Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78634 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78634 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
When Lark unpacked several red, green, and white plastic tablecloths, I actually flinched. Where the hell were they going? Embry distracted me by asking, “Can I have the key to the garage door? I want to work in there later.”
“It unlocks with a keypad. It’s the same code as the front door.”
“Got it.” He turned back to the window and gestured at an enormous truck that had just pulled up. “Oh hey, Dylan’s here with the cherry picker.”
“What’s that for?”
“I thought that would be the quickest, easiest way to hang the lights, especially the ones along the roofline. It belongs to Dylan’s friend Jimbo. He’s been an arborist for over twenty years, and luckily he had some free time today. He’ll be operating the lift.”
Now I had a whole new list of things to worry about.
We went outside, and I was introduced to Jimbo, who seemed like he knew what he was doing. Then I pulled Dylan aside and made him promise he’d look out for Embry. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I know he tends to be accident-prone, but I’ll make sure he’s safe.”
Embry jogged over to me and grabbed my arm. As he towed me toward the stairs, he exclaimed, “Go inside! We’re about to get started, and I want to surprise you with the big reveal when we’re done.”
“Fine, but please be careful.”
“I will. You have nothing to worry about.”
After I let him herd me inside, I went to the kitchen and started making a list of ingredients for our next baking lesson. I was nervous and distracted though, so after a while I decided to go take a peek out the living room window. As soon as I got there, I heard someone yell, “Be careful, Embry!”
Fear surged through me, and I rushed outside. Lark and Dylan were on the sidewalk, looking up at the house. I ran into the small yard, and there was Embry, directly above me in the basket of the cherry picker.
On the plus side, he was wearing a helmet. But he was also leaning over the side of the basket as he adjusted a string of lights. I was about to tell him to stop doing that when one end of the light strand fell off the house.
My breath caught as he lunged for it and tumbled out of the basket. I braced myself and got ready to catch him, but he stopped in mid-air, spread-eagled like a skydiver a few feet above my head. It turned out he was hanging from a harness, which was fastened around his torso.
I muttered, “Fucking hell,” as Jimbo started to lower the basket and its dangling former occupant. As soon as he was within reach, I crushed Embry in a hug and blurted, “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“I’m sorry, Bry.”
I kept holding him as I muttered, “You can’t scare me like that.”
“I wasn’t going to die or anything. I’m wearing a helmet and a harness, and it wasn’t even that high.”
“I didn’t see the harness at first, because it’s the same color as your hoodie. All I saw was you falling.”
He wrapped his arms around me and murmured, “Your heart’s pounding so hard that I can feel it in my chest.”
“Well, yeah. Terror will do that.” I finally let go of him and scooped up Dusty, who’d followed me outside. “I’m going to put the dog back in the house, and then I’m going to help with the lights. No arguments.”
Embry looked disappointed. “I really wanted to surprise you.”
“You still can. When it’s dark out, we’ll go across the street and watch while one of your friends plugs everything in. That way, we can be surprised together when it all lights up.”
He perked up at that. “Okay. That sounds fun.”
Once the lights were finished, Jimbo left with the truck and his ladders, and Dylan started sorting the pile of green waste in the driveway. Meanwhile, Lark and Embry went to work on the dragon. They taped him up, ran an extension cord from the garage, and plugged him in. As he rose up in all his wonky, fire-breathing glory, I realized he was filled with lights and glowed, even in daylight. Fantastic.
While I helped by cutting green and white plastic tablecloths into strips—no idea why—Embry and Lark busted out some glue guns. They fashioned a large Santa hat out of a red plastic tablecloth and some white, fluffy fiberfill and glued it onto the dragon’s head at a jaunty angle, covering the duct tape patch.
After that, Lark went to work slicing up another tablecloth, and Embry produced three white Styrofoam coolers, which were maybe twelve inches square. He looked pretty proud of himself as he explained, “We got these for free from a fish market. They were throwing them out, but we’re going to upcycle them. They smell icky inside, but I don’t think that’ll matter once they’re glued shut.”