Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
“Any luck?” Marilyn asked as Felicity walked into the store carrying a bag of sandwiches from town.
Felicity let out an exaggerated sigh. “No. The assessor’s office is a hot mess. Doris, the clerk, is going to do some digging for us in the morning. Hopefully by then I’ll know exactly who is behind this lien so I can figure out how to deal with it going forward.”
“I still think it’s a mistake,” Marilyn said, the lines around her eyes deepening as she frowned. “Kitty was never one to ignore a debt. There is no way she’d saddle you with this.”
Felicity nodded her agreement. “That’s why I thought it was a scam at first. But the lawyer says it’s legit, so here we are, forced to track down paperwork to see if we can get to the bottom of it.”
“I wish there was something I could do to help.” Marilyn wiped the pie counter, even though the surface was already spotless. Tears filled her eyes as she added, “Kitty would be heartbroken to see you struggling with this.”
Felicity’s eyes burned, but she quickly blinked back the tears. “Enough of that, Marilyn. This is no time to be worrying about that. Jackson is helping me, and we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure this orchard stays in the Hill family for decades to come.”
The words sounded hollow to Felicity’s own ears. Considering she was the last Hill, they both knew that eventually the orchard would be sold off since there was no heir.
Yet.
Not that Felicity planned on getting married and having kids. Maybe she’d leave the orchard to Clara’s or Marissa’s kids. That seemed plausible. But only if she managed to hang onto it long enough.
The phone rang.
Felicity grabbed it. “Apples and Spice and Everything Nice. How may I help you today?”
The person on the other end of the line cleared their throat. “Hi, this is Sherry Castle. I’m supposed to be renting your cabin for the next two weeks.”
Supposed to be? Felicity thought immediately as dread started to coil in her gut. She took a deep breath, bracing for the worst. “Hi Sherry, this is Felicity. How can I help?”
“Well,” the woman said, sounding tired. “We’ve had a family emergency, and my husband and I can’t make it. I’m so sorry to cancel last minute, but my grandmother has had an accident and is in the hospital in San Francisco. We need to stay near home to help with her care.”
“I am so sorry,” Felicity said, feeling terrible for her guest. The Castles had been renting her cabin every year for the past five years. They were a lovely couple who came to visit with family that lived just outside of Christmas Grove. “I hope your grandmother is going to be okay.”
“So do I,” Sherry said. “Listen, I’ve got to go talk to her doctor, but I wanted to let you know so you wouldn’t worry when we didn’t show up later today.”
“Thank you, Sherry. And please send my good wishes to your grandmother. We’re going to miss you and your husband this year.”
“We’ll miss it too,” Sherry said. Then she wished Felicity a merry Christmas before ending the call.
Felicity pulled the reservation up on the computer, noting that the Castles had paid in full for their rental.
Feeling terrible for them, she immediately processed a refund the orchard couldn’t afford and prayed for a Christmas miracle.
Even though it was their policy to offer no refunds on canceled rentals within two weeks of the reservation date, the Castles were some of her favorite guests.
She couldn’t, in good conscience, keep their money when she knew they were dealing with a family emergency.
The miracle she prayed for walked in an hour later.
“Well, hello there, handsome,” Marilyn said to Jackson as he strode up to the counter. “What can I do for you today?”
“I need an apple pie and a bottle of that apple cider,” he said.
Felicity looked up from her spot where she was restocking the fudge and smiled at the handsome man. “Did you miss me already?”
“Of course,” he said, casting his gaze over her from head to toe before he chuckled softly. “I see that you traded the dust for smears of chocolate.”
Felicity glanced down at the apron she was wearing and just laughed. He was right. She’d been in the back room cutting up the homemade fudge and had managed to get more of it on the apron than she had into the display case. “It’s been a day.”
“Tell me about it,” he said. “I just found out that I need to find a place to stay for the next two weeks. Since there are no short-term rentals and the inn is full, I’m about to impose on the newlyweds.
They were kind enough to offer me their couch until Christmas.
That’s what the pie and the cider is for.
A thank you gift.” Then he grimaced. “But my back isn’t looking forward to it. ”
“Wait, what?” Felicity asked. “What’s wrong with your house? Did your mother run you off?”
“Sort of,” he said. “It’s a long story, but the short version is that it’s being rented out to film a movie she’s in, and I needed to move out for a few weeks.”
“And your answer is to stay on Marissa and Danny’s couch?” Felicity shook her head. “That sounds miserable.”
“Their guest room is full of pottery stock. It’s either that or find a place down the mountain, and that commute sounds worse than a couch.”
“The cabin’s available,” Marilyn said helpfully.
“It is?” Jackson asked hopefully. “I didn’t see it on the short-term rental sites.”
“Our Christmas guests just canceled,” Felicity said. “I’ll give it to you at half price as a thank you for helping with the lien stuff.”
“You don’t need to give me a discount,” Jackson said, his shoulders sagging in relief. “The fee to rent my house covers outside accommodations. All I need to do is submit an invoice, and they’ll handle it.”
Felicity nearly cried in relief. She’d spent the past hour crunching numbers and wondering how she was going to pay bills now that she’d refunded two weeks of cabin rental income. “That’s fortuitous,” she said. “For us, anyway.”
“For all of us,” he corrected. “Did you really think I wanted to stay with the newlyweds?” He faked a shudder. “Can you imagine what I’d wake up to?”
Felicity laughed. “Okay, that’s enough. No one needs to think about that.” She reached under the counter and came up with the key to the cabin. “I’ll email you an invoice to submit.”
Jackson threw down his credit card. “Run this. I’ll get them to reimburse me.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Felicity argued. “If they are paying—”
“I can use the mileage points,” he said, cutting her off.
It was hard to argue with that. “Okay.” She quickly got him squared away and then said, “Just let us know if you need anything. The fridge is already stocked with items our guests had requested. Use what you want and discard the rest.”
Jackson nodded. “Thank you, Felicity. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”
“No need to thank anyone. We’re just glad to have the cabin rented. Now go settle in and let us get back to work.”
He handed Marilyn cash for the pie and cider. “I will, but I’m taking these with me. After the morning I’ve had, I think pie is definitely in order.”
Felicity laughed as she and Marilyn watched him walk out the door.
“It looks like there’s plenty of Christmas magic in the air,” Marilyn said, her eyebrows raised. “Seems something is trying to make sure you two spend as much time together as possible.”
“Magic? Come on, Marilyn,” Felicity said, rolling her eyes. “The cabin coming available was just a coincidence. You don’t really think that Sherry Castle’s grandmother had an accident and was sent to the hospital just so the universe could throw me and Jackson together, do you?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s not how I think things work. But since the cabin was available, I do think something other than coincidence sent Jackson here. This land has always had a way of making sure things turn out right… even when it looks like they won’t.”
“I pray that’s true,” Felicity said, thinking of the lien. “You have no idea how much I want to believe that.”
Marilyn patted her hand. “You’ll see. Something tells me that Jackson Bell is meant to be part of your story. Whether you want him to be or not.”
Felicity kept her gaze focused on the fudge case she was stocking, refusing to meet Marilyn’s eyes. If she did, Felicity was certain that her grandmother’s oldest friend would see right through her and know that Felicity desperately wished she was right.