“All I’m saying,” Stu went on, “is there are perfectly good full-time jobs with benefits at the manufacturing plant here in town. Megan can live here, we can help pay for college and—”
“Stu.” Mom’s voice rose. “We’re overstepping. Our role is to support. If Megan doesn’t want to live with us and finish a degree, we can’t make her.” She looked at me. “I just want the best for you. I don’t think I’ve trusted you enough that you have an idea what’s best for yourself."
My heart tugged. “Thanks, Mom.” She had my back and believed in my ability to dream for myself. “Your support means a lot.”
Stu sat back. “I’m sorry if I’ve overstepped. Same as your mom, I want to see you happy.”
I believed him. Watching Stu and my mom together, they looked happy. Content, even. Mom was smiling more than I’d seen her smile in years. “We’re all family now. I appreciate how you care about my future. I really do. I’ll even take you up on the tires, since it means that much to you.”
Stu’s face perked up. “I know a guy just outside of town. He’ll give us a good deal on a full set of tires.”
Mom’s hand went to Stu’s and she squeezed. Silent communication transferred between them and his expression softened.
“Thank you, Megan,” Mom said. “We are a family. All of us here at this table.”
My family. My suddenly-social-and-dancing-with-strangers-brother, my hardworking mom now in retirement, and a stepdad who got things right most of the time. His heart was in the right place. I’d never be like his kids, but I was realizing I didn’t want to be like them. I wanted to be the best me.
Chapter 16
Nick
I’d made a mess of everything. What a doozy. Ugh, dude, who says doozy? No wonder Megan thought of me as some country bumpkin.
Christmas Day in the Bennington household included my brother home from college, three aunts, four uncles, five cousins, an infant and a toddler, grandparents, an old family friend, and of course my parents.
I was assigned potato peeling duty, which about summed up my standing at the moment.
I should have gone after Megan last night. Instead, I let her leave believing she’d hurt us. Well, she had—especially my mom. But I’d watched Stu pull the associate dean from Boone College over to Megan. Her stiff response as the conversation played out across the room from me signaled she might need support. I’d tried to get to her, but arrived at the worst possible time bringing with me the worst possible audience.
I wanted to tell Megan I’d never take a job in the mayor’s office. Only I couldn’t. I hadn’t told my parents what I needed. That I didn’t want life handed to me and I didn’t want to stay trapped in a town that had my future planned out. Until I did that, how could I say anything to Megan?
Now here I was stuck in a house with every Bennington in the tri-county area.
“I heard your girlfriend made quite an impression.” My grandma came up beside me at the kitchen counter. My Mom’s mother. She gently released my hand from the potato peeler and took it from me. She grabbed a scrubbed-clean potato and flitted the tool across the skin with precision. “You never were good at this.”
“She’s not my girlfriend. She didn’t mean to offend—it’s complicated.” I swept peel debris into the can for our compost. We were religious in our family about using food scraps for enriching soil. For winter, we kept a compost bin in the insulated pole barn.
“I’d like to meet her. I was sorry to miss the benefit last night. Believe me, I’ve heard an earful already.”
My stomach sank. “About Megan?”
“Mmhmm. And about not going.” Grandma smirked. At nearly eighty, the woman barely had wrinkles. Her steel-gray hair made her look commanding, like a soldier. “Your mother gets worked up about social appearances. When I told her I was driving my friend Olga to our seniors’ club party instead, she had a royal fit.”
I kept my mouth shut. Mom and Grandma had some pretty famous feuds over the years, but they always turned out okay in the end. I’d learned to stay out of it.
“Here.” She handed back the peeler. “Now do a better job. And tell me, why isn’t this girl your girlfriend?”
I stumbled over a response and laughed instead. “Grandma, I know you want to see me fixed up, but she’s only in town for the holiday. Her mom married Stu Krueger.”
“Oh, how lovely. I recall his former wife working at the old florist shop on Main. The one the dry cleaners bought out.”
Small towns. Everybody knew everyone and everything. “Sure.”
“I don’t want you fixed up with any trollop who comes your way.”
Trollop? “Grandma, that word—”
She held up a finger. “Your mother seems riled-up about this girl helping with the event and bad-mouthing the town. I’m intrigued.”
I clenched the peeler. “I’m sorry she put you in the middle. It’s not like that.”
Grandma washed more potatoes, silently placing them in the bowl to be peeled.
“See,” I went on, “I got in over my head and Megan…” I told grandma everything. Finding Megan on the side of the road, trying to convince her to give me the tree, how inept I was at decorating fancy houses, and how we connected at Checkers. I skipped the kissing part, but sensed Grandma filled in those details. The lady had real power. I hadn’t planned on telling her any of that.
“This Megan sounds like she challenges you. You’re defending her, after all, even when your mother is dead set against saying this girl’s name.”
I rubbed my forehead. “After what Megan said, it makes sense Mom would be offended. But I think Mom also believes Megan is the reason I don’t want the city job. She doesn’t get I’ve been wanting to leave town before Megan showed up.”
And that fell on me.
Grandma pointed to the large pot already on the stove indicating I should add the peeled potatoes. “You’re a bright boy with so much heart. You don’t have to stay in this town if you don’t want.”
“Thanks. But with Mom sick, you know I can’t.”
“She’s doing well and has all of us.” Grandma gestured toward the family room packed with relatives watching a holiday movie with the kids. Most of my family lived within ten or twenty miles. Only my brother lived farther, at Madison for college, same as I had.
Only unlike me, my brother applied for a post-grad internship in Minneapolis. Not for a second did he hesitate about moving over a five-hour drive away after college. Mom had looked at me when he told us his plans last night. I heard her look loud and clear. I have you. My oldest boy stays.
“I’ll let her down,” I told Grandma.
“Oh, pish. Saint Nick, I should call you.” She rolled her eyes with the same intensity as my fourteen-year-old cousin. “If you’re leaving to pursue a job you care about, how can you possibly let her down?”
Except, I hadn’t gotten that far. I hadn’t found an opportunity that meant something.
Grandma nudged me toward the family room. “You let me talk to your mother. I know how to handle her. Her survival rate is high and she caught the cancer early. Us Bennington’s don’t go down without a fight, and she’s barely limping.”
If Megan were here, I’d want her to meet Grandma. I wished she’d been at the benefit last night, but Grandma always lived life her own way.
Now it was time for me to live mine.
Chapter 17
Megan
New Year’s Eve to me always signaled a fresh start. Dad was famous for using the previous year’s wall calendar for kindling in our fireplace on New Year’s Day. Couldn’t get more symbolic than that to burn away the past.
Back on the schedule at Drip, I was working New Year’s Eve as part of my bargain to get the days before Christmas off. Our largest party to date rented the cafe for New Year’s Eve. I’d coordinated the rental and helped the customer arrange a blues and cover band, plus recommended a catering vendor. I was on-site to assist the hired staff with anything.
Part of me still hoped for a magical New Year’s fantasy. A mysterious stranger sweeping me off my feet. A sudden call with my dream job on the other end. My next phase in life spelled out in glittery fireworks. Only I could barely glimpse the Navy Pier fireworks from the cafe two miles inland. The neighborhoods usually let off their own light shows, but they weren’t exactly destiny-spelled-in-the-sky material.
This time of year was a dead zone for jobs. I’d been researching event planning and the companies in the area. I owed my coworkers a lot of shifts, so I couldn’t quit Drip yet. Starting my own business sounded thrilling but terrifying. I could stay at the cafe and book events…but I already knew staying wouldn’t satisfy me for too much longer.
When the party paused to count down the new year, I held my breath and made a wish.
The room exploded in cheers at the stroke of midnight.
Around me, couples kissed, friends embraced, and the band kicked back into gear with a classic Prince cover.
The calendar flipped over and my wish remained a wish. I was still alone.
I returned behind the coffee bar and tidied up. Was I really alone? I lived by myself, sure, but I had a family of co-workers. My friend Sadie invited me to an upcoming estate sale to hunt for treasures. My parents—yes, parents plural—loved me and were eager to visit Chicago as soon as the snow let up.
I couldn’t help feeling down about blowing it with Nick. Then again, what would have come of us anyway? He wouldn’t act on leaving his hometown and I only had interest to visit. As much as Crystal Cove dazzled me with lights and an excellent flat white, I hadn’t been converted to a small town gal.
Still, his kiss remained imprinted on my lips.
Yes, silly conscience, it was stupid to hang magical New Year’s hopes on a guy who probably right now danced with a girl home from college, kissing her under some mistletoe. Oh, you pesky mistletoe. How you betrayed me.
A solid truth settled in. My dreams were my responsibility. Whatever happened next had nothing to do with invented holiday magic. Fireworks weren’t destiny. I made my own destiny.
One week later, my life changed. Sadie introduced me to a woman who owned a corporate event planning company in Lincoln Park. She needed part-time, temporary help while one of her staff went on maternity leave. I sent her my resume and we did an interview. Despite my limited experience, since I could start right away and had excellent references, all I had to do now was say yes.
A real change. Another step toward discovering my capabilities.
I typed yes and hit send.
Another two weeks later, I slid my phone into my pocket and washed my hands in the break room before returning to the coffee bar. I was staying on at the café while I transitioned into work at the event planning company. Today, I had a nice long shift to look forward to on a zero-degree day with windchill dipping into the negatives. Store traffic would be slow. Time would tick even slower.
The door flew open and an icy gust of wind barreled in. A figure in a fur-lined hood stood letting the heat escape. A duffel bag hit the floor.
“Do you need help?” I circled out from the counter. “It’s brutal out there.”
The person—a guy—attempted to close the door, battling the fierce wind. Our shop didn’t have a revolving door, which would have greatly helped reduce chilling wind gusts. Drip lived in an old building that soaked up a lot of money in regular maintenance of old pipes and drafty windows, with not much left for bigger improvements. Though maybe now with the added rental income, a new door could happen.
Something the next Drip manager could fix.
I pulled the door the rest of the way shut. A gloved hand rested on mine. I looked up and gasped. The face inside the hood was familiar but the setting all wrong. “Nick Bennington?”
Nick’s smile lit his face. “You walk here from the train every day?”
“Today I drove. Too cold to walk.”
His jaw hung. “You can park around here? I didn’t think—I mean, I figured I had to take the El. I couldn’t figure out the bus routes.”
His gloved hand still covered mine, both of us holding the door closed. I slid my hand back to my side, stepping back. “Nick, what are you doing here?”
He tugged off his gloves and rubbed his hands together. “As of today, I live here.”
“You…you do?” I couldn’t have heard him right. “What happened to Madison? Or the town hall job?”
“Those jobs are still there. For somebody.”
I couldn’t speak. This was what speechless felt like.
He took in the empty cafe. “Are you the only one here?”
“Cam’s in the back doing stock.”
His focus moved to the chalkboard menu. “I’ll take a flat white. I hear they’re good.”
I blinked. Of course. I worked here and Nick, a customer, actually wanted a warm drink on an insanely cold January day. I wiped my already dry hands against my apron and started for the counter.
“Megan.” Nick moved toward me. His eyes sparkled the same pine green as they had over Christmas.
For some reason that surprised me, how the green shimmered as vibrantly here as it did in Crystal Cove. In my weird mind, Nick existed in a small town snow globe apart from my daily reality. Yet, here he stood in front of me now. In my reality.
“You don’t have to make me a drink. I came here to see you.”
I shoved my hands into the apron’s front pocket. “You did?”
He laughed almost in a whisper. “Or you could say I happened to be in the neighborhood. Trudging through a blizzard on foot with a week’s worth of clothes, coincidentally finding you.”
I nudged the duffel bag with my shoe. “This is all you brought?”
“For now. I’m sleeping on a buddy’s couch. He’s in Lincoln something. Not Lincoln Park.”
“Lincoln Square?”
He snapped his fingers. “That’s it. The company I’m trying to get in with is on the Golden Coast.”
“You mean the Gold Coast neighborhood?”
He shook his head laughing. “Clearly, I have no idea what I’m doing.” He showed me his phone. “This company is a start-up for green tech initiatives for businesses. I reduced waste and cost at our printing company the last two years with changes to our processes. I looked at the jobs in green consulting and pitched myself to this company. I’m basically an intern with no salary, but they said they don’t take just anyone on. If things go well, it should lead to a paid position. The good thing about living back in Crystal Cove is all the money I’ve saved up that I can live on now. And I sold my truck.”
The back room door opened and Cam walked out. “Megan, do you want your break?”
“Yes,” I answered without looking back at her. Nick still held out the phone, so I took it and scrolled to the company home page. “This looks great, Nick.” I handed back the phone. “You did it. You left Wisconsin.”
“I did. Well, not Wisconsin.” He took in the café, a slow smile settling in. “This is exciting.”
“I can imagine.” I remembered my first days living in Chicago, walking the neighborhood, scavenging thrift stores for end tables and cool knickknacks for my shared apartment. “This must be a big change. I can’t believe you sold your truck. That was a nice truck.”
“My dad’s got a beater car I can use when I go back to visit. No big deal.”
“It sounds like you have everything figured out.” I hoped my sincerity came through. “I mean it. You gave this thought. You can totally manage without a car here. I can show you the website to figure out bus routes. Sometimes the bus is more direct than the El depending where you’re coming from.” Babbling. I was babbling.
“Megan.” Nick’s voice went soft again. “There’s something I haven’t sorted out. It’s why I came here.”
My mouth went dry. I begged hope not to set up camp. Tamped down any thoughts of magical life-changing declarations. He probably needed some local recommendations.
“You showed me I was drifting with no purpose. I didn’t believe in myself enough to take a big step. You took your chance and look how far you’ve come.”
I flipped a hand at the worn, mismatched chairs and tables dotting the uneven hardwood floor. “I’m a barista at a coffee shop.”
“Come on. You took a chance living here. You’re living life the way you want.”
I needed to stop minimizing what I’d worked for. “Actually, I accepted a part-time job with an event planning company.”
His face lit. “Really? That’s fantastic. Congratulations.” He reached toward me, then retracted his hand, still smiling. “You inspired me to do more. I knew this was a now or never moment, and I have you to thank for it.”
I couldn’t help the warm fuzzies floating through me. “Well, thanks. I’m glad you felt inspired.”
He grasped my hands. “You inspire me. Megan, I think I’m falling for you.”
A saucer clattered to the counter, sending a shock through me.
“Sorry!” Cam yelled. “Megan, you’ve been holding out on me. This isn’t a customer at all.”
Nick barely flinched. He looked at me with a deep intensity I hadn’t seen from him until now.
I blinked back at him. “You’re…you…”
“If you have room in your life for a privileged country boy, I’d like to see more of you.”
Hope broke out the fireworks. My heart surged and tears sprang up.
“Say yessss.”
Was that destiny? Or, more likely Cam at the coffee bar. “Yes,” I said for the second time today. “Yes, to you, yes to new. Yes to whatever this becomes.” I slid in closer.
Nick unearthed something green and mangled from his pocket. He dangled the crumpled item overhead. “Just in case.”
“If you don’t kiss him, I’m coming over there,” Cam called.
I threw my arms around Nick’s sturdy, tree-hauling body. “I’ve been threatened.”
'Tis the Season for Love: A Charity Box Set Page 85
