Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

That morning, Aiden had slept in a little past his alarm, and he decided it was one of those days when maybe he should stop in to The Mellow Mug for a coffee and breakfast instead of making it himself. He threw on his usual jeans, sweater, work boots, and heavy Carhartt coat, and went out to the truck, considering the possibility of something sweet. Most mornings he had eggs and sausage, but a pastry sounded nice. A treat, since he'd gotten the work on the event center done ahead of schedule, and could now focus on his other projects for the town.

The coffee shop was quiet when he walked in, empty other than Melanie standing behind the counter, and smelled of roasting beans and sweet, yeasty baking. He walked up to the counter, giving Melanie an affable smile as he looked up at the menu. There were several holiday drink specials available, and as usual, Melanie had named the signature Christmas drinks after beloved Evergreen Hollow residents.

"Hey there, Aiden," she greeted him. "Is there something I can get for you?'

"An Americano and a cinnamon roll will do it, I think."

The cinnamon rolls looked fresh out of the oven, as big as his hand and dripping with thick white icing. Better than anything that came out of a can, that was certain.

"Coming right up." Melanie scooped a cinnamon roll out, slipping it into a takeout container and handing it to him before going to prep the coffee.

The bell above the door chimed just as Aiden went to stand at the end of the counter, and he glanced over to see Nora walking in.

In any other place, it would have seemed like too much of a coincidence that she kept popping up where he was. But in a town this small, it was just the way things were. He wasn't going to be able to avoid her as long as she was in town, even if he wanted to, which meant he was just going to have to get used to the odd feeling in his chest whenever she showed up. She made him feel off-balance, something he couldn't recall feeling since he was a teenager, and that unsettled him. But it was only temporary, so he could deal with it.

"Hi there." Nora greeted him politely as she walked past, clearly seeing that he was looking at her, but once again there was no real recognition in her expression. She walked toward where Melanie was standing, and he saw her glance back at him briefly, her brow slightly furrowed as if she were trying to place him. Maybe trying to remember if she knew him from before, or not.

He could have said something, but he didn't. It seemed worse, somehow, to remind her that they went to high school together—to point out that he remembered her when she clearly couldn't recall him. He didn't want to embarrass her or be embarrassed himself, so it seemed better to just let it lie.

"Can I get a French vanilla latte? And one of those cinnamon rolls looks good." Nora pursed her lips. "I'm just going to hang out here for a little while, I think. I need to brainstorm some ideas to go over with Bethany about the decorations for the festival."

"Yeah?" Melanie sounded surprised as she scooped out another of the pastries for Nora, putting it on a plate this time. "You and Bethany are knocking around ideas for it?"

"Well…" Nora hedged a little, reaching for the plate. "I might have volunteered to help with them. I guess Sabrina Burns was in charge of it, but she seems to have a lot going on with the newspaper, so I said I'd help. They really are in need of some sprucing up, and it really shouldn't take that much time."

"Really." Melanie raised an eyebrow. "You really can't not work for a month, can you?" Her tone was sweetly teasing, but it was clear to Aiden that she was thoroughly surprised by Nora's volunteering.

Truthfully, he was surprised too. Nora was always kind in high school—not snobbish or mean—and she was popular with everyone whose orbit she entered, but it had always been clear that she was chomping at the bit to get out of Evergreen Hollow. She hadn't even made it through the summer before leaving for college—he vaguely remembered that she'd taken off on some charity trip, really just an excuse to get away.

It had meant that even though he had wanted her to like him, in the way any teenage boy does with a girl he has a crush on, he'd always really known it was hopeless. He was a small-town boy through and through, devoted to Evergreen Hollow and its residents, and if he was ever lucky enough to have a family, he'd want to raise his kids in Evergreen Hollow and give them the same kind of life he'd always had.

He'd always felt as if he was never going to measure up in Nora's eyes. She wanted out, and he wanted to stay, and that was a gulf between them that there was no means of bridging. He'd never had the courage to go up and talk to her himself of his own volition, and she'd never noticed him. She'd always been way out of his league—with too many others competing for her attention for him to ever have a chance.

"Well, if anyone can spruce it up, you can," Melanie said cheerily as she finished fixing Aiden's Americano. "And you'll have the brand-new event center to decorate too! It's like the start to a whole new festival."

"Don't say that too loudly," Nora said dryly, taking her cinnamon roll and notebook and putting them on one of the tables. "If you say the word new too loudly, someone might burst into flames."

That's the charm of this place, Aiden thought, but he bit his tongue.

He took his coffee and his cinnamon roll, thinking that he needed to get to work, and he would leave the ladies to their planning. He glanced once more at Nora as he gathered his things, and a flash of memory came back to him unbidden—a memory so old that he hadn't thought of it in a long time.

There had been a spring fling-type event at the high school, one of those where the marching band had a little performance and the cheerleaders showed off the moves they'd been practicing and it was all finished up with a pep rally in the auditorium before the football game that night.

It had started to rain mid-afternoon, one of those out-of-nowhere spring storms that blew in before anyone really had a chance to notice that it was on its way. There had been a bunch of picnic tables stacked up out of the way to make room for the band and the cheerleaders, far away from the building, and somehow he and Nora had both ended up using them for shelter.

He still didn't know what she'd been doing out there when the rain had blown in, but he'd been taking a little time away from all the noise, and when the storm had sprung up he'd figured he would just wait for it to blow over before he went inside.

She had grinned at him, he remembered, as she'd slipped under the precarious shelter. The grass had been damp, but she'd sat down next to him anyway, and even though she clearly hadn't had any idea who he was, she'd been nice to him all the same. Not unlike now, he thought wryly, as he remembered it.

It had been their junior year, and she'd asked him if he'd had the meeting with the guidance counselor that they'd all been individually dragged to, asking about their plans. They'd been sitting there, watching the rain, and he remembered thinking that his answer probably wasn't going to be what she wanted to hear. But he'd always been nothing if not honest.

"Probably find something I can work at around here," he'd said. "Maybe a teacher, but I really like working with my hands better. I just know I like it here. I don't really want to leave."

"You could teach shop class," Nora had joked, but her laugh had fallen a little flat when she'd seen he was serious. "Or… I don't know. There's not really many options here, are there?'

"I suppose not." He could feel her agitation, shimmering off of her like heat on asphalt. Even now, she couldn't seem to just sit still. "What about you?"

She shrugged, biting her lip. "I want to go somewhere else. A city. Maybe New York, or Boston, or Chicago, even. I want to see more than just this place. But no one else really seems to get that. You'd think my parents would be proud of me for that, but they really just seem disappointed that I don't want to stick around and help run the inn. At least that's what it seems like to me anyway. So who knows. Maybe I'll just stay."

He hadn't known how to feel about that. He couldn't deny that his heart gave a little leap when she mentioned staying, but the dejected tone of her voice told him that wasn't the right feeling. Staying in Evergreen Hollow clearly wasn't going to make Nora Stoker happy. And he felt, oddly enough, that it really mattered if she was happy.

"You only get one life," he said, looking at her, and he remembered thinking she had the biggest, prettiest blue eyes he'd ever seen. He could have looked at them forever, sitting there listening to the patter of the raindrops on the wooden table. "You should live it on your terms."

He'd meant it too. And it seemed like they both had. He'd learned a trade and come back with the skills to keep Evergreen Hollow exactly that—evergreen—and Nora had gone off to the big city and made an accomplished woman of herself. Now she was back here, but she certainly wasn't going to stay around for long.

The memory flooded his chest with warmth, but it was short-lived. Nora had gone back to her chat with Melanie, clearly assuming he was just another customer. She didn't remember him at all.

That afternoon in the rain had been a special memory for him, but maybe it hadn't meant much to her at all. They'd never hung out apart from that anyway, so it made sense that she wouldn't remember it—or him.

A lot of time had passed since then. A lot of water under the bridge. And some really didn't need to be crossed again.

He shrugged off the thought, trying to shake off that lingering feeling of his old crush along with it. Caffeine and breakfast in hand, Aiden headed out the door, going on to his workday ahead.

Hopefully, without any more memories of Nora.

Fortified with pastry and caffeine, Nora made her way to the Evergreen Hollow Gazette after breakfast. She'd made notes of what she thought might suit the event and how they could best arrange them, and she felt more than prepared to broach those suggestions with Sabrina. Really, as busy as the woman was, she felt sure that Sabrina would probably be glad for the respite. Running a newspaper probably took up most of her time.

The Gazette was in the same building Nora remembered, a wood-slat building with stonework in the front and the ubiquitous gabled roof, made of dark wood dusted with snow. The path leading up to the dark, green painted front door was made of neatly fitted stones of varying sizes, meticulously cleared off after the last snowfall, holly bushes near the steps. A large wreath hung on the door, with a knocker in the center, but Nora opened it and walked in. It was a business, so the knocker was really just there for show.

It reminded her of most of the businesses in Evergreen Hollow. Decidedly small-town, but neat and respectable.

A tall, auburn-haired receptionist was sitting at the front desk, flipping through a magazine with one hand and typing with the other. She glanced up as Nora walked in, a bored smile on her face. "Can I help you?"

"I'm just looking for Sabrina Burns, if I can snag a minute with her," Nora said politely.

"You can go to her office. Last door on the left." The receptionist pointed, and Nora followed the direction of her finger. It wasn't a large building anyway, so it was hard to get lost.

Sabrina's office door was cracked open, and Nora knocked lightly. "Come in." She heard from inside, and she nudged it open, walking in.

The office was decently large, with a hardwood floor and two tall white-birch bookshelves along one wall. Sabrina's desk was maple, with a black leather seat behind it and two blue velvet chairs on the other side, and an unused fireplace along the opposite wall. Nora noticed there were harvest decorations piled in the space on the iron rack instead of wood—the fireplace clearly never used for its actual purpose—and candles scattered along the mantel along with Christmas cards.

Sabrina looked up, her eyes immediately narrowing when she saw Nora. She gestured brusquely to one of the chairs, pushing her cat's eye glasses up on her nose as she set down her pen. "Is there something I can do for you?" she asked primly, and Nora let out a breath, sitting down.

What on earth did I do to make this woman so prickly around me?

She really couldn't imagine. She'd tried to keep her opinions to herself during that first meeting, and she hadn't even said anything yet to Sabrina about helping out with the festival. Sabrina just seemed on edge around her, and she truly didn't know why.

"Bethany came by the inn, and she was discussing some of the decorations with my mom," Nora began, careful not to bulldoze her way into this too quickly. "They were looking them over, and I thought I might be able to help with some of the decor planning. I offered, since Bethany mentioned you're very busy here, especially this time of year."

"There was nothing wrong with the decorations I had in mind." Sabrina's tone was instantly defensive, and her shoulders stiffened. "They were perfectly well-thought-out and I chose them myself."

"Of course there's nothing wrong," Nora said tactfully. "They were absolutely fine. I just thought I could lend a hand and help out. I'm happy to do it, really," she added quickly. "So many of the others are juggling the planning and work, and I'm currently on vacation with a lot of time on my hands. There's no reason I can't pick up the slack."

Sabrina gave her a suspicious look, and Nora charged forward, hurrying to explain further.

"I have a lot of experience with event planning." She chose her words carefully, not wanting to put Sabrina even more on the defensive than she already was. "This time of year is always very busy for us too. There are plenty of over-the-top wintry decorations, like ice sculptures, or themed trees, or light displays, but it's also really easy to do things both beautifully and economically." Nora could feel herself slipping into a pitch, but it was hard not to. This was her element. What she was good at. She felt a little of the confidence that she'd lost since Rob had dumped her curbside coming back.

"A pinecone centerpiece, for example. Not expensive at all, but with some neutral linens on tables, a little bit of a gold accent, and those pinecones? Rustic chic, right there. And you can't go wrong with greenery, maybe with a bit of berry accents here and there. Simple, but with small festive touches. Red and green plaid bows on the back of wooden Chiavari chairs. Chiavari can run a tab up, so there are less expensive options too. We could definitely do this in a way that wouldn't be excessively costly, but still pretty and seasonal."

Nora could see, throughout her entire spiel, that Sabrina was listening grudgingly at best. Her red-lipsticked mouth was pressed thinly together, her arms crossed over her cream-colored ribbed sweater, but she did listen, at least.

"Fine." Sabrina let out a sharp breath. "I'm slammed here. These articles all need proofreading, and our typographer went and sprained her wrist skiing last weekend. As if anyone has time for a vacation right before Christmas. So if it will give you something to do, go ahead and fiddle with the decorations. I'm sure some of your ideas will be just fine."

Nora didn't miss the small dig about her vacation, but she let it slide. It was clear that Sabrina was still on the defensive, but she was on board at least, and that was all Nora really needed. As long as Sabrina didn't stand in her way, she could move forward.

She let it all roll off her back, as she said her goodbyes and headed back out into the chilly Vermont afternoon. It was impossible to live and work in a city like Boston without developing something of a toughness, and she was more than able to handle Sabrina's coolness toward her. She certainly wasn't going to let it mess up her work.

She was determined to make sure the venue looked fantastic.