Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
“ O h yeah, you’re lookin’ at ten days, maybe a coupla weeks,” Vernon said, scratching his salt-and-pepper beard as he wiped his hands on an oil-stained rag and closed the hood of Natalie’s car with a sigh.
“I’m sorry, did you say a couple of weeks ? As in fourteen days?” Natalie stared at the mechanic in horror. With Faith’s help, she’d given Vernon a call the morning after she’d arrived in town, and by noon, he’d retrieved her car and examined it at his shop. She’d expected him to say a few hours, maybe a single day, tops, but this ? No way. No sir.
He nodded, then gave his beard another scratch as he waddled ahead of her toward his office, which was overflowing with paperwork to the point that it covered every surface. He settled behind his desk with a groan, his ample stomach straining against the uniform he wore.
“That’s if you’re lucky,” he said, pulling out a clipboard and pen and beginning to take notes. “The engine’s busted and I’ve got to order several new parts. The holidays are right around the corner, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re not exactly the easiest town to get to. Shipments to Chestnut Cove are slow on a good day, but the weatherman’s sayin’ more snow is on the way. So if the mountain roads become impassable…” He shrugged. “I wouldn’t say the new year isn’t outside the realm of possibility.”
“The new year?” Natalie spluttered. There was no way, no way , she was spending the holidays in Chestnut Cove, home of the world’s most annoyingly festive people. She’d probably get dragged to a cookie-baking contest, or a tree-lighting ceremony, or some other such nonsense. Just this morning, she’d stepped out of The Mistletoe House to find carolers howling out Christmas tunes on the sidewalk, smiling cheerfully at everyone who passed.
Natalie may or may not have scowled at them.
“Listen,” she said, pressing her hands against Vernon’s desk and leaning forward to look him in the eye, “I can’t be here for fourteen days. I can’t even be here for three days.” Her voice was shaking; panic was starting to set in. “I need to get out of here. I need to. I’ll do whatever it takes, pay whatever it takes…” Her credit card had a little wiggle room left on it, and she still had one last paycheck from Devin to cash before… well, she didn’t know what came next, exactly, but she would figure it out, because she always did.
Vernon’s smile was kind, but his tone was firm. “Look, if there was any way for me to help you out, speed things along, believe me, I would. But it’s just not possible.” He sighed and set down the notepad he was holding. “I’ll give my parts guy a nudge, see what he can do. But that’s the best I can do. No promises, okay?”
“Okay,” Natalie said, her heart sinking into her feet at the prospect of another two weeks in this town. “Thank you.” After leaving the mechanic her phone number, Natalie headed out of the shop, wandering along the sidewalks with nowhere in particular to be. It was a glorious day, the cerulean sky seeming to stretch to infinity above the surrounding silver-white mountain peaks, a puffy cloud drifting by every so often, its edges highlighted gold from the sun .
Despite the quaintness of the town, the sidewalks were bustling with people, many of them holding shopping bags overflowing with Christmas decorations, or nursing to-go cups of coffee and hot chocolate, or humming along with the carolers who were still belting out holiday favorites on what seemed like every corner. There were several bell-ringers collecting donations for the less fortunate, and Natalie dropped a few dollar bills into the next collection tin she passed.
“Thank you, miss,” the volunteer said, tipping his head at her in gratitude and offering her a sprig of mistletoe in return. She hesitated, then tucked it into the lapel of her peacoat. When in Rome … she thought, then slowed her pace as she approached a crowd of people gathered around a window display, many standing on tiptoe to see over the others’ shoulders.
She joined them, glancing up at the red and gold awning above the display, then at the sign hanging just below it that read, in old-fashioned script, Santa’s Toy Shop . The interior of the shop was vast and crammed with toys that whirled, toys that bobbled, toys that lit up, toys that sang…
It was a wonderland, Natalie thought with a smile, trying to imagine how her nine-year-old self would have felt entering a store like that. In the years after the tragedy, her grandmother had done her best to reintroduce some semblance of normalcy into Natalie’s life, and they’d even gone through the motions of Christmas: baking cookies, writing letters to Santa, even decorating the tree one year, though that had failed spectacularly, and ended with both of them in tears. Eventually they’d stopped altogether, doing little to mark the day aside from attending the midnight Mass at Grandma’s church, something she insisted on.
A woman and child in front of Natalie shifted, giving her a clear view of the window display. She inched closer, her breath frosting the glass as she took in the animated Santa Claus presiding over his elves, who were busy making toys, their little hammers rising and falling rhythmically over their workbenches. Mrs. Claus stood beside her husband, one hand holding a tray of sugar cookies shaped like Christmas trees, the other feeding a reindeer whose tail was wagging in time with the elves’ hammers. There was a bright, beautiful Christmas tree in one corner of the display, and a carousel with spinning lights in the other, and…
“Are you okay, dear?”
Natalie turned to find an elderly woman standing beside her looking at her in concern, and only then did she realize her eyes were wet, her cheeks streaked with tears. “I’m fine,” she said, quickly patting her cheeks dry as she let out a small, embarrassed laugh. “It’s just…” She waved toward the display, and the woman nodded, her eyes warm with understanding.
“Christmas is a magical time, isn’t it?” She rested a gloved hand on Natalie’s arm. “I still tear up every time I hear ‘O Holy Night.’ It was my husband’s favorite.” She gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “Merry Christmas, dear.”
“Merry Christmas,” Natalie managed, then backed away from the display, slowly at first and then more quickly, and by the time she cleared the crowd, she was practically jogging, her breath escaping in clouds around her. This place… it was getting to her. It was messing with her head, but she had no choice other than to make the best of it until she could hightail it back down the mountain and… what, exactly? No fiancé, no job, no home.
Well. Nothing could be done about the first problem, and the third would come in time… but number two? Number two, she could do something about, starting right now.
After a quick stop at The Mistletoe House to grab her laptop, she headed back out into the cold, making a beeline for The Chestnut Café, an adorable coffee, pastry, and sandwich shop located right next door. She’d grabbed dinner there to go last night, a roasted turkey and cranberry sandwich that had been positively to-die-for, and she was now eager to sample some of the incredible-looking treats behind the display case while she started her job search.
A blast of warmth greeted her as she stepped inside, the jingle bells above the door tinkling pleasantly above her head as a pretty woman about her own age waved to her from behind the counter. “Take a seat anywhere you like,” she called, slipping a blueberry muffin into a paper bag for the customer standing beside the cash register. “I’ll be there in just a few seconds with a menu.”
“Take your time,” Natalie called back, slipping off her coat and draping it on the back of her chair. The café was relatively quiet, probably between the lunch and dinner rush, and the only other customers were a middle-aged couple enjoying coffee and sharing a newspaper while holding hands across the table.
Natalie felt a rush of envy as she watched them for a few moments, then, when the woman glanced up, she quickly averted her eyes. The past twenty-four hours had been a blur, not leaving much time for her to dwell on her breakup, but Devin’s face popped into her mind just then, the pain sharp and brutal as a knife wound. She wondered what he was doing right now. If he missed her. If he regretted what he had done. If he really was the man she thought he was.
For some strange reason, Gabe’s face replaced Devin’s in her mind then—his gentle smile, his easy laugh, the respect and concern he’d shown for her, a complete stranger. He’d helped her when she needed help the most. Now that was the kind of man every woman deserved.
“Cookie?”
Natalie blinked several times, realized she had been staring vacantly at her laptop screen, and turned abruptly to face the woman standing beside her, the same one who had greeted her from behind the counter. The apron she wore was dusted with flour and smeared with chocolate, and she was holding a tray of sugar cookies shaped like Santa Claus heads, perfectly decorated and incredibly enticing.
“You look like you could use a cookie.” The woman smiled at Natalie as she gently lifted a cookie from the tray with a pair of tongs and set it on the plate in front of her. The Santa had rosy icing cheeks and a swirly beard, and Natalie couldn’t stop herself from taking an enormous bite, hints of vanilla and almond hitting her tongue as she sighed happily.
“That,” she said, “is delicious.” She waved toward the display case, which was loaded with freshly baked pies, cakes and cupcakes in various sizes and flavors, and tray upon tray of cookies. “Did you make these?”
“Every last one.” The woman’s face held just a hint of pride. “I’m Holly Archer. I own the café, which means anytime you come in here, I’ll probably be behind the counter.” She stuck out her hand and gave Natalie’s a shake. “Gossip spreads fast around here, so you don’t need to introduce yourself. I already know you’re the woman whose car broke down way up on the mountain.” She laughed, and Natalie frowned thoughtfully.
“Archer?” she said. “Are you related to?—”
The sentence hadn’t fully formed when Gabe walked through the door, accompanied by swirls of snow and a little girl with blonde pigtails and cheeks that were bright pink from the cold. “Mommy!” the girl squealed as soon as she laid eyes on Holly, skipping toward her as Gabe followed at a more sedate pace. His eyes warmed when he saw Natalie, and he acknowledged her with a nod before placing his hand on Holly’s shoulder and kissing her on the cheek.
Natalie returned his nod with a little wave of her own, then quickly turned her attention back to her laptop screen to give them some privacy, and where was that twinge of jealousy coming from? And why, and how, and about a hundred other questions, because she didn’t know Gabe, and even if they weren’t near-strangers, of course he was married, because why wouldn’t he be?
And why did she even care to ask herself these questions in the first place? That was the real question… and why had she said the word “question” to herself about a thousand times in the last ten seconds?
Good God. She needed help.
Natalie took another enormous bite of her cookie, just for something to do, and blushed as the table beneath her was showered with crumbs.
“How was she?” Holly asked, neither of them paying attention to Natalie—because why would they be?—as she stroked the little girl’s hair fondly. “Did the two of you have a good time?”
“We had a wonderful time,” Gabe responded, at the exact moment the little girl tugged on Holly’s apron and said, “Guess what, Mommy? Guess what?” Her eyes were bright. “We saw Rudolph!”
Holly gasped. “You did! What a wonderful surprise. Did you give him a carrot?”
“No, but she tried to feed him a snowball,” Gabe answered with a chuckle. “He wasn’t pleased.”
As the little girl continued chattering excitedly, Holly slipped a menu onto Natalie’s table, whispered, “Give me a shout when you’re ready to order,” and steered her daughter toward a table by the Christmas tree. A steaming mug of hot cocoa and a cookie followed in short order, and as the girl munched away happily, Gabe and Holly spoke quietly behind the counter. A few moments later, Gabe headed out of the café, waving to Natalie once more before he stepped outside.
Natalie’s eyes lingered on his back as he strode down the street, hands tucked deep in the pockets of his coat. When he’d disappeared around a corner, she looked up to find Holly watching her carefully, her expression unreadable. Natalie gave her a quick smile and returned to her work, her cheeks burning with embarrassment at having been caught admiring another woman’s husband.
No more of that .
Was it time to bury herself in her work before Holly tore the cookie from her hand and kicked her out into the snow? Yes, sir, it absolutely was.
The job search was tedious and frustrating, and after an hour of tapping away at the keyboard and two cups of coffee, Natalie had only identified two possible opportunities within a one-hour drive of the home she shared with Devin… though she supposed she could expand that radius, because she had no particular place, or city, that she truly called home. Not anymore.
Another hour, and her vision was blurring, not to mention she had polished off a third cup of coffee and was starting to feel jittery. Deciding to call it a day, Natalie snapped her laptop shut and was just debating what to do next when the café’s door flew open and Faith Holiday barged in, looking slightly frantic.
“Holly!” the innkeeper shouted, and Natalie could see wisps of white hair escaping from her bun. “Holly!” she called again, her voice rising. “We have an emergency! Jeannie’s come down with the flu, and we need an elf.”
She turned, looking around for Holly, but her gaze landed on Natalie instead.
And then, to Natalie’s horror, the older woman’s eyes lit up.