by Mary Leo
It tore at his heart to watch the guests leave with their luggage in tow after he and Nick had worked so hard to bring them in. A few of the guests had children who kept asking where they were going. The parents seemed miffed, but most of them took the time to gently explain the disruption to their confused children.
Travis could only speculate why Bella had done such an about-face since yesterday. He thought they were hitting it off, making strides to be friends. He had her laughing again, genuine belly laughs, and he knew she had loved being on the ice again, and the snowball fight... The day had been magical. He had felt it when he held her hand. They were connecting.
He wondered if her sudden change of heart might have had something to do with his not kissing her good-night? He could tell she had wanted him to, but that wouldn’t have been enough for him. He wanted much more from Bella than a good-night kiss.
Still, could she seriously react with such vengeance over something as simple as a missed kiss?
Or maybe he’d said something to offend her? Got her riled over some innocent statement.
Or maybe she’d wanted him to spend the night, but he’d been so caught up in his own confusion that he hadn’t seen the signs.
He couldn’t be sure what went on in her pretty little head, but as soon as he had everything settled for the contest, he intended to come right out and ask her.
That or he’d kiss her and see if that softened her ornery disposition.
On the other hand, a kiss might ignite a fire within him that he wouldn’t be prepared to handle. The woman was hell-bent on ruining Christmas for everyone around her, and he wasn’t about to jump on that wagon.
He called both his brothers and their wives who had a few great ideas about moving the contest to the town square or to the empty parking lot behind Ronald Reagan Elementary and High School, but when he spoke to his dad, everything came together.
“Seems to me nobody can keep you off that there empty lot next door to the inn. ’Specially ’cause we own it,” Dodge said with a lilt to his voice.
“Since when do the Grangers own a plot of land in town?”
“Since Edith and me got hitched. That there empty lot’s been hers since she was twenty-one and her daddy gave it to her as a present on her birthday. Never knew what to build on it, so it’s been lying there empty ever since. Waitin’ for you to come along with a problem, I ’spose.”
His dad had married Edith Abernathy a little over two years ago, and the entire family had welcomed her with open arms. She was the best thing that could have happened to his aging father, and now it seemed she was the best thing that could have happened to Travis.
He couldn’t believe his luck. “And she’d be okay with this? A lot of people will be tramping around on it.”
“She’s the one who offered it when your brother Blake told her what’s been going on. You know how she likes to help you boys out whenever she can.”
“Then I expect to see you two here carving snow tomorrow,” Travis said into his phone.
“Believe me, we won’t be missing it. Edith’s got herself a plan to make a teddy bear. Even made a special tool to give the critter some fur.”
“Can’t wait to see it. Give her a kiss from me and tell her thanks.”
“Any reason to kiss that woman is fine by me.” He chuckled.
When Travis disconnected he let out a whoop, then did a little dance right there in the lobby of Dream Weaver Inn. Fortunately, there weren’t any guests checking out or they’d get the wrong idea.
* * *
BELLA SPENT TWO hours at the front desk helping Janet relocate the guests, which had proven to be more of a challenge than Bella had anticipated, especially when the Dyson family approached the desk.
“But Mommy, Santa won’t be able to find us if we leave,” the little girl with the cherub face said as tears streamed down her little cheeks. It took every ounce of strength Bella had not to collapse and change her mind about sending the Dyson family to another inn, but in the long run, she was convinced it was for the best. At least that was what she told herself as Mr. Dyson picked up his distraught daughter to comfort her. She couldn’t have been more than five years old, with dark brown locks and a face that would melt even the stodgiest heart.
But she wasn’t going to melt Bella’s heart, no matter how many tears she cried. It was as if Bella had taken a dose of “strong will” and nothing would deter her from her mission.
“Don’t you worry, sweetheart,” Janet reassured the little girl. “Santa can find you anywhere you go.”
But the little girl was inconsolable, and she buried her head on her dad’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have a choice in this matter,” Bella lied. It wasn’t as if she had set out to be dishonest to people that morning, but when they refused to listen to reason, she felt as though she had no other option.
“We had a main water pipe burst and our house flooded. We had hoped Dream Weaver Inn would be our home for the next couple of weeks,” Mrs. Dyson said. “When we booked the room Mr. Biondi gave us a great price and assured us we could spend Christmas at the inn. Our daughter had her heart set on it. We even put up a small tree in our room. It’s too much trouble to bring it with us, and the motel in Jackson said we couldn’t have a live tree in our room because of fire codes.”
“And they’re right. I’m surprised my dad allowed you to do so in one of our rooms. I’m sure we don’t have a fire permit for such a thing.”
The little girl kept rubbing her eyes and moaning. Bella couldn’t look at her. She knew exactly what she was feeling and could identify with her every tear. Still, those days were long gone and the little girl would do better in this world of hard knocks if she learned that lesson now. Her parents couldn’t seem to get her to stop sobbing. If Bella’s mom had been there, she would’ve given her a stern talking to, just like the one she gave Bella when they drove away from Briggs on Christmas Eve fifteen years ago.
“But, Mama, I don’t want to leave. Daddy will be all alone for Christmas, and Travis and me are exchanging gifts,” Bella said as she twisted herself in her seat to watch Briggs shrink in the distance.
“You mind me, young lady and stop your crying. You’ll thank me one day for getting you out of this pathetic little town.”
“No, Mama. I want to go back. Can we please go back?”
Her mom stopped the car on the side of the highway and turned to her. “We are not going back. Not now. Not ever. Our new home is in Chicago. I have a job that will pay me good money, and I intend to take it. I’m sorry this is so tough on you. It’s tough on me, too. But as you get older and see all the opportunities that are in front of you, you’ll thank me. Now wipe those tears away, and face the front of the car. We’re moving forward, not backward.” She handed Bella a rose-embossed hankie that had once belonged to her mom. Bella sucked up her emotions, wiped the tears off her cheeks, and shoved the hankie in her pocket. She never let her mom see her cry again.
Bella had used that hankie that very morning to remind herself to toughen up.
“Where is Mr. Biondi? I’d like to speak to him before we close our bill,” Mr. Dyson said.
Bella had no idea where her dad had disappeared to. Ever since their talk that morning he’d been MIA. At first she assumed he must be running errands somewhere, and would return before noon, but it was going on one o’clock and he was nowhere to be found.
“You can find Mr. Biondi right out that side door,” Travis said, pointing to the EXIT sign over the oak door next to the stairway. “He’s building a snow family out on the front lawn. I think he’s getting ready for the sculpting contest tomorrow.”
Bella had a hard time believing that with everything going on, her dad would choose snowman building rather than dealing with his inn. Travis was simply pulling her chain. Her dad wasn’
t really out there.
“Maybe if we can speak to Mr. Biondi he might change his mind,” Mrs. Dyson said and proceeded to walk toward the side door with Mr. Dyson and their daughter following close behind.
“I can assure you he’s not out there, and even if he is, there’s nothing he can do to change the situation.” She was almost shouting as the Dysons disappeared out the side door.
She turned to Travis who was rubbing his chin. “I don’t understand why he wouldn’t listen to me. My dad wouldn’t be wasting his time playing in the snow. If I know my dad, he’s probably driving around town making sure his guests are settled in their new rooms. He’s all about his guests.”
“Actually, at the moment, he’s all about building a family.”
Bella looked where he pointed out the side window behind her and sure enough, there was her dad, a mini-chainsaw in hand, at least six children and a couple of adults watching as he sculpted a snowman the likes of which she had never seen before. It stood about six feet high, was soundly formed and entirely made out of packed snow. Even his top hat had been carved out of snow. It was pretty incredible, but that was beside the point.
Bella turned back to Travis knowing full well he was getting a kick out of watching the turn of events. He leaned on the front desk, a great big smirk on his oh-so-adorable face, staring at her as if he had nothing better to do with his time.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Nope.”
“Shouldn’t you be finding a place to hold your silly contest?”
“Don’t need to. Already found a new place.”
“Isn’t there some prep work you need to do? Like maybe collect some tools or something?”
“The contestants provide their own equipment. All I need to do is provide the snow.” He did a mock yawn. “Until the snow arrives, I’ve got nothing to do but wait. Besides, this is much more fun.”
He gestured toward four more guests approaching the front desk, looking every bit as angry as the previous couple.
Janet greeted them with pleasantries, but they weren’t biting.
Bella braced herself for the onslaught, while Travis chuckled and stepped away from the desk.
* * *
“I DON’T THINK this is going to work,” Nick said as Travis tended to his horses in the Dream Weaver corral, a wide wooden building with two rows of stalls with a generous aisle in between. Rio and Wildfire had been out in the small pasture for most of the day and Travis had only recently brought them back inside.
At one point every stall in the massive corral had been occupied by townsfolk who didn’t want to give up their steed. Now it was empty except for the two Clydesdales that Travis boarded for several weeks during the winter. The kids loved these majestic creatures and Travis had no problem parading them around town pulling his sleigh. Unfortunately, that would have to wait until tomorrow night. Right now he needed to get them groomed and back in their stalls for the night.
He had a date.
“We can’t give up yet,” Travis told him.
“I’ve run out of ideas.” Nick leaned against the open gate while Travis brushed the regal stallion with a curry comb.
“Well, I haven’t.”
“She’s evicted all of my guests. My heart broke for the Dysons’ little girl, but I couldn’t do a thing about it. My hands are tied, Travis. Am I stupid for wanting to pass up this deal? She might be right. I could have a pretty nice life if I accept her offer.”
Travis stopped combing his horse. “Doing what? Golfing?”
“There are worse ways to go through retirement.”
“Personally, short of some debilitating disease, I can’t think of one.”
Nick started pacing in front of the stall, his boots making crunching sounds on the frozen dirt and straw.
“I’ve never been good with money, son, one of the reasons why her mom divorced me. I can’t seem to make enough of it most of the time, then when I do I can’t hold on to it. I tend to work with my emotions rather than any sense of logic. Bella’s all about logic and maybe it’s time for me to become more like her.”
Travis stepped in front of him, so he could look into his eyes. “Nick, tell me one thing. Do you think your daughter’s happy?”
“She told me she is and I’m thinking it might be time to take her at her word.”
“I don’t agree. I think she’s torn up inside and it’s our job to show her all that she’ll gain if she stays put awhile.”
Nick smirked. “And how’s that working out for you so far?”
“Not so good, but I’m still optimistic, especially after yesterday. I saw the smile on her face like she was enjoying herself. If we can get more of those smiles and laughter—”
“She laughed?”
“Yep, when we were ice-skating.”
“I’d like to see that.”
“Give me another day, just one more day and I’ll have her laughing so hard she’ll be crying.”
“And just how are you going to do that?”
Travis had no idea, but he wasn’t about to admit that failure to Nick. “I’ve got me a foolproof plan.”
Nick shook his head. “I think you’re trying to pull the wool over my eyes. If I could see Bella laugh like that again, I’d pay you anything you wanted.”
“No need. Just bake her several dozen of your fudgy cookies and put them in her room. That’s our inroad with Bella. She loves those dang things and the sugar makes her giddy.”
“I’ll get right on it,” Nick said. “Anything to get your plan in motion.”
And they headed out of the corral. Now all Travis had to do was come up with another plan. Simple, if Bella wasn’t so dang skeptical to everything he came up with. It seemed that so far, all the progress he’d made had slipped away. She was back to acting like the girl he didn’t much like and if he couldn’t get her to change her stripes fairly soon, he’d have to give up on her once and for all.
* * *
TWO HOURS LATER, about the time that Travis began to get itchy waiting for his snow to arrive, a long green flatbed truck backed up the driveway. The truck was piled high with clean snow. Another green truck idled curbside waiting for the first truck to dump its load. Two men jumped out of the second truck and proceeded to direct the driver of the first truck where to dump the snow.
Bella caught the movement outside through the window and stopped whatever she was doing behind the desk to direct her bitterness of everything fun towards Travis. He’d moved over to his favorite leather chair in the lobby after he’d turned on the Christmas-tree lights for the third time. Apparently, every time he left the room, someone, most likely Bella, turned them off.
“What’s that load of snow doing out front? I thought you said you found another place for the contest?”
“Don’t worry your Scroogey little self over my snow. They won’t unload unless I tell them to.” He said it with complete confidence and just as his statement settled in the air, the back of the truck began to pitch. Travis ran out the front door yelling and waving his hands for the driver to stop. Bella followed close behind, yelling her threats at Travis.
“You cannot unload that snow on this property. Tell them they have to stop,” she shouted, but he ignored her trying instead to get the driver’s attention.
In the meantime, another man, wearing a red-check flannel shirt, black jeans, heavy black boots and a red Santa hat approached Travis.
“Travis Granger?”
“That’s me. Please tell your driver to hold on. That’s not where I want the snow dumped. I phoned your office and told them we have ourselves a different location.”
Another man showed up, a shorter, thinner version of the other wearing plastic elf ears, a green flannel shirt, green pants and black elf shoes. He spoke to some
one on a two-way radio and the truck bed stopped in mid-air, tilted up at a forty-five-degree angle.
“That snow,” Bella warned, as she kept walking toward the truck, “can’t be dumped on this property.”
“Merry Christmas, ma’am,” the Santa-hat guy said, giving her a great big warm smile, showing off his pearly whites. He seemed like a happy kind of guy, with a big belly, a full white beard and a jovial nature. Travis speculated if, after he delivered the snow, he’d be playing Santa in some department store, or in the children’s wing of the local hospital. He looked like the perfect Santa Claus.
Bella didn’t respond to his cheerfulness; instead she kept approaching the truck.
“Don’t mind her. She’s practicing her Scrooge role for the play tomorrow night in the town square.”
“I thought Scrooge was a man,” the elf guy said.
“We’re updating it to make it our own. A more modern version,” Travis told him, smiling at the thought of seeing Bella onstage playing mean ole Scrooge. With her recent disposition, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch. “You can dump the snow on the empty lot next door. If you drive right up on the land there’s plenty of room toward the back fence.”
The Santa guy held out a tablet and handed it to Travis. Travis signed his name and the two men walked back to the truck, with the elf guy saying something into his two-way radio. Then, as if the entire scene had been scripted for a movie, the truck bed pitched up again as the snow in the truck bed began sliding down. It continued just as Bella proceeded to walk around the back of the truck.
“Look out!” Travis yelled, but it was too late. Before Bella could react, the load of snow had begun slipping off the back of the high truck bed right in her path.
Travis ran at full speed toward Bella, grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in tight. Then with sheer force on his part, the two of them tumbled out of the way of the falling snow and landed under a bush with Bella on top of him. Her arms were around his neck, her cheek against his and her full body pressed tight against his.
