Chapter 3
The next morning, Daniel dropped by the hotel to pick up the shop keys from Selena so he and Frank could get started on the remaining projects. He’d brought kolaches for breakfast.
“Oh, wow. Thanks. I can grab us something to drink from Silva’s shop,” Selena said, giving him a kiss and hug.
He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a warm embrace. “That would be perfect. She’ll be open about the time we get started.”
Selena loved how affectionate he was.
He drove her to the shop, and she loved how all the shops down Main Street had awnings over the sidewalk.
She knew just what she was going to hang on hers.
One large skeleton would be climbing the pole for the awning, and another would be sitting atop the awning with his legs dangling over the edge.
“I didn’t know you would be ready this early,” she said.
“Frank wants to get your store set up today.”
“Oh, that’s good. I’ve been ordering merchandise.”
“Let me know if you need any help with it. What are you going to do about a place to stay?”
“I’ve thought of getting an apartment I can rent monthly that I can try out. Then after that, I’ll look for a house to buy.” Once they arrived at the shop, she asked what they wanted to drink.
Frank said, “I brought a thermos of coffee from home.”
“You, Daniel?”
“Pumpkin spice cold brew.”
She smiled. “My favorite too.” Then she headed over to the tea shop.
Silva greeted Selena when she arrived. Selena smiled. “I feel any place I go, you’ll be there to greet me.”
Silva smiled. “What do you want to drink and eat?”
“Just two pumpkin spice cold brews.”
“Two. One wouldn’t be for Deputy Sheriff Daniel Hoffman, would it?”
“Yes, he’s helping Frank build more things in the shop.”
“Sheriff Jorgenson gave him the time off?” Silva asked.
“Yes. Wasn’t that nice of him?”
Silva chuckled. “Peter’s mated to Meghan MacTire. It sounds to me like she and her sisters are doing a bit of matchmaking without even telling me.”
Selena laughed. “Well, we’re enjoying each other’s company. See you later.” She took the drinks back over to her shop and thought how much fun it would be to get a special drink from the tea shop to start her daily routine.
“Here you go,” she told Daniel as she entered her shop.
They enjoyed their kolaches and drinks, and then the guys went to work while she ordered more merchandise.
Halfway through the day, Daniel took Selena to Silva’s shop to have lunch. Frank had brought his lunch from home.
“Oh, my, you’re back.” Silva seated them at a table and gave them menus.
“Sure. We decided to have lunch here. Frank brought his own,” Selena said.
“He loves his mate’s cooking, but also, she would be offended if he didn’t eat it. Do you know what you want?” Silva asked.
Selena read the menu. “I’ll have the chicken salad and lemon tea.”
“I’ll have the beef pot pie and cinnamon tea,” Daniel said.
“I’ll get them right out.” Silva hurried off.
Daniel turned to Selena. “Do you want to go to the same cemetery tonight or a different one? Or do you want to take the night off?”
“I’m getting deliveries in and want to keep working on the shop to start getting it ready. So no cemetery tonight. I should do a grand opening.”
“Yes. Everyone does, and they’re wildly successful.”
“Okay. I’ll order treats from Silva’s shop.” Selena loved giving back to the community.
“I can make some chocolate chip cookies.”
She laughed. “A man after my own heart, only I’ll be eating them up before customers can have any.”
He smiled.
“Double the chocolate chips?”
“Naturally, a chip in every bite,” he said.
“You have a deal. I’ll make a couple of pitchers of wassail.”
After they finished their meal, they said goodbye to Silva and returned to the shop.
Daniel and Frank began building the dressing rooms while she took in deliveries and opened boxes out of their way.
She decided that, until all the merchandise arrived, she would decorate the top shelves with her own special Halloween and fall decorations and post a sign reading: "For Display Only. "
Her howling wolves had come in, and she set two of them in the window—the black one for Halloween, and the copper one for fall, representing the red wolf.
Then she put a bunch of orange and burgundy flowers around them, as if they were in a meadow full of fall flowers.
She opened another box, and she was excited to see that her six-foot skeletons had come in.
She hoped Daniel wouldn’t mind helping her put them outside.
Best of all, her hand-carved Howling Wolf store sign had come in, and maybe Frank and Daniel could hang that in the window too. Things were beginning to shape up.
They’d already put up the framed mirror, and it made her shop look so much bigger. She found a box of small skeletons and hung one on each end of the mirror. Then, to her surprise, the MacTire sisters arrived.
“We saw you were getting deliveries. Can we help you with anything?” Laurel asked.
“Sure.” The sisters had done a beautiful job decorating their hotel. Selena figured they could help her with her decorating.
They began digging out the three-foot-tall, smaller skeletons, and Ellie said, “Oh, we have to have two of these on our counter and one on the banister for the stairs.”
“And one of the ones on the counter can be holding this jack-o’-lantern with the battery-operated candle.” Meghan pulled it out of one of the boxes.
“The other skeleton can hold onto this bundle of fall flowers.” Laurel set it aside on the counter with the rest of the collection they were going to purchase.
Daniel smiled at Selena.
She found a box of turkeys—soft fabric, hand-carved wooden, with springy legs, ceramic turkeys. She also had ceramic turkey salt and pepper shakers. She set them out for anyone who wanted to buy something for Thanksgiving.
Then Maxine Fox popped in. Her clothing shop was on the other side of Selena’s store. Maxine started pulling merchandise out of one of the boxes. “I had to see what merchandise you had. The sitting black cat with the witch’s hat is mine. Oh, and this one too that is sleeping.”
Selena laughed. She would sell everything before she even opened shop. But she was thrilled that others were interested in her merchandise. And it was unique.
She set a carved pumpkin with a wolf howling on its face in the window and placed a battery-operated candle inside it. Then she filled the rest of the window with purple flowers, sunflowers, and pumpkins.
Silva walked inside and laughed. “I thought I had seen all of you come in here. And what’s this?
” She motioned to the counter, where all the merchandise was sitting.
“All the goodies you’re going to purchase?
I knew I needed to get in here before you bought everything.
Aww, the witch kittens are so cute. Oh, I love these skeletons.
I wouldn’t sell them in my store, but a couple of them drinking from my teacups? Perfect.” She set two aside.
Note to self: buy more skeletons.
The guys worked on hanging her sign in the window as the MacTire sisters made sure it hung properly, and now that Selena’s store had a name, it seemed more official.
Frank had made the clothes carousels at home, and he and Daniel brought them in and set them up.
They hung up her outdoor skeletons on the awning, just the way she wanted them.
She thanked Frank for the beautiful workmanship and for all that he had done, and thanked Daniel for helping with everything.
She paid Frank, and he left. She handed Daniel a string of orange lights to hang in her display window, and they hung them up as the finishing touch.
The ladies were hanging up all the clothes on the carousels, looking at each Halloween and fall shirt, then picking out the ones they wanted.
Maxine found one with a black cat wearing a witch’s hat, sitting among books and potions.
Silva found one with a cat sitting in a teacup.
Selena had forgotten she had anything with teacups, but Silva didn’t sell clothes, just aprons in her shop.
Then Roxie and Kayla Wolff entered the shop. “Oh, my, Selena’s shop isn’t open yet, and everyone is buying her out. What about these skeletons? We could put children’s ski goggles on them?” Kayla asked her sister.
“Three of them?” Roxie asked.
“Sure.”
“And a couple of lighted jack-o’-lanterns. We have pumpkins,” Roxie said, “but no jack-o’-lanterns that you can light up.”
“Aww, look at the fall T-shirts. The Halloween ones are cute too,” Kayla said.
They picked out a couple apiece.
Selena had to stop unpacking boxes to make up sales tickets so the ladies could get back to work, but they just kept emptying boxes until they were done.
“We have a recycle bin out back,” Silva said, breaking up the boxes.
Everyone began helping her, and Daniel hauled the flattened boxes out back.
“He sure is a help,” Laurel said.
Selena remembered Silva telling her that the MacTire sisters were into matchmaking.
“It would have taken twice as long to get my shop in order if he hadn’t been here to help.” She still hadn’t gotten all her merchandise in, but after the ladies pulled out all the things they wanted, they’d sure put a dent in her merchandise, which was great.
The shop was clean and ready for more boxes of merchandise, but for now, she was done. The ladies paid for their merchandise and then left. Daniel asked her if she needed him to help her with anything else.
“No. I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to run to the cemetery we went to last night and search it further since I got so much done on the shop today.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, I know where it is, and the work can be tedious.”
“Okay, I’m off to work to see what they need me to do, and then we’ll have dinner tonight at the Timberline Ski lodge?”
“Sure, that would be nice.” Then she could see how they used the skeletons to decorate their gift shop and what else they carried.