The Geek Who Saved Christmas

by Annabeth Albert

“But it wasn’t easy.” He held my gaze when I would have looked away again. And the denial was right there on the tip of my tongue, but I remembered my kitchen chat with Elaine and all my talks with Gideon. “No. It wasn’t.” Maybe shielding him from that fact hadn’t been as much of a kindness as I’d always thought. Maybe he deserved to know some of the truth. “And it wasn’t easy when I moved away, was it?” He frowned like he was puzzling something out for the first time. “It was f—” I started to lie, then Gideon tapped me with his foot under the table. Oh. Right. I was trying to be truthful here. “It wasn’t…pleasant. I miss you. But you’ve got a life to be proud of now. And I’m proud of you. And jealous of the sunshine.” I added the last bit to make him laugh, but he stayed strangely somber. “Maybe I like snow…” He glanced over at Elaine, who nodded sharply. “Oh, go ahead and tell him.” “We were waiting until we had definitive news, but Elaine’s a finalist for a professorship at Stanton Anthony.” Brandon beamed, pride lacing every word. “Tenure track. Great research opportunity.” Here. The local college, which, yes, was practically an Ivy, but here? My pulse pounded. “You want to leave the West Coast?” “We do.” Elaine nodded at the same time as Brandon. “We want to be near family.”