Rather than stress about it, Annabelle resolved to find someone to watch the store for her grandmother. It would be a lot easier than worrying every second of every day, and then Belle wouldn’t be living on allergy medicine. On her way downtown, she called Meg’s friend Gladys and offered to cater her holiday dinner with dishes from Arcadia if she covered days at the shop, it was an offer that the Green Mountain Granny jumped at. With the shop squared away and a second call made to a rental car company to have an SUV dropped off that night, Belle pulled in front to a stop across from The Middle Road Inn without a care in the world.
Well, maybe with a few cares.
Specifically, the cares that came with knowing she was about to go into her high school sweetheart’s restaurant and attempt to bury a hatchet that had been causing them both pain since they were teenagers. Belle checked her makeup in the rearview mirror, then picked up the tin of canelés, and crossed the busy street over to the Inn. With a deep, healing breath, she opened the door to the dining room and with a gasp, couldn’t believe what she saw.
The Middle Road Inn was completely slammed with patrons. The lobby area was full of people waiting for tables, the wait staff were running around like mad, and Annabelle could hear pots, pans, and dishes crashing and clattering in the kitchen. For a second, Belle wasn’t even sure James was there, but then she saw him running through the double-doors out of the kitchen, carrying a tray full of food with an expression of pure panic on his face. There was no host at the front to deal with the flurry of customers and everyone looked like they were about to lose their minds.
Annabelle had dealt with chaos a million times at Arcadia, but she could tell from the terror in the air that this was more than what the staff of the Middle Road Inn was used to. Without a second thought, Annabelle hid the tin of pastries behind the counter, put on her best customer service face, and walked up to a huge table of people who were lingering even though their food was long gone. Belle had seen James watching them anxiously, clearly hoping they would leave on their own, but they were so engrossed in a conversation they didn’t seem aware of the crowd forming. With a smile, she approached the end of the table.
“Hey, guys! Can I interest you in having some free coffee and cake at the bar?”
Everyone suddenly snapped to attention and started picking up their coats and bags and hurried away from the table. When one of the servers walked by, Belle grabbed his arm. “This is ready to be cleared. Split it back out into three tables and you can sit three of the parties waiting by the door. I’ll see if I can get some more people out of here.” For a moment, he looked at her like she was insane, but then he realized he was in no position to argue and just did as she said.
“If you’re looking for a job, I don’t think I can afford your salary.”
Annabelle spun around, and James was standing behind her, his glasses on his head and a pot of coffee in his hand. She laughed, “You’re not wrong about that.”
“Thank you for that, but you really don’t have to help. If you want to eat…”
Belle shook her head. “No, I just came to talk to you. But I’m happy to help. Where do you need backup more?”
James looked hesitant for a moment, but then his shoulders slumped, and he relented. “Raph is drowning in the kitchen. Can you go back there? I promise I will find a way to make it up to you later.”
“Don’t even worry about it,” Belle said, rolling up her sleeves and tying her hair up in a bun. “I’m on it.”
James’ face relaxed instantaneously, and Belle didn’t give him a chance to reconsider; she just ran back into the kitchen where she found Raphael, surrounded by pots bubbling over, smoking ovens, and fish burning on the grill. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw a single tear trailing down the cook’s cheek.
“You need some help, buddy?” Annabelle called out as she grabbed an apron off the wall. When Raph caught sight of her, he ran over and pulled her into a sweaty hug.
“Oh, thank goodness! I was about to pass out. You’re really going to help? James is letting you help?”
Belle burst out laughing. “Yeah, he’s letting me help. Just tell me what you need!”
For the next two hours, Belle and Raphael worked side-by-side, running through tickets and clearing out tables so quickly, it was barely 2pm before things had finally calmed down enough for the staff to breathe. Annabelle was just wiping down her station and reorganizing the produce when James walked back through the double doors.
“Guys, that was awesome. Thank you so much. With Daisy being sick, I didn’t realize this was Glitter Weekend.”
Raph nodded his head sagely, but Belle just raised a confused eyebrow. “What weekend?”
“Glitter Weekend… when people from cities come to the quaint little mountain town to do their holiday shopping and stick to everything like glitter. You can’t get rid of them, there are always more than you remembered from the year before, and they are completely obnoxious.”
Annabelle’s jaw dropped, and then she exploded in laughter. At first, neither James nor Raph looked all that amused, but a moment later, they couldn’t help but laugh too.
“I don’t remember that being a thing when I lived here,” Belle said, tossing a towel into the washing sink.
“A lot has changed since you left. I’m sorry, things were so crazy I never got a chance to ask you why you were here.”
Annabelle held up her finger. “Hold that thought.”
10
James
Belle disappeared through the double doors, leaving James alone with Raphael, who was smirking.
“What are you looking at?” James asked with a chuckle.
“Want me to leave you two alone?” he responded, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Seriously, man. Knock it off. I do want you to get out of here, but only because you need to go on your break. Take the night off. I’ll call Trevor in; he said he wanted more shifts.”
Raph shook his head with smile as if he didn’t believe a word that James was saying but wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. By the time Annabelle got back to the kitchen, Raphael had already disappeared for the day. James wasn’t sure what she was up to when suddenly, Belle slid a Christmas tree shaped tin across the counter with a smile on her face.
“I made you something, by way of an apology for acting like such a jerk last night.”
James couldn’t hide his suspicion at first, but then he opened the tin and peeked inside. “They look like tiny Bundt cakes.”
Belle visibly deflated. “Well… they are a little more complicated than that. They require a lot of work and training and skill to get right. But I mean, yeah. I can see how they might look like Bundt cakes.” James watched her demeanor change as she became increasingly on edge. She watched his face intently as he bit into one of the pastries and as much as he tried to control it, he felt himself flinch at the taste. He had never been a fan of rum in pastries and there something slightly… pretentious… about what she had made him.
“What was that?” Belle yelled out of nowhere.
James jumped at the sudden sound of her voice. “What? What was what?”
“That face you made! You made a face!”
He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t make a face. This is my face, doing exactly what it always does.”
“Oh, no. I saw what you did when you bit into it. You cringed.”
James set the rest of his canelé back in the tin with a sigh. “Come on, Belle. You’re overreacting. It’s good. It’s just…”
She didn’t give him a chance to say anything else; she just grabbed the tin and stormed out without another word. She attempted to slam the kitchen door behind her, but they were on hinges so all they did was swing angrily. James made his way out of the door to chase after Annabelle, but he had gotten no more than ten steps before he ran into Addison, who had just showed up for her evening shift… two-and-a-half hours early.
“Addison… what are you doing here?”
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Addison smiled and shrugged. “I thought I could help given what weekend it is. Though it doesn’t look all that busy.”
Of course, it’s not busy now, James thought, annoyed that she had timed her arrival so that she had missed the rush but still somehow managed to corner him in the empty dining room. “Well, yeah, obviously. The hundred-and-fifteen people we moved through here between 10am and two have already moved on to do the rest of their holiday shopping. If you’d come in earlier, you could have been helpful. I guess you could finish cleaning the kitchen or something? But I really need to…” She didn’t give him a chance to finish. She just pouted and put her hands on her hips.
“Shoot! I didn’t realize. I guess I can clean up if that will be helpful. But you don’t want to stay and help me? I could make some coffee!”
James looked out the front door, hoping to see where Belle had gone, but there was no sight of her in either direction. He hoped she wasn’t already driving back to the house because he needed to get home to Daisy and he didn’t have time for another long, drawn-out argument in front of Meg.
“I have to get out of here, Addison. Daisy is home sick, and Trevor is coming in to cover the dinner shift. If you can just stay and help him, that would be great, okay, thanks, bye,” James mumbled out rapid-fire before Addison had a chance to argue with him.
A second later, he grabbed his coat and was out the door, scanning the streets to see if he could spot Annabelle. But she was gone. Just as he was about to get frustrated, he noticed the Christmas lights twinkling in the window of Meow & Then. If the lights were on, it meant someone was in there. There was also no chance Meg would miss out on the biggest shopping of day of the year in Wintervale.
James ran over to the shop so fast that he slid on a patch of ice just as he reached the door, only managing to avoid falling by grabbing the door handle and jerking himself upright. He skidded inside Meow & Then and through the crowd of people checking out handmade cat toys and organic cat nip, he saw…
Gladys McGowan. She was standing behind the counter, her long gray braid haphazardly pinned up and sagging back down, mimicking the look of exhaustion on her face. She caught James’ eye and shook her head furiously.
“I never should have agreed to do this! Today, of all days,” she called out to him just as a family of five in expensive city clothes walked up to the counter. Gladys whimpered sadly and then turned on her most festive smile. James hurried up next to her and helped add up all of their items, so they could be rushed out the door, because he needed to know where Belle went, and this was all taking up precious time.
“Gladys, I know you’ve been awful busy, but have you seen Annabelle come through here?”
She didn’t even look up from the oddly shaped cat toy she was trying to wrap for a child dancing next to her. “Ya, da… darn fool, didn’t you just see her in the back? She was trying to find me some ribbon for these blasted… I mean lovely packages!”
I peeked around the crowd and saw Belle at the back of the store, covered in curls of ribbon and already prepared to pull out her hair. It didn’t take long to lose patience with the tourists when it gets this bad, but she seemed at the end of her rope after being there for less than five minutes. I inched my way back to her, barely dodging a family walking a cat on a leash in the process, and then squatted down on the floor next to where she was furiously digging through boxes of wrapping paper scraps.
“You disappeared five minutes ago and somehow already got roped into wrapping duty?”
“Better than being insulted about my baking after busting my butt to make you an apology gift.”
James did his best not to laugh. Belle had always been excellent at pouting, and even better at holding a grudge, but she seemed to have become an expert in their years apart.
She was adorable when she was angry, and it made it hard to take her seriously, but he also knew she would be furious if she knew that he was sitting there thinking about how cute she was when he had made her angry. So, he put on his best serious face and started stacking and folding the wrapping paper for her.
“Belle, I wasn’t trying to insult you. The canelés were really good! But they were just so… extravagant.”
Annabelle raised an eyebrow at him, confused. “What’s so bad about extravagant? People like extravagant.”
James started tying the ribbon into perfect bows that could be taped on to the top of the packages as Belle watched, fascinated. “There is nothing wrong with it. But sometimes, it’s the simplest things that make the most impact. Do you remember,” he said, laughing at the memory, “that time you and I were supposed to meet everyone up at Mad River Valley to ski for the weekend, and we packed all of the food for everyone, and Meg’s old station wagon broke down half-way up the mountain?”
“We were stranded in the middle of nowhere all night,” Belle said with a smile.
“And it should have been horrible. But it was just you and me and piles of blankets and those amazing pink sugar cookies that you made?”
Annabelle’s cheeks turned pink as she recalled more of the same memories. “I remember. I haven’t made those cookies in years.”
“Well, why not? I can still remember exactly how they taste, that sweet peppermint flavor and how soft and light they were. They were pure magic.”
“I’ve tried to sell cookies at the café, but they never do very well. When people come to Arcadia, they want soufflés and gateau and rich tortes. It’s what I’m known for now.”
James shrugged as he handed her all of the bows he had made while she was talking. Her eyes went wide when she saw how many there were; he had become kind of a master at tying bows thanks to Daisy’s obsession with putting them in her hair. “So… maybe it’s time to be known for something else. Try baking the kind of things that would make the people of Wintervale happy and see how it goes. Maybe start with those cookies. It might open up a whole new world for you.”
Belle collapsed back against the wall with a sigh and brushed her hair, along with some strands of ribbon, out of her face. He could tell that he had gotten to her a little bit, and maybe she had decided to hate him just a little less.
“I don’t even know if I remember how I made those cookies.”
James inched a little closer to her. “I’m willing to bet you might remember.”
They didn’t say anything else for a few seconds, until the sounds of Gladys yelling for help startled them both.
“I should get up there before she walks out. It was… I…” but she didn’t finish her thought before she got to her feet and started to walk away. Suddenly, James heard himself calling out,
“Hey, why don’t you come over for dinner tonight?”
Belle stopped dead in her tracks. “What?” she asked as she slowly turned around.
“I mean… Daisy would love to see you. I got someone to cover the Inn tonight, so I could spend time with her, but you should join us. We’ll make extra for Meg and I’ll get you home before the nurse has to leave.”
She looked at her phone to see what time it was. “Well, I need to get back to meet the rental car people, then give Cassie back her car. But I guess I could come over around five? As long as I’m home by seven.”
James gave her a sharp salute and smiled. “Not a second later. We’ll see you tonight!”
Belle nodded and hurried back to Gladys, leaving James to crawl up off of the floor and sneak out in the crowd. By the time he got back to the Inn, he was already kicking himself. How could he have done that? How could he have invited Belle to dinner? What did he think was going to happen?
For a long time after she had left town, he wondered what they might have missed out on, what they gave up when they gave up on each other. But then he’d met Marisa, and everything changed. But now, with Annabelle back, he found his mind drifting back to the same daydreams he’d had when she first left. He and Belle fixing up that old farmhouse they loved at edge of town. James buying Belle a bakery where she could sell he
r cookies, cakes, and brownies. And they would raise ten kids who would run around barefoot and chase fireflies in the summer.
It could never be like that now, but maybe it could be something else…
Once James made sure that the evening staff was ready to go, and had properly ducked being cornered by Addison, he drove home, grateful for the moment of quiet in the car. When he pulled up to the farmhouse, all lit up with Christmas lights and glowing merrily, he sat there and stared at it, filled with a combination of happiness and melancholy.
He loved how much the holidays meant to Daisy, and how much she wanted to make things perfect, but it only seemed to be getting harder for him with each year that Marisa was gone. James knew that his wife wouldn’t want him to dwell or stay trapped in the past, even if it was only for Daisy’s sake. But he still missed her so much.
Knock knock knock!
James jumped so high, his head hit the roof of the car. Daisy was standing outside of the car in her pajamas and snow boots, smiling and waving at him to roll down his window.
“Jelly bean! What are you doing out here? It’s freezing!” he said as he shooed her away from the door and got out.
“Nah, I’m fine. What are you doing home early? I thought you were going to leave me here with Patty all night!” she grumbled. Their neighbor down the road, a middle-aged woman whose kids were all off in college, would sometimes come and sit with Daisy when Addison was working. She wasn’t Daisy’s favorite, but James had a feeling that Patty was going to be babysitting a lot more often if Addison kept up with her recent behavior.
A Sugar Cookie Christmas: A Sweet Holiday Romance (Wintervale Promises Book 1) Page 7
