Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

Nora watched as Aiden came down from the ladder, a frown on his face. She was standing at the edge of the porch with her father, Donovan, waiting to hear what the diagnosis was on the leaky roof. From the expression on Aiden's face, she thought, it wasn't good news.

She waited until he had his feet on the ground before saying anything, her stomach knotting with worry. "Well? How bad is it?"

"Nothing you can't handle, right, son?" Donovan asked amiably, but Nora thought she could hear a hint of worry in her father's tone. The inn had been doing better the last couple of years, ever since she and Caroline had revamped the business plan together, but it wasn't so hugely profitable that they could go making big repairs without having to think twice about it. There was a lot of overhead that went with running a place like The Mistletoe Inn, and while Evergreen Hollow was popular with tourists, it wasn't exactly Newport.

Aiden let out a breath, running his hand through his hair. "It's pretty bad," he said reluctantly. "The whole roof is going to need to be repaired. Patching up that one leak is just going to spring another, and if there's a heavy snowfall come late December or January, like there usually is, I'm not sure it can handle it. I'd say you've been due a new roof for a few years now, looking at it, but it's hung in there. Now it really needs to be replaced." He frowned, letting out another heavy breath. "I hate to say it, but I'm going to need to hire some outside guys. Blake will help me, but this is more than a two-man job. Especially since we need to get it done fairly quickly, before there's any big snowfall."

Nora felt her blood pressure immediately spike, and she pressed a hand to the back of her neck, trying to calm down. It was the worst possible news. She knew her parents didn't have the kind of savings necessary to replace the whole roof. She and Aiden would have offered to help six months ago, but with the baby coming, things were tight for them too. And this was the slowest time of year for Aiden's construction work. Usually she had more events to handle for the holidays, but Aiden had urged her to slow down and enjoy her pregnancy, and she'd been happy to. But now she found herself wishing she'd kept working more, just so she could help her parents with this new stress.

"Well…" Donovan rubbed a hand over his beard. "We should probably go in and give your mother the news, hm?"

Nora knew under it all, he was just as stressed as the rest of them. He was just better at hiding it. He'd always been their mother's rock, and his daughters' too, when things were difficult. She was glad that she'd chosen to move back home to have a family. It felt good to be here, surrounded by them.

Even if it did feel like everything was happening at once. The usual chaos of the holidays, the baby, Margo coming home unexpectedly, and now this. It definitely wasn't the usual holiday season.

Rhonda was in the kitchen when the three of them walked in. Her face fell as soon as she turned around and saw the expressions on their faces. "Oh, it's not good, is it?"

Aiden let out another of those heavy sighs, as he explained the situation to her. "I'll probably need to hire two or three more guys, to help out me and Blake. And I'll need to get materials and all of that. I don't need to be paid for it, but I'll have to pay the others, of course. And we'll have to put a rush on it, since there's no telling when we'll get a big snowfall, or one shapes up to be worse than usual."

Rhonda nodded. "Well, we'll just have to figure it out," she said decisively, and Nora and her father exchanged a look. "We can't very well have an inn without a roof, so we'll sit down and see what can be done to pay for it all. In the meantime, there are cranberry turkey sandwiches for lunch, and homemade kettle chips with that onion dip you like, Aiden, so everyone sit down around the table and we'll have some lunch. I bet you worked up an appetite, up there on the roof."

"Yes, ma'am," Aiden said with a chuckle, retreating to the table with Donovan and Nora. Nora sat down, feeling a weight on her shoulders. The inn was quiet other than the four of them, Margo was upstairs sleeping, and most of the guests were out and about. It should have been a nice family lunch, but she couldn't shake the worries that were plaguing her.

She went out to the living room after lunch, standing by the Christmas tree and looking at the individual decorations, some of which she remembered putting on the tree as children. Rhonda loved seeing the collection of ornaments grow year after year, and some of them had been on the tree for thirty or more Christmases. And then there were some that Rhonda had inherited from her own mother.

Nora heard Aiden walking up behind her, and she turned to look at her husband. She'd thought her emotions were under control, but seeing his handsome, kind, patient face undid her a little, and she felt tears well up, one escaping and dripping down her cheek.

Aiden immediately stepped forward, catching it with his thumb and brushing it away. He enveloped her in a hug, pulling her against his broad chest, and Nora breathed in the familiar scent of him—cedar and maplewood, his spicy aftershave, and the warm scent of her husband. It made her feel a little better, for a moment.

"It's all going to be okay," he said, and Nora sighed against his chest.

"It's all a lot though," she said, looking up at him. "Mom likes to say they'll figure it out, but I did that business plan for them two years ago with Caroline, so I have a pretty good idea of the inn's finances. They don't have the money to pay for those repairs. And I want to help, but I know we can't right now. My mom worries about Caroline and me getting along with Margo while she's here, and we're both trying, but there's…"

She sighed. "Well, there's a lot of history there, and a lot of stuff we haven't talked about. And now Margo has broken her leg, so she needs help. I normally would help so much more with all of this, but the baby…"

She trailed off, sniffing back tears, and Aiden ran a comforting hand down her back as he kissed the side of her head.

"It's going to be all right," he promised her, standing there in the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree. "I know it sounds trite. But we will figure it out. I'll find a way to get your parents' roof fixed. Margo will settle in. And this will be a good Christmas like it always is."

Nora nodded, leaning against him as she reached up to wipe her eyes. She wasn't sure how everything was going to work out. But he was right about one thing.

With her husband and surrounded by her family, every Christmas was a good one.