Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Nellie
“I heard the resort is looking for a full-time office administrator.”
My ears perked up at that piece of information as I strolled arm in arm with Sage along the downtown core of Hartwood Creek. It was the twenty-third of December, and I had one more day to find gifts for everyone on my list.
I’d put off shopping, first because I hadn’t been feeling the greatest and it was all I could do to make it to work every day, then because I’d needed to process the earth-shattering revelation of impending motherhood and figure out my next steps.
This last week, I’d been far too consumed with quitting my job and moving to worry about Christmas. But time was running out.
My shopping list was rather small. I had already gotten Sage a present months ago, and now I was on the hunt for a gift for Daphne and a host gift for Sage’s aunt and uncle.
It’d been kind of them to extend an invitation for me to join them for Christmas dinner, so I didn’t want to turn up empty-handed.
I also wanted to buy a present for Parker and Tabitha, as a thank you for letting me live in their bachelor apartment without having to put down a deposit, as well gifts for their three kids, because buying gifts for kids was my favourite thing ever.
Sage still needed to get a couple of gifts, too, so we’d decided to spend the afternoon shopping.
Nix was hanging out with Daphne, and we had plans to meet up later in the evening for dinner at The Hungry Hub and take a horsedrawn carriage ride through the snowy streets after.
Nix insisted it was an experience we had to have for our first Christmas in Hartwood Creek.
I’d be having my first Christmas in Hartwood Creek the same time as Sage and Daphne. It felt like they’d lived here for years, even though they’d moved at the end of August. Still, it felt like a lifetime ago that Sage and Daphne had left Guelph—and me.
“Oh really?” I murmured, my eyes going to a mom-and-pop toy shop down the street that looked like a good candidate for the kids’ gifts I needed to purchase.
“Yeah, Nix mentioned it this morning. You should send in your resume,” Sage nudged me gently with her elbow.
“I’ve never really done office work before,” I wrinkled my nose. My last several years of work experience had been at the café. I knew how to manage staff, run the café, and do up schedules, but that was the extent of my experience.
“I’m sure it’s not that hard. You answer phone calls, book reservations, and I think do some light laundry. Linens and stuff.”
“Where is this resort?”
“North of town. Whimsical Woods Resort,” Sage said carefully.
“Wait…Whimsical Woods…as in Noah’s family’s resort?” I asked, whirling to stare at my friend.
“How’d you know his family owned it?”
“We did some talking that night,” I replied, my cheeks heating at the dubious expression on her face. “Okay, maybe I stalked him a little after, but whatever. I’m not working for his family’s resort, Sage. That’s a bad idea.”
“Or it’s a fantastic idea,” Sage arched her brow at me.
I glared at her, shaking my head. “I don’t even know if he’s the…you know.” I whispered this last part, not wanting anyone on the street to overhear me, even though nobody was paying us any attention.
“It’s not like you have to tell him anything about that,” Sage waved away my concern with her free hand.
“I think he’d notice over time. It’d be so awkward having to work for him,” I shook my head again. “It can’t happen. It’s not going to happen. The last thing I need is more…entanglement with him.”
I thought about how he’d looked at me the other night when we’d run into each other in the grocery store—with hungry appreciation and unveiled longing.
Sure, he hadn’t recognized me at first, but he was right. I’d been wearing a full face of special effects makeup the night we hooked up.
I tried to ignore the heat in my belly that his insinuation that he’d have no problem recognizing my naked body evoked, but I’d been fighting residuals of desire for the past two days. It irked me to no end. I didn’t want to want Noah Wood, especially not now.
“But they need someone now, and you need to find a job now so you can work enough hours for maternity leave,” Sage pointed out as we drew closer to the toy shop.
She wasn’t wrong, I really did need to find a new job as quickly as possible. “I’ll think about it.”
“Okay, good. That’s all I’m asking. The resort is renowned for being one of the best local places to work at. High schoolers fight over the summer student positions, and they pay well. Better than Sal’s café,” Sage assured me.
I let out an exasperated huff of breath as I opened the door to the toy shop for us both. My jaw immediately dropped when I took in the shop. It was like a colourful toy eutopia.
The shop lacked the coldness of big box toy stores and instead reminded me of the toy store in A Christmas Story. There was a beautiful Christmas display near the window, with a metal toy train going in circles around what appeared to be a miniature wooden village display of Santa’s workshop.
I’d been very humbug about Christmas before stepping inside, but after spending a few minutes amidst the warm twinkling lights and beautiful holiday displays, I was beginning to feel my Christmas spirit awakening.
I picked out toys for Daphne, and Tabitha and Parker’s three kids with Sage’s help while she did her last-minute shopping.
When we checked out, the woman at the cash register asked if we wanted them gift-wrapped.
We both said yes, me to save some time, and Sage because she knew Daphne would try and sneak a peek at her shopping bags.
Once the woman wrapped our gifts, she put them in reusable bags to make it easier to carry.
“How do you keep Daphne out of that place?” I asked as we neared the door, my eyes sweeping around for a final look.
I was still in awe. They seemed to have everything: all the current popular toys, as well as an entire section of vintage toys.
I could spend hours here, happily combing through every single aisle.
“It’s difficult,” Sage admitted with a giggle.
“I bring her once a month when she’s saved up enough of her chore money to splurge on a new toy.
Or whenever she gets invited to a birthday party, which happens a lot during the school year.
School-aged children are always having birthday parties. You’ll see.”
“Right,” I said, trying to ignore the wave of nausea that overcame me at the thought of school years and children’s birthday parties.
In a year’s time, I’d be celebrating my baby’s first Christmas. Absently, my hand went to my still flat stomach through my open winter jacket, suddenly feeling emotional as well as nauseous.
Morning sickness hadn’t exactly reared its ugly head yet, but I’d been doing enough reading on pregnancy to expect that to happen at any moment. I figured it’d happen in the early morning, not midafternoon in the aisle of a toy shop.
“Are you okay?” Sage asked, concerned.
“Yeah, just feeling a bit off,” I admitted.
She looked through her purse, pulling out a candy. “Here, suck on this,” she instructed, handing me the piece of candy.
“That’s how I got into this predicament in the first place,” I teased, my voice as wobbly as my current emotional state. Still, I unwrapped the candy and put it in my mouth. Ginger exploded on my tongue. “Urg, this is disgusting!” I looked around for somewhere to spit it out.
“Keep sucking on it. It’s a ginger candy, it helps with nausea,” Sage insisted.
“Has it been in your purse since Daphne?”
“No,” she said, looking away and strategically avoiding my eyes.
“Why is it so disgusting?” it was all I could do to not spit it out. It required all my will power to keep the damn thing in my mouth.
“Do you still feel nauseous?” Sage asked, looking at me with a knowing smile.
I shook my head, admitting to myself and to her that the disgusting candy really had helped with the nausea.
“See, it works.”
“Fine, it works,” I grumbled. “Probably because it’s so shockingly disgusting, it distracts you from the nausea.”
She reached into her purse and pulled out another handful of the wrapped ginger candies. “Here, put these in your purse. You never know when you’ll need another. They are little life savers.”
“Why do you have a stockpile of them?” I asked, looking at my friend through narrowed eyes. They didn’t seem like the kind of candy one enjoyed having. I couldn’t picture popping these nasty little things in my mouth for enjoyment.
Sage opened her mouth, about to reply, then the bell over the door rang, alerting us to more shoppers coming into the toy shop. Three old ladies strolled in, talking seriously amongst themselves. “Uh oh, incoming: it’s the Hartley triplets,” Sage whispered.
The three women spotted us and immediately made a beeline over.
All three of the Hartley sisters had a striking resemblance to each other, and it was obvious that they were related, although they weren’t identical.
Each of them seemed to have their own unique style.
I’d met them briefly during my visit, when I’d accompanied the entire crew to their local café, Tout de Sweets, for the Halloween costume contest. They’d been dressed up as the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus.
“Sage Whitaker! It’s so good to see you again!” the lady with short, dyed red hair exclaimed, her large eyes sparkling with mirth.
“It’s good to see you ladies, too. You remember my friend, Nellie Banks? She was here for Halloween.”
“Ah, yes, you had the remarkable Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde costume, didn’t you?” the sister with long white hair braided over her shoulder asked, smiling at me knowingly.
“Yes, that was me,” I admitted.
“We just loved your makeup!” the third sister exclaimed. She wore a fashionable hat over her short snow-white hair. “So creative!”
“Thank you,” I was surprised they remembered me, although I shouldn’t have been. Sage had filled me in on the Hartley triplets. They practically ran Hartwood Creek and knew everything about everyone.
“We hear Nix officially moved out of the apartment,” the one with dyed red hair remarked, fixing her all-knowing smile on Sage. “That’s wonderful, dear. Are wedding bells in the future?”
“I’m not sure about that, Betty,” Sage chuckled awkwardly. “We’re taking it one step at a time and enjoying the journey.”
“Ah yes, such a beautiful way to look at it,” the sister with longer hair sighed dreamily. “Take your time and enjoy yourselves.”
“That’s the plan, Dorothy,” Sage smiled.
“It is the twenty-first century; I suppose there’s not so much pressure in today’s society for women to marry before living with a man.” Betty said thoughtfully.
“Good thing, too. I was ever so tired of the rigid expectations placed upon women. Notice it was never the men who had to carry those expectations? I’m loving the new-age freedom women have,” Dorothy added with a twinkle in her eye.
“Although we do love a good wedding,” the sister wearing the hat remarked. “And a baby shower.”
“Alice!” both Betty and Dorothy scolded. Alice smiled happily, sending a knowing look my way.
“Are you visiting for the holidays, dear?” Alice asked me, although I could tell by her question that she already knew the answer.
“Actually, I just moved here.”
The sisters didn’t seem surprised at all by my answer.
“Yup, Nellie’s Hartwood Creek’s newest resident,” Sage chimed in, tossing her arm around my shoulders. “I convinced her to move closer. She’s taken over renting the bachelor apartment above Parker and Tabitha’s garage.”
“Well, isn’t that lovely! Welcome to Hartwood Creek, Nellie. I’m sure you’ll be very happy here.”
“Thank you. I think so, too,” I replied.
“Well, we better get back to shopping! We’ve got to meet Daphne and Nix soon for dinner.” Sage smiled.
“We won’t keep you then, dearies. We have a lot of shopping to do ourselves. Have a Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas!” Sage and I said at the same time. The Hartley triplets made their way deeper into the toy shop, and we walked outside.
“Okay, was it me, or did they act like they know something?” I asked once we were on the street, a door and brick walls away from the Hartley triplets.
“Oh, they undoubtedly do. They have an uncanny ability of knowing everything, even before people know it themselves…” Sage glanced over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t behind us listening in. She linked arms with me, guiding me away from the toy shop. “They call themselves the Messengers.”
“The Messengers?” I repeated, bemused. “That sounds somewhat ominous.”
“Yup. Remember how I told you they like to meddle with townfolks’ lives, and have a tendency of trying to trick couples into drinking the infamous love elixir?”
“Oh my gosh, I remember that now. You were so panicked after your first date with Nix!”
I’d laughed at the time, but after speaking to the Hartley sisters, and seeing their knowing gazes, I was a touch uncomfortable. A shiver rolled through me, not an unpleasant one, but an intuitive one. It told me that they knew something about me. Probably a lot of somethings.
“Yeah, so. Make sure you’re checking the ingredients on things and avoid drinking anything they offer you.
Also, try not to order the In The Name of Love Latte from Tout de Sweets if you can help it.
That’s the most common way to ingest the love elixir.
It’s said to possess magical powers that make the couples who drink it fall undeniably in love. ”
“This town needs to have its own guide for newcomers,” I muttered, shaking my head. I’d never before lived in such a quirky town full of such lore, but I couldn’t deny it: I loved it. The whole idea was unfathomable, but bewitching.
“They have one, actually!” Sage said, guiding me toward the book shop.
Beyond the Pages was located beside the Tout de Sweets café. It had beautiful, exposed brick walls lined with thick mahogany shelves and a black iron spiral staircase leading to the upper level, which, according to Sage, was where the local author signings and other bookstore events were held.
Several table displays were arranged in the middle of the store, with popular books and new releases. Sage brought me over to the local section and picked up a book called The Complete History of Hartwood Creek.
“It has maps, family trees, and a section dedicated to the history of the love elixir Morgana Hartley created. It’s said that In The Name of Love Latte is derived from the original elixir.”
“That’s wild,” I shook my head, looking at the cover of the book. It appeared to be a painting of the original town from the eighteen hundreds.
“Consider it a welcome to Hartwood Creek gift,” Sage said.