She printed another sheet of comments from the Facebook page and glanced at Jack. His head was bent over the spreadsheet, adding more ticks to the columns as he went through the printouts.
She smiled as a lock of his brown hair fell over his forehead. If anyone had asked her to imagine what Noah’s brother looked like, she wouldn’t have chosen any of Jack’s features. Apart from both having dark hair and gorgeous brown eyes, they were nothing alike.
Jack was a little shorter than his brother and had a much slimmer build. He had a quirky sense of humor and his easy smile and thoughtful words had already impressed her.
Even though she knew next to nothing about him, Emma wanted to know more. “Noah said you live in Manhattan, Jack. Do you work with your brother?”
“I’ve helped him a few times, but I own my own company. It’s called Lost and Found. We look for people who have gone missing.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Do you work with the police?”
“Sometimes.”
Kylie tapped her pen against her chin. “Are you like the private investigators on the TV?”
Jack smiled. “Probably not. A lot of our work involves searching through databases and electronically tracking a missing person’s movements. It’s not as glamorous or as exciting as the shows I’ve seen on TV.”
“If I was adopted,” Emma asked, “could you help me find my biological family?”
“It would depend on the status of your adoption. If your records are sealed, it would be more difficult. But even with sealed records, there are other ways of searching for birth parents.”
Kylie picked up her cup of coffee. “What if I wanted to find a friend I’d lost contact with? Could you help?”
Jack nodded. “You’d be surprised how often that happens.”
Emma tilted her head to the side. “What made you want to find lost people?”
Jack’s smile disappeared. “When I was nine years old, my parents died. Noah and I went to live with our grandparents. If they hadn’t been alive, I don’t know where we would have gone. When I was older, I realized a lot of people have never met their extended family. That’s why I started my company—to help people reconnect with each other.”
“So they wouldn’t be alone,” Emma murmured.
Jack nodded. His gaze lingered on her face, staring into her eyes as if nothing in the world mattered more than the understanding passing between them.
Emma knew what it felt like to be alone. When she’d arrived in Sapphire Bay, she knew no one. Her parents had told her she was crazy to take two toddlers to a town she’d never seen. But the need to start again, to get away from the life she’d had, was stronger than the stress of starting again.
“What’s the strangest thing you’ve had to do?” Kylie’s voice broke through the heavy silence that had fallen across the work room.
Jack picked up another sheet of paper. “Last year, someone asked us to find their cat. We eventually found him in the apartment below his owner’s.”
Kylie’s mouth dropped open. “Why would anyone ask you to find their cat? It must have cost a fortune.”
“The cat belonged to a lady who had died. Her husband couldn’t bear to lose his last connection to his wife, so he asked us to find it.” Jack’s mouth tilted into a lopsided smile. “It ended better than we could have imagined. Not only did we find the cat, but the owner became friends with the person who had been looking after it.”
“I like cats,” Dylan said.
Emma looked at her son. He’d moved from beside Molly and was standing beside Jack’s chair.
Jack smiled. “Do you have a cat?”
Dylan shook his head. “Mom said we could go to the animal shelter and find one.”
“That sounds exciting.”
“Molly wants a black kitten, but I want a cat that’s lots of different colors.” Dylan held a piece of paper toward Jack. “I drew a picture for you.”
Emma’s heart lurched. Dylan didn’t usually talk to people he didn’t know. Unlike Molly, he was more comfortable standing in the background, watching what was happening.
Whether Jack sensed Dylan’s shyness, she didn’t know. But the smile on Jack’s face was so gentle that it made her wonder what kind of father he would be. As he studied the crayon drawing, Dylan moved closer, explaining everything about the picture.
“I like your cat’s long, wiggly tail,” Jack said.
“That’s so he can tickle me.”
The smile Dylan sent Jack was open and trusting, and so unlike her son that she knew she had to be careful.
In a week’s time, Jack would be leaving Sapphire Bay. If Dylan was forming an attachment to him, he would miss Jack when he went home. And above everything else, she didn’t want her children to be hurt again.
By Wednesday night, Emma was having a major meltdown. She’d thought asking people what Christmas events they wanted in Sapphire Bay would be easy. And it was, except the response had been overwhelming.
People from as far away as Zurich and Tokyo were telling everyone about their favorite Christmas events. Most of them were so far out of the church’s budget that they couldn’t be considered. But in between the seventy-foot Christmas trees, over-the-top light displays, and fireworks extravaganzas, were the small, community events that could be replicated in Sapphire Bay.
All they needed was twice as much money, ten times the number of volunteers, and thousands of people to visit Sapphire Bay.
A knock on the back door brought her to her feet. With a relieved smile, she waved Kylie into the kitchen. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“I thought you would be.” Kylie handed her a bag of fudge. “I went shopping at Sweet Treats today. Brooke said you were looking a little stressed when she saw you at The Welcome Center.”
Emma sniffed the chocolatey treat. “It’s been a busy day. We’re up to nine hundred comments on the Facebook post.”
Kylie left her tote bag on the counter. “Why don’t you delete it? We have more than enough ideas to keep us busy for the next ten Christmases.”
“I have, but the original post keeps popping up on people’s Facebook pages.”
“Look at the bright side. Once we have our Christmas program organized, we could let anyone who clicked on the post know what we’re doing. Even if it takes twice as long for the new Facebook post to circulate, the Christmas program will be a huge success.”
Emma opened the bag of fudge. “That’s a great idea, but we have to organize the events first.” She popped a piece of fudge in her mouth and sighed. “I know why I only visit Sweet Treats once a week. This is delicious. Would you like a piece?”
With a grin, Kylie reached into her tote bag. “I’m okay. I ate enough this afternoon to give me a week-long sugar rush.” She placed two more bags of fudge on the counter. “These are for Molly and Dylan. I hope they like raspberry delight and strawberry heaven.”
“They’ll love them. Thank you.” Emma turned on the coffee pot and opened a cupboard. “The twins are fast asleep, so we have the kitchen to ourselves.”
“It sounds as though we’ll need the peace and quiet. What have you been doing?”
“I’ve updated the spreadsheet and gone through Pastor John’s ideas. It looks as though there are four or five events we could organize, but I’d like to hear which ones you prefer.”
“What about Jack? He had some great ideas.”
Emma took two mugs out of the cupboard. “I haven’t seen him since Sunday night. Have you talked to him?”
“No, but Mabel said he came into the general store with his grandfather this afternoon. It must have been hard growing up without his parents.”
“It’s probably still hard not having them around.” Emma couldn’t imagine how difficult his life must have been. From what she knew of his grandfather, Patrick would have been a wonderful father figure, but it wouldn’t have made up for not having his parents with him. “At least Jack has his brother.”
“That’s true.” K
ylie frowned at a basket of letters sitting on the kitchen counter. “Do you have a lot of secret admirers you haven’t told me about?”
“That’s the other surprise I was given today.”
“Letters?”
“Not just any letters. They’re from the children at the local school. Their teachers saw the Facebook post and asked their students to write down their ideas.”
Kylie’s eyes widened. “There must be more than a hundred letters in the basket.”
“I know.” Emma hoped she didn’t sound too overwhelmed, because she wasn’t. Not really. What worried her the most was not being able to help everyone—especially the children. “This has become bigger than I thought it would.”
“It’s just as well Pastor John asked us to help. We’ll organize a Christmas program everyone will remember. And if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to make a few Christmas wishes come true, too.”
“I hope so.”
Kylie gave her a hug. “I know so. Come on. The sooner we go through these letters, the sooner we can plan what events we’ll organize. And don’t worry about the amount of work we have to do. Pastor John has a long list of people who are willing to help.”
Emma was glad Kylie was feeling so positive. It was one thing putting together a program. It was an entirely different story making people’s Christmas wishes come true.
Chapter 4
An hour later, Emma was glad she’d asked Kylie to help. Placing the enormous amount of information they’d gathered into a logical order was taking longer than she expected.
While Kylie studied the spreadsheet and Pastor John’s notes, Emma went through the children’s letters. Using the same categories they’d used for the Facebook comments, she grouped similar events together.
Kylie handed Emma the folder John had put together. “We have to organize a Christmas parade. Most of the people who responded to the Facebook post love the idea.”
“I agree. When do you think we should hold it?”
“John wants to have the parade in September. It seems a little early, but we don’t have enough volunteers to run more than one event at a time.”
Emma opened the calendar on her laptop. “What if we organized one activity per month leading up to Christmas? If we did that, the Christmas parade would be in September. The second Saturday in the month works for me.”
“I’d have to check my wedding bookings, but it sounds doable.” Kylie picked up the spreadsheet. “There were two other ideas that were really popular. What if we had a Christmas party in October and a Christmas carol competition in November?”
“Sounds good. What about the real-life Santa workshop? We could do that in December.”
“I prefer Pastor John’s idea of a Christmas train ride. Taking the children around Flathead Lake sounds like fun.”
Emma wasn’t convinced it would work. By December, everything could be buried under six feet of snow, including the railroad tracks. “What if there’s a snowstorm and the event has to be canceled? A lot of families would be disappointed.”
“We could organize an alternative event in case that happens.”
“Or we could talk to the railroad company. We might be able to postpone the train ride to the following weekend if the weather turns nasty.”
Kylie nodded. “Sounds good to me. Maybe the train could take the children to Santa’s workshop and bring them home.”
“That’s a big event to organize.”
“We’ve got plenty of time.” Kylie sent Emma a confident smile. “We can do this. All we have to do is work out who will organize each event. Have you spoken to Sam’s sister?”
Emma nodded. “I called Bailey this afternoon. Zac offered her a job in his medical clinic.”
“That’s awesome. When does she start?”
“In four weeks. She’s driving home to Bozeman tomorrow, but she’s happy to help us organize one of the events when she gets back.”
Kylie leaned forward. “What if we asked her to organize the Christmas carol competition? It’s not until November. That way, if we plan the Christmas parade and the party, we could help her with the carols. Mabel and Allan will lend a hand, too.”
Emma added their names to the spreadsheet. “After I’ve finished organizing the parade, I’ll call the railroad company and see if we can use one of their trains for the December event. In a couple of months, Willow might be able to help, too.”
“I hope so. It’s going to be a busy time.”
“As long as other people are willing to help us, it should be fine.” Kylie picked up some of the children’s letters. “What will we do about these?”
Emma had been wondering the same thing. “We should send the children a card or something to let them know we’ve read them.”
“We could visit the school. It wouldn’t take much time to explain what we’re organizing.” Kylie handed Emma the letters. “The children put a lot of effort into letting us know what events they’d like.”
“Can you call the school and see if they’re happy for us to visit?”
“Consider it done. You know…” Kylie didn’t finish the sentence. As she studied a sheet of paper she’d unfolded, her gaze darted to Emma.
Not all the children had written letters. Some of the younger students had drawn pictures. Using stick figures or other funny shapes, they’d let their teacher know what events they wanted to see.
Emma didn’t know what was on the paper, but it couldn’t be good. Kylie had a mile-wide frown plastered across her forehead. “What is it?”
Kylie glanced at the drawing before handing it to Emma. “You’d better take a look at this.”
Four crayon figures were standing in front of a Christmas tree. Underneath, in big letters, a child had written, please help us find our daddy. Emma’s heart clenched tight when she saw who had sent the letter. It was Molly.
“I didn’t know they were so desperate to see Mark,” she whispered.
“It might not be anything to worry about. Molly is always talking about her dad. If she knew what he was really like she wouldn’t idolize him so much.”
Emma’s eyes filled with tears. “She’s six years old. I don’t want her to think bad things about her father.”
“He abandoned them when they were babies. What sort of a person does that?”
“The kind who’s desperate.” Emma had pleaded with Mark not to go. She knew when she’d married him that he had a lot of unresolved issues from his childhood. But she’d thought she could help, that she could make fifteen years of living with an alcoholic father a lot easier to bear.
“Mark needed to come to terms with his past.”
Kylie’s mouth dropped open. “You’re not thinking of searching for him, are you?”
“I’ve already tried. No one knows where he’s gone. And even if I found him, I wouldn’t want Mark to have unsupervised visits with Molly and Dylan.”
“Maybe you should consider that before you do anything. If you can’t trust him with your children, why do you want him in your life?”
Emma looked down at the picture. “He’s Molly and Dylan’s father. I won’t stand in their way if they want to meet him.”
“That’s very mature of you.”
“I’ve had a lot of time to get over him. When he first left, I was devastated. But the twins and I are happy. We have a great life in Sapphire Bay.”
Kylie tapped her pen against her chin. “If you really want to find him, you could go on one of those television programs where they find long lost relatives.”
“Except they nearly always have a happy ending. I can’t see that happening with Mark.”
“If you don’t think he’ll want anything to do with you or the twins, is it worth looking for him?”
Emma didn’t have to think too hard about her answer. “It’s important to Molly and Dylan. Even if I can’t find Mark, at least I can say I tried.”
“In that case, I have another idea.” Kylie took her cell phone out of her pocket. �
��I don’t have Jack’s number, but he’s staying in the cottage behind Cassie and Noah’s home. Cassie won’t mind asking Jack for some advice. If he’s half as good at finding people as she said, he might be your only chance of finding Mark.”
“Let me keep looking. Jack is already helping with the Christmas program. I don’t want to ask him to do anything else.”
“Are you sure?”
Emma nodded. Even in the short time she’d known him, Jack had gotten under her skin and made her wish her life could be different. If he helped her find Mark, she would be even more indebted to him. And regardless of how she felt, she could never allow that to happen.
Jack stopped his brother’s truck in front of a small, wooden home not far from Noah and Cassie’s cottage. With its white picket fence, gardens overflowing with colorful flowers, and two bicycles leaning against the front veranda, the house looked warm and inviting. A lot like his parents’ cottage on Shelter Island.
As he opened the truck door, he took a deep breath. He still couldn’t believe how different Sapphire Bay was to Manhattan.
For most of the afternoon, he’d been fishing with two friends on Flathead Lake. When he was in New York City, his life involved moving between his apartment and work. Even at the weekends, getting away from the city was impossible. Unlike today’s short drive to the lake, he was lucky to get anywhere in under an hour.
Fishing in his friend’s boat had become a recurring ritual that Jack looked forward to. Each time he was on the lake it was completely different. Today, the sky was so blue that he’d wondered if his eyes were fooling him. After the drab, gray blanket that permanently covered New York City, he was glad to be here.
Grabbing the cooler off the back seat, he headed toward Emma’s home. Three hours after setting out this morning, he’d returned to shore with four brown trout.
Jack had given one to Cassie and Noah, another to his grandfather, and whether it was a good decision or not, he was delivering the third to Emma.
Christmas On Main Street Page 4
