Eachtra

The Ghost of Christmas Present

 We lie in the snow breathing heavily for a few minutes. I'm starting to think everything is going to be alright until his thumb slides across the back of my hand. I break out in instant goosebumps and a hot sweat at the same time. Not only is an adorable Irish guy holding my hand, he's stroking my hand and making me feel things. Crap. Maybe I should have just turned myself in to the campus police.

"We should go," I whisper, but I don't move. I think I'm in a trance. "The campus police are going to find us."

Liam stands up and pulls me to my feet, never releasing my hand. Now I know those biceps aren't just for show. I trip a little on the mound of snow and he catches me against his chest. Is this the Hallmark channel?

"Y'alright, there, Betty?" he asks with a grin tugging the corner of his lips.

"Betty?"

"That's your name, right?"
My face turns red. Why do I have to be so sarcastic all the time? "Keidy. Not Betty. You could have been a stalker, so I didn't want to give you my real name."

"Keidy, then," he says, my name rolling off of his tongue in a thick accent. "If I promise I'm not a stalker, can I walk you back to your apartment? Can't have the police find yah."

"If you promise not to crazy murder me, I guess so."

He puts his hand over his chest and bows his head. "I swear."

"Fine, then," I say and start the walk home.

Liam falls into step beside me, our boots leaving a trail in the snow for anyone who wants to follow us. Luckily our campus police are more like Paul Blart, Mall Cop, than Magnum P.I. so I think we've safely escaped the scene of the crime.

"So are you on campus for the entire Christmas break?" I ask. Now that my adrenaline's calmed down, my curiosity has made a comeback. "Do you go here full time or are you just studying abroad? Why didn't you go home to Ireland?"

Liam grins at me and his eyes glitter more than the snow in the full moonlight. "Do y'always ask so many questions?"

My face heats. "Yes."

He throws his head back and laughs and it sounds something from a storybook. A babbling brook or a waterfall or wind chimes or something. "I am here for the whole break. I was supposed to spend the holiday with a friend in Connecticut, but his dad surprised him with a cruise to the Bahamas. I wasn't invited." Another rueful grin. Does he know the effect his smile has on me? Because I think my heart is ready to pop out of my chest. "And you, Keidy? What are you still doing here?"

"I don't celebrate Christmas."

He touches his bottom lip with his thumb. "So that's why you were breaking into the campus center to look at the Christmas tree. Totally reasonable."

"I told you, it's for a project!" He raises his eyebrows at me as we continue down the main road away from the campus center to a narrow iron bridge that covers a creek. "I don't really like my parents, so I'm just not celebrating Christmas this year. I'm using the holiday to work on my independent study on pine trees."

He scoffs at me as the bridge rattles beneath our feet. "You're not celebrating Christmas? What a Scrooge!"

"Well, you aren't either!" I protest.

"I beg to differ. I have a Christmas tree in my room."

I tilt my head to look at him. "A real one?" I still have a lot of tree samples to find. Maybe Liam is useful for more than evading capture if he has a real pine tree in his apartment.