by Nancy Naigle
Spencer raised a brow.
“Right. Well…” Ryan rambled. “We got her a tree for the…for the living room, and this tree is for the lobby. The lobby Christmas tree. Because at Christmas time, you can never have too many Christmas trees. Am I right?” He looked at Allie, hoping for the best.
She forced a smile, nodding in agreement. “You’re right.”
“So listen,” Ryan said. “We should go. The road might be open tomorrow, and you know if that’s the case, we can get ready to get on out of here.”
“Right. Escape from Evergreen,” Spencer said.
Ryan shifted the box in his arms. “Exactly.”
Allie jumped in. “Why don’t you take my truck with the tree in it to Barbara’s house, and then we can walk there to see if she’s got a room for Spencer in a little while.”
Ryan walked up the steps and handed the box of supplies to Spencer. “Thank you. Yes. That’s a good idea. Spencer. Nice meeting you.”
Allie reached in and grabbed Zoe’s coat and handed it to her.
“You, too,” Spencer said. “Bye Zoe.”
Zoe waved. “Bye.” She pulled on her coat as she ran down the steps to catch up with her dad, who was already heading for the truck.
“Let’s go, kiddo. Let’s get on out of here.” Ryan hotfooted it toward the truck.
Allie and Spencer stood on the porch until they pulled out of the driveway.
“You okay to walk?” she asked him.
“Well, it’s no helicopter, but sure,” he said, followed by a cocky chortle.
What kind of response is that? She forced a laugh. “I’ll get my coat.”
Spencer followed her inside, carrying the box to the kitchen.
The night was brisk but the wind had settled down so it wasn’t too bad. Allie had wanted to share Evergreen with Spencer for years, but now that he was here it wasn’t anything like what she’d dreamed of. They walked down Main Street. She saw the town and the cheery holiday lights and displays everywhere with fresh eyes, but he didn’t even react. He kept talking about DC.
Trying to break the ice, she said, “I still can’t believe you took a helicopter to get here.”
“Pretty cool, huh?” He looked pretty pleased with himself.
“Doesn’t it seem a little…extravagant?”
“It only seems like that because you’re not used to it yet.”
“Nah, you know me.” She glanced across the street at her vet office. “I have simple tastes. I’m an Evergreen girl.”
“And now you’re going to be a DC girl.”
“Yeah.” But I’ll still be me. That’s just geography.
“Come on, Allie, aren’t you just a little excited about starting your new life? Aren’t you happy to finally be getting out of this little town?”
“I love this place.” She couldn’t imagine ever feeling this kind of joy in the hustle and bustle of DC. “I know it might not seem like much to you, but this is my hometown.”
He didn’t seem even the teensiest impressed, and that bothered her.
“I mean look around,” she said. “This is what Christmas is supposed to be like.” The resounding joy in Zoe’s voice when she’d come out of the diner that first day they’d met played back in her memory. That response was what she’d expected from Spencer, too.
“I get it. I know you have a soft spot for this place. That’s why I came all the way here to be with you.”
“I know.” She leaned in. “And I appreciate that, but aren’t we supposed to be taking things slow?”
An impish grin crossed his face. “That’s why I had to see you.”
Her heart caught in her throat.
“I don’t need to take things slow.” He looked into her eyes. “I know what I want.” He paused. “The question is, do you?”
She grappled for air. She wasn’t ready for this.
They’d said they’d take it slow. Test the waters. And after the last couple of days, she wasn’t sure what she wanted.
She glanced around at the town she loved so much.
No, she wasn’t sure at all what she wanted at this moment. But she didn’t know how to tell him that either.
Across town, two high school teachers maneuvered the twelve-foot Frosty the Snowman into place in front of Henry’s barn. Like Frosty, the festival was coming to life and excitement filled the air, but it was coming down to the wire, and Michelle was stressing out over it.
Volunteers scurried around, and the choir was practicing. Michelle had decided to stay a while longer tonight to knock out a few of the things on her to-do list before calling it a night, even though she’d been at it since early this morning.
She lifted strands of lights from a box and plugged them in to test them. They lit, but were one tangled mess. She growled at the sight of it. Why can’t people put things up nicely at the end of the season?
Hannah saw her tussling with the lights. “Hey, Michelle.”
Michelle spun around to see Hannah standing there dressed in a red Christmas sweater covered in Scotty dogs with rickrack leashes. On top of that, she wore that chipper smile. “Hannah? Why aren’t you at home making fruitcake? You’re in charge of fruitcake,” Michelle snapped.
“I finished,” she said with a shrug.
“Well, then make something else!”
“Half the town is cooking. We’re going to have enough food for, like, five festivals.” Hannah giggled.
Forever the optimist; that was the last thing Michelle needed right now with all that had gone wrong so far. “There is no such thing as enough when it comes to a Christmas feast.” Her hands shook.
“Oh.” The smile slid from Hannah’s face.
Michelle pulled and tugged on the strand of lights in a holy terror.
“Okay, Michelle.” Hannah placed her hands on Michelle’s arms and guided her to a chair nearby. “Do you want to have a seat over here?”
Michelle groaned.
Hannah placed a caring hand on Michelle’s shoulder. “I think you need to relax.”
“I can’t. I have too much to do.” Michelle shook the lights with each word.
“And there’s plenty of time to get it all done. It’s going to be fine.”
“It can’t be fine. It has to be incredible.” She fought back tears.
“It will be. You’re doing an amazing job.”
Then why did she feel like everything was falling apart around her? “It’s just…Allie made everything look so easy.”
“Allie had a lot of help. She didn’t try to do it all by herself.”
“Yeah.” Michelle leaned her head on Hannah’s shoulder. “Okay.” She stifled a laugh. “Maybe I should go make a wish on the Christmas snow globe.”
Hannah sat quiet for a half beat. “Well, you wouldn’t be the only one.”
Michelle twisted in surprise. “You made a wish? What did you wish for?” It was hard for Michelle to imagine Happy Hannah needing to wish for anything. She always seemed on top of the world.
“Well…” Hannah fidgeted. “I don’t know if you know this, but I just love Christmas.”
Michelle feigned surprise, and then stared at Hannah’s sweater. “No! I didn’t know.”
They laughed, and Michelle tugged on one of the sparkly gold leashes on Hannah’s sweater. The girl had to have a different sweater, or maybe two, for every day of December.
“I… This is going to sound silly…but I wished to find someone special. Someone who loves Christmas as much as I do.” She looked so hopeful.
Michelle paused. If anyone deserved that kind of happiness, it was Hannah. “That’s not silly. It’s sweet.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm.” Michelle really hoped that old snow
globe came through for Hannah.
“I just figured, what could it hurt? It’s Christmas. A time when magical things happen.” Her eyes glistened with hope.
Michelle loved the hopeful and optimistic attitude of Hannah. She’s right. It is the season for wonder and special gifts. “How late is the diner open?” She grabbed Hannah’s hand. “Come on.”
They got in Michelle’s car and drove over to the diner. They had some business with a snow globe to take care of.
Chapter Nineteen
Ryan and Zoe drove back to the inn in silence. He couldn’t believe Spencer had shown up. It had been awkward enough, but if Spencer had waited one more moment before stepping out, Ryan would have been in the middle of announcing he’d bought the Christmas tree for Allie. That would have been much worse.
How was it that he couldn’t get out of the town, but this Spencer guy whisked right in unannounced? In a helicopter?
“I thought of a helicopter first,” Ryan mumbled.
“What?” Zoe perked up.
“Nothing.” He hadn’t realized he’d said it out loud.
Zoe looked at him. “You know, you should have really gotten the tree for Allie’s house.”
No kidding. If only… But he didn’t have a right to be upset. He knew that, but it still didn’t make it any easier. “Yeah. That would have been nice.”
“I really like her.”
He sucked in a breath. “So do I.” And even more than he’d realized. Spencer showing up was like losing electricity in the middle of your favorite movie. A sucker punch at the end of an otherwise perfect day. Before the man had shown up, Ryan would’ve said that he hadn’t felt this happy in a long time, and Zoe too. She’d worn a smile of true happiness since they’d been in Evergreen. He loved seeing his little girl’s eyes light up like that.
He pulled the truck up to the inn and took the tree out of the back.
“Can I go tell Barbara?”
“Sure.”
Zoe ran to the porch and opened the door. “Barbara! Come see,” she called in from the doorway.
“What’s going on, Zoe?”
Ryan schlepped the tree into the lobby.
“Another tree?” She cocked her head.
He wasn’t sure if she was happy or not. “Yes! We thought it would be nice for your next guests.”
“Thank you.” She pulled her lips together, as if coming up with a plan. “I’ll make it a winter tree, and keep it up for the whole month of January.”
“That sounds perfect,” Zoe said. “Can I help decorate it?”
“Of course,” Barbara said. “Where’s Allie?”
“Her friend Spencer showed up,” Zoe offered. “He flew in on a helicopter to see her. Is that cool, or what? They are going to come over in a little while.”
“Oh?” Barbara looked confused and when she turned toward him and caught his gaze, Ryan turned his attention to the other room. He couldn’t answer Barbara’s questions any more than he could soothe his own. “Well, isn’t that nice. It’s wonderful to spend time with friends and family over the holiday.”
“Want me to get the leftover decorations from the garage?”
“It’s getting late,” Barbara said. “We can work on it tomorrow.”
Zoe’s smile faded.
Ryan hated seeing her disappointed. “Zoe, we’ll probably be leaving in the morning.”
She slouched. “I’m going to miss this place. I love staying here, Barbara.” She ran over and gave her a hug.
“I’m so glad you were my very first guests. I’ll never ever forget this visit, or the beautiful trees.”
“You’d better head to bed, kiddo.” He watched his daughter climb the stairs.
“Do you have another tree stand?” he asked Barbara.
“I do. Right here in the closet. Let me grab it.” She opened the heavy door in the hallway and walked out with it. “Ta-da.”
“Great.”
She moved a coat rack and umbrella stand to make room in the entry hall, then set the tree stand in the corner. “That’ll look lovely. Thank you.”
“You’re so welcome.” He knew he was really just making more work for her though. He’d pictured tonight going much differently. He lifted the tree and lined it up in the stand, then dropped it down on the spike. “Is it straight?”
She stepped back and checked both sides. “Perfectly.”
He tightened the bolts.
Barbara carried a pitcher of water over to fill the tree. “Thank you so much, Ryan. I’m really going to miss you two. I hope you’ll come back and stay with me again.”
“We’ve really enjoyed our stay.” He couldn’t make any promises he’d ever be back. “Oh, I’m going to leave Allie’s truck keys here in the foyer. She said she’ll pick them up later.”
“That’s fine.” Barbara finished filling the tree stand, then put the pitcher down. “Ryan, is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Sure. I’m just going to go to bed.” He gave a little stretch, pretending to be tired. “Hopefully, we’ll be on our way to Florida in the morning. I’d better get some rest.”
“Good night.”
He went upstairs. When he peeked in on Zoe, she was already fast asleep. He packed his suitcase and set his alarm, then lay across the bed, trying not to think about today. Or Evergreen.
Allie was ready to go back home and crawl in bed. She didn’t even care if the kitchen mess got cleaned up tonight, and that wasn’t like her.
She and Spencer walked down Main Street. “Let’s get you settled in over at Barbara’s.” She walked, keeping conversation to a minimum, leading the way over to Barbara’s Country Inn and hoping like heck that Barbara could put Spencer up in a room for the night.
He kept talking about them flying back to DC tomorrow, which was the last thing on her mind tonight, so she mostly listened and smiled. This wasn’t her idea of taking it slowly.
“Here we are.” Allie turned up the walkway.
“Charming,” he said, but she got the feeling he was placating her.
“It’s awesome, and Barbara is great. You’ll love her.” She hurried to the door. “Come along.” She knocked on the front door of the inn and walked inside. “Barbara?”
“In here,” Barbara called from the living room. “Hi. Who do you have here?”
“Barbara, this is Spencer. He’s from DC. Any chance you can put up one more guest tonight?” Please say yes.
“Of course. My pleasure. This is the best pre-opening occupancy rate I could ask for.” She turned to Spencer. “Now please keep in mind that the inn isn’t officially open just yet. You’ll have to bear with me, but I’m happy to have you stay. I promise when you come back in the future, I’ll have every perk in place.” She gestured them inside. “You two just missed Ryan and Zoe. They called it an early night.”
“I see you got the tree,” Spencer’s accusatory tone annoyed Allie.
Barbara steepled her hands under her chin. “Wasn’t that so thoughtful? He is the nicest man.”
Spencer seemed to be waiting for Allie’s reaction. Instead of responding to Barbara’s comment, she said, “I’m going to leave you to get settled in, Spencer. I’m beat. It’s been a long day. I’ll see you in the morning, and hopefully the road will be opened back up.”
Spencer cocked his head. “So soon? You don’t want to sit and chat? Catch up a little?”
“I’m really tired. All that Christmas festival stuff and the baking. We baked dozens and dozens of cookies for the festival. I still have a few to finish decorating before I go to sleep.”
“Oh.”
“You have been busy,” Barbara said. “I made something to help out too.”
Spencer looked confused.
Allie felt the nee
d to explain. “With the road shut down, the people who were supposed to make the food got stuck out of town. Everyone had to pitch in to keep things going.”
“I see.”
“Yeah. Crazy day,” Allie said. “I’m just going to—”
“Your keys are on the table there,” Barbara said.
“Yes. Thank you. I’m going to get my truck. And go home. And go to bed.”
Spencer hugged her. “And if all goes according to plan, flights will be running again in the morning. We’ll make this a wonderful Christmas yet.”
But she was already having a wonderful Christmas.
He turned to kiss her and got her cheek. Something didn’t feel right. He was aggravating her with his rush to get back to DC when she’d already been very upfront with her plans to stay put.
She knew he liked getting his way. He was pretty used to it, but this was the first time he’d steamrolled her to get it. She didn’t like it.
She slipped out from under his arm and headed to the door. “Sleep tight.”
She had no intention of leaving Evergreen now even if the flights were running. Had he really come all the way here just to get her to go there?
Chapter Twenty
The next morning when Ryan woke up, things were quiet at Barbara’s Country Inn. He was up and dressed early as usual, but mostly because he was eager to get out of town.
Zoe was still asleep so he finished packing his things, and then repacked hers except for what she’d be wearing today. It could end up another long travel day, so until he knew the flight was a go there was no reason to wake Zoe up.
He went downstairs to grab a cup of coffee and see if he could find out anything about the roads and the airport.
As he turned the corner from the stairs, he stopped short. Sitting there at the royal-blue-and-white tile farmhouse table was Spencer, messing with his phone.
