3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

LAILA

E ver After Farms has its own magical feel.

As families bustle around the property, snowflakes drift lazily from the sky between lights strung between sections of pre-cut trees. Signs point toward the u-cut section, and other areas of the farm like the Storybook Cafe or the gift shop. The scent of warm chocolate floats on the air, almost like it’s reaching long fingers in my direction.

I know exactly how good the Wicked Witch brew tastes, if they still have it. The seasons don’t exactly align, but the spicy Mexican hot cocoa fits the bill on a wintry day.

Holden ducks into the Storybook to make sure they’re still doing okay on desserts and gingerbread, since apparently later today there will be several activities that involve them. While I’m sure he baked more than enough, I also know how delicious his cookies are. There’s a good chance he needs to restock.

I follow the signs for The Gingerbread Trail, chuckling at the names and vibrant labels. After people leave the Nutcracker Bakery—or the cafe—they can head to The Candy Cane cottage, an adorable little booth overflowing with candy. There’s a pathway decorated with huge candy canes and peppermint swirls, filled with trivia questions about gingerbread and Hansel and Gretel and Christmas traditions. My fingers itch to pull out my phone. The aesthetic is so unique and magical I want to plaster it everywhere.

But then again, that would make it easier for my mother to find me, though I’m sure she knows exactly where I am. Thanks to how things unfolded, I doubt she’d chase me here. It’s the one place I’m probably safe from her.

I’ve somehow made it to the edge of the Christmas tree field, where more signs offer directions and random gingerbread man cutouts hide between fits to find. I pause, inhaling the scent of fresh trees.

“You seem lost.”

I spin around to find the definition of tall, dark and handsome standing a few away. Sebastian Gold’s exact image could go in a reference book, with a quiet broodiness and dark hair. Dark eyes. Dark clothes. He doesn’t look angry, just stoic. Not even dangerous. Mysterious.

Like a less grumpy version of Scrooge or a version of Bucky Barnes without the mechanical arm. Although, that seems a lot less intriguing.

“Just taking a breather in the trees.,” I gesture around me. “You don’t happen to be looking for Jacob Marley do you?”

He barks out a laugh, catching me off guard.

“Super soldier serum?” I try again.

“I forgot how clever you are.”

“Classic me—I’m quite the clever girl.” I can’t help but picture the scene in Jurassic Park where the trainer knows he’s being hunted, and I’m not crazy about the parallels.

He hums for a moment. “More so than you believe, it appears. So tell me, why are you out here by yourself? I imagine Ella is happy to see you again, with all the wedding planning underway.”

It intrigues me a little that I don’t remember Sebastian much from before. It’s not like I was paying much attention to anyone outside my circle of friends. I didn’t even really pay that much attention to Ella for a while, and we lived in the same house.

Water under the bridge , I remind myself.

But it’s more than that. His family is prominent here, between his family owning the bank and his sister being the mayor of Enchanted Hollow. I should remember more about him.

Despite things I’ve learned recently about him, I don’t think he poses a threat to me directly. If I remove my mother from the equation, I like to consider myself a good judge of character and I suspect he’s more misunderstood than anything else. There’s no internal alarm warning me away from him, and there are a lot of people here today.

I take a few steps forward and pause, waiting for him to join me. The words flow easily once he does.

“For the sake of being vague—there’s been some family fallout.”

“I imagine so.” He chuckles, and I shoot him a glare.

“Then you can imagine that I don’t exactly want to be around my mother, and she doesn’t want to be around me. Home doesn’t feel like home at the moment, so I’ve been sort of?—”

“Looking for a place to land?” he finishes before I can.

I pause, turning my attention to him. There’s an understanding in his eyes I didn’t expect to find.

“Actually, yes.”

He nods and snow crunches under our feet as we continue deeper into the rows of trees.

“The tricky part is that you’re searching for breadcrumbs to lead you there. Maybe you shouldn’t be.”

I’m not really searching for breadcrumbs. There’s no need to. Every time I left here, the breadcrumbs laid themselves. I don’t have to look hard to find signs of Holden, especially during the holidays.

He’s in a baking display in any town I visit, or any wedding we serve. He’s there when I see Tim Curry in anything—especially Home Alone 2—because it reminds me of the way we squeezed Clue in every visit. The movie or the board game. The man loves to solve a good murder mystery. He’s in every piece of flannel, every classic Christmas song, every sprig of greenery I come across.

“Then what do you suggest?” I huff out, realizing a beat too late that he’s probably the wrong person to ask that question.

“Sometimes you need to get lost to find where you belong,” he answers.

“I’m plenty lost.” I chuckle. “Wouldn’t it be nice if it were as cut and dry as you say?”

“What do you mean?” Sebastian asks.

“I just mean, I wish we could see where we need to go in bright neon lights. Wouldn’t that be nice? Hey, this guy is the one. This friend won’t ever hurt you. Yes, this is the perfect career path for you.”

We come to a stop and I realize we’ve completely passed through that part of the tree field. A whimsical watchtower reaches into the sky, ivy climbing the wooden planks. Christmas lights brighten this entire area, following the angles of the roof and expertly woven into greenery on the stairs and the treehouse balcony. Warm light somehow emits from the windows at the top, lanterns scattered at the bottom along with various Christmas decorations like more stinking gingerbread men.

I don’t need to lay the breadcrumbs because they follow me no matter where I go.

“That kind of shortcut removes a lot of life lessons,” he says.

“Maybe. I don’t know what I’m saying.”

“I think you know a lot more than you realize, Laila. Enjoy your afternoon and stay warm.”

As he heads back in the direction we came from, I allow myself a few minutes before I need to get back and meet up with Ella and her little family. We’ll come back this direction with her future step-daughter Lucy, completing each station. I’m sure there will be snacks and amazing memories.

More memories made with Holden, when nothing has changed. He doesn’t want to leave and I can’t stay.

I turn to go, and a sign catches my eye: Welcome to the wishing tree.

I just made multiple wishes out loud in front of Sebastian Gold.

Awesome.