Chapter Three
What in the hell am I doing?
Harper was dumbfounded. Nothing was going according to plan today.
She’d slept awful the entire night and ridiculously restless, bombarded with dreams of the new guy she’d met.
She’d also taken quite a ribbing from Elsie when the new guy invited her to lunch today.
Thankfully that lunch went well. He’d shared his family dynamic, and she felt so bad for his nieces having their mother taken so early on in their lives.
She couldn’t wait to meet them. She’d been on her own for so long with no parents that in a small way she felt a kinship with the twins.
Then her life did a hundred-and eighty-degree flip, and the day couldn’t get much worse than it was right now.
She didn’t have the extra money for a mechanic bill, but it was clear her car was not going to start.
Dread crept into her head, worrying what they would find wrong.
Didn’t really matter though, she needed a car and that’s all there was to it.
That’s what she gets for driving an ancient vehicle.
“Hey Harper.” He’d reached over to grab her hand from the seat beside her. “It’s gonna be okay, I promise.”
“Do you think it’ll be expensive? Things have been tight this month so I’m just a little worried.”
“Jaxon’s a very reasonable and understanding guy. I don’t think there’s anything for you to worry about, okay?”
They drove the rest of the way down Main Street to West Side Service Station in silence.
She couldn’t help but worry that whatever was broken would end up costing her more than she could afford.
Her car wasn’t the most reliable but in the dead of winter, she needed something and a new one wasn’t even close to being on budget anytime soon.
Jaxon seemed like a nice enough person from all she’d heard so only time would tell.
After begrudgingly handing over the keys to her beat up baby, Fin dropped her off at work and promised he’d be back when she was done. Harper went in the front door of the post office and just as she’d expected, Elsie was waiting.
“I was starting to worry about you child. Must have been one heck of a lunch.” A familiar smirk crossed the woman’s face.
Harper couldn’t help it when her emotions took over. She got as far as the counter, put her things down and burst into tears. Just like the grandmother she wished she had, Elsie rounded to her side, pulled her into an embrace and held her.
“Oh goodness child, what happened?” She brushed the hair from Harper’s face and helped her with her coat. “Come on, let’s get you into the back. No worries, we’ll fix whatever it is.”
Elsie walked her to the back room, out of public view.
Harper couldn’t even talk the sobs were wracking her so hard.
She sat down at the kitchenette table in the back room where a storage area had been turned into an overnight room in case the weather ever got bad.
Elsie sat across from her and held her hand until she was calm enough to tell her what happened.
“Whatever it is, just tell me. We’ll work through it together. I’ll tan the hide of that boy if he hurt you.”
No wonder Harper loved this woman. She’d become so much more than just a trainer for her job.
“Well, I had a really nice lunch and Fin was great. I agreed to have pizza with him at his family’s farm tonight. He walked me to my car…”
“Oh, I’m glad he was such a gentleman.” Elsie interrupted. “But why were you crying then if it wasn’t him?”
“He was great but then when I got ready to leave my Jeep wouldn’t start. Fin tried it too and said he thought the starter went bad.”
“Is that it? Because your car wouldn’t’ start? I thought maybe he’d done something to you.” The older woman pursed her lips together and her forehead crinkled a bit.
It sounded so unimportant when she said it that way. “Yes, and it’s a huge deal to me. I don’t have the money to pay for car repairs right now.” Harper covered her face with her cold hands.
“There, there; everything will work out the way it should. Don’t you worry, Jaxon’s a very understanding young man. I’m sure he will let you set up some sort of payment plan. He deals with these kinds of problems every day and knows you will need your car.”
Harper looked at the woman curiously. “You make it sound like no big deal; how do you do that?”
“Because it’s not a big deal, not here anyway. This is a good town with good people willing to help their fellow neighbor, or post mistress.” Elsie winked at Harper and rose from the table. She warmed up a cup of hot cocoa and handed it to her.
“Now I think there’s no better time than the present to write that Santa letter.” The elderly woman scrounged through a couple of the metal desk drawers until she found a blank piece of paper, an envelope, and a pen, lying them in front of Harper. Then she laid a quarter alongside the other items.
“While you do that, it’s time for me to head home. I have a date with a bowl of homemade beef stew and the Hallmark channel, something about a lady and a miracle I think.”
Elsie gathered her coat and other things, hugged Harper from behind and kissed her cheek.
“Enjoy your dinner tonight and make sure to tell Fin and Kaleb hi from this old lady. Squeeze those twins for me too. And don’t forget the wishing well.” Then she was gone.
Harper stared at the blank paper, no longer contemplating whether she should do it, but more so what to write about. She needed a miracle of her own right about now.
***
Fin stared at the green digital numbers above the radio in his truck. Twenty minutes past five.
“Should I go in and get her or just be patient?” He knew she was alone because he’d seen Elsie walking home a while ago and no new customers had gone in or out while he sat out front. As the streetlamps started to pop on, he thought he could see small specks floating in their light.
A knock on the passenger window garnered his attention. Harper. He pushed the unlock button. She climbed in with determination, the height no match for her. “I’m sorry I didn’t open the door for you. How was the rest of your day?”
“Oh no big deal, I’m a big girl. The afternoon was quiet. The few people I had come in mentioned we were due to get a bad storm. Are you sure dinner tonight is a good idea?”
“That’s why I have a big 4-wheel drive truck. It’ll go through almost anything. Besides you need a bit of a distraction from your life right now. Let’s go get the pizza and head on out.”
Twenty minutes later they were out of town and headed north up the mountain toward the farm. The falling white stuff had turned to sleet, coating the roads.
“If we don’t get there soon, I’m breaking open this pizza box. It smells so good.” Harper picked up the boxes to smell at the seam.
“Go ahead, I won’t tell.” He laughed when she shook her head.
“No way, I’m not messing up dinner. They’d know just by looking at the pizza. Although, I could tell them you did it.”
There was that laugh again. It was magical, sending chills through his whole body. “I love your laugh.”
“You’re nuts. I laugh like a hyena. Oh wow, is this your farm?”
Fin pulled in the driveway marked with two monstrous Blue Spruce trees, adorned in Christmas lights. They’d grown so big one could barely see the welcome sign standing beside them.
“Fin this is gorgeous. There are trees as far as the eye can see.”
“Probably a lot you can’t see either. We don’t just grow Christmas trees. We have a lot of different landscaping trees too. Maple, Oak, and several others. Even some fruit trees in the greenhouse.”
Fin parked in front of the main house and shut off the engine. When he looked at Harper, her eyes were transfixed on the scene before her, and her mouth hung open.
“You look like you’ve never seen a house decorated for the holiday before.” He jumped out, rounded the back, and opened her door. She hadn’t moved. He lifted the pizzas off her lap.
“I’ve seen decorations but not like this, this is amazing. Does it always look like this?”
He couldn’t help but find it a little funny. He’d never seen this type of reaction from someone before when it came to Christmas decorations.
“Yeah, it used to look worse, a lot more lights when Maddie was alive. She was big into Christmas.” The cheerful moment turned somber with talk of his deceased sister-in-law.
“Come on Fin, let’s get this pizza into the girls. I’m sure everyone is starving by now. I know I am.” She jumped from the truck and followed him inside where they were immediately bombarded by two little dirty blond bobs, heading straight for Fin.
After unsuccessfully averting a pile-on, Fin got their attention to introduce her.
“Alright girls, this is my friend Harper.” He motioned for her to stand closer to him. “Harper, this rugrat is Kelsey, she’s got a freckle on her cheek. The little she-devil with the mini-pigtail horns is Hayley. Usually, the freckle is the only way to tell them apart.”
“Hi girls, it’s very nice to meet you.” Both girls smiled at Harper then ran away screaming.
“Daddy, Unca fin has a gir fend.”
“Hey, you two…” but it was too late, they were already out of site. Then around the corner came Fin’s older brother.
“Hi Harper.” Kaleb extended his hand to shake. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Kaleb. Please come in and just ignore the girls. They are so high strung.”
“Oh my gosh, they’re really beautiful.”
“Thanks, they are pretty special. Unfortunately, they know it too.”
As they laughed, Fin yelled.
“I’ve got pizza!” He went running into another part of the house leaving Harper with Kaleb.
“It’s really nice to meet you Kaleb, thanks so much for allowing me to join you all for dinner tonight.”
“Pleasure’s all ours. We should get in there before Fin and the girls eat it all though.
” He motioned for her to go ahead and explained where the dining room was.
“Sorry if you overheard me giving Fin a hard time about meeting you today for lunch. It’s just that he doesn’t have too many friends he spends time with so it’s nice to see him get out.
I feel bad he’s been stuck here with me and the girls. ”
Harper stopped him short of going through the doorway. “Kaleb, he loves those girls and would do anything for them. He doesn’t act like it’s a burden at all being here.”
“Thanks Harper. That means a lot. I worry sometimes. It’s not his responsibility to deal with all this but it would be much harder without him. He’s really been a huge help.”
“Come on you two, get some while the getting’s good.” Fin’s words came out around the slice he’d shoved in his mouth.
***
Between the five of them, they devoured two extra-large pizzas layered with different meats, mushrooms, and extra cheese.
Harper even sat down at the coffee table and colored with the girls while the brothers talked a little business.
When Kaleb took the girls off to bed, Fin cleaned the mess left behind while Harper stood at the two double-pane bay windows, watching the snow coat the trees in the East pasture.
She didn’t hear him stop behind her, only felt the warm air on the back of her neck.
“I’m glad you came out tonight, Harper. I had a lot of fun. Even if it wasn’t a typical date.”
“Hey, I don’t know what you’re talking about, coloring is a common event for one of my dates.” She laughed and leaned back a little, molded comfortably into his chest. Fin cautiously wrapped his arm around her, keeping her steady against him.
“Guess I should probably be getting you home huh?” Harper turned toward him as Kaleb came into the room, setting the police band radio on the end table. There were such enormous amounts of chatter, they couldn’t make out what was what.
“I don’t think you two are going anywhere.
Sounds like it’s an absolute mess out there on the roads.
The whole town’s nothing but a sheet of ice and there’s no sign of it letting up anytime soon.
I wouldn’t feel right letting you go anywhere.
Not sure even steel studs on the tires would help tonight. ”
“Oh, that’s not good. Tomorrow’s Saturday, I have to work.”
“I don’t think you’ll need to worry about opening the post office tomorrow.
Sounds like we’re all in for the long haul.
I heard Sheriff Ryder a minute ago ordering a couple deputies to rescue a group of carolers stuck out in the park with no shelter.
The ground was so slick they couldn’t stand up long enough to walk.
” Kaleb went around to the windows, securing locks and closing the curtains.
“That’s awful. What are we going to do?”
“Looks like you’re stuck here with us tonight. Hope that’ll be okay? You can call Mrs. Whiddamore and get her take on the post office if it’ll make you feel better.” Fin looked cautiously at Harper.
She thought for a minute before answering, poking a little fun at him.
“Guess it’ll have to be, I don’t want to bother Elsie tonight.
Besides, she’s told me so many times that things like this are my decision anyway.
If the office is closed, no one will be mailing anything, simple as that.
Besides, from the sounds of it, I don’t think anyone will be venturing out.
Fin Cole, are you sure you didn’t plan this? ”
“Now why would I do such a thing? I’m as harmless as they come.” Fin ducked in time to miss the pillow flying from Kaleb’s direction.