Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
J ack put the last candy cane in the box and then carefully closed it, wrapping the paper neatly and making it look as nice and pretty as he could.
This was where Lauren had really shone. She had a flair for making things look pretty.
A little bit like herself. Pretty on the outside.
Sometimes on the inside, she wasn't always beautiful.
He shook those thoughts aside. She was well-liked in the community, and she did the best she could. He didn't hate her and didn't regret marrying her, although he did regret her dying.
He didn't know why his thoughts were so morbid today, although maybe it had something to do with the announcement that he'd heard on the news that morning.
Big Bolts, the chain store that was in pretty much every town over a certain population across the United States, had announced that they were going to put in a candy section, and reading between the lines, he figured the candy would all come from an Asian country that paid their workers peanuts and could afford to ship things across the ocean for less than he could make them in his store and sell them off the shelf.
He couldn't imagine the conditions those workers must be in for that to be profitable for Big Bolts. And Big Bolts was the chain store that had been looking to put a store in just outside of Mistletoe Meadows.
If that happened, it was almost certainly going to take business away from his store. There was no way that some of the people who purchased candy canes from him wouldn't go to the close and convenient and now also carrying candy, Big Bolts.
His phone rang as he put the final touches on the box.
It wasn't anything to write home about, but it did look cute if he had to say so himself.
Maybe he was getting better at it. It wasn't what he wanted to do, it wasn't where his heart was, but he would do what he had to do in order to keep the inheritance that his daughter deserved alive.
Although he might not be able to keep from losing the store.
Sighing, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, saw that it was Noah Parker, who owned the music shop next door, and answered.
"Hey, Noah. What's up?"
"Jack. Glad I caught you. There's an emergency town business meeting tonight, and I was hoping you'd be able to attend."
He looked over at Lilly, who had been shaping warm candy ropes into perfect candy cane shapes, but who had stopped to look up and listen to his phone call. Her brows were puckered together, as though she was worried.
He gave her a reassuring smile before he turned slightly away from her and spoke into his phone.
"Lilly's here. I can't leave her."
"Well, if you could make it, I would appreciate it. We've got some serious business to talk about."
It didn't sound good. He bet it was about Big Bolts. He wasn’t the only one who was going to be affected by them putting in a store nearby.
Whatever it was, if it affected Mistletoe Meadows, it affected his bottom line, but even more so, it affected his friends, the people who had been like family to him after his wife had died and left him with a four-year-old little girl.
The sweetest girl in the world, and one he loved with a love that actually hurt.
He hadn't realized there could be a love like that, not until he had children.
"I'll see what I can do."
"All right. I'll look for you."
He hung up the phone and tried to think.
For some reason, Kate came into his mind immediately.
He could be wrong, but he was pretty sure he could give her a call, if he had her number, and she would come immediately.
But she was a professional. A counselor, working for the school.
She wasn't his friend, or a babysitter for him, as much as the line seemed to be blurred somehow in his mind.
He had enjoyed his conversation with her and realized that he didn't typically talk to people the way he had with her, opening up about things and discussing stuff that maybe didn't make a huge difference in the scheme of life, but that he enjoyed thinking about. She apparently did too.
No, he wasn't going to call her. Even if he could.
But Mrs. Abernathy might be willing to come over and put Lilly to bed.
He looked up at his daughter, who had moved silently from where she had been working over to his side.
Her hands were sticky; she hadn't even washed them, as she looked up at him, serious and sober and slightly afraid.
He didn't like his little girl being scared.
He put a hand on her shoulder and drew her to him, hugging her tightly and not caring that her sticky fingers were touching him as she hugged him back. Sticky fingers were a normal thing to a candy maker anyway.
"Do you mind if Mrs. Abernathy comes to put you to bed?" he asked gently, looking down at her as she pulled back and looked up at him.
"I know you love her, and she thinks you're just the best thing since sliced bread."
That got a little bit of a smile out of his daughter, and she nodded, although he knew she would rather not.
He thought she looked forward to their time together in the evening as much as he did.
They were in the middle of reading a good book, and they usually prayed together as well as talked about their day.
At least he talked, and she listened. It was the best he could hope for, and honestly, he appreciated the help of all of the experts, but he wondered if his daughter would ever talk again.
Something told him that she probably wouldn't.
Regardless, she had nodded, so he pulled his phone out and dialed his neighbor.