Chapter 6
“We would love for you to come back to the shop with us and help decorate for Christmas,” Noel mentioned eagerly to Keaton after wrapping the leftovers with foil.
She purposely waited until the kids ran off to the dessert table out of earshot of the question to avoid the chance that her brother’s answer would disappoint them.
“I wish I could, but I promised my buddies I would watch football with them,” Keaton answered apologetically.
Noel hoped he would spend the rest of the holiday with family, but she knew beggars shouldn’t be choosers. Although she invited him to the feast today, she initially doubted he would show up. However, he proved her wrong, and for that, gratefulness filled her healing heart.
With messy fingers, Levi devoured a piece of the pie he called dibs on earlier, and Laney forked a few bites of the slice she chose.
Noel and Mrs. Madelyn deliberately cut the pieces much smaller, knowing that kids and even some adults wouldn’t have room for a regular helping.
Most usually sported bigger eyes than appetites after a full Thanksgiving meal, and from what Noel saw in the buffet line, the local restaurants prepared all of the traditional dishes and even added a few contemporary favorites.
When Keaton announced his departure, Laney responded with a question that nearly broke Noel’s heart.
“Daddy, will you help us decorate the Christmas tree?” she asked sweetly with her fingers bonded as if kneeling at her bedside for a prayer.
However, if a prayer would bring her father back into her life more regularly, it would have happened a while ago.
Keaton lifted his daughter up again. “You know I would love to, but I have to meet some people.”
“What people?” she asked inquisitively.
“Friends,” he answered simply as if the rebuttal stunned him.
“Are they more important than us?” she wondered aloud with childlike sincerity.
Noel pressed her lips together hoping Laney’s question would warm her father’s heart.
“Absolutely not,” Keaton replied. “No one is more important than you, Levi, and Aunt Noel.”
Is football more important? Noel wanted to ask. How about beer? However, she kept her lips together as if bonded by glue.
“So you’ll come?” Laney assumed hopefully.
“I can’t cancel my plans at the last minute, little bug.”
You could Noel thought. You should.
“Maybe your dad will come by the candy shop soon and see all the hard work you and Levi have done,” Noel suggested, hoping to soften the blow.
“Yeah Daddy, do that.”
“I will,” he promised.
Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t, but for now the answer seemed sufficient for Laney.
When Keaton disappeared after a round of hugs, Noel and the kids tracked down Rainey, Chelsea, Mrs. Madelyn, and Jack.
Rainey wheeled Jack back to his vehicle, and then the rest of them headed to Beaufort Candy Company to decorate for Christmas.
Laney and Levi pulled the empty wagons along the sidewalk, and Noel reminded them that all the leftovers would be donated to the homeless shelter.
“The tree is so huge,” Levi told Rainey, his eyes mirroring the word choice as he and Laney led the group along the boardwalk overlooking Taylor Creek, the most scenic route.
Tiny waves rippled across the water causing the surface to shimmer like diamonds.
Most of the boats remained docked while everyone celebrated Thanksgiving although a few meandered through the no-wake zone.
Several families on their vessels' decks appeared to be enjoying the sunshine and the view as a pod of dolphins graced everyone with their presence moving at a pace similar to the wagon-themed walk.
After Noel twisted the key in the lock and everyone spilled through the entrance, Rainey’s eyes stretched the distance of the store, the space more than twice as long as the width. “Wow, the Christmas tree really is massive.”
“Told you so,” Levi declared.
“It smells so good,” Chelsea pointed out sniffing the open air as if a candle rested beneath her nose.
“I have always loved the smell that the fresh candy and live Christmas tree create,” Mrs. Madelyn commented as she became lost in the thought of all the years of experiencing the distinct aroma.
It reminded her of the dear friends who introduced her to this shop—two people who embodied the Christmas spirit year round.
“Rainey, you get to climb the ladder to wrap the lights around the top and hang the ornaments on the branches that are too high for the rest of us to reach,” Noel announced.
“I knew you all had an ulterior motive for inviting me,” Rainey responded with a smirk.
In the past only family and Mrs. Madelyn decorated the store, but this year Noel decided at the last minute to solicit the help of friends.
She waited until the end of the Thanksgiving feast to ask since she hoped Keaton would be the one climbing the ladder as usual.
This would mark the first time without him present for the occasion.
Last year he still participated in most family traditions.
None of the adults gave fully into decorating the candy shop last season, and Noel knew it showed visually and in the books. This year she held high hopes.
Chelsea smacked her husband on the shoulder. “You are the second woman to hit me today,” Rainey acknowledged.
“Oh yeah, who was the first?” she inquired. “I want to know so that I can thank her for helping keep you in line.”
Rainey glared at Noel as she locked up the store behind the crew, grinning as the conversation between her friends took residence in her ears.
“Thank you, Noel,” Chelsea noted.
“My pleasure.”
The cuckoo clock sounded letting everyone know that two o’clock arrived. More importantly, the kids, helping prove Pavlov’s bell theory, sprinted to the spot where they left their stockings. Levi slid across the wooden floor like a baseball player trying to score the winning run.
“Did we miss eating any of our special candy while we were at Thanksgiving?” Laney investigated suspecting they had.
“I think the two of you ate more than your share of candy at the community feast,” Noel declared as she recalled seeing them run to and from the dessert table often along with scores of other children. “But yes, you missed two, and you can eat them whenever you want.”
“Or you can give them to me,” Rainey encouraged.
“No way,” Levi replied.
“You can have my two extras,” Laney offered. “I’m stuffed like a turkey.”
Everyone laughed at the comment and the exasperated facial expression that accompanied her cute little face.
“You can have one of mine,” Levi decided.
After the three kids—one much bigger than the others—finished unwrapping and eating candy, Noel held a quick huddle with the group to discuss the planogram she created to turn the candy shop into a Christmas wonderland.
Once the helpers understood their roles, Rainey fetched a couple of fifteen-foot extension ladders from the back room to add to the two ten-foot ladders on the floor from earlier.
Mrs. Madelyn and the kids started wrapping multi-colored lights around the base of the Christmas tree while Noel and Chelsea strung white icicle lights from the lowest ceiling beams, interchanging the ladders to reach the desired points.
When the kids and Mrs. Madelyn made it as high up the tree as their arms would allow from floor level, Rainey circled the tree with lights until reaching the very top.
While he worked on that, the kids hung ornaments and candy canes on all the low branches, and then Rainey did the same up the tree.
Noel fussed at him when she caught him letting the children climb the ladder to add items, but he promised he would support them with his hands the whole time.
“Rainey’s a big, strong police officer, Mommy,” Levi stated while flexing his biceps.
Noel grinned and shook her head. Keaton did the same thing in previous years, and she imagined Levi and Laney brought up the idea this time around.
As traditional Christmas carols filled the store, the volume a bit higher than during business hours, Noel snuck peeks at the tree while she and Chelsea worked their way toward the back of the shop taking turns climbing and holding the ladders for each other.
“This is a workout,” Chelsea mentioned several times.
“I told you it was hard work.”
“I thought you were exaggerating,” she countered, playfully rolling her eyes.
Rainey paused his part of the Christmas tree project several times to help his wife and Noel reach spots beyond their limits.
Mrs. Madelyn constantly reminded everyone to test each strand of lights before installing them, a comment Noel’s mother used to be in charge of making.
Every time the clock sounded, the kids ran for their candy, and Rainey stopped, too, to unwrap treats with them.
Noel gave him permission to pick whatever he wanted in the store as payment for helping.
“You might regret making that deal,” he surmised.
At nearly the exact time Levi topped the tree with the giant star, Noel and Chelsea hung the last strand of icicle lights.
Rather than letting Levi and Laney argue about who got to put the star on, Noel asked if one wanted to perform that task and the other shut off all the lights in the store except for the Christmas ones.
“That’s when the magic really comes to life,” Mrs. Madelyn reported.
Laney quickly opted for the latter, and the timing seemed impeccable because as they worked and the clock hands circled, the sun sank below the horizon, and eventually darkness took over the view on the other side of the windows.