by Amy M. Reade
“What?” he asked.
“Dessert.”
“Cool. What is it?”
“Poached pears with honey-ginger syrup,” Noley answered.
She brought four dessert plates to the table and after just a few moments everyone agreed that the dessert was light, perfectly spiced, and great for a snowy evening.
“Noley, you should write a cookbook,” Tighe said in between bites.
“Yeah,” Laurel agreed. “This is delicious.”
“Maybe I will,” Noley said.
When everyone was done eating, Lilly shooed the kids upstairs and she did the dishes while Noley leaned against the counter nearby.
“Help me take my mind off everything,” Lilly told her. “Tell me what you think about Bill.”
She glanced at Noley, who blushed. “I like him. I don’t know why I never really thought about him before. He’s kind and thoughtful and brave and he appreciates good food.”
“I assume you’re interested in seeing him again?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll see to it, then.”
Noley pushed herself away from the counter. “Thanks. Don’t make it too obvious, though. I don’t want to seem desperate.”
“Leave it to me.”
When Noley had left, taking all her clean serving dishes with her, Lilly settled down to sketch for a few minutes before getting ready for bed. Drawing quieted her mind, and she often turned to pencil and paper when she was trying to empty her head of thoughts that wouldn’t leave her alone. She tried a few variations of the design her new client had in mind and slipped the papers into her purse when she was finished. She went upstairs and knocked on Laurel’s door.
“Can I come in?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
Lilly opened the door and stuck her head into the room. Laurel was sitting at her desk. “I just wanted to make sure we’re okay after our discussion earlier.”
“Yeah.”
Lilly walked into the room and sat down on Laurel’s bed. She wanted to talk to her daughter, to think of something that would bring them closer, but she couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t upset at least one of them. She sat in silence for several long moments while she thought. Laurel remained silent.
“I thought we’d decorate our Christmas tree this weekend.”
“Okay.”
“That’s always a nice thing to do. We’ll have Gran and Bill come, and maybe Noley.”
“Can Nick come?” Laurel asked, glancing at her mother.
Uh-oh. I should have seen this coming, Lilly thought. Aloud she said, “I’d rather he didn’t, since it’s just a family thing. I’m sure he would understand. I wouldn’t expect his family to invite you to trim their tree.”
“Well, they did.”
That came as a surprise. Lilly wasn’t ready to back down on this, though. “It’ll be nice, I promise, and then you can go out with Nick right afterward. How does that sound?”
Laurel shrugged. “All right, I guess, as long as you’re not going to let him come over.”
“Thanks.” Lilly didn’t trust herself to say anything else. She planted a kiss on Laurel’s cheek and left the room, closing the door softly behind her.
She went downstairs, let Barney out, and together they went back upstairs to bed. Lilly’s faithful friend snuggled up to her feet and both of them were sound asleep almost immediately. Lilly’s tears had tired her out; Barney was tired from protecting the house all day.
The first customer in the store the next morning was Hassan.
“How was Denver?” Lilly asked.
“We loved it,” he said with a broad smile. “I wanted to call you on our way back to Juniper Junction last night, but I thought I might wake you up. We were pretty late.”
“What did you do there?”
“We took a tour of the State Capitol building and the US Mint, we went to the art museum, and took a brewery tour. We ate at a couple great restaurants, too. I’d love to take you there sometime.”
“I’d love that, too.” To her own ears, Lilly sounded like a schoolgirl who didn’t know how to converse with a grown-up. She grimaced.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, not at all. I was just thinking about my last trip to Denver,” she lied.
“What happened?”
“I got lost.” That much was true. She vaguely remembered a trip several years previously, when she had the flu and had to drive her mother to the airport because Bill couldn’t leave work.
“There’s so much that we didn’t have a chance to see,” Hassan continued. “Maybe we could head into the city between Christmas and New Year’s. What do you think of that idea?”
“I think that sounds great. I always close the shop during that week because people don’t do much jewelry shopping right after Christmas. And we’re not planning to go anywhere this year, so that would be nice.”
“It’s a date, then.” Hassan kissed her cheek and squeezed her hand. “What did you do yesterday?”
Lilly liked the sound of that. She had finally found someone who was interested in her days and she fought back the stabbing reminder that he would be leaving after New Year’s.
Chapter 43
“I’ll have to show you. A man came in yesterday asking me to design a pendant for his wife. He had something specific in mind, but he asked me to do something creative with it. My sketches are in the back.
“Taffy, can you watch the front? I want to show Hassan some sketches I did yesterday.”
“Sure.”
Lilly took Hassan’s hand and led him to the back of the shop.
She withdrew her sketch book from one of her bookshelves and opened it to the first page of new sketches. Slowly she and Hassan flipped through the pages of drawings. Hassan was quiet, contemplating each sketch. When Lilly got to the last one, Hassan looked up at her from where he was sitting.
“You have a great talent. These are incredible designs.”
“Thank you,” she said, blushing. “I’ve got a few more at home, but I think most of these are better. I’m going to choose a few and let my customer decide which one he wants to use.”
“Do you mind if I help you choose? I assist jewelry store owners quite often with design ideas since I supply the raw materials for those designs, and I’ve got a pretty good handle on what stones and gems look best in certain designs.”
“I’d love for you to help, thank you.”
“Did your customer mention whether he wants particular stones in the pendant?”
“Not really. I usually work with materials that are endemic to Colorado or the Rocky Mountains, but he said that wasn’t the most important consideration. The most important thing, he said, was to get a design that looks like the mountains.”
“I only ask because I have some lapis lazuli that would be perfect for part of the mountains. It’s a deep blue with spidery white veins.”
“That sounds great. Can I see it?”
“Sure. It’s back at the house where we’re staying. Why don’t you come by after you close up tonight and I’ll show it to you? You can meet my family, too, since we never saw them at the tree lighting.”
Lilly had been turning pages back to the front of her sketch book and her hand froze in mid-turn. “Your family?”
“Sure. Show me yours and I’ll show you mine, as they say,” he answered with an impish grin.
“Well, I guess that would be fine. After all, I’ve inflicted my mother on you, so I suppose it’s only fair.”
“I thought your mother was charming.”
“Oh, she can be. She just turns on a dime sometimes.”
Hassan wrote down the address of the place where he was staying and Lilly promised to stop by after six o’clock. He was planning on spending the day cross-country skiing so she told him to get out there while it was still pristine after the new snowfall. He kissed her goodbye and left the shop.
“He seems really cool,” Taffy said after he lef
t. “Where did you meet him?”
“Right in here,” Lilly replied. “Who’d have thought it, huh?”
Taffy laughed. “At least you knew right from the start that you two have something in common. I met my boyfriend at a bar.”
Two customers came in just then; Lilly helped one and Taffy the other. After a half hour of browsing, asking to see pieces from the vault, and discussing price, Lilly’s customer bought a pair of earrings for her mother. Taffy wasn’t so lucky. She spent nearly the same amount of time with an elderly man who opted not to purchase anything.
“I wish I could learn to sell the way you do,” Taffy told Lilly.
“Don’t forget, I’ve been doing this a while. I’m sure you’ll start to make more sales the longer you’re at it.” A fleeting remembrance of Robert crossed Lilly’s mind; she loved the idea that she might be someone’s mentor as Robert had been to her.
“Working here is so different from working for Eden,” Taffy said. “She didn’t really interact with customers too much and I spent all my time in the back storeroom. I prefer working like this. It got so boring to work there.”
“This store is fundamentally different from Eden’s store. With her store, people went in knowing what they wanted. In here, they often come in with nothing more than the thought that they’d like to buy a piece of jewelry for themselves or someone else. It’s a more personal thing to buy, so it requires a more personal approach to selling.”
“You’re lucky to live in a place where people have a lot of money to spend.”
“We’re lucky to live here for lots of reasons, but that’s certainly one of them from a small business perspective.” Lilly grinned. “I don’t think this store would do nearly as well if there were no ski resort or summer festivals nearby.”
“BJ and I have been talking about moving back to Missouri,” Taffy said.
“Really? Why?”
Taffy shrugged. “Mostly because my family is there. His parents are dead and he doesn’t have any siblings, so he doesn’t really care where we live.”
“I would be sorry to see you leave,” Lilly said. She had grown fond of having an assistant in the store—someone to talk to during the day and someone who could take up some of the slack when Lilly had another commitment. And, in particular, she had grown fond of Taffy. The young woman was smart, well-spoken, and friendly.
“I’d like to meet BJ,” Lilly said.
“Maybe you could come over for dinner sometime,” Taffy suggested. “I’m not the greatest cook, but I’m good at ordering takeout.” She smiled.
“That would be great. I’m not the best cook, either. Luckily my friend Noley is a wizard in the kitchen and we mooch meals from her sometimes.”
“I’ll figure out a time when BJ and I are both free and we’ll set it up.”
“Thanks,” Lilly said.
The rest of the day sped by as Taffy waited on customers and Lilly worked on a few holiday advertisements that she had scheduled to run in the days leading up to Christmas Eve. When it was time to close Taffy locked the front door and helped take down the displays and, as usual, after she left Lilly put the inventory in the vaults, locked the back door, and got in her car. She put her hands on the steering wheel and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She wasn’t sure she was ready to meet Hassan’s family, but it was as good a time as any. She looked at the address of the house he had rented and knew exactly where it was.
Chapter 44
The neighborhood was nestled at the foot of a small hill and backed up against a forest on the outskirts of Juniper Junction. It was an affluent area and many of the homes were owned by people who lived in other states and vacationed occasionally in Colorado. When those owners were not planning to be in town, they often rented their homes for extra income.
Lilly drove through the neighborhood slowly, looking for the address. She found it at the end of a short block of large homes. She parked out front and stood beside her car looking at the forbidding façade of the house. It was enormous and breathtaking. Mahogany cedar shakes covered the entire expanse of the home, with ivory trim accenting the windows, doors, roofline, and porch. Coach-style lamps lit the porch softly from either side of the huge double wooden front doors. Lilly couldn’t wait to see the inside.
The door swung open as she climbed the steps to the porch. Hassan stood in the doorway smiling broadly.
“Welcome,” he said, taking Lilly’s hand and drawing her into the foyer. He helped take off her coat and hung it in a closet. “Come meet everyone.” Everyone? How many people are in there?
He led the way into a great room where a fire roared in the fireplace and at least a dozen people sat silently in chairs and on sofas in the room. All eyes were on Lilly. She had a momentary urge to flee back to her car, but she managed a smile and ordered herself to calm down. She clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking and looked up at Hassan. He smiled down at her and put his hand in the small of her back to guide her down the two steps into the room.
He walked her over to a man and a woman seated next to each other on the sofa closest to the fireplace.
“Mum, Dad, I’d like you to meet Lilly Carlsen. Lilly, these are my parents, Amir and Basma Ashraf.” Amir had a huge mane of white hair and deep wrinkles across his face, which had a pleasant and serene look to it. Basma had long black hair with gray streaks and she was tall and elegant. The stood to shake hands with Lilly then sat down again while Hassan continued introducing everyone in the room. Next was his sister, Ghada, a raven-haired beauty with large black eyes and a graceful bearing, then a roster of aunts, uncles, and cousins whom Lilly was sure she’d never be able to remember. After Hassan had completed the introductions he told everyone he would get something for Lilly to drink and asked her to accompany him into the kitchen.
“My parents and Ghada are the only ones you have to remember,” he said. He seemed to sense that she was bewildered by all the names being thrown at her in such a short time. “The rest of my family will understand if you don’t remember their names. Eventually you’ll learn them, I’m sure.”
Lilly had been pouring ginger ale into a glass when he said this; she looked up quickly to see him smiling at her. It was the first time he had mentioned anything about the future. It gave her a little thrill to hear him talk like that.
They returned to the living room. Hassan invited Lilly to sit in an empty armchair next to the fireplace while Ghada, who was sitting on the brick hearth, slid over to make room for her brother. He sat within touching distance of Lilly, which gave her some sense of comfort in the large room full of strangers.
“So, you own a jewelry store,” Hassan’s father said.
“Yes, I own Juniper Junction Jewels. It’s right down on Main Street.”
“Hassan has told us all about it.” Lilly and Hassan exchanged glances and Hassan smiled.
“You should visit the shop, Dad,” he said. “It looks like something out of a magazine. The Christmas display shows off the stones and metal work beautifully.” Hassan’s father nodded, seeming pleased with what he was hearing.
“You are divorced?” Hassan’s mother asked.
“Mum,” Hassan cautioned.
“I’m merely asking,” she replied. She looked at Lilly expectantly.
“I am,” Lilly confirmed. “And I have two children, ages sixteen and seventeen.”
“And how long have you been divorced?” asked one of Hassan’s aunts. Lilly glanced at Hassan’s mother, who turned to her with a curious look, obviously waiting for an answer.
“Fifteen years,” Lilly said. “My husband left when my children were very small.”
One of the aunts leaned over and whispered something into the ear of the man sitting next to her, but said nothing aloud. Lilly thought she might throw up from the anxiety being produced by this inquisition.
“Okay, everyone, we can ask Lilly all kinds of personal questions another time,” Hassan said, raising his eyebrows pointedly at his mother.
“Can anyone think of something inoffensive to say?”
Lilly held her breath, wondering who would speak next and what they would want to know, but to her relief it was Ghada who spoke up.
“How did you become interested in the jewelry business?” she asked.
That was familiar territory and an easy topic for Lilly to discuss, and she warmed to the subject. As she explained how she got her start in the business, she could feel some of the stress melting away as she became aware that everyone was listening and seemed interested in what she had to say.
“We’re all in the gem business,” Hassan said with a sweep of his arm around the room. “Most of my uncles are gem wholesalers, but my father and I and one of his brothers are the actual hunters.”
Lilly longed to hear more of the family legacy of gem hunting, and talk turned to stories of how the men had become involved in that trade. It went back a few generations to Afghanistan, where Hassan’s more recent ancestors had found that a life of gem hunting was far preferable to the subsistence farming their families had been practicing for centuries.
“Gem hunting was what allowed us to see more of the world,” Amir said. “It was the reason my family emigrated first to Britain and then some of us continued on to the United States.”
“How often do you go back to Britain?” Lilly asked.
“Not often enough,” Basma said. “I loved living there. The winters in Minnesota are dreadful.”
“Then you probably don’t love it here,” Lilly said sympathetically.
“I like it here because there is no big city nearby. I like it because of the peace and quiet of the mountains and the forests.”
“Those are the same reasons I love it here,” Lilly said. Basma gave a radiant smile, the kind that made everyone who saw it smile in return.
Ghada spoke up. “It hasn’t been too peaceful around town lately, it seems. We’ve been reading about the two murders. So you knew the people who died?”
“Yes. Everyone knows everyone in a place this small. The woman, Eden, was a store owner in town and the man, Herb, was a yoga instructor.”
