Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tuesday morning, Nora was up bright and early, working on decorating the living room for the Christmas party. She hadn’t been able to sleep, and she had spent most of the hour that she’d been awake so far moving things around, chewing on her lip, trying to decide where to place it all and not feeling entirely happy with it.

She had just moved a candle arrangement from the fireplace mantel to the window when she heard her husband’s footsteps coming into the room, and turned to see him standing there holding two mugs of coffee.

“You’re up early,” he observed, still wearing his pajamas with his dark hair mussed from sleep. “Too busy thinking about what to do?”

Nora smiled wanly, coming to get her cup of coffee and leaning up to give him a kiss. He knew her all too well. “I’m so disappointed about the chandelier,” she admitted, sitting down on the edge of the couch and looking up at where it would have gone. “I know it shouldn’t be such a big deal, but I just keep envisioning how perfect it all would have been. I couldn’t think of what I wanted to do with the space, and then I saw that and it felt like it just all came together. But now I have to rethink the whole thing, and it’s not easy.”

“I know. But if anyone can do it, you can.” Aiden rubbed her back, making circles between her shoulder blades with one hand, and she knew he was trying to reassure her.

“I really don’t know what else to do,” she confessed. “I know I don’t have to have a centerpiece, but?—”

“We can go to the store together,” Aiden suggested. “You don’t have any meetings this morning, and one of the perks of being my own boss is I can go in late if I want.” He gave her a cheeky smile. “We’ll grab something on the way from The Mellow Mug, have a little breakfast just the two of us, and then go ask Leon about some other suggestions.”

“ Two cups of coffee in one morning?” Nora raised an eyebrow, and Aiden laughed.

“I need it after all your tossing and turning last night.”

“Oh, stop it.” But it made Nora smile, and she finished the coffee he had brought her, going upstairs to get dressed so that they could go out.

They stopped by The Mellow Mug to see Melanie, getting her famous cinnamon rolls for breakfast and a second coffee. Nora tucked into a small booth next to the window opposite Aiden, scrolling through her phone for ideas.

“I watched you work here a few times, back when you were planning the festival,” he pointed out. “And you always came up with exactly what it needed. Even when your plans got thrown off and everyone disagreed, you managed to turn it around and pull it all off in the end. You’ll do the same thing with this. I have faith in you.”

“I know you do.” Nora smiled at her husband. “And it always helps, believe me.”

They walked to the general store afterward in the crisp morning air, pushing open the door to the chime of the bell. Leon was standing behind the counter, and he looked up as they walked in, giving Nora a sympathetic smile.

“I’m sorry we haven’t been able to figure out anything for that chandelier you wanted, yet,” he said apologetically. “But I got a new catalog in today, if you want to take a look? Maybe there are some ideas in there that might work as a replacement.”

Nora felt that swooping sense of disappointment again, but she nodded, forcing a smile. Maybe there would be something in there that would work, she thought. And maybe she was just too fixated on that one piece. It was perfect, but that didn’t mean there might not be something else that would work just as well.

“Here.” Leon pushed the catalog across the counter toward her. “Take a look.”

She flipped open the glossy catalog as Aiden went to browse the store, searching for something that might catch her eye. There were a few other lighting options—smaller than the chandelier she’d picked out, and more rustic instead of that glamorous look that she’d been drawn to with the original chandelier. There were some centerpieces that she could see using on the large wooden coffee table that Aiden had made for them, but nothing looked quite right. None of it gave her the feeling that she’d had when she’d seen the chandelier—that feeling that the pieces of her ideas were all clicking into place. It still felt forced and disjointed, not quite right.

Nora let out a small, frustrated breath. I’ll figure something out, she told herself, closing the catalog. And until then, I’ll keep planning.

“Thanks,” she told Leon, pushing the catalog back toward him. “I’ll think about it. I’m just not sure what else I want yet.”

“No worries. Just don’t take too long, if you want to order something else. We’ll have to make sure we can get it here in time.” He smiled reassuringly at her. “You’ll figure something out. I hear all the time how good you are at this decorating stuff.”

“She certainly is.” Aiden walked up to the counter, putting an arm around Nora’s waist as he set his few small purchases down. “It’ll all come together.”

Privately, Nora wasn’t so sure. But she hoped he was right.

After school that afternoon, Rhett collected Jay and took him over to The Mistletoe Inn. “This isn’t a play visit,” he reminded his son as they drove over. “This is so you can fix those holes. It’s important to know not to damage others’ property.”

Jay nodded, fidgeting a little in his seat. They pulled into the driveway, and Rhett hopped out to see Donovan Stoker sitting on the porch.

The older man stood, stretching a little before ambling down the steps. “Hey there,” he said, glancing at Jay as the little boy jumped out of the truck into the snow. “What brings you this way? No smoke alarms going off today, I’m afraid.”

Rhett chuckled, about to respond when the door opened and Rhonda emerged, walking quickly down the steps to join her husband. “Rhett!” she exclaimed. “It’s so nice to see you here. What a surprise! And you brought your little boy. If you want some cookies, I’ve just put some in the oven.”

Jay nodded eagerly, but Rhett gave his son a pointed look. “We just came to patch things up,” he said. “Jay got an idea in his head that there were fossils in your backyard, and wandered over here last week and did some unauthorized digging.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Caroline brought him back to me at the fire station, and I promised we’d come over and Jay would fill in those holes.”

Donovan chuckled, as Rhonda shook her head. “It’s not a big deal,” Donovan said. “I’m pretty sure the critters in the woods do more digging than your boy could have managed. But my daughter is a bit of a stickler for the rules.” He shrugged, an amused smile on his face. Rhonda glanced at her husband, then back at Rhett.

“She does like doing things by the book,” Rhonda admitted. “I’m not exactly surprised that she wanted Jay to fix things up.”

“You made me go help clean up when I broke a neighbor’s window playing softball once,” Caroline pointed out, catching the tail end of the conversation as she came around the side of the house. Her cheeks were pink, Rhett noticed, maybe from the cold—or maybe from catching her parents discussing her tendency to stick to rules. “You were sticklers too. You raised me to take things seriously.” She sounded a little defensive, and Rhett pressed his lips together to hide a smile.

“That we did,” Donovan agreed.

“We were just teasing.” Rhonda gave her daughter a one-armed hug, leaning up to whisper in her ear. She glanced at Rhett as she did, and Rhett saw Caroline’s blush deepen. He couldn’t help but wonder if it had been something about him.

Probably not, he told himself. And anyway, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have time for all that, and you’re over here for Jay, not for yourself. That’s what matters.

Caroline pulled back, her cheeks still flushed. “Well, let’s get this show on the road.” She smiled at Jay. “There are some tools in the back. We can go get started. Honestly,” she added conspiratorially as they started to walk, “I think you might have as much fun repairing as you did digging in the first place.”

Jay looked dubious, but he followed Caroline, Rhett bringing up the rear. They walked to the other side of the house, where he saw the turned-up earth and scattered holes where Jay had been digging, and he winced. It really wasn’t that bad—like Donovan had said, it easily could have been a raccoon doing the same damage. But he still felt bad that his son had been the raccoon.

Caroline crouched down, showing Jay how to use the trowel and other tools to fill in the holes and smooth them over so that it looked as if nothing had ever happened. And then, to Rhett’s surprise, he noticed that she didn’t just sit back and watch as Jay started work. Instead, she kept helping him, taking a trowel of her own and assisting in scraping the frozen dirt and filling in the scrapes and divots.

It made Rhett smile. She could have easily insisted that he do all the work, but she seemed happy to help, and he quickly joined in. “Is there another trowel I can use?”

Caroline handed him one, and he knelt in the snow next to Jay. “How long have you owned this place?” he asked her as he started to scrape dirt into one of the divots.

She pushed a piece of hair away from her face with the back of her hand. “Well, I don’t own it, exactly. My parents do. They’ve had it since before I was born. It was their dream, to have a bed-and-breakfast here, and they’ve always loved it. It’s been up and down over the years, but they’ve always managed to make it through.”

“And this is what you always wanted to do too?” He looked at her curiously. He could hear what he thought was a touch of wistfulness in her voice. “Help run this place?”

Caroline nodded, smoothing snow over one of the patched holes. “I grew up here. It’s my home. I always wanted to learn how to help run things—I was always fascinated with it. It’s a lot of work,” she admitted, smiling ruefully. “But I like it. It’s more fulfilling than anything else I could think of to do.” She paused, glancing over at Rhett. “What about you? Did you always want to be a firefighter?”

“I did,” Rhett chuckled. “I started after I moved to Cleveland. I needed to settle on a career path, and I decided to do what I’d always dreamed of. My ex-wife had a really good job—she was a lawyer—so I didn’t need to do anything fancy. It was a lot more lively there,” he added with a laugh. “Something catching on fire every day, it seemed like.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Caroline said, although he thought he heard something in her voice that made him think it wasn’t entirely true. “The divorce, I mean.” She said it quietly, glancing at Jay, who had moved a little ways away from them to fix more of the holes.

“Ah, well. It happens.” Rhett gave her a lopsided smile. “We were different people, it turned out, and I guess we missed that when we should have been paying attention to it. Figured it out a little too late. But I’m here with Jay now, and it’s been good so far. Starting over at my age isn’t what I saw for myself,” he admitted. “But I’m hopeful it’ll all be all right.”

“I can’t imagine it. It takes a lot of guts to just up and move like that, start fresh.” Caroline smiled. “I’m impressed, really.”

He looked over at her, and saw a sincere smile on her face. “You’re doing a good job with him,” she added softly. “Even if his favorite hobby is currently destroying private property.”

There was a smile in her voice too, as she said it, and Rhett grinned. “Well, I go around saving people’s homes and businesses,” he said wryly. “And I suppose they do say kids always want to be different from their parents.”

Caroline laughed at that, and then let out a small yelp as a gust of wind blew up, sending a burst of fine snow over the two of them. She wiped at her face with a mittened hand, just as Jay rolled up a snowball and flung it at Rhett.

Rhett started to tell his son it wasn’t the time, only to see Caroline lean down, quickly forming a snowball and tossing it gently back at the little boy. It warmed something in his heart to see it, and he felt himself relax, joining in the fun as the three of them began tossing the snowballs back and forth.

When all three of them were out of breath, he dusted off his hands, glancing at Caroline. “We should probably go,” he said regretfully. It was beginning to be late afternoon, almost sunset, and he knew Jay had homework. He needed to get back and make dinner, and go about their usual routines for the evening.

“Okay.” Caroline smiled. “I’ll see you around, then.”

Rhett started to head back to the truck, Jay in tow. But as he walked, he couldn’t help but glance back once over his shoulder at Caroline, wishing he had an excuse to stay longer.