Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
MATTHEW
The dark-haired woman standing in front of me looks familiar, but I can’t place her. She’s looking around the room at us, wide eyed and pale faced, as if she’s afraid to step more than a foot into the room.
“Fiona?” Trevor asks, shocked. “Why would you do something like that?”
“I had no choice,” she says in a quiet voice, looking down at her folded hands in front of her.
“What do you mean?” Avery asks, still plastered to my side.
“I wasn’t even supposed to be in the games at all. My boyfriend, Lance, and I broke up the week before the games. We had told the organizers that we were going to pull out, but Cal insisted that we stay in to make the number of couples even after you both joined.”
“Why would he care about that?” I ask.
“At the time, I didn’t know. I was so heartbroken that I just went along with it all, hoping that maybe if we did the games together things would change, and we would get back together. But after the toboggan race, Cal pulled us aside and gave us a proposition.”
I look at Avery, who’s looking just as confused as I do.
“He said that he had to make sure that he and McKenzie won and that the reputation of the town was riding on it. If we didn’t help him, then all the changes we made to have Woodland Springs turn into Gingerbread Grove would be for nothing.”
“So you took my accessories for the snowbread man?”
“The…what?” she asks confused.
“The snow sculpture,” I clarify.
“I’ll get a name that sticks one of these days,” Avery mutters.
“Yes, I took them when you went off to speak with Matthew. I felt bad, so I only took the ones that I didn’t think you would absolutely need.” She looks back down for a moment before confessing. “I was really happy you won. I loved your sculpture.”
“Thank you,” Avery says hesitantly. “Did you do the location devices, too?”
Fiona sighs. “Yes. We were behind you in the golf cart that took us to Gum Drop Hill. We slipped them in your pockets while you were talking about taking your dad’s offer. Which, I hope is true, by the way.”
I don’t know why she’s invested in me moving back to Gingerbread Grove. Whatever her reasoning, I put my arm around Avery and hold her closer to me.
“And the gingerbread competition?” Eric cuts her a glare.
“That was Lance. We were already eliminated at that point, so I wasn’t there. I didn’t know he was planning on doing that until after it had happened.”
“That one hurt. Physically and emotionally.” Eric clutches at is chest.
“So, who’s InsiderCookie57?” Avery asks, wrapping her arm around my waist.
“Me,” Fiona admits “I really didn’t want to be, but once the town started getting excited about you two doing so well. Cal wanted to add a little ‘fuel to the fire’ as he said. So, he got me an account.
“And you spread those lies about me breaking the gingerstore on purpose?” Eric raises his voice, his eyebrows nearly reaching his hairline.
“How come ‘gingerstore’ sounds so good but I can’t make ‘snowgingerman’ work?” Avery mutters.
“Focus, Avery. Gingerbreadian reputations are at stake here.” Eric snaps his attention to Avery before turning back to Fiona. “Continue.”
“McKenzie was the one that told me that you two were fake dating and that I needed to make the post with the picture of your—gingerstore—being ruined. I don’t know how she got that information…I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
“Then why tell us now?” I ask, but my attention drifts to Trevor, who’s started walking toward the other side of the room.
“I feel bad. I went along with it because Lance said the games were making him think of the old times together and that he wanted to restore our dream of opening an inn together.”
“Wait, opening an inn?” Eric asks.
“Yes. Lance was working with Cal to buy the old inn in town. We were going to restore it and make it fit with the theme of the town. But after we were eliminated and there was no way that Matthew and Avery were going to win the competition, he broke up with me for good.”
“That explains why all of your paperwork kept going missing,” I say to Eric.
“What do you mean?” Fiona asks.
“I’ve been working with Cal for months on getting the inn up and running. I bought it last year but every time I try to get the permits and licenses, they always ‘go missing.’”
“Um, guys?” Matthew asks, staring down at a cabinet behind the counter.
We all rush over to see shelves fully stocked with candy canes. There are different colours and flavours, each shelf bursting with the peppermint treats.
“I thought these were banned,” Avery says, peering over the cabinet door.
“They are. When Cal turned everything into gingerbread, he passed a by-law that no stores were allowed to sell these. It was something about a ‘good faith rule.’” Trevor says.
“So who owns this place and why do they have a secret candy cane stash?”
“I do,” a man says from the doorway, standing next to Cal and McKenzie.
“Lance?” Fiona asks, stunned.
He doesn’t even look her way. He has his eyes trained on mine.
“I bought this place, hoping that I could start up a gingerbread empire. I’d start with the candy store and the inn, then work my way through stores in town.
With you and your brother out of town, I had my eyes on the hardware store next. ”
“You were going to push my dad out of his store?” My hearts stops with my next thought. “You didn’t actually push him, did you?”
“No,” Lance chuckles. “The old man did it himself. I was just going to hop onto the opportunity of him being off work to try and encourage him into early retirement. I had everything lined up getting the store and the inn open with the hardware store next, but then you came back to Gingerbread Grove and ruined it all.”
“I can’t believe you lied to me, Cal. After talking me into coming here. Why did you do that?” Eric asks.
“It wasn’t hard to overhear your problems in Candy Cane Creek when I visited, I was looking for a way to stir up the drama between the towns.
I needed Gingerbread Grove to be the tourist destination during the holiday season.
Lance expressed interest after you bought the inn.
I thought that once your paperwork kept getting ‘misplaced’ you’d give up and be looking to sell it to someone else.
I didn’t count on you being so…determined. ”
“Rude,” Eric huffs.
“And what do you get out of all of this, Cal? Why are you so invested in winning the games and having Lance run the town with you?” Avery asks.
“Before you came to town, I made a bet with William Claus, the mayor of Candy Cane Creek. If I won, he had to make his annual Christmas in July speech wearing a gingerbread man costume.”
Avery snickers beside me before Cal’s gaze shoots daggers at her. She clears her throat and mutters, ‘Sorry.”
“And if you lose?” I ask.
Cal huffs, crossing his arms over his chest, running his tongue along his teeth. “I would have had to decorate city hall like a candy cane house for the whole month of July.”
Everyone but the annoyed trio at the door burst out in laughter.
“But it doesn’t matter, because McKenzie and I won,” Cal shouts over the laughter.
“But you didn’t.” Trevor takes a step forward. “Not really. Sabotaging another couple gets you disqualified.”
“You don’t have any proof. All you have is the testimony of a heartbroken woman who admitted she did it.”
“Actually, there are more witnesses,” Sam says, stepping into the store with his camera in his hand. “Plus, I was recording the whole conversation from just outside the door.”
“Why are there so many people here?” I ask Avery. “Aren’t people usually with their families on Christmas?”
“You underestimate the power of being nosey in a small town,” Eric replies, appearing at my other side.
“I didn’t consent to being recorded,” Cal insists.
“B.C. is a one-party consent state. Doesn’t matter.” Sam grins widely.
“Well, I never…” Cal stammers.
“But, seriously. What’s with the candy cane stash?” Trevor asks, reaching down and pulling out an oversized plastic candy canes. “For someone that it supposed to hate candy cane’s you sure have a lot of them.”
“Those aren’t mine,” he insists.
“Liar,” Lance says under his breath.
“What?” Cal and McKenzie gasp at the same time, turning to him.
McKenzie has been oddly quiet during this whole exchange, only standing next to her husband as the whole thing unfolds. Another curious development.
“I’m tired of lying for you, Cal. It’s obvious I’m not going to be getting the inn, or the candy store, running at this point, so I might as well take you down with me.
” He turns to Sam, raising his voice to make sure it’s on record, wherever the device is.
Cal has been shredding all the documents that Eric has submitted, making sure that he never reaches his deadlines for the inn.
He promised me all the approvals in exchange for making sure that he and McKenzie won the Yuletide Games. ”
“Lies! They’re lies, I tell you!” Cal exclaims to the hidden device.
“He also made sure the city sold this property to me for under value.”
“Lance!” McKenzie shouts, as Cal rubs his face with his hands.
“What? Might as well get it all out there. If I’m going down, you’re going down with me. Speaking of, McKenzie is the one that came up with all the ways to get you two booted from the games.”
“You weren’t even supposed to be here,” she throws my way.
“I didn’t ask to be here,” I reply. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”
“Then you show up with…her.” McKenzie waves a hand at Avery with a disgusted look on her face. “You ruined everything.”
“Watch it, McKenzie. Don’t speak bad about Avery. She didn’t do anything.”
“Now you talk back?” McKenzie says. “Where was that when we were together? Why did you never stand up for me?”
“You never let me!” I yell, letting years of pent up anger and resentment over what happened out.
“You never needed me to defend you or stand up for you. You didn’t need me for anything other than helping you with your homework.
So no, McKenzie, I never did. I also never had feelings for you like I do for Avery. I love Avery!”
And now I’m having a panic attack.
My chest constricts. I can’t breathe. My pulse is pounding in my ears.
Did I really just say that?
I’m looking straight ahead, trying to take a breath. I know everyone’s eyes are on me. Avery’s eyes are on me, but I can’t look that way. I can’t meet her gaze. If I do, it will all be real. I’ll have to admit in a way that I was hoping to do while we were alone, not while everyone is watching us.
“Do you mean that?” she whispers to me.
I suck in a breath. “Yes.”
I still can’t look at her. My eyes are locked forward as she wraps her arm around mine, linking our fingers as she leans in and whispers.
“I love you, too.”
“Now that everything’s worked out and these two love each other, I think we should get going,” Cal says, turning to the door, but is stopped by Sam.
“Not so fast. Don’t think you’re going to be able to just walk away from this,” he says.
“Come on, now. It’s just some silly games. No harm, no foul.”
“Except that I’m the owner of an inn that I can’t get approval for,” Eric says, walking from behind the counter and toward Cal.
“And you had me running around for games that you fixed against my friends,” Trevor takes a step toward him as well, holding the oversized candy cane in his hands.
“Hey now,” Cal says, taking a step backward with his hands up in front of him, nearly knocking over McKenzie. “We can work this out.”
“Sam, what do you say we call the police and let them hear the recording?” Eric says, taking another step. “I’m sure there are laws about favouritism and doing deals for buddies.”
“There were definite ethics laws that were broken,” Trevor agrees, taking another step.
“I…” Cal opens his mouth to retort, but then runs, barrelling through Sam.
“Get him!” Eric yells, running after him.
Through the open door, I see Trevor hot on his heels, narrowly missing him.
At the last second, he wields the candy cane like a shepherd’s hook, grabbing Cal around his midsection and pulling him back.
Losing his footing, Cal slips on the snow and slams to the ground, still with the hook around his waist.
Or should I say, the warble, thanks to Avery.
“Cal!” McKenzie yells, rushing through the door and down the steps to her husband.
Avery looks up at me, a tug of a smile on her face. “Well, that just happened.”