by Ginny Baird
“Look!” Chloe shouted, and the adults glanced around as the gazebo lights came on and the town tree lights shone out in the darkness, its decorations shimmering in the falling snow.
“Oh wow,” Itzel said. “Gorgeous.”
Those were Mary’s thoughts exactly, because that’s when she saw Evan standing beside Dennis and the town tree, his handsome face bathed in its glow as he stared up at the star on top. Then, slowly, as if he could feel her watching him, he turned his eyes to Mary, picking her out among the people in the illuminated gazebo.
He smiled and Mary’s heart took a happy leap. Evan was so kind and caring. Strong and capable. Dedicated to his family and to Clark Creek. The tiniest part of her couldn’t help but wish he felt an ounce of dedication toward her. She was going to be in so much trouble ice skating with him tomorrow, because there was no mistaking what was happening here.
She was falling for Evan Clark, and falling hard.
Chapter Sixteen
Evan returned to his office Monday morning after completing his early-morning patrols. Everything was peaceful in Clark Creek. He’d seen no one else on the streets except for the Public Works employees. When Evan was growing up, his dad had driven a snowplow, and he and his brothers had thought that was so cool. They’d even taken turns riding with him a couple of times. Later, Jesse had moved into management, where he still worked part-time. Jesse’s main job was farming. He raised silage corn and soybeans. Of the three brothers, only Nash had been bitten by the farming bug. His crop was hay, which fit in with his love of horses.
Evan hadn’t been on a horse in a long time, and he wondered what Mary would think about riding. Not that he was mentally setting up a second date, or anything like that. They hadn’t even had a first one, and he wasn’t sure how Mary considered their ice skating outing. While it was true that they were colleagues working together on the parade, something more had transpired between them recently. Her showing up at his house with that Christmas tree had been a big surprise. He had to admit that he’d liked it. He’d also enjoyed her company while she was there and had been sorry to see her leave.
His house did seem homier with all her Christmas decorations in place. He’d even followed her instructions and put up a Velcro ornament on that advent calendar yesterday and today. Though it was a bit of an embarrassing thing for a grown man to do, the simple action had made him feel like a kid again. In a way that made him think about Christmas as a fun time, and something to look forward to, the way he used to.
All yesterday evening during the tree-lighting ceremony, he’d been hoping to run into her. Then he’d seen her standing in the gazebo. When she’d seen him, she’d smiled her dimpled smile, and she’d looked more than pretty. She’d been absolutely beautiful, causing all sorts of crazy thoughts to brew in Evan’s head. Like what it would be like to hold her and kiss those incredible lips of hers. And whether it was possible for her to come to care for him, like he was beginning to care for her.
He glanced around his office, thinking it looked barren in here compared to how his decorated house did now. His old coat rack stood in the corner, but it seemed to be missing something. Evan slid open his bottom desk drawer and extracted the string of lights and garland he’d stowed away. Yep. It was that garland with the threaded tinsel. All shimmery and over-the-top-looking, but he didn’t mind. Somehow it just seemed right.
He set the garland and lights on his office sofa and walked to the coat rack, moving it in front of the window. Then he wound it with the garland and the lights and turned them on. Their cheery glow reminded him of Mary, and his heart warmed. He was sorry he’d give those reindeer to Itzel, but he couldn’t very well take them back, so he’d have to be content with this minor dose of holiday cheer.
Someone knocked on his door and he looked up to find his mom ushering along a couple of delivery people with dollies. Each dolly held a stack of three large boxes. “I hope you don’t mind,” she said. “I was wondering if we could keep these in here temporarily? Mary will be using the conference room later as her operations center, but we’ll be needing it for meetings in the meantime.” She glanced at the empty spot where the coat rack had been. “Oh, look! You have room in the corner.”
He greeted the delivery guys with a polite hello, then spoke to his mom. “What is all that?”
“Some of the supplies Mary ordered for the parade. Souvenirs.”
“Right.” Evan recalled the tiny flags, coasters, and magnets. There had to be a ton of them to fill up so many huge boxes.
“Do you mind?” his mom said. “My office barely has any room.”
He knew why, too. It was on account of all her Christmas decorations. Evan chuckled. What was a few boxes in the scheme of things? He had plenty of extra space in here, anyway. “Sure. No problem.”
He directed the delivery people to stack the boxes in the corner, then one of them said, “We’ve got a few more in the truck.”
“Is that right?” Evan shook his head, amazed there were more. Maybe there was a lot of packaging material in each box? Either that, or he had no decent sense of numbers when it came to ordering materials like this. Mary clearly did. She was the expert in these matters, so he trusted her judgment.
After six more boxes piled up in the corner, he still believed in Mary. Even when there were six more after that. And, wow. Yet another load. Soon the box piles started encroaching on his coat rack in front of the window, and then on his sofa and desk. That was one heck of a lot of magnets and flags. But whatever she’d ordered, she’d obviously done so with his mom’s and the town council’s approval.
He felt a little ashamed of the way he’d questioned her capabilities at the outset, but she’d persistently allayed his concerns. Mary Ward was on top of this parade. And if she had anything to say about it—which she certainly did, as the town’s Christmas Consultant—she was going to make it a raging success.
Mary exited the print shop behind the courthouse after checking on her tickets. They’d be all printed up and ready by tomorrow. She’d have to bring her SUV around because the boxes would be heavy. At the moment she was on foot. One of the things she enjoyed about Clark Creek was the fact that you could walk almost everywhere. It was a very sweet town, which seemed to keep getting sweeter. She thought of Evan standing in the snow by the town tree and her face warmed when she recalled his handsome grin. It was apparent he’d been happy to see her, and she’d been oh, so happy to see him.
They were meeting tonight at the skating rink and she couldn’t wait. At the same time, she felt slightly nervous about it, like she was going on a first date. But it wasn’t a date—or was it? In her heart and head, she felt so confused. All she knew for certain was that she wanted to see Evan again. Alone. Just the two of them. So they could talk and have fun, and maybe not focus on the parade for once.
There was so much she was curious about. His background, and what it had been like for him growing up in Clark Creek. He’d mentioned the river and tubing and that had sounded like so much fun. She wondered what had made him decide to leave Clark Creek and join the Army. And, ultimately, why he’d decided to come back again. Ironically, she already knew more about Marshall’s and Nash’s stories, both from what they’d told and from what she’d gathered from being in town.
Evan was much more guarded about everything. He had a tough exterior, and she had the sense he didn’t let many people through those emotional walls he’d set up. She was pleased that he’d grown comfortable enough to let his guard down around her, because she liked the man he was underneath a lot. Someone caring and with a great sense of humor. Of course, the image he presented to the public was admirable too. And adorable, she couldn’t help but think with a sigh.
Her phone rang and she pulled it from the purse that she’d tucked in her satchel. “Hello?”
“Mary, hi! It’s Judy. How are things going?”
“Really moving along.”
“That’s great, because it’s countdown time,” Judy said.
&
nbsp; “I know! Only three days until the parade. Can you believe it?”
“Yeah, it will be here before we know it.” Judy paused and her voice took on a strange tone. “Mary. I wanted to ask you about that order you placed?”
“Order?” She thought back to Thursday. “Oh yes! My parade supplies! All taken care of. Should be arriving soon.”
“Upper management in Seattle has a question.” She drew in a breath and Mary wondered why she sounded so serious. Judy was starting to worry her. “It’s about the T-shirts?”
“T-shirts? Well, um. They’re fantastic. Long-sleeved with ‘Christmas in Clark Creek’ on them.”
“It’s not about the design,” Judy said coolly, and Mary’s heart hammered, because Judy had never sounded so serious. “It’s about the number of them you ordered.”
Mary rushed to defend her actions. “They’re only ten dollars each! And we’re selling them for at least fifteen, maybe twenty. The town council approved the purchase.”
Judy sounded incredulous. “For thirty thousand dollars?”
Mary stopped walking and bile rose in her throat. “What…what did you say?” she asked, feeling suddenly ill. “No, that can’t be right. I only ordered three hundred.”
“No, Mary,” Judy said. “You ordered three thousand.”
Mary’s head felt light. “No. I’m very sure. I double-checked the number.” She’d ordered three thousand of the smaller dollar items, but definitely not the ten-dollar T-shirts.
Then she remembered the computer glitch and the lights going out, and how when her computer rebooted, it took multiple tries before the T-shirt order went through. She thought she’d re-entered her information three or four times, but…surely not ten? She’d kind of lost count in the midst of her frustration.
Oh no. No, no, no. No.
If she’d honestly ordered three thousand T-shirts, in addition to their purchase price, they’d incur an enormous delivery fee. Expedited delivery. Yikes.
“Mary?” Judy asked. “Are you still there?”
“Um-hmm.” Mary’s head spun furiously. What was she going to do? If the order hadn’t been processed yet, maybe it wasn’t too late to change it. The rush delivery window was between today and Wednesday.
Thirty thousand dollars. That was a brand-new car. A nice one.
Or maybe, Clark Creek’s entire future.
“I thought your budget for parade incidentals was ten thousand dollars? I’m talking, all in. Programs, souvenirs, shipping…”
“It was a mistake, Judy,” she said, her pulse racing. “I can fix it.”
“I really hope so, because that’s a lot of cash for the company to absorb if Clark Creek can’t come up with repayment.”
“I understand. I really do.” Sweat beaded Mary’s hairline and her face burned hot. “Don’t worry. I’ll call the merchandiser right away.”
She ended the call and dashed through the town square, heading back to the inn. She passed by the gazebo on her way and glanced up at Evan’s courthouse office on the second floor. Tiny Christmas lights twinkled in his window.
Mary’s heart sank. Everyone in Clark Creek had come to rely on her expertise, even—finally—Evan, and now she was letting everybody down. If she couldn’t amend this error with her order, she actually could bankrupt the town.
Mary scurried down Main Street then turned right on Maple, taking care not to slip on the slick sidewalks in her high-heeled boots. It was snowing again, but this time the snow felt like prickly frozen tears raining down from the sky. Even the heavens were crying.
How had this disaster happened to her? How, how, how. How?
“Morning, Mary,” Marshall said when she entered the inn through the front door. “How did everything go at the printer’s?”
She pasted on her brightest smile. “Ah, just great!” she said, unable to admit her world was crashing apart.
Marshall was just another person in Clark Creek who’d placed faith in her and who would be hurt by her ineptness. Nash and Chloe would suffer, too, as well as Itzel and Dennis, Leroy and Austin…and all of the other wonderful people she’d met.
With an extra thirty-thousand-dollar expenditure, it would be nearly impossible for Clark Creek to break even, much less turn a profit. Even with all those generous sponsorships, the town wouldn’t earn a penny from the parade. It would go into debt.
Mary couldn’t wait to get to her room and log onto her computer. She dropped her satchel on the bed and sat down still wearing her coat. She logged into the merchandise website and pulled up her order history. Her orders for the magnets, flags, and coasters had gone through simultaneously, and looked accurate. Good. But that had been before the power outage, after which her internet connection had been spotty for several minutes.
She’d had to start over a few times with her order for the T-shirts, but she’d seriously thought it had only gone through once. She viewed the page with her previous orders listed and all were marked completed and delivered. Mary bit her lip so hard it pinched. Sure enough, the same T-shirt order had been placed ten times.
She found the customer service number and called it from her cell.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the customer service rep told her after she explained the situation. “Those T-shirts normally sell for twelve dollars. When you purchased them for ten you agreed to our nonrefundable sale conditions. Items like that are hard to take back. Because they’re custom-designed, nobody else can use them.”
“But it was a mistake,” Mary practically wailed into her mouthpiece. Then she reined herself in, assuming a more professional tone. “I mean, this is a corporate account. I can’t just—”
“You can put in a refund request if you wish, but there are no guarantees. We’re basically shutting down for the holidays starting tomorrow, so nobody will get a chance to look at your ticket until after New Year’s.”
Great. Just great. She guessed late was better than never. Maybe she could salvage things retroactively. She could only hope.
“Okay, I’d like to do that. Thank you.” Then she asked where she could find the form on their website and ended the call, her heart pounding.
Chapter Seventeen
When it got to be ten past seven, Evan began worrying that Mary wasn’t going to show. But then she arrived, looking all fresh-faced and pretty, dressed in her coat, scarf and hat, and jeans.
“I’m sorry I’m late!” she said, out of breath because she’d been hurrying along. “I had a little…uh…internet issue to deal with.”
“Reception can be spotty in those old houses,” Evan said, understanding. “Hope you got everything worked out?”
“Working on it.” She appeared tense about something. Evan hoped it wasn’t him. He’d been looking forward to seeing Mary all day, but now something about her mood seemed off.
“You got a delivery at the courthouse today,” he told her. “A very large delivery of boxes.”
She bit her bottom lip. “Must be those supplies I ordered.”
“There seem to be a whole lot of them.”
“Ha ha! Yeah, well. It’s going to be quite a parade.”
“Really big moneymaker,” he said, so proud of her accomplishments.
“For sure. So!” she said, smiling her brightest smile—though it seemed a little forced. “Should we go and get our skates?”
He gently laid his hand on her arm. “Hey.” She peered over her shoulder, and if he didn’t know better he’d think there was worry in her big brown eyes. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m sorry, Evan.” She sighed. “It’s not about you—really. I’ve been looking forward to tonight, and to forgetting about the parade for a while.”
If it was a break she wanted, she’d certainly earned it. “You’ve been working awfully hard.” He let his glove drop from her coat sleeve. “Too hard, maybe?”
She set her chin. “I needed to get it all done.”
“Seems mostly done to me. I passed my mom at the courthouse and s
he told me the Airbnb option has been executed.”
“Yes. Nearly a hundred families have offered to open up their homes.”
“That’s amazing.” He smiled softly and said it because he believed it. “You’re amazing.”
She pursed her lips. “Parade hasn’t happened yet.”
“But it will, and it will be great.” He searched her eyes. “I believe in you, Mary Ward. You’re—”
“Unbearably sharp?” she cut in, teasing, and Evan laughed at her reference to what he’d called her earlier. Then she laughed, too. He was glad that she’d made at stab at humor, because their mingled laughter lightened the mood.
“Yep.” He scrutinized the square and its festive holiday decorations, which were there fully on account of Mary. “The town square looks great. The tree, the gazebo…” His gaze fell on her, and Evan swallowed hard. “Everything.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” she said.
“Oh yes, you could.”
Mary dropped her chin to hide her blush, then she nodded toward the rental hut for ice skates. “So,” she said. “How about it?”
“Ready when you are,” he said.
They picked out their skates and, when it was time to pay, Evan insisted it was his treat.
“I can’t let you,” she protested.
Evan stared down into her eyes. “Oh yes, you can. We made a bet and you won.” He arched an eyebrow. “Remember?”
“But the deal was for you to go.”
“No. The deal was for me to take you ice skating. And so—” He withdrew his wallet while the rental hut attendant watched with an amused smirk. “We’d like these two sets of skates, please.” He addressed Mary. “What do you say, for an hour?”
“An hour should be fine.” Then she couldn’t resist throwing in a playful jab. “Beats thirty minutes.”
He paid and placed his wallet back in his jacket, and they walked to a nearby bench, each holding their own set of skates. “You’re never going to let me live that down, huh?”
