Three Christmas Wishes - Krista Wolf Page 0,31

except for the kitchen light, and the glow of the coal stove beside me. A soothing warmth emanated from it — probably the culprit in why I’d been sleeping for so long.

“Hello?”

I called out, wondering where everyone was. It couldn’t be that late. Sitting up, I reached for my phone…

CRASH!

A sound off in the distance startled me into action. I grabbed my phone and slipped through the house, walking silently in my socks. There was no one in the bedrooms, no one in the unfinished areas either. By the time I reached the kitchen I could hear voices, but they were muffled and distant. Besides, the kitchen was empty.

The side door.

I unlocked it and stepped into the cold. The voices were louder now. There was a light coming from the detached garage, which was open from the front.

“Ah, shit. I think you broke it.”

“And how do you know?” another voice said defensively. “You don’t even know what the hell it is?”

“Yeah, but it’s in three pieces now.”

Silence. Then:

“Maybe it was supposed to be in three pieces.”

I wandered over to the entrance, where the guys were working hard. They had a large box truck backed up to the rolling door of the garage, and just inside…

“My stuff!”

All three of them whirled at the sound of my voice. The garage was filled with all my equipment from the apartment, including the giant kiln that had taken four people to carry up three flights of stairs. I saw my lathe, my wheel, my vacuum chamber. All of my sculptures still wrapped in canvas, stacked neatly near the back end of the garage.

“Great, now you woke her up too!” Brock snapped, slapping Valerio in the chest.

On the floor was my drying rack, in three separate pieces. It wasn’t supposed to be in three pieces, but it could easily be put back together.

“You brought all my stuff?” I gasped.

“Everything we saw,” affirmed Brock. He was wearing a sleeveless Tee that was covered in dirt and dust. It also showed off his massive arms. “All your equipment, all your finished pieces. The stuff you pre-packed is in boxes now, over there,” he pointed.

“Oh my God,” I said incredulously. “I didn’t even realize I had this much stuff!”

“Yeah, well we took it all,” said Kade. “Every last thing in every drawer, in every room. We even raided your fridge, although there wasn’t much to raid.”

“And we left the milk,” Valerio said, wrinkling his nose. “You know that milk was rancid, right?”

I shook my head mechanically. I couldn’t believe it.

“Sorry if we overstepped a little,” said Brock, “but we didn’t want you going back there with that dickhead there. We figured it would be easier if we just did the job for you. Besides, looks like you needed the rest more than—”

“He was there?” I asked. “Drake?”

“You mean the smug little asshole who wrestled us over the TV set, yes,” said Valerio. “He was there.”

“And… what did he say?”

“We told him we were the moving crew,” said Brock. “And had instructions to take everything. He fought us on a few things, like the silverware and that flat-panel in the living room. But ultimately…”

Kade reached into the truck and pulled out the giant 72-inch flat panel television Drake had ‘bought’ me for my birthday. The one he watched all his stupid golf tournaments on.

“You got the television,” I smirked.

“Hell yeah we did,” Kade asserted. “The mounting brackets, too. We took the night-lights from the outlets, and the picture hooks from the fucking walls. By the time we left it looked like the Grinch that Stole Christmas.”

At that, Brock snickered. Valerio outright laughed.

“And the last speck of food that we left in the house was a crumb that was even too small for a mouse!”

I laughed too. It was hysterical.

“Holy shit.”

I took a deep breath, and realized a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I’d been dreading seeing Drake again. And now, thanks to the boys, I didn’t have to.

“We’re pretty sure we got everything,” Brock said, folding his arms. “If we missed anything though…”

“No,” I said looking around. “If you took my whole studio—”

“We did.”

“Then that’s all that matters!”

I ran to them, hugging them each as hard as I could. The hugs turned into kisses. The kisses would’ve turned even more fiery, if I wasn’t freezing my ass off in the driveway between the house and the garage.

“You’re shivering,” Brock said, holding me in his arms. “Get inside and let us finish up here.”

“Oh, and can you