by Nancy Naigle
Zoe brushed off the flour from the front of her apron and washed her hands again. She took a spatula and spread a thin layer of homemade cream cheese icing on a star, then dropped gold and blue sugar sprinkles on it.
“That looks good,” Ryan said.
“Thank you. I’m pretty good at this,” she said. “You try it, Dad.”
He picked a candy cane cookie, striping it with red and white frosting.
“Good job, Dad.”
They frosted and decorated a dozen pretty quickly.
Zoe was eating as much icing as she was getting on the cookies. Ryan nudged Allie, and they shared a quiet laugh behind Zoe’s back. She thought she was being so sneaky. At least Zoe washed her hands every time she snuck a taste…if you could even call that sneaking.
Allie handed another bowl of dough to Ryan. He lifted the flour canister and dipped in the measuring cup. “Hey, what happened to all the flour?” He peered over Zoe’s shoulder as she squeezed green icing on a small star-shaped cookie.
Zoe set the icing aside. “It’s all over you!” She swatted the flour off the front of his red apron.
Ryan laughed and swatted at the dust. “I guess it is.”
Allie carried a tray of big star cookies frosted and dusted with gold glitter sprinkles. She set them on the bar. “We’re almost out of butter, too.” She reached for her keys on the counter below. “You know what? Take my keys.” She placed them in Ryan’s hand. This felt so natural. She hated to think it would all be over soon. “Go on down to my parents’ restaurant. My mom and dad will have all the extra supplies you need.”
He paused. “Zoe, you good with hanging here with Allie for a little while?”
She didn’t even hesitate. “Yeah!” She raised her hand in a wave. “Bye, Dad.”
Allie was delighted by her reaction. It was fun to have a kid to do these things with at Christmas. She and Spencer had never talked seriously about children, but she couldn’t imagine her life without them. Her parents had given her such a wonderful childhood. It seemed only right to pass that along.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Ryan got up and took off his apron, hanging it on the back of his chair. “Have fun.”
“In the meantime,” Allie said, “why don’t I teach you how to decorate Christmas stockings?”
“Sure!”
“Come on.” Allie slapped the cookie crumbs from her hands and led the way to the kitchen table. She spread wrapping paper across the table to protect it, then went out to the garage and came back in carrying two boxes labeled Christmas Crafts. “Look at this.”
Zoe got up on her knees in the chair. “You had all this stuff?”
“I love Christmas,” Allie admitted. “Can you have too many stockings?”
“I don’t think so!” Zoe took the red stocking with the white fur at the top from Allie and set it in front of her.
Zoe is like a mini-me. “My sentiments exactly.” Allie put a stocking down in front of herself. “Sometimes I make them for my patients.”
“Dogs?”
“And cats. Horses. Cows.”
“Like Snowflake!”
“Yes! Exactly.”
“I’ll make mine, and you can make one for Snowflake.” Zoe started sifting through the different designs. “She’ll like that.”
Allie spread out appliques, and fabric glue. “All we have to do is pick out a theme and figure out where we want to stick the shapes. Then glue them down. Easy-peasy.”
“And fun,” Zoe said. “It’s like we’re elves in Santa’s workshop.”
“You’re right. I told you this would be easy and fun.”
“It is.” Zoe seemed to choose her words carefully. “Be sure to tell Dad. Okay?”
“Why?”
“He doesn’t like me to be sad,” she said. “He worries about that a lot since Mom died. I just like to let him know that I’m okay.”
Allie’s heart bruised. For the loss, and Zoe’s bravery. “But you know it’s okay to be sad sometimes too, right?”
“Yeah.” She took a breath. “And I am…sometimes. And so is Dad.” She pulled her lips into a tight line.
“Well, I think that’s normal,” Allie said. “But also sometimes you’re happy. Right? Like when you think about your mom. Thinking about all the things you two would do at Christmas time?”
Zoe brightened. “Yeah! My favorite was on road trips. We’d play this game where you have to come up with a thing for each letter of the alphabet. Me and Dad play it now.”
“I love that,” she said. “Wait. What would you do for the letter Z?”
Zoe lifted the stocking she’d been working on with the bright gold letters Z, O, and E across the top. “Zoe!” She held the stocking in the air, showing off the nutcracker. “What do you think?”
“I love it!” Allie picked up a reindeer shape with a candy cane stuck to it. “Look. Who knew reindeer liked candy canes?” She held it up to an empty spot on Zoe’s stocking.
“Let’s glue him on.”
The doorbell rang. “Oops. That’s probably your dad.” She made a dash for the door. Christmas, cooking, crafts, and Ryan and Zoe were the perfect cast in her fantasy family holiday.
“I’ll glue this on while you get that,” Zoe said.
Allie zipped through the living room to the front door and swung open the door.
But it wasn’t Ryan. Instead, Spencer stood there with arms opened wide, and all her family dreams came tumbling down in a heap.
“Spencer?” She watched a local taxi pull away from her house.
“Surprise.”
She couldn’t register what was happening. You were just in DC when we talked. And the road is closed. “How did you get here?”
“Well,” he said with an air of arrogance. “Remember how I told you I have that partner who was going to let us use his helicopter?”
“You took a helicopter here?”
“Yep!” He pointed behind him with a smirk. “Landed just outside of town. Took a cab here.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Come on. That’s really something, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. That’s definitely…something.”
“Look. I don’t totally understand this whole ‘one last Christmas in Evergreen’ thing, but I couldn’t bear the thought of not spending it with you. So…here I am.”
“Yes.” She stood there not knowing exactly what she was feeling. She should be happy that he’d come all the way to Evergreen in a snowstorm to see her, but she felt almost annoyed. “Oh, I guess. You should come in. Come in.”
Chapter Seventeen
Ryan parked in front of the Chris Kringle Kitchen, almost feeling like part of the community himself, and yet he hadn’t even heard of Evergreen two days ago. This was the most welcoming place he’d ever been. “Hi, Carol,” he called out as he walked in the diner.
“I thought you all were baking cookies with Allie tonight.”
“Oh, we are. We just ran out of some things. She said you’d be able to stock us back up.”
Carol grinned widely. “Homemade sugar cookies?”
“You guessed it.”
“Her specialty. Yes. I know exactly what you’ll need.” Carol lifted a finger in the air and rushed to the kitchen, leaving Ryan to take in the homey details of the restaurant. Casual family dining at its best. The Early-American-style hutches were filled with dishes. A collection of teapots added to the experience with a punch of color. There were lots of Christmas decorations, too, and rightly so with the name Chris Kringle Kitchen, but that snow globe near the cash register seemed to drag his attention back to it over and over. If he didn’t think Carol would be right back, he’d be tempted to make a wish on that snow globe himself. One that he and Zoe would both feel this happy forever.
&
nbsp; A few minutes later Carol walked out of the kitchen with a big box. “Here you go.”
“Thank you.” The box was filled with milk, flour, butter, sugar, butter, eggs, and even more that he couldn’t see in the bottom.
“This should last longer than you all will,” Carol teased. “It’s hard work baking cookies.”
“I have a feeling cleaning up is going to be harder than the baking, but we’re having fun with it.”
She laid her hand on his shoulder. “I’m so glad.”
He walked out of the Chris Kringle Kitchen with the box of ingredients. “Thanks, Carol.”
“You got it?” she asked as she held the door for him.
“I do. Thanks so much,” he said.
She went back inside, but before Ryan reached the truck, the Santa look-alike ambled up and asked, “Making cookies for Santa?”
“It’s for the festival.”
The man stepped closer. “It’s nice you’re doing that.”
“It’s the least we could do,” Ryan said. “Everyone has been so nice to us. Especially Allie.”
Santa nodded knowingly.
“I just wish there was something I could do to return the favor.”
A twinkle lit in the old man’s eyes. “Well, a little birdie told me that she doesn’t have a Christmas tree.”
He’s right. “No… she doesn’t. Thank you…uh…I didn’t catch your name.”
“I’m Nick.” His red cheeks swelled as he smiled. “Merry Christmas,” he said, stretching the words out in that good old-fashioned way. He toddled off, and Ryan stood there. If I didn’t know better, I’d believe he really is St. Nick. The rosy cheeks, twinkle in the eye, the chipper walk, and that ‘Merry Christmas.’ It was a perfect imitation.
Ryan opened the passenger door of Allie’s truck and slid the box onto the floorboards, then walked around and got in.
A Christmas tree for Allie. It was perfect. She’d love that. He wasn’t sure if he could get back to the tree lot that they’d gone to together to get the one for Barbara, but the town wasn’t that big. He’d figure it out.
The truck chugged down the street. At the stop sign in front of the gazebo, he turned left, in the opposite direction of Allie’s house. Two streets up there was a Christmas tree lot on the corner. Not the same one, but it would do fine.
Candy cane striped PVC pipes held up a brown sign with alternating red and green letters that read Christmas Trees For Sale. Colorful pennant flags hung around the perimeter, making it a little more circus than Christmas, but he was sure he could find a tree for her here.
The two smallest trees they had were potted, not cut. That seemed a little over-ambitious, since she’d be moving to DC. Planting a tree here in her Evergreen front yard was one thing. Expecting her to haul it to DC to stick it on a condo patio? Probably not the best present.
Plus, those trees weren’t the least bit scraggly.
Knowing her reputation for the underdog tree, he continued to look for something that needed a little TLC. There was one that had a bare spot in the back. He couldn’t bring himself to buy that one though.
There were a few others that would never earn the Miss Best Christmas Tree trophy even in a lineup of three, but he didn’t want to take her something less than perfect after the kindness she’d shared with them.
He took another stroll through the lot. It was slim pickings on the eve before Christmas Eve. Why is this so hard?
He knew exactly why it was so hard.
Because it mattered.
Forget what I know about her liking the underdog trees. Think about how she makes me…us…feel.
He turned around and as soon as he did he was facing the prettiest tree he’d ever seen. He lifted the tag. A Fraser fir. He leaned in closer. The aroma was strong. It smelled like Christmas.
Unlike most of the trees on this lot, this one had a blue-green color to it, and the way the tips of the branches cupped up made it look eager to be decorated.
“This is the one,” Ryan said. “It’s perfect.” Like her. He lifted the tree right up off its stake so no one else could claim it, and carried it to the cashier. “Sir?”
The young man at the cash box jumped from his chair. “Oh, wow. I guess you picked one already! We’d have gotten that for you.”
“That’s okay. It’s not that heavy.” Although he’d gotten some sap on his jacket. “I’m in a hurry.”
Ryan paid the man and carried the tree to the truck himself. He couldn’t wait for Allie to see the tree. It had been a more-than-perfect day, and this was going to be the perfect ending to it.
He could barely contain himself as he revved up the truck and retraced his route back to the Chris Kringle Kitchen, and then took the road he knew back to Allie’s house. His cheeks almost hurt from smiling. This was the best surprise, and he knew Zoe was going to be absolutely delighted that he’d bought a tree, too.
Feeling somewhat like a superhero who’d just saved the world, he honked the horn as he backed into her driveway. His heart sped up in anticipation of seeing their faces when they saw the tree.
Chapter Eighteen
Allie still couldn’t believe that Spencer had flown in a helicopter, in a storm, to visit her for Christmas, unannounced. She stepped aside so Spencer could come in. He walked into the kitchen then stopped.
She’d been so focused on the pretty cookies that she hadn’t even really paid much attention to the whopping mess they’d made. But clearly by the look on Spencer’s face…he’d noticed. The mess did seem to spill all the way to the dining room table where she and Zoe were now working on the stocking projects.
She shoved a cup of cocoa into his hand. “Here. I made some cocoa.”
“Thank you.” Spencer pulled off his coat, revealing his designer button-down shirt and conservative blue suit. He took a sip of the cocoa, glanced at Zoe, who was busy working on her stocking at the table, then turned back to Allie. “Who’s this?”
Allie tugged on her old blue sweater, feeling underdressed in her own house. “Oh, this is Zoe. Zoe, this is Spencer.”
“Hey, Zoe,” Spencer said. “How do you know Allie?”
Zoe grinned that winning smile of hers. “Me and my Dad met Allie in town and then at the airport and we all got stranded, so we made snowflakes and then we came here and a cow gave birth—I named her Snowflake—and there was caroling, we built a snowman, and now we’re making Christmas cookies for the festival and stockings just because it’s fun!” She held her stocking up for him to see. “Allie’s making one for Snowflake.”
Spencer looked at Allie like he didn’t understand a single word that had just blown past him. “Snowflake? Someone else I should know?”
“No. Snowflake is a calf. They were with me when Henry called.” Allie wrinkled her nose. “I was just going to say ‘it’s a long story,’ but I think what Zoe said pretty much sums it up.”
“You’re making a Christmas stocking for a cow?” Spencer didn’t seem impressed.
“Technically it’s a calf,” Zoe said. “Allie does things for a lot of her patients. She’s a good animal doctor.”
He shook his head like he couldn’t be bothered to figure it all out.
Allie kept an eye on Zoe as she worked on her stocking. Ryan would be here any minute.
Spencer took a sip of the cocoa, then leaned against the kitchen counter. “So, you just brought this guy and his kid back here?”
“Yeah. Kind of.” She sensed his hesitation. “It seemed like the best option…” Is he mad? “…at the time.” She didn’t want to apologize for inviting them back. Being with them was so much fun. And what was wrong with helping others, anyway?
“Right.” After a two-beat pause, he said, “Listen. Did this have anything to do with you wanting to stay in E
vergreen for Christmas?”
“No!” She waved her hand in front of her. “No, that was all me.”
“Okay.”
Only she wasn’t sure how convinced he was. But it was the weather. She had no control over that.
A double-honk broke up the awkward silence, and Zoe ran past them to the front door. “Dad’s back!”
Spencer let out an exaggerated sigh as Zoe and Allie raced for the door. He placed his mug on the counter. Allie opened the door and stepped out onto the porch, Zoe stepping outside right next to her.
Ryan stood at the back of her truck with a box full of baking supplies. “Hey.” He let go of the box with one hand and lifted the tip of the tree with the other. “What do you think?”
“You got a Christmas tree!” Zoe exclaimed. “I can’t believe you got a Christmas tree.”
He jogged up the sidewalk with the box. “Yeah, well…it’s for—” He stopped in front of the steps, just as Spencer stepped up behind Allie.
“Oh, this is Spencer.” Allie’s heart caught in her throat. “Spencer, this is Ryan.”
Ryan paled. “Spencer? Washington D.C. Spencer?”
“That’s right.” Her smile was forced. He’d brought her a tree? Her heart pounded in the fastest version of “Deck the Halls” known to mankind.
“Yeah.” Zoe gave a very impressive nod. “He flew here in a helicopter.”
“Really? Can we borrow it?” Ryan grinned, but he looked more like he’d like to disappear right now.
It was incredibly awkward, and Allie was pretty sure she could feel her kneecaps shaking…and not from the cold.
“Uh, no, they just dropped me off.” Spencer sounded annoyed. “So who’s the tree for?”
“It’s for Barbara,” Ryan blurted out. “At the inn.”
“But…we just got her a Christmas tree,” Zoe said.
