Read Luke's Crazy California Christmas for Free Online

at my old school in Orange County.
    “Hey! Charli! What are you doing here?” I muted my cellphone before she could speak.
    “Just visiting you. It’s Mom’s day off, and she has plans with your dad, so I came along.”
    “Don’t you have any other friends you can bother?”
    “Are we friends now?” She batted her eyelashes.
    I unmuted the phone. “I got to go. Heather is here and she brought her offspring.”
    “Charlie, I heard. So, you’re making friends, are you?” Andrea teased.
    “I’m trying.”
    “Tell him hi from me.”
    “I will. Bye.” As I pressed the button to end the call, it registered that she’d said him . Andrea thought Charli was a Charlie. Great! Something else I’d have to sort out. But not now. Later.
    “Was that your girlfriend?” Charli asked.
    “Yeah, it was Andrea.”
    “Do you have a picture of her?”
    “No.” I set my phone on the bedside table.
    “Sure you do.” She hopped off the bed. “I bet you have a whole slew of them on that phone.” She grabbed it off the table. “Aw, look at the two of you on your cover screen. She’s pretty, but not in an annoying way. How old is she anyway?”
    “Sixteen. Why?”
    “Just wondering. So, she must be a junior. I think I might like her if I ever saw her in real life.”
    I grabbed the phone away from her. “Well, that’ll never happen.” I stuffed the phone into my pocket. “What do you want, Charli?”
    “I want you to come out with me. Let’s go to the beach or something. The weather is awesome today. Seventy-five and breezy. My mom can drop us off and we can take the bus back.” She grabbed the remote control and turned off the TV. “It’s too nice to be inside. In a couple more days, I go back to the snow and ice.”
    The weather was terrific. If I did miss one thing in moving from California, it was the weather…and maybe the Mexican food. You couldn’t get decent Mexican food anywhere near my new home.
    “Fine. I could use some air.”
    “And later we can get something to eat. The last time I was here, Mom took me to get Mexican food at this little hole-in-the-wall place down the street.”
    I smiled at her. Had she been reading my mind? “Sounds good. I could go for Mexican.”
    “Boys! They’re always hungry.”
    ~*~
    The air had been dry, the warm wind intermingled with chilly air all morning at the beach. We walked and played in the surf all the way down from the Huntington Beach Pier almost to Sunset Beach. It amazed me how much I missed this place—the feel of the grainy, dark sand under my toes; the strong, almost repugnant smell of the sea; and the thick kelp washing up on shore. I had to admit, this felt like home. A spiral of excitement spun in my chest as the sea breezes whizzed passed my face.
    I almost thought about renting a board and hitting the waves. They were always good this time of year, but I resisted. If I had suggested it, I’m sure Charli would have asked me to teach her how to surf and that was the last thing I needed.
    She’d been like an annoying fly that just wouldn’t leave me alone, but I guess that wasn’t fair. She didn’t know anyone out here and she was bored. I couldn’t blame her there. I had to admit, she was fun to be around. It made me forget that Andrea was too busy for me once again.
    After the beach, we took the bus and picked up some food on the way back to the condo community. We lay out in the lounge chairs around the deserted pool.
    Charli’s straw squeaked as she sucked the last of her vanilla shake. “I think I’m going to ask my mom if I can move here permanently. I mean, it is snowing in Chicago right this very second.”
    I wondered what she’d think once my dad asked her mom to marry him. Did she like the idea of her mom remarrying? Did she want a new dad?
    “The weather is awesome. I do miss that, but I wouldn’t move back here for anything.” I reclined farther with my hands cradled beneath my head.
    “Life is that good back in NC,