Noah and Angel were childhood sweethearts and teenage lovers. With youth comes unrealistic ideas sometimes, and also bad choices. But just about the time they reach manhood, Noah’s demons pull them apart.<br><br>Seven years later, he gets a second chance when Angel returns to town. Hoping everything can be different, Noah sets out to remind him how wonderful their past was by secretly sending him thirteen gifts commemorating their happiest times, one on each day beginning December 11.<br><br>By Christmas Eve, Noah hasn’t heard a word back, and wonders if Angel even recognized the meaning of the offerings. When Angel does get in touch, he only remembers the bad things that drove them apart. Can Noah remind him how good they had it, too?

The Presents and the Past

“Fifth grade was chocolate coins, Gummy Worms, a calendar, and a boat; and finally, a piece of rope was all I sent for sixth. That’s where we are now.”


“Gotcha,” she said, as she twisted side to side in her big, black leather desk chair. “Which might come in handy again rather soon.” Becca actually winked,


The fact I pictured Angel and I running a three-legged race around her desk before I tied him to my headboard probably said something about my maturity level. Or maybe I was stuck in the past. Suddenly, I wondered if I was being unrealistic about the future.


“Yup.” I reached into the pocket in my brown, puffy vest. “A stuffed toy frog playing the trumpet, and an Mp3 of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’ I wrapped them without a box, because I always liked receiving odd shaped, squishy packages. I used snowman paper again.” I told her how I’d started going back and forth, and also about my nickname.


Chapter 17