Chapter 2
Chapter Two
J ack Henderson glanced at the timer and then picked up one of the strings of hard candy that he had set to cool in the pan on the counter.
"Did you finish getting all of your homework together?" he asked his daughter, a rhetorical question since he knew she would not answer him, as he picked up the candy and began rolling it between his hands.
What had been strange and foreign ten years prior now came as easily as brushing his teeth or driving his tractor.
Without thinking about it, his hands expertly shaped the cooling candy into a perfect candy cane shape.
He looked over his shoulder, lifting a brow at his daughter, Lilly.
She was waiting for his glance, and she nodded one time, her head going up and down seriously, her eyes grave and serious.
"And everything else is ready to go?" he asked, waiting for her nod before he turned back to the candy.
She hadn't spoken a word since her mother had died three years prior. At this point, Jack had despaired of ever hearing her speak again.
They'd developed a rhythm, an easy camaraderie, and while it was a little bit harder than it might have been had she been able to speak, they'd gotten along fine.
It wasn't that she wasn't able to speak. The doctors told him there was nothing physically wrong. It was that she had chosen not to.
Jack felt guilt grip his insides, the way it always did when it came to his daughter.
Was he failing her? Had he done everything he could?
He knew he wasn't a very good mother, but he had been doing the best job he could at being the best daddy he could as well.
On top of that, he'd been trying to keep the candy shop afloat, so that someday Lilly would inherit it—what had been her mother's family's legacy.
Lilly would be the seventh generation of candy cane makers, and it was a heritage that the entire family had been proud of.
It had been exceptionally important to Lauren that Lilly be schooled in everything candy.
Jack had neglected his farm and the duties there, dumping them all on his brother, Bryan, in order to keep Lauren's dream alive and viable. But financial constraints were pressing horrendously down, and he wasn't sure how much longer the shop could stay afloat.
As if on cue, Jack lifted his eyes and saw two men in business suits walking by the front window.
They were peering in with interest, the way they had every morning for the last three days.
He tried to lift one corner of his mouth and nod his head in friendly greeting, although his interior felt anything but friendly. He wanted to tell the men to go find another town to open up their chain store in.
But a chain store in the general area would employ over one hundred people, plus delivery personnel, and probably Mistletoe Meadows could afford to hire more police and other government workers, and increase tax revenue, build a bigger school, just..
. a chain store would snowball economic development in a massively great and amazing way.
But it would probably, almost certainly, drive Jack and his candy cane creations out of business, destroying Lauren's dream and keeping Lilly from ever being able to step into the shoes of her ancestors.
He heard water running and turned to see Lilly washing her hands. She already had a hair cap on, and he almost told her to stop.
A quick glance at the clock on the wall told him that they only had twenty minutes before it was time for him to take her to school, and she didn't have time to help him.
But he kept his mouth closed. She loved helping, and he wanted to encourage it. Even if it did make things harder for him, since when she was younger, teaching her had also included ruined batches of candy.
Now, she was almost as good as he was at rolling the candy and shaping it into candy canes. Still, it added a little bit of stress, because she was no longer ready to walk out the door.
He did not allow her to see those thoughts, but instead smiled encouragingly at her as she came over, standing beside him and picking up one of the ropes of candy.
She knew as well as he did how imperative it was that they get the candy formed before it cooled so much that it was no longer pliable.
She pointed to the blue-colored candy and looked up and smiled at him.
"I know. Blueberry is your favorite too."
That was how he had met his wife. He had been delivering blueberries to their store, since they were trying to source local ingredients for their candy. His family farm had a ten-acre plot of blueberries, and they'd been more than happy to have some of them made into candy and sold locally.
He and his brother had been taking the farm over from their dad, and that's how he had met Lauren, when she had greeted him at the back door and helped him unload the delivery.
He smiled a little at the memory. But it was bittersweet, since Lauren was no longer with him.
Sometimes it annoyed him that she had left him with all the work, all the pressure, and hadn't at least told him that keeping up the family farm was just as important as making sure there was a candy shop for their daughter to inherit someday.
He was pretty sure that's the way Lauren would feel, but.
.. she had never said, and he had never thought to ask.
She had worked at the shop, and he had left the farm in order to help her, and they had been fine for years and years, until.
.. Lauren's untimely death from an aneurysm while she was showering.
Her parents had come back for the funeral, of course, but neither one of them had been interested in the candy shop. Lauren's grandmother had taught her pretty much everything she knew, and Lauren had loved every second of it.
He felt a touch on his side and looked down to see Lilly's elbow touching his waist.
That was how she got his attention since she knew better than to use her fingers to touch, since they had been washed and she now had gloves on.
She had just formed her third candy cane, and his hands had stilled around his. It was hardening in his hand, even as he looked at her.
"I'm sorry. I was just thinking."
Her brows raised, and he knew she was asking what he was thinking about.
"Nothing really. Just... Christmas is coming, and I need to figure out what in the world I'm going to get my daughter. She hasn't made me a list yet." He lifted his brows and gave her a stern look, but kind and loving as well.
Lilly shook her head and turned away from him, pulling the gloves off her hands.
He didn't need to tell her that the shop was struggling.
Somehow she knew. He had tried to protect her from those things, even though he wasn't sure that that was really what a father should do.
Maybe she should know. After all, if she was going to be a part of the business eventually, she'd need to figure it out.
But, considering that she was just in elementary school, it was too much for her small shoulders.
"Are you going to be in the Christmas play this year?" he asked.
She nodded, tossing her gloves in the trash.
He finished putting the last touch on his candy cane and then snapped his gloves off as well. They would have just enough time to head out the back door and get in the car to get to school on time.
Maybe Jack underestimated that just a bit, since the bell rang as Lilly stepped out on the sidewalk.
Knowing that he would need to write her a note, he offered her his hand, and they walked up the sidewalk together toward the principal's office.
This had happened more times than Jack cared to admit.
Again, he had to admit he was a little upset with Lauren for dying on him, which he knew made absolutely no sense, but it was the way he felt.
After all, as a single dad, trying to keep the candy shop afloat and deal with Lilly, who wasn't hard but was still a child and needed him, and in his spare time, trying to help his brother on the farm and keep that going as well—that was his backup if the candy shop didn't make it. And it was his dream, what he enjoyed.
"We're going to talk to Principal Stevens before you go to your classroom. I'll make sure that he knows it's my fault that you were late."
Lilly squeezed his hand but didn't say anything.
Maybe he was wrong, but he kind of thought that his daughter was annoyed with him, wanting him to be a better dad, wanting more out of him.
Was that just his imagination?
He opened the front door and held it while Lilly walked through.
She waited to take his hand again, which made him feel good. Maybe she wasn't terribly upset with him after all.
The principal's office was in the main hallway, right near the nurse's office and the counselor's office, which was empty. The previous counselor had left the week before, and from what he understood from Principal Stevens, the new one wasn't going to start until the new year, per her contract.
He remembered Principal Stevens saying something about the person coming and hanging around the school just to get to know everyone before she started her official duties. He hoped this counselor would be a little better than the last one and take an interest in Lilly somehow.
Or at least give Jack some better pointers of what he could do, beyond waiting and seeing, which was the solution of the last counselor.
"Good morning, Jack," Principal Stevens said, as he strode to the entrance of his doorway, like they were catching him on his way out.
"Good morning. I'm sorry; we stepped in as the bell rang, so I knew that meant I needed to make a trip here to make sure Lilly got checked in okay."
"Yeah, we've got her," Mr. Stevens said, and he didn't seem to have any judgment on his face. Maybe he truly did think that Jack was doing the best he could. Maybe he wasn't judging. Maybe it was just Jack's imagination that everyone thought he should be doing better.
"Lilly, you go on to your classroom. Your dad and I will take care of this. I saw you guys pulling in, and I messaged your teacher. She's expecting you."
Lilly nodded, and then her sweet blue eyes looked up at her dad.
Jack's heart melted as he knelt on one knee and gave her a hug. Her little arms wrapped around his neck, and she squeezed him back tightly. She was only seven, but it felt like she was growing up way too fast.
"You'll be good," he said, ruffling her hair affectionately as she grinned at him. And then she turned around, her backpack dwarfing her skinny little body as she walked confidently down the hall toward her classroom.
Jack straightened, and he and Mr. Stevens watched Lilly go.
Mr. Stevens must have been waiting for her to be out of earshot, because as soon as she turned the corner, he turned to Jack and said, "Our new counselor is starting after Christmas. I know I told you that."
"Yeah."
"I've already discussed Lilly with her, since she arrived early this morning." Mr. Stevens paused, and then in a rare show of annoyance, he said, "She has a better work ethic than the last counselor, who only seemed to show up for work in order to collect her paycheck."
"It's a bad career choice if a person only wants a paycheck," Jack said, although he had already surmised as much from the previous counselor.
He supposed he really didn't know of any job where a person should just show up.
If they couldn't put their heart and soul into their work, why didn't they just find something else where they could?
But he knew the answer to that was a lot more complicated than the question would make it seem. And he didn't have time to solve the world's problems. He had enough of his own.
Still, he wanted to live his life for the glory of the Lord, and one way to do that was to do his very best at everything he did, including his job.
Even if making candy wasn't exactly what he had dreamed of doing when he was a kid, or even when he was an adult.
But it seemed to be the path that God had laid out for him, and regardless of what he wanted, he needed to do what he knew was right.
"I'm sorry I can't introduce you this morning. She's already off checking in on the kindergartners. She said she would start with the youngest first and work her way up."
"Well, when she gets to the third grade, she'll meet Lilly."
"Yes. I don't expect her to be there until tomorrow."
Jack nodded. Hopefully this counselor would be a little better than the last one, although he'd done everything he could for Lilly.
He couldn't imagine that a counselor would make much difference.
The little girl had just been through so much trauma, losing her mother and having to learn to deal with him.
He wasn't much of a dad, at least most of the time he didn't feel like it.
And then this summer she'd been sick, and spent so much time in the hospital. Almost two weeks. Whatever progress they had made before that seemed to be totally erased.
"I look forward to meeting her," Jack said, as he held his hand out, and Mr. Stevens shook it.
He did look forward to meeting the new counselor, but he wasn't holding his breath that anything was going to change.