful not to bring up any of the celebrations coming up in the town, but as they stepped inside the eatery, two of her co-workers approached and asked if she still planned on being in the solstice festival with Samantha.

January floundered; she couldn’t be in a celebration that she knew nothing about. She vaguely remembered that Samantha had signed them up to be in the Christmas parade when she interviewed the group running the festival. This must be the alternative.

It seemed like she was living in an alternative universe.

Noticing the horror on her face, Deckard wrapped an arm across her shoulders and tugged her body against his. “Actually, January is going to have to decline the participation at the celebration. She’ll be observing the solstice with my family this year.”

The jaws on their faces collectively slackened, forming large gaping holes just below each their noses.

“It’s a new development,” January chimed in, hoping that she didn’t sound as freaked out as she felt with Deckard holding her so close.

Using the firm hand on her shoulders, Deckard steered them toward a table in the corner and kept her back facing the door. He offered to grab them both a sandwich from the counter and she nodded in thanks.

Delving her hands into her bag, the metal of a spiral spine bit at her palm and she gripped her notebook, pulling it out of its confines. The pages flipped through her fingers until she landed on the page of the religious celebrations that were still eminent during the season. She skimmed through the scribbles then turned to a blank page just as Deckard sat back down with a tray of sandwiches and two cups of water.

“So, how do we celebrate Christmas?”

January paused while lifting the large club sandwich toward her mouth, a piece of turkey dangling from between her fingers.

“Well, Christmas began as a cultural and religious holiday, and I suppose that it was still celebrated in that aspect. But it really picked up as a commercial holiday around the 1940’s, or that’s what a lot of people claim. There was a movie called Miracle on 34th Street that many people say launched Christmas into a new stratosphere. Since then, it’s only become more and more commercialized. Presents and their worth tend to overshadow everything people used to love about the holiday.”

Deckard looked at her fondly, his kind eyes listening to her every word, but with a wrinkle knotted between his brows as if he was trying to figure her out.

“What?” she asked as she took a hearty bite of her sandwich, loving how the simple flavors burst in her mouth.

Tags: Renee Harless Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net