Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Nora sat in the otherwise empty living room of The Mistletoe Inn, on the couch closest to the fire, flipping idly through the photo albums. She had to look at something, do something with her hands, or she would burst into tears. The fight with Aiden, how much Sabrina hated her plans for the festival—it all left her feeling empty and sad, as if everything she thought she'd found here had just been a mirage.

She'd been right to plan to keep it all at arm's length when she first came, she thought to herself. Not to get involved, to spend time with her parents and Melanie, and leave the rest the way it had always been. None of it had anything to do with her, and the town didn't want her to have anything to do with it.

Tears brimmed on her lashes, and she sniffed them back. She was just about to pick up another album when she heard footsteps, and looked up to see Caroline walking in. She stiffened a little, expecting a comment from Caroline about her being too soft, or asking what had upset her this time.

Instead, Caroline frowned, crossing the room to perch on the sofa next to Nora. "I can tell you're upset," she said, a little awkwardly. "Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

Nora swallowed hard. "I'm sure you have something else you need to be doing."

"Well, yes." Caroline let out a breath. "But it can wait for a minute. What happened?"

"It's nothing." Nora shook her head, unable to imagine explaining everything that had gone on that day to Caroline. She wouldn't understand. She'd certainly take Sabrina's side.

"We might have grown apart a good bit, Nora, but we're still sisters." Caroline narrowed her eyes at Nora. "I know that's not true. Come on. Out with it."

What's the worst that can happen? Another speech like the one Aiden had given her, maybe, but she expected it from Caroline, at least. She turned to her sister, setting the photo album aside, and began to explain.

She explained everything in a rush, the words coming out in a tumble once she started to talk. The conversation with her coworker that had set it all off, her decision to help to give herself something to take her mind off of Rob, the way she'd really started to enjoy sprucing up the festival and adding to it. Her excitement over all the plans, and how she'd thought everyone was equally excited, only to see their doubt when Sabrina tore it apart. Sabrina's interference throughout the whole thing, and finally her conversation with Aiden, and how terribly that had gone.

To Nora's surprise, Caroline sat and listened to all of it, without interruption. "Maybe you were right," Nora finished, biting her lip. "Maybe I just don't have the right touch to plan a small-town event or help the inn. This just isn't what I'm good at."

Caroline let out a slow breath.

"It's not that," she said finally, and Nora's head snapped up, surprised. "You're on to some things. It's just that what Aiden and Sabrina are trying to explain is that you need to keep it closer. That fancy catering menu you were talking about? Sure, upgrade the food for the festival. It could use it, honestly. But stick to getting Rockridge Grill and Marie's to make the food. Trust that they can handle it. I promise you some of the guys who hunt would love to provide game to turn into some kind of fancy appetizers."

She smiled, the expression looking a little odd on her mouth. Nora couldn't remember the last time she'd seen it.

"Those decorations?" she continued. "Trying to do something new, all those themes? That's great too. You just need to employ people in the town to help. Aiden would have made those signs, I bet. And you know Mom loves to paint."

"Aiden is busy!" Nora let out a frustrated sigh. "Everyone is busy. They have jobs and lives and businesses to run and kids and houses to keep, and?—"

"And they love this town," Caroline said gently. "They'd be excited to help make those things, rather than have them brought in from some out-of-town place with no special touch. I've seen some of your plans," she added. "I think they're great, honestly. You don't have to scrap everything. Just tweak it a little so the people here have a hand in it other than just setting up stuff someone else has put together."

"You've seen it?" Nora asked weakly, still stuck on how many words she just heard her sister say—more than she usually strung together—and the fact that Caroline thought her work was good.

Caroline nodded. "You're a great event planner. Honestly, I'm proud of you. You just need to adjust your touch a little for a small town like this. Not take your hands off the wheel altogether."

For a moment, Nora couldn't speak. She was too shocked to hear her sister say that.

Caroline must have read it on her face, because she reached out, touching Nora's knee with a slight look of remorse on her face.

"I can admit that I've been in the wrong a bit," she said quietly. "I've let the stress of the inn get to me over the years, and I've been taking it out on you. No one should have made you stay here if you really didn't want to. It's not as if that would have helped anything, or made any of it better. Not because you couldn't have helped," she clarified. "But you would have resented it."

Caroline let out a sigh, looking across the room as if she couldn't quite meet Nora's eyes. "I've felt rather alone in running it," she admitted quietly. "I just don't like to talk about it."

"I'm sorry." Nora's words came out suddenly, but they were entirely genuine. "I really am. I don't think I was wrong to go to Boston, necessarily, but I didn't think enough about how it would affect everything. I really want to help now that I'm back."

"Your promotional idea sounds like a great start." Caroline glanced back at her. "Mom ran some of the numbers. I think it really might work. She's considering it."

For the first time since the conversation with Sabrina, Nora felt a smile tug at the edges of her lips. "What do I do about the festival?" she asked quietly, and Caroline considered for a moment.

"Scale it back a little," she suggested finally. "Outsource the things you still need to local vendors. Showcase those businesses, instead of ones outside of Evergreen Hollow. It will mean more to everyone involved, and tourists who show up will see the best that we have to offer. Everyone will be more invested in the success of the festival, and you can still improve on past years, just on a little bit of a smaller scale."

"You're right," Nora admitted, after a moment's consideration. "All of this just got out of hand, I think. I've been so used to pulling off big events in one certain way that I didn't think about doing it differently. But… you're right."

She felt better after saying it. Her mind was already running off in three different directions, imagining how she could take the plans she'd already made and alter them to work on a smaller, more local scale.

And it wasn't just the festival that she felt better about either.

For the first time in years, she felt better about things with Caroline too.

It was going on three days since he and Nora had gotten into that argument on their walk, and Aiden still hadn't spoken to her. He'd wanted to call or text her, but he'd figured she needed some cooling-off time, and after two days had passed, he thought maybe she just didn't want to talk to him. Truthfully, he was starting to believe that Leon had been wrong.

He and Nora were probably far too different for a relationship to ever work. He'd thought maybe the years that had passed had changed things, but Nora was still a big-city girl, and he was always going to be the guy who had been happy to come back to Evergreen Hollow. It had seemed pretty clear, during that argument, that she either couldn't or wouldn't understand why that was. And while he understood why she'd wanted to go to Boston, he couldn't see the appeal of it any more than she seemed to understand what it was about Evergreen Hollow that made the residents so fiercely devoted to it.

It'll be all right, he told himself as he pulled into the parking lot of Rockridge Grill for a late lunch, jumping down out of his truck. He'd always known this was how it was going to go—he'd just let himself wonder a little too much after he and Nora had hit it off so well on their first couple of dates. But it didn't change anything, that it wasn't going to work out. He'd go back to life as it had always been, and she'd leave after the festival. Things would go back to normal, and those dates would be a nice memory in time.

He'd just about convinced himself of that when he stepped into the grill and saw her standing at the back counter, talking to Jonathan.

She turned at the sound of the bell over the door, her eyes locking with his for a moment, and his heart flipped in his chest. Never mind their argument, all it took was that for him to have to admit to himself that he still had strong feelings for her. It was going to take more than one argument to shake those loose.

They were different, there was no denying that. But in all the conversations they'd had, he'd felt a connection with her that he couldn't pretend hadn't existed.

But what he didn't know was if a connection, strong or otherwise, was enough to overcome those differences.

He sank down at a table, fiddling with the laminated menu, and it was only a minute before he heard the sound of Nora's boots clicking against the tile as she walked over to him. She stood at the end of the table, her expression soft, and he saw her fiddling with one of the buttons on her peacoat.

"Can I sit with you?" she asked quietly, and he let out a breath.

"Yes." As if there was any other answer.

Nora slipped her peacoat and scarf off, draping them over the chair next to her, and sank down opposite him. He saw the delicate compass necklace resting against the front of her cream-colored fisherman's wool sweater, and his heart did another of those little flips in his chest. She might have been upset—with him or because of him, he wasn't quite sure—but she hadn't taken the necklace off.

There was quiet for a moment. He wasn't angry with her, and he didn't think she seemed angry with him just then, but he could feel that she was as tentative as he was. He thought she might get up and bolt if he didn't say something.

"What are you up to?" he asked finally, the question feeling awkward. "Getting lunch?"

Nora knotted her fingers together on the table in front of her. "I was talking to Jonathan about catering for the festival," she said finally. "I'd planned to bring in outside restaurants for most of it—you know that now—but I talked with the other ladies on the planning committee again this morning. We've decided to tweak the menu a little and use local places for the food. Rockridge Grill, Marie's, and some of the other local establishments are supplying some game for the Evergreen Tasting buffet." She licked her lips a little anxiously. "We're going to shift to some local places for other aspects of the festival too."

He felt his spirits lift a bit, hearing her talk. He was glad that she'd decided to change tactics, but he kept quiet, letting her finish. He wanted to hear her out in full.

"Caroline and I ended up talking about all of this," Nora said quietly. "The festival, the inn—me going to Boston instead of coming home all those years ago. We managed to finally work some things out, I think." A small, hesitant smile curved the corners of her lips, and then fell again. "I'm sorry for getting angry with you while we were out the other day. I was sensitive from the argument with Sabrina—but it's really no excuse. You were right about all of it."

"It's all right." He meant it too. "I could understand why you were feeling that way. It's water under the bridge. Doesn't change anything." He hoped she understood his meaning. He'd never been good at being blunt when it came to romance, despite his straightforwardness in every other aspect of his life. Especially, it seemed, when it came to Nora.

"I'm glad to hear that," Nora said softly. "I wanted to know, if you weren't too upset with me, if you'd help me with some of the remaining preparations. I see now that this sort of festival is only successful with a lot of community involvement—and we're going to need help, since it's coming up very soon now."

Aiden smiled at her. "Of course I'll help," he said firmly, reaching across the table to touch her hand. "I'm more than happy to."

Nora let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness." She pressed her lips together, her fingers curling around the side of his hand. "I'm glad I didn't ruin things by letting my emotions get the better of me."

"Nothing's ruined," he promised her.

"I feel out of my depth here, sometimes," she admitted. "I don't like to say it out loud, but it's true."

Aiden laughed at that, squeezing her hand gently. "If anything, the rest of us feel out of our depth around you . But we'll just have to find a way to meet in the middle."

A smile spread across Nora's lips. "I like the sound of that," she said softly.

They sat there like that for a moment, the menus in front of them forgotten, Aiden relishing the feeling of Nora's soft hand in his. Just a little while ago, he hadn't thought they'd be able to reconcile, and yet here they were. He was glad to have been wrong.

"I'll owe you for your help," Nora added, and he shook his head firmly.

"You won't owe me anything. I want to help you. I've got your back, and I want to help, no matter what you're doing."

Nora's eyes widened, a dozen emotions passing over her face before he had a chance to really catch any one of them. "I'm so glad I came back home," she whispered. "Or I might never have known what a wonderful man you turned out to be."

She leaned across the table, her hand on his cheek as she kissed him. He felt his heart swell in his chest, a warm glow settling there.

What a Christmas it was turning out to be.