Chapter 29
After listening to Kenzie spout off legal terms for a whole three minutes, I packed up my breakfast and left, choosing to spend the rest of the day with Lark.
Perhaps a part of me needed to assure her I would always be there for her no matter what.
I knew negotiations would happen with her father at some point, and though Kenzie said she would take care of the Southern oil tycoons, my stomach is still twisted up in knots at the thought they could even have a claim on Lark.
It isn’t that I don’t want her to meet her grandparents, but that I want them to do it for the right reasons, and not because they are using my girl for clout. It’s something that won’t be solved overnight, no matter how much I wished it could be.
The key here is and always will be patience. I don’t have patience, but I’m willing to do my best to learn.
Sunday, we all help put up Christmas lights on the B&B while consuming sandwiches and other finger foods. I’m still not hooked on where this entire Wonderland situation is heading, but I admit, curiosity itches at my spine.
Normally in the South, or in any city, most people just want to go shopping and purchase gifts after Thanksgiving. While there are a few little stores scattered around town, they haven’t been any busier than any other day, which surprises me.
It dawns on me as we string up lights while conversation washes over me.
“What’s your one gift this year?” Seraphina casually asks Arlo.
One gift?
“My one gift?” He peers out from behind a pile of tangled lights, his blue eyes sparkling as the golden glow of the twinkle lights give his eyes a mischievous glint. Then those eyes land on me, and my breath whooshes right out of my lungs.
Seraphina coos, but my eyes never drift from Arlo’s. Not even as he smiles and glances away with a slight blush on his face.
“One gift?” I ask as I drag yet another box out from where Arlo dropped no less than five of them at the base of the staircase.
“The town has a tradition.” Autumn saunters in, holding two large exercise balls she decorated to look like ones we always hung on our Christmas tree. She also has oversized plastic candy canes hanging off her arms. “One gift.”
“Okay.” I draw the word out, ready to give up on the lights that are truly never coming apart. I’ve doomed them to forever live tangled. I may as well just hang that from the tree and call it my very own personal Christmas decoration.
“The tradition,” Saffron interrupts as she enters the room with a plate of cookies, “is quality over quantity. All year, we think of what we truly want, and then that’s what we ask from Santa.” Saffron winks at Lark. “What we want in our hearts.”
“Huh.” I toss the lights on the floor and reach for a cookie. I sink my teeth into a double chocolate mint gooey deliciousness that is otherworldly. Holding back a moan, I gobble it down like my life depends on it, and heck, it just might.
The sugar gods have spoken, and I declare myself their eternal loyal follower.
“Last year, Willow wanted nothing more than to cure world hunger.” Seraphina smiles at her sister affectionately.
“So what was your gift?” I look at Willow curiously. She’s the one sibling I know the least about. I know she’s been traveling this entire year, but now I wonder if she traveled because of this gift.
Her messy bun bobbles with her thick brown hair, but her young face lights up with affection for everyone in the room.
“The entire town donated what they could and sent me all over the United States to help in food deserts, and to study the environment so I can help them problem solve how to make their situations better.” She beams at me.
Shock ripples through my system. When they mentioned one gift, I thought of something simple, like a gaming system for the entire family where they could wage battles against each other.
Not…this.
This is so much more than a gift. What they gave didn’t just help Willow, it helped so many other people. She didn’t just show up and give them things, but she problem solved and taught, and that…that kind of gift is utterly priceless. It renders me speechless.
“Speaking of!” Autumn chimes in. “So we need to talk about Paris’ gift. So far, all the girls are in on it. I just haven’t had time to speak to you yet.” She points directly at me. “Because of the whole skunk situation and all.”
Saffron pauses in untangling lights to give me a pointed look.
Cooper has been questionably absent recently, and I swear the little critter is all too aware of the destruction he caused.
“I didn’t hear about this.” Robin stalks out of the kitchen, speaking around a mouthful of cookies.
Autumn gives him a disturbing look before she carries on. She’s not helping us, by the way, but she is taste testing versions of eggnog.
“All right, so she’s ready for life. The veterinary clinic is partially up. No one touched the building in the last five years, for good reason.” She gives each of us a look before carrying on. “She will be in and out of town for the next few months getting her credentials up to date.”
“Point, Autumn. Where is the point?” Robin asks before slouching into a chair. Also not helping.
“We want to finish the clinic and open up a preschool slash after-school program for her little creature.T way she can have legitimate office hours.” Autumn taps her chin, trying to determine if that’s everything.
“Dirk at the hardware store is already on top of everything she needs, but it’s going to be a lot.
She has most of the things she needs but is missing the rest.”
“I think her first patient should be Cooper,” Saffron says as she somehow expertly untangles the last of her pile of lights. That’s a witch talent if I ever saw one.
I sigh. “I will bring it up to him, but I’m not sure he is going to like it.”
“Sis, he is a skunk. They don’t have feelings.” Robin sips the eggnog Autumn hands him.
“Don’t mention that to Paris, she will gut you.” Autumn takes back the glass when Robin makes a disgusted face. “What was it?”
“Too many spices.”
“Noted.” Autumn goes back to her mixing.
Meanwhile, I just sit in my little corner with my pile of lights, dumbfounded at this scenario, this town, and their tradition of Wonderland. Something inside of me just clicks, and I’m getting it.
The thrill, the whispers to neighbors about what they really want out of life, and how they all band together to make that happen. It reminds me of a fairy-tale land, and it doesn’t just blow my mind, but it also gives me hope to think of impossible feats.
“What about you, Robin? What do you want for Christmas?” Seraphina asks. Just like her mom, she unwinds lights like a wizard.
“I’m new here.” He sits up, but I know my brother, and he already knows what he wants. “I want to give back. You guys took in my sister when she was stranded.” He looks at me, his eyes warming. “You healed wounds in her that I never could, and for giving me back my sister, I owe you all so much.”
I’m speechless, my eyes burning with unshed tears. The feeling of love that drifts around the room is almost too much to bear, but he’s right—this town and the people in it have healed something inside me that I thought was irreparable.
And I’m pretty sure I found love.
“What about you, Seraphina?” I ask, willing my body to absorb my tears so this family doesn’t see just how much they affect me.
“My own gift” —she gives me a coy smile— “is to renovate the one and only spare room at the school into a preschool and after-school program for Paris.”
“Huh.” I’m amazed, and curiosity eats at me because I want to know more. No, I need to know more.
“I have everything I could ever want, Wren.” She smiles as she moves to another pile of Christmas lights. “A family who not only loves me, but supports me in every avenue of life. A town that will bind together when I or another needs it most.”
“We even got Christian a job.” Autumn hands Robin yet another glass of eggnog, and this time, she watches him as he sips the drink.
Robin cocks his head to the side and waves Autumn off, choosing to keep that glass.
“What job?” But somehow, I already know. Deep down, I know what they set him up to do.
“The history teacher has wanted to retire for the last decade. Christian has all his credentials, so for the rest of the year, he’s going to shadow him.” Her eyes light up with a disturbing glint that I’m learning is Autumn’s conniving face, and it terrifies me.
“I can’t believe you got him a job.” I shake my head. We all deserve a second chance, but with the way he showed up in this town, I thought they’d just throw him on his butt and call it a day.
“Yep, and he’s my new roomie.” Robin also holds that scary glint in his eyes. A nd now I know I should have kept him and Autumn apart. “And I’m the new gym teacher.” He wags his brows.
Their friendship already frightens me, and he’s only been here a week.
“Good luck with that one,” I mutter.
“Oh, I have all the luck on my side.” Robin smiles before downing his glass and handing it back to Autumn for a refill.
“All right, Autumn, what do you want?” My mind itches to know what else these people could want in this world. I’m learning there is a solid theme.
“Ah.” Autumn points at me while handing me a glass of eggnog.
“I haven’t given it much thought, to tell you the truth.
I want to make sure Paris has her clinic set up and she’s healing.
” She shrugs as though there isn’t anything else, but she averts her eyes, and I feel like there is something she wants. S he just isn’t ready to spill it.
She may never spill it.
“Okay, Saffron?” Just when I think I untangled my ball, it suddenly isn’t, so I toss it at Saffron.
“Oh, my dear, I cannot say.” She winks at me before leaving the room just as a timer goes off in the kitchen. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear she planned that.