Chapter 12: The Party

The atrium went quiet.

The tired Santa stopped ho-ho-ing.

Johnny stayed crouched in front of Lulu with her small hands still on his cheeks.

He didn't look at the crowd.

He looked up at me.

He was asking. Even now, with two hundred people watching and Kinsley's phone pointed at his back, he was asking.

Rule number one. Until I say so.

I thought about the plan. Christmas Eve, our couch, the tree, just us.

I thought about my daughter, who had just told the whole Glaciers organization a secret at the top of her lungs.

Now she was waiting, perfectly calm, for the grown-ups to catch up.

She'd been waiting a year.

I nodded.

Johnny let out a breath.

Then he went down on one knee on the atrium floor, so he was a little lower than her. So she was the tall one.

"Lulu," he said. "Can I tell you what the secret is?"

"I know what it is."

"Can I say it anyway? I've never got to say it."

She considered this, very seriously, and nodded. Her elf bell jingled.

His voice was steady. His hands were not.

"I'm your dad."

Nobody in the atrium breathed.

Lulu looked at him.

She looked at his face for a long time.

Then she reached out and pressed one finger on his eyebrow, right on the scar.

"I knew it," she said. "Your eyebrows."

"My eyebrows?"

"They're MY eyebrows. They go cross. Aunt Stevie says I make the cross face like you on TV."

From somewhere behind me, Stevie made a sound.

Johnny laughed. It came out wet.

"They do go cross," he said.

"Mommy said it was a secret. So I kept it." She frowned. "Mostly."

"You did a great job."

"I know." She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed, hard, the way she hugged when she meant it. "Are you coming to my house for Christmas?"

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