Chapter 4
FOUR
Sam
“Why do you look like that?” Toby asked.
“Like what?” I stopped pacing and wiped my hands on my jeans before recognizing the nervous movement and shoving my hands in my pockets.
Toby gave me a duh look. “Like that. Like you’re all nervous.”
“Not nervous. Mattie’s coming over and we’re going to work on the grant project.” I’d explained the job to Toby and told him to give some thought to ways we could get families to want to come to Sugar Pine around the holidays.
My nephew crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. “But you’re like sweaty and weird.”
I scoffed. “I’m not…I’m just ready to get the job…it’s not like—” My words stalled out.
“Oh my god, do you like him?” Toby’s voice held that perfect teen mixture of disgust, incredulity, and humor.
“What? No…I mean…” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Yes? I don’t know.”
Toby rolled his eyes. “Wow, yeah, that’s romantic and will totally win him over.”
“And what do you know about winning over guys?”
His cheeks pinked, and he shrugged. “I’m just sayin’, if you really like him, you need to be more sure of it.”
I let him steer us away from whatever nerve I’d struck with my question. Toby knew he could talk to me whenever he needed. Maybe I’d revisit it, but he didn’t seem to want to chat right then.
“So, did you and Mattie, you know, like date back in the day?” Toby asked.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “It’s been so many years, I’m not sure I can recall that far back.” He rolled his eyes, and I nudged him with my elbow. “No, we didn’t date back in the day,” I said. A flash of that kiss screamed through me, jolting me into awareness.
Toby studied me. “But you wanted to?”
I sighed again. “It’s a long story. Suffice it to say that things were different back then.”
“But you’re glad he’s back? Like you’d want to date him now?” Toby asked, a gleam of teasing mischief in his eyes.
Pointing a finger his way, I warned, “Don’t even start. You can help us with ideas, but don’t go mentioning anything to Mattie. He may be in a relationship already, and it’s not my place to interfere.”
“He’s single,” Toby quipped as he opened the fridge and grabbed an apple.
“Huh? What? How do you know that?”
He bit into the apple, juice spraying in tiny arcs, and chewed.
Loudly.
“I always wanted a horse when I was younger. Good to know my dreams came true with my dear nephew,” I deadpanned.
Toby grinned broadly and took another bite.
“Oh my god,” I griped. “Are you going to eat the whole thing before you answer my question?”
He smirked and finished chewing then opened his mouth to take another bite, but he paused.
“I asked him.” Toby took in the look on my face and rushed on.
“Natalie’s mom was at school the other day—probably just to flirt with the resource officer or something…
seriously, Nat’s so nice and her mom is the worst—anyway, I heard her telling the secretary about fresh meat who just moved into town.
” He shrugged. “Figured I’d warn him away from her. ”
“Toby, it’s not really your place to police who Ms. Bell dates.”
He scoffed. “She’s a terrible person, and I like Mattie, I wasn’t going to let him get caught in her web.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as he took another bite of his apple. Patrice Bell truly was an awful person, and I had no idea how such a sweet kid like Natalie came from her. “So…” I hedged.
Toby smirked again. “He’s single. Broke up with a boyfriend back in California and that’s why he moved back home.” He cocked his head. “Did you know he was gay?”
I nodded, lost in the memory of Mattie kissing me in the woods back before everything changed for us.
“Does he know you’re gay?” my nephew pressed.
“No. At least, I don’t think so. I didn’t know—or hadn’t admitted it—back then. He left and we didn’t keep in touch.”
Toby crossed his arms over his chest. “What happened between you two? Did you mess something up?”
“It’s more complicated than that,” I said. “It’s not really something you need to know. We went our separate ways back then. We didn’t fight or dislike each other, it’s just the way things played out.”
He studied me, looking so much like Tabby it was scary. “But you like him,” he said. “You maybe didn’t know back then, but you like him now.”
“Don’t you have homework or something to do?”
Toby grinned. “I’ll go do my work, but I’m coming back because I have ideas.”
“Oh lord, why does that sound so threatening?”
He waggled his brow. “Be prepared for greatness.”
A knock sounded at the door.
“I’ll just say hi to our new friend first,” Toby said with a wicked grin.
“Behave,” I warned.
He walked toward the door singing, “Sam and Mattie sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
“Tobias Benton,” I said.
He laughed and opened the door. “Hi,” he said, greeting Mattie brightly.
Mattie returned the greeting and walked through the door. “Wow, it’s like looking in a mirror,” he said as he took in our side of the duplex.
“Well, I’m going to go do homework while you two talk. About work. Work talk. For the job, of course.” Toby gestured toward where I’d spread out on the kitchen table. “But don’t get too far into it because I have ideas.”
Mattie glanced between Toby and me, but eventually just clapped his hands together. “Sounds good, let’s get down to business.”
Toby headed toward his room while Mattie and I sat down at the kitchen table.
An hour later, we’d made a list of which artwork was going where around town, decided to just do the website from the bare bones, tagged which pieces were going to be on which pages of the site, and made a list of the locations around town we wanted to visit.
We’d take notes and highlight those on the website.
“I think this is a great start,” Mattie said.
Something must have shown on my face because he frowned. “You don’t?”
“Just worried about the deadline. I’ve got other jobs looming, I need to do Christmas shopping, and adding this is just a lot.
” Toby and I had spent many Christmases as just the two of us, and I always worked hard to make sure he had a good holiday even when he was missing his mom. This year would be no different.
“I can help. Give me a shopping list, and I’ll either search online or run over to White Pine and hit the mall,” Mattie said, those big blue eyes as earnest and genuine as ever.
“I’m not a web designer, but if there are any tasks a dummy can do, assign them to me.
I can even do dinners some nights so you can keep working a little longer. ”
Something pulled in my heart. This was the Mattie I’d missed all those years.
If I was being honest, this was the Mattie I’d fallen in love with back then and just not realized it until later.
His eager generosity and authentic desire to help others were only two of the things I loved about this man.
But was it too late? Had I lost my chance way back then?
Toby said Mattie was single, but a little voice of doubt chittered insistently in my ear that he’d always be the one who got away.
As if the reminder of his single status needed a visual, Toby walked into the kitchen. I caught the quick waggle of his brow as he glanced between Mattie and me, but he covered it quickly and grabbed a cup from the cabinet.
Mattie and I watched with wide eyes and hidden smiles as Toby poured nearly a quart of milk into the cup and reached into the cookie package to retrieve not one, not two, not even three, but five chocolate chip cookies.
When he caught us watching, he popped a cookie into his mouth. “What?”
“We’re having dinner,” I said.
“In like an hour. I’m starving; don’t worry, I’ll eat.” He sat down at the table and took a long swig of milk.
“The majority of my paychecks go to keeping him in milk,” I pretended to whisper to Mattie.
“Whatever, I’m a growing boy. That’s what your daddy group said.”
Mattie chuckled and quirked a brow.
“They’re not my daddy group,” I said, but I couldn’t help the smile. “I asked them about your leg pains. They asked if you were eating me out of house and home. When I told them yes, they said the leg pains were likely growing pains and eating like you’d been starved for days was normal.”
Toby nodded. “See, it’s fine. Now, do you want to hear my ideas?”
I gestured for him to go ahead.
“Okay, so Sugar Pines don’t make the best Christmas trees.
The other towns don’t really have it that much better, but that’s whatever.
” Toby popped another cookie in his mouth and swallowed it down with milk.
“So, I was thinking, instead of focusing on the pine tree part, we focus on the sugar part. So, how does sugar fit with Christmas?”
“Cookies? Candy? Desserts?” I offered.
“Yep, that’s the way I was going too. So, I started with cookies. There are a ton of Christmas cookies, but one stands out.” Toby paused as if waiting for us to figure it out.
“Sugar cookies?” Mattie hedged. “Snickerdoodles? Chocolate chip?”
“Think more along the lines of cookies you really only see around the holidays.”
Finally, Mattie slapped the table. “Gingerbread cookies.”
Toby beamed. “And that makes you think of…”
“Gingerbread houses,” Mattie and I answered together.
The next thirty minutes were a cacophony of words and ideas being thrown around.
“Inaugural this year, and then annual.”
“Make it a big competition. Gotta have great prizes.”
“Bigger and better each year.”
“Locals can enter at a discounted price.”
“Different categories for kids and adults. Maybe this year, we just do traditional, but next year we can expand to categories like organic, homemade, building out of non-food items, life-sized, minis…”
The ideas grew and grew the longer the three of us talked.
When we finally called it quits, I knew we had something that would help Sugar Pine tremendously. And I was proud as hell of Toby.
Mattie gave him a fist pump before my nephew scurried to the basement to play video games with his friends online.
“Holy shit,” Mattie said. “Not sure we would have come up with that on our own.”
I shook my head. “I hadn’t let my brain go in that direction.”
“Kids are pretty amazing.”
“I’m biased, but I definitely think this one is.”
“You wanna get started on those tourist spots this week?” Mattie asked.
“Definitely.” Our deadline was looming. I threw a glance over my shoulder at the kitchen calendar—we kept it color-coded so everyone knew about appointments, projects, etc.
“Toby is spending this weekend at a friend’s house.
Let’s do Saturday taking notes—that gives me time to gut the website and get the basics built back up before we start putting things in.
And if either of us is out and about, we should talk things up with the businesses around town.
See what we can get them to commit to as far as really helping to sell the holidays in Sugar Pine. ”
“Perfect,” Mattie said as he stood and headed toward the door. “I’m going to be working on a few pieces the next couple days.” His words held a bit of a warning.
“So, we should check in on you and make sure you’re hydrated and fed?”
“You remember.” A soft smile played on his lips.
My insides warmed at all I remembered about Mattie, but I just nodded. “We’ll make sure you don’t perish mid-project.”