A Unity Falls Holiday Story
It’s the insider tradition nobody talks about. But every resident of Unity Falls knows it’s coming.
The lights go down. The lines are drawn.
For one night, everyone has to choose a side.
Welcome to the coziest sabotage of the year!
Previously in Decoration Games:
Ben learns more than he expected about his Unity Falls friends and neighbors and the lead up to the games.
Chapter 5
“Somebody was going to make that happen? Really?” Ben was interested now. “Who? What happened?”
Kei and Dani exchanged looks. Again. “The who is still a mystery. But one year, as the judges were driving through town, Loubelle’s lights suddenly weren’t on. Just before the judges rounded the corner.”
“Really?” Ben said.
Dani took over the narrative. “Oh, yeah. According to my mom, Loubelle was devastated. But she was graciousness itself to the winner that year. I don’t remember, maybe it was Ruth Bendickson’s house.”
“I remember that party,” Kei said. “Hot chocolate. Fresh donuts and Santa. Everyone was happy. Dad says that Loubelle complained the whole time about the lack of taste.”
Ben laughed. He’d seen Loubelle’s hostess standards. He could imagine her discontent.
Kei continued. “Once is a coincidence, twice? Pattern.”
“Let me guess, they did it for a third year?” Ben asked, enjoying the story.
“Yeah, no,” Dani said. “By the third year, she’d figured out what was going on. She and Eddie created some defenses.
“And then from then on, it’s been a bit of a thing,” Kei finished. As if that explained everything.
“I still want to know who started it,” Ben muttered.
Dani snapped her fingers. “Ben, you’re focusing on the wrong thing. Focus on the point here.”
Ben moved back from the snapping fingers. “There’s a point?”
Dani sighed. “Yes, there’s a point. The Decoration Games are continuing the long legacy of making sure that the party happens as it should.”
“Do I need to worry about my shop window?” he asked. Concern etched his face.
“No. Businesses never win. They kind of don’t count,” Dani said without thinking.
Ben was immediately disappointed. “But Riley put so much work into the cafe window.”
“Yeah, she did,” Kei agreed. “It looks awesome. The town’s going to love it. It’ll probably still get featured in the paper anyway. But generally, we leave the businesses out of it.”
A penny dropped. “Are you telling me people in Unity Falls go around vandalizing things? Like some kind of decorative variation of The Purge?”
Kei and Dani looked affronted. “Vandalized? No, of course not. It’s just a little light sabotage between neighbors.”
Kei added, “It’s an unspoken thing that we just don’t break anything. If something happens to not turn on at the right time…” She shrugged a what-can-you-do gesture.
Ben found himself being a little bit annoyed that Riley wasn’t going to be eligible to win the contest.
Kei picked up on that immediately. “Seriously, Ben, she knows. She wouldn’t have done all this work if she didn’t want to. And this is great advertising for your shop.”
“When did you see it? We just finished it.”
“We’ve seen the sketches, and we know what she can do. We’re going to be wowed tomorrow along with everyone else. Like I said, the whole point of the contest is to bring people to the town to gawk at the lights and buy some stuff from the locals. The prize? That’s just for the town.”
“This seems like a lot of work,” Ben said. “Why don’t people just have a talk with Loubelle about her party style?”
Kei and Dani looked at each other and laughed. It didn’t take long for Ben to realize the reason as well. Loubelle never changed her mind about anything. He’d only been here a year and seen it in action.
Dani added something else. “It’s a small town, Ben. What else are we going to do? Gotta make your excitement somehow. Nobody’s getting hurt. And in the end, somebody’s winning.”
Ben nodded. “What do you want me to do?”
Kei’s smile and Dani’s brilliant, devious grin put him immediately on edge.
“I’m so glad you asked,” they said in unison.
Want to see how Riley and Ben got together?
Their story begins in Riley and the Love Jinx → link
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About the author:
Cleo Croft writes sweet contemporary romance set in the fictional town of Unity Falls. → About Cleo