Christmas Camp

by Karen Schaler

  Haley walked over to the fireplace to get a closer look at the wreath. She couldn’t help thinking how much Larry and Tom would love it. For a moment she shut her eyes and inhaled deeply. The room even smelled like Christmas. When she opened her eyes, she saw Ben had joined her. Embarrassed at getting so swept away by it all, she turned her attention back to the wreath. “I was just thinking how much my boss would love your wreath,” she said.

  Ben looked up at the wreath. “Having a wreath above the fireplace was always one of my wife’s favorite things,” he said softly. “Before she passed away, she made me promise I would keep our tradition. I think she would have liked this one a lot, especially the pinecones . . .”

  When Haley looked into Ben’s eyes, she saw the love he still had for his wife, but she also saw so much sadness. She fought to find the right words. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” Even as she said the words, they didn’t feel like enough.

  Ben gave her a grateful smile. “Thank you. She would be so happy that you’re here, that all of you are here for our Christmas Camp. Christmas was her favorite time of year. She would start decorating in early October.”

  Haley looked around the room. “I can imagine it’s quite the job putting up all these decorations.”

  “It is, and she was a lot better at it than I am, but I did the best I could this year.”

  Haley looked surprised. “You did this all yourself?”

  “Laura helped and Jeff, my son, did, too, but yes, I did a lot of it myself, but that’s okay. Decorating the inn brings back so many good memories. That’s why we do it. Everything here has a story, a memory attached, that’s what makes it so special. My wife collected decorations from all over the world when we traveled, and now we get to share all of this with our guests during our Christmas Camps.”

  Haley walked over to a table that was covered with Santa figurines in all shapes and sizes. “So, these came from all your travels?” she asked.

  “Actually, these Santas are all gifts from our Christmas Camp guests.” He picked up a Santa that stood about twelve inches high. It was made of plaster and was hand painted. It was an old-world Santa wearing a snow-white robe that had gold stars painted on it. “This was the first Santa we got from one of our first Christmas Camp guests and then we just started getting more.”

  He picked up another Santa that was made of glass. “This is the one your boss, Larry, gave us. I’d never seen anything like it before. It’s really special, just like him and his family. That’s what makes this collection so remarkable. Every one of these Santas reminds me of the guest who gave it to us.”

  Haley had her eye on a cute little wooden Santa.

  Ben followed her gaze and picked it up and handed it to her. “You like this one?”

  Haley nodded as she gently touched the Santa’s face. For a second she was lost in a memory. “I think we had one like this when I was little. It looks so familiar . . .”

  Ben looked into her eyes. “Do you believe?”

  “What?” Haley asked as she snapped back to attention.

  “Do you believe?” Ben repeated.

  Haley laughed. “In Santa Claus?”

  “In the magic of Christmas?”

  When Ben looked into her eyes she didn’t know what to say and was saved from answering when Max trotted into the room and headed straight for her. She held the Santa to her heart as she backed away quickly. Max barked, making her even more uncomfortable.

  Ben petted Max. “Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you. He loves people. He’s just wishing you a Merry Christmas.”

  Max barked again.

  Haley didn’t look convinced. She carefully put the Santa back down and slowly inched away from Max, headed for the door.

  “You know, I’m actually pretty tired from the drive,” she said. She kept a close eye on Max. “Would it be okay if I went to my room?”

  “Of course.” Ben grabbed her bags and headed up the stairs. “Just follow me.”

  Haley was right behind him, and when she looked over her shoulder and saw Max was sitting there watching her, she picked up her pace.

  When Ben got to a room at the end of the hall, he proudly opened the door. “Here you are. It’s one of our most popular rooms.”

  “Thank you.” Haley smiled as she stepped inside, but then froze when she looked around. Her jaw dropped and her eyes grew huge.

  “It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” Ben asked. He was clearly excited.

  Haley tried to say something, anything, but she was too much in shock.

  Chapter 5

  Haley squeezed her eyes shut, and silently said to herself, Please don’t be real. Please don’t be real. Please don’t be real. But when she opened her eyes, it was real all right. She was standing in an all-white Christmas angel-themed room. Angels everywhere. There were angel figurines on the dresser, on both nightstands, and on the desk. There had to be at least forty of them. There were even angel pictures on the wall and angel pillows on the bed, and she felt like all the angels, everywhere, were staring at her! It was like when she had the staring contest with the Tyler Toys dolls, only with this stare-down, Haley knew the angels were already winning. She shook her head and rubbed her throbbing temples. It was all too much. She was having a major Christmas meltdown. She knew she needed to get out of the room fast, but when she turned around, she saw Max sitting in the doorway. She was trapped.

  “Is everything okay?” Ben asked. He looked concerned.

  Haley forced a smile. “Uh, yes, everything’s fine. I just wasn’t expecting a room quite this . . . fancy. You should really save it for someone else. I can just take a regular room.”

  When she took a step toward the door Max barked and looked up at her. She quickly stepped back, bumping the dresser and causing one of the angels to tip over. “Oops, I’m sorry,” she said, flustered. The angel would have hit the floor if Ben hadn’t caught her just in time. He carefully put it back on the dresser.

  “We do have other rooms,” he said.

  Haley fought to hide her relief.

  “We have a snowman room, a Santa room, a star room, but they’re already taken. The only other room we have left is the elf room with our giant life-size elf. We call him Harry . . .”

  Just the thought of a life-size elf named Harry had Haley even more freaked out. She forced herself to smile. “You know what. This room is great. I can stay here. I just didn’t realize all your rooms had . . .”

  “Themes?” Ben finished for her eagerly. “It’s what we always do for Christmas Camp. Everyone loves it.”

  Haley fought to keep smiling. “I bet. Okay, then. I’ll be fine in this room.”

  Now it was Ben’s turn to look relieved. “That’s great. My son will be glad to hear it. The elf room is his favorite, and I know you’ll enjoy this room. You’ll have all these angels to keep you company.”

  “Yay!” Haley said, pretending to be excited when all she wanted to do was run . . . fast.

  Ben turned to leave. “If there’s anything else you need, you just let us know, and we’ll see you downstairs in about an hour for our first Christmas Camp activity.”

  Haley kept smiling and nodded. “Sounds great. Thank you.” As she watched Ben leave, she went to shut her door, but there was a problem. Max. He was still sitting in the doorway looking up at her. “Time to go.” She awkwardly waved her hands at him. “Come on, go!”

  Max stood up and looked excited. He wagged his tail as he did a quick circle. He looked like he thought this was a new fun game.

  But Haley wasn’t playing around. She lowered her voice so Max would know she was serious. “Okay, time to go.” When Max didn’t budge, she lowered her voice even more. “Come on, I’m serious. You need to go now . . .” But when he responded by just barking and wagging his tail, she threw up her arms. “Come on! Seriously? What do I need to do?” She took a tentative step toward the door. “Okay, stay there, but I’m shutting the door. The door is shutting. It’s shutting now . . .”
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br />   Max barked again. He seemed to be loving this new game, Haley not so much. Frustrated, she backed away and sat down on her bed. “Please go . . .”

  Apparently “please” was the magic word because Max immediately trotted off.

  Haley looked part impressed and part suspicious. As she got up and tentatively walked over to the door, she half expected Max to come running back in. But when she looked down the hall, Max was gone. She quickly closed her door and collapsed against it. She still couldn’t believe what she was seeing. There were so many angels and so much white. She knew no one would ever believe it, so she got out her cell phone and snapped a few pictures. She even took a selfie with some of the angels behind her.

  “Wait until Kathy sees this!” She laughed as she sent Kathy a quick text with her selfie and only one word: HELP!

  In the selfie she looked like the kid in the Home Alone movie who had his mouth wide open and was screaming. As she walked around the room eyeing all the angels, she came to a decision fast. She smiled, because she knew just what she needed to do.

  Seconds later, she was running around the room picking up all the angels and stuffing them into the dresser drawers. The last angel standing was the largest one. She stood almost two feet tall and was on the chair next to the desk wearing a long white lace dress trimmed in gold. Her wings and halo were also gold and were covered with glitter. She had big blue eyes and perfect golden curls. Haley smiled as she picked her up. “I think it’s time for you and your friends to go on a little vacation.” In a flash, she stuffed the angel into the last drawer, until the drawer was so full she could barely shut it.

  Satisfied, she rubbed her hands together as she looked around her room. She only had one thing left to tackle, the angel pillows on the bed. She had just tossed one up onto the top shelf of the closet when there was a knock on the door. When she turned to answer it, the angel pillow fell back down and hit her on the head.

  “Seriously?” she asked as she picked up the pillow.

  There was another knock. This one was louder.

  “Coming!” she called out as she headed for the door, but when she opened it, she did a double take, because the only thing she saw was Max sitting there looking up at her. He wagged his tail and barked.

  “Seriously? You’re back?” She leaned down and gave Max an incredulous look. “And you know how to knock on doors?”

  A sexy male laugh had her eyes shooting up just as Jeff appeared in her doorway. As she looked into his eyes she felt an instant spark and for a moment she forgot everything else as she clutched the angel pillow to her racing heart.

  “You know Max is pretty smart, but I don’t think he’s mastered the door knock yet.”

  Max wagged his tail.

  Haley laughed. “So, this is just a little routine you two do?”

  Jeff smiled back at her. “Actually, I knocked and then realized I dropped something, although a routine’s not a bad idea. What do you think, Max?”

  For an answer, Max barked, quickly slid past Haley, trotted over to her bed, and lay down.

  Jeff looked surprised. “I didn’t know you two were friends?”

  Haley gave Max a look. “Neither did I.” When she looked back at Jeff, his smile had her catching her breath. She had seen hot guys before, but none of them had ever made her pulse race the way this one did. She knew she was being ridiculous and one hundred percent blamed her light-headedness on the Christmas overload and the fact that she’d skipped breakfast and lunch. Determined to regroup and act normal, Haley smiled back at Jeff and then looked over at Max.

  “Actually, we’re not friends,” she said. But when she saw Jeff’s confusion, she raced on. “I mean, I’m sure he’s a great dog and all, he looks very nice, but I’m just not really a dog person.” She hated how she was rambling. She decided to stop talking.

  “Not a dog person?” Jeff asked. He gave her a curious look. “Sounds like there’s a story there?”

  Haley shook her head. “Uh, no, not really. I just didn’t grow up around dogs or have any pets, so . . .”

  “So, you’re not a dog person,” Jeff answered.

  “Right, and . . .” But when Haley looked into his eyes, she again lost her train of thought.

  Lucky for her, Jeff didn’t miss a beat. “Sorry, I should have introduced myself right away. I’m Jeff, my dad owns the inn and runs the Christmas Camp.” He held out his hand.

  Haley finally let go of the angel pillow and took his hand. “Hi, I’m Haley.” But when their hands touched, she felt an unfamiliar jolt. Her eyes flew to Jeff’s, and he also looked like he had felt something. They both quickly let go of each other’s hand. To buy herself a second to calm down, she looked over at Max, who now appeared to be sleeping, and thought to herself that she really needed to get something to eat. She rushed to fill the silence. “And just for the record, I don’t usually talk to dogs, or think they know how to open doors, or anything like that . . .” As her voice trailed off, she groaned inside, knowing she was babbling again and sounding more ridiculous by the second. When Jeff laughed, it made her relax a little. She liked his laugh. It was warm and genuine and nonjudgmental.

  “Well, I’m here because I have something for you,” he said.

  Haley’s eyes lit up with curiosity. “Really? So, you’re a Christmas elf bringing presents? I heard you have the elf room . . .” She stopped to look at the left side of Jeff’s head and then the right.

  “Uh, what are you doing?” he asked.

  “Checking out your ears to see if you’re really an elf.” Haley fought to keep a straight face.

  Jeff reached up, grabbed one of his earlobes, and wiggled an ear. “What do you think?”

  Haley crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I’m reserving judgment. I’ll let you know.”

  “A skeptic?” Jeff teased.

  “A realist,” she corrected, but smiled back at him. “So, what do you have for me?”

  He handed her a pretty red velvet Christmas stocking with the name “Haley” embroidered on it. On the front was a beautiful angel that looked just like the angel in the white dress that had been on her dresser before she stuffed it into the drawer.

  She laughed when she saw the angel. “Wow, another angel.” She wisely stopped herself from saying any more.

  “It goes with the angel room,” Jeff said.

  “Of course.” She continued to block his view so he couldn’t look into the room and see that she’d gotten rid of all of the angels. As she stood there she didn’t realize she was nervously wringing and wadding up the top of the stocking.

  Jeff was staring at her stocking. “You might want to be careful with that. You’re going to need it for the week you’re here.”

  Haley laughed. “I’m not going to be here a week!” She then noticed what she was doing to the stocking and looked guilty. “Oh, sorry about that. I can fix it.”

  Jeff gave her a look. “What do you mean you won’t be staying the week?”

  Haley tossed the angel pillow and stocking on her bed. “I mean, I plan to get all these Christmas activities done as fast as I can so that I can get back to work.” When she saw the way Jeff was frowning, she hurried on. “Don’t worry, I know I have to do everything to get my certificate. I just plan to crank this stuff out and get back to Boston, hopefully in a few days . . .”

  Jeff gave her an incredulous look. “You do know this is Christmas Camp, right?”

  Haley nodded. “Of course. It’s hard to forget with all these decorations.”

  “Then you know this next week is all about slowing down, embracing the Christmas spirit. This is not something you rush to get through.”

  Haley laughed. “Okay, now I get it. You’re not a Christmas elf, you’re the Christmas Camp police.” Her smiled disappeared when she saw he wasn’t laughing. He was serious.

  “My dad is the one who runs this place,” he said. “This Christmas Camp is very important to him.”

  Haley smiled her best smile. She
knew she couldn’t afford to start off on the wrong foot. “I met your dad. He seems really great, and this camp . . . I’m sure is great, too. I just need to get in and out of here as fast as possible. I promise I won’t bother anyone and I’ll be outta here before you know it.”

  Jeff put his hands on his hips. The more she talked, the more annoyed he looked. The vibe in the room had just gone from lighthearted to tense faster than you could say “Christmas crazy.”

  “You make it sound like this is some kind of prison,” he said.

  Haley laughed. “Well, it is Christmas bootcamp, right?”

  “Christmas Camp.”

  Haley fought to keep smiling. The look on Jeff’s face wasn’t helping. “I’m just kidding. I know it’s Christmas Camp.”

  “But what you don’t know is that my dad puts his whole heart into this Christmas Camp, to make sure the people who come, like you, have a special experience. I don’t understand. If you don’t want to be here, why did you come?”

  Haley’s smile faded. Things were going from bad to worse. She needed to turn them around fast. She took a deep breath and tried again. “Look, I’m really not a Grinch. I have nothing against Christmas. I think what your dad is doing here is great. I’m sure people love it—”

  “Just not you?” Jeff asked, looking into her eyes.

  Haley quickly looked away. She found it hard to think straight when he was looking at her that way—or any way, for that matter. “It’s great, I just have a lot of work to do. That’s my priority right now, and part of that work includes being here and doing whatever I need to do so I can pass or graduate or whatever you say so I can get that certificate . . .” She stopped talking when she noticed Jeff looking over her shoulder. She followed his gaze to her bottom dresser drawer, where one of the angels’ dresses was sticking out. “Uh, I can explain,” she said, having no idea how she was going to get out of this one.

  He held up his hand to stop her. “Just don’t. It’s obvious you don’t want to be here. So why are you? The truth?”

  Haley gave up. Her shoulders slumped a little. She knew she had to come clean. “My boss sent me here. I’m up for a big promotion, and he said I had to come here first if I wanted to get it.”