Forever This Time Read Free

floor—the desk Dad had always said would be hers.
    Josie forced her eyes to the other side of the courtyard, trying to focus on anything but Ethan. A split-rail fence still extended outward from the igloo, running behind a portico full of strollers, a Snow White–style cottage that housed restrooms, and what looked like a new medical building with a bright red cross on the door.
    â€œAfternoon, ma’am. Can I help you find something?” An elderly man in a green costume touched her elbow, making her jump. Oh good Lord. She hadn’t seen an elf in ten years, either. “Did you lose your family?”
    She shook her head slowly as her chest squeezed in pain, but she tried to cover it with a fake smile.
    He pointed at her feet. “Hope you got some more comfortable shoes in that bag of yours. It’s a big park.”
    Josie couldn’t resist looking at his feet, and he smiled as he followed her eyes. “I know what you’re thinking, but these curly toes aren’t so bad after the first few falls. You learn.” He winked. “You have a happy ho-ho day now.”
    Josie managed another tight smile, wondering how many times she’d be able to hear that phrase before her head exploded.
    She glanced down, realizing that in her pencil skirt and sleeveless shell, she looked like a health inspector on a surprise visit. Employees were probably already squawking the alert code over the radios, sure she was about to tackle the snack cottages with her state-issued clipboard.
    So much for blending in.
    Taking another shaky breath, Josie set off to her right. Time to get as far away from Elf Central as possible, since she had absolutely no idea what would happen when she finally met Ethan again. All she knew was that she was so not ready to find out.
    As she rounded the first curve in the path, the sound of the roller coaster assaulted her ears at the same time she got a whiff of sickeningly sweet cotton candy, and she wrinkled her nose at both. She’d loved that roller coaster right up till her ninth birthday, when one too many bags of pink fluff and one too many coaster rides had resulted in one very sick little birthday girl.
    The walkway curved around a monstrous rock left by a long-ago glacier, and she came into a clearing that housed Rudolph’s Razzamatazz, a snack cottage, and a toddler ride where the kids rode in swings shaped like Christmas ornaments. The rides were the same as when she’d left, but they looked freshly painted and shiny in the sunlight.
    As she came to a fork in the path, her breath caught. To her right was the outside loop of rides, which eventually circled around to Ole Ben’s maintenance garage. To her left, up a little rise, was the Ferris wheel. She could see its cars sliding by the tops of the trees, and as she watched, her breaths started coming shorter and faster.
    Finally, she ripped her eyes away and struggled to swallow the softball that seemed to have lodged itself in her throat. How had she thought she’d be able to walk around this park, where memories were bound to pummel her at every turn?
    Just then, a short, chubby elf who had to be a hundred and twenty years old ambled by with a broom and dustpan. For a moment, Josie expected she should recognize her, but she didn’t. She got a funny, sobering feeling low in her gut as she realized she could very well walk around this park she’d grown up in, and ten years later, not know a soul.
    The elf deftly swept up a candy wrapper, then smiled at Josie. “Why so serious, honey? Beautiful afternoon, isn’t it?”
    Josie looked up at the sky, which was an unusually deep blue for this time of year. The tall firs framed a couple of puffy clouds, and the swish of pine needles preceded a playful breeze that wreaked havoc with her carefully straightened hair. The temperature was just pushing eighty, but the humidity was zilch, so it was one of those rare days that made it onto