Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Nora tucked her scarf a little closer around her neck, feeling the bite of the cold. She was headed to The Mistletoe Inn for a visit, and even though she knew her mother would say she should have taken the car, she'd wanted to walk. She'd gotten used to walking pretty much everywhere in town over the last two years, and at five months pregnant, she had been told by Evergreen Hollow's resident doctor that exercise was good for the baby. She had been using it as an excuse to visit the inn more often than not, lately.

Truthfully, there was more to it than that. She had enjoyed being back home with her family ever since she'd decided to stay in Evergreen Hollow, but there had been a particular comfort in being near them over the last few months. The prospect of being a mother was an exciting one, but it was also an unfamiliar, and a little bit scary, time. She was looking forward to it, but she was also nervous. Being with her mother always eased her nerves, and it helped that she and her older sister Caroline were closer now too. Especially since Caroline had met the local firefighter, Rhett Dawkins, and fallen in love last Christmas, her sister had softened up a great deal.

She always loved Evergreen Hollow no matter the time of year, but the holidays always felt particularly special. It felt like a time when anything was possible. The last two Christmases had certainly proven that to be true, and she was looking forward to seeing what this one held. Right now, it held the promise of a warm, cozy afternoon with her family, and hopefully some of her mother's peppermint bark. Her pregnancy cravings had largely involved sweets.

The inn was surprisingly quiet when she walked in. It was booked out for the season, another successful November and beginning of December so far, just like last year had been. When she'd come back home after a particularly bad breakup, taking a hiatus from her job in Boston as an event planner, she'd turned her attention on the local festival. Over the course of helping with it, she'd also come up with a business plan for the inn, which had been struggling that year. Her sister Caroline, and their parents Rhonda and Donovan, had taken her idea and run with it. Ever since, the inn's business had bounced back, and shown no signs of slowing down again. But this time of day, in the late afternoon, all of the guests were out and about. She saw one woman sitting by the fireplace, ensconced in a book with a cup of cocoa next to her, Rhonda's signature fluffy homemade marshmallows floating on top. The woman was so engrossed that she didn't even hear her walk in, and Nora slipped right on by, walking to the kitchen where she could smell the scent of muffins baking.

She found Rhonda and Caroline both in the kitchen. Rhonda was at the counter, stirring a bowl of something, and Caroline was leaning against it a little further down. But instead of the happy expressions Nora had been anticipating, they both wore pensive expressions that looked a little worried.

"Is everything okay?" Nora frowned, taking off her coat and scarf and draping them over the back of a chair before sitting down. She knew if she stood up for too long, Rhonda would start fussing over her. Her mother was thrilled to have a grandchild on the way, and was equally insistent that Nora shouldn't put herself out in the slightest.

Rhonda paused, glancing at Caroline before looking over at Nora. Nora felt a slight queasiness, wondering what was going on. She hadn't seen either of them look so worried since the inn hadn't been doing well.

"Margo is coming for a short visit," Rhonda said finally. "She'll be here tomorrow morning. She said she was driving down."

Nora blinked, caught completely by surprise. It was the last thing she'd ever expected her mother to say. None of them had heard from Margo in months, not since a quick call to check-in that had clearly been hurried on her end. They'd all agreed afterward that it had felt like Margo had something more important to do, and it had hurt all of their feelings a little, but Rhonda's especially. Nora privately had thought that Caroline had been hurt too, but she was better at hiding it.

She wasn't sure how to feel about Margo coming home. If phone calls had been sporadic, visits had been non-existent. She knew she didn't have a lot of room to talk. For years, she hadn't managed to make time to visit either. She'd been so caught up in her own life and the rat race of Boston that she'd kept pushing it off again and again until finally, it felt like she'd been gone so long that it was easier to just not visit. But deep down, she'd felt bad about it.

She didn't know if Margo did feel bad about how long it had been. Nora had always thought that Margo just felt that everything she had going on was more important, more exciting, and just overall more interesting than whatever Evergreen Hollow could hold. And while Nora could understand that feeling, she wasn't sure what reason there could be for Margo to come and visit now. It definitely wasn't that she'd suddenly found her Christmas spirit, and felt a deep need to come home for the holidays.

It didn't even sound as if she'd be staying for Christmas.

Caroline let out a soft sigh, and Nora could imagine what her older sister was thinking. She knew Caroline had often felt, over the years before Nora had come back and they'd made up, that she was the only sister who had ever helped their parents out. Unlike Nora and Margo, Caroline had stayed in Evergreen Hollow her whole life, helping Rhonda and Donovan run the inn. Since Nora had come home two years ago, she and Caroline had worked through a lot of those feelings together. But Nora knew there was a bit of residual resentment in Caroline about how thoroughly Margo seemed to avoid the family, and she could feel the awkwardness radiating off Caroline as she stood there.

"How long is she coming for?" Nora asked, glancing at Caroline and then back at their mother.

"She didn't say exactly. Just a ‘short visit'." Rhonda frowned. "I'm excited to see her, of course. I miss her."

There was an unspoken but that Nora could hear all the same. She knew her mother was concerned about how the three of them might get along, with Margo back after so long. It was probably made worse, she thought, by the fact that Margo was now the only one who hadn't come back to Evergreen Hollow. Once upon a time, she and Margo had at least had their absence from their childhood home in common. But now, she had a feeling that Margo was going to feel like the odd one out, the only remaining prodigal daughter.

It was a recipe for an interesting family reunion, that was for sure. And she wasn't certain how it would all play out.

"Don't worry." Nora smiled at her mother, trying to sound reassuring. "It'll be a good thing, having Margo here for a little of the holidays. We all haven't seen her in so long."

She thought she sounded convincing enough. But inwardly, she wasn't so sure. Even just for herself, she already felt so emotional from dealing with the pregnancy, and all of the changes it had brought along with it. As excited as she was, it was a lot to deal with.

And now, this just felt like another uncertainty to try and handle.