Chapter 6
SIX
When Hailey showed up at the tree lot the next morning, a man slightly shorter and heavier than Pete was waiting near the gate. As she neared, she locked eyes with the stranger, immediately seeing the family resemblance in the strong jaw and wide smile.
“You must be Hailey.” He held out a hand. “Mike Cameron. Pete’s younger cousin.”
“He mentioned you were helping him out,” Hailey said, shaking his hand before passing off the tote bag full of thermoses filled with her hot chocolate. “Everything is in here. Just pour it all in the slow cooker and set it to low.”
“You don’t want to wait around and talk to Pete?” Mike lifted an eyebrow.
Hailey wasn’t about to give this guy any reason to think there was more going on here than a simple transaction.
“I have to get back to the café,” she explained .
Mike nodded. “Must be busy this time of year.”
“It can be,” she replied.
Just not this year.
“I’ll have to stop in some time,” Mike said. “I hear you’re quite a baker.”
Hailey studied the man’s face, wondering just what else he had heard. “My grandmother passed down all her recipes. I can’t take much credit.”
“Hey, we learn from the best. Take Pete, and what he’s doing with that farm. His dad taught him everything he knew, but now Pete’s bringing his own ideas to the business.”
Hailey nodded, imagining Pete planting seedlings, tending to the trees, and strategizing sales each year. Was he really in his element, even when he’d never wanted to take the job in the first place?
But he had. He’d stepped up, and now he’d taken over. Maybe he’d grown to love it over the years.
She hoped he did, she realized.
“Well, I should get back,” she said again, backing away. She hastened toward the sidewalk, but she was too late. Behind her she heard a door swing open, the wind slapping it against the metal trailer.
“Hold on for a minute!” Pete called out.
Hailey closed her eyes for a moment and then turned around, her breath catching when she saw him walking toward her, his hair tousled, his jacket unzipped, his face more handsome than ever.
She wondered if she’d ever stop feeling this way when she looked at him .
She could only hope that she would, but then, she was hoping for a lot of things lately that showed no signs of working out in her favor.
Pete muttered something to Mike about getting the hot chocolate in the slow cooker, and Mike disappeared, but not before looking back and giving Hailey a grin that said he knew exactly what was going on here—even if nothing was going on at all.
“Now I know you said you didn’t have room in your apartment for a tree, but I couldn’t help noticing there was plenty of room in your shop,” Pete said with a boyish smile. The one that had stolen her heart all those years ago, the very first time she’d met him.
He pulled the same small tree he’d selected the other day from beside the holiday shop, and Hailey couldn’t help but notice he’d taken the liberty of adding a bright red bow at the top.
It was a cute little tree, probably four feet tall, not too wide. It would probably hold only a single strand of lights, maybe a couple dozen small ornaments.
And serve as a constant reminder of just how this Christmas was turning out for her.
“A tree and a business gig,” she said, lightening the mood. “What can I do to repay you?”
She’d expected him to say nothing, to ease her way off memory lane and get things back on professional footing, but he surprised her by shrugging and saying, “How about a tour of the city?”
Her heart started to pound. He was proposing more time with her, when every minute she spent with him was already an exercise in resilience. “A tour?”
Pete shrugged. “Show me what makes it so special. Why it was so important to you.”
Oh. That. So he was making a point. Drudging up old hurts. She pressed her lips together. If it was a tour he wanted, then fine. She’d show him exactly what he had been missing by running off to Timber Valley. “Tonight work?”
Who cared that it was Friday and that she didn’t already have plans? Or a date.
With someone other than the man who had broken her heart, that was.
Except it wasn’t a date, she told herself firmly, as she waited for him to respond. It was just two people who used to know each other, getting through the holidays.
“Tonight works. Enjoy your tree.” His grin widened, and she reached out to grab the top branch, her hand skimming his. Her skin tingled at the touch, and she snatched it back, quickly shoving it into her warm coat pocket instead.
“I, uh…should get to work.”
“Of course.” His voice was husky, but she didn’t look up to meet his eyes.
She yanked the tree by its top branch and began awkwardly dragging it to the sidewalk.
“I can carry it over for you if you want,” he offered.
Hailey didn’t bother to turn around. “I can handle it.”
“You’ll need a tree stand!” he called out again, and this time she did turn around.
She needed a lot of things, but this tree was not one of them. And neither was a date with her ex.
“Thanks,” she said, taking it from his hand. She was surprised by the weight of it—metal, a little large—but she didn’t let on. The last thing she needed was to spend more time with Pete, even if she did start to wonder how she’d manage to get both the tree and the metal stand to her café.
“You sure you don’t want any help?” His smile was soft, his eyes kind.
It would have been so easy to say yes. Now. And then.
“I’m fine on my own,” she replied tightly. “I have been for some time now.”
And with that, she turned and walked away, all the way back to her shop, no matter how difficult it was.
By the time Mary and Violet arrived at four as planned, Mandy had left for the day, and Hailey hadn’t seen a customer in two hours. Not a new one, that was.
The guy at the table near the window had been reading a book and nursing a coffee for the better part of the day, and as much as Hailey hated to shoo him out, she desperately needed a little girl time with one of her closest friends.
“Oh, a tree!” Violet cried out as Hailey turned the sign on the door and then, for good measure, the locks, too.
“A tree in your café?” Mary turned to her in surprise. “That’s a first.”
“Well, it’s a tight space,” Hailey pointed out. And she was paying dearly for each square foot. “But it was a gift, so I had no choice.”
She sighed heavily, watching as Violet gave it her full inspection. Mary was fully aware of her bad breakup and why Christmas was not her favorite season, even if it did give an excuse to bake with peppermint.
“It doesn’t have any decorations!” the little girl finally proclaimed. “Without any decorations, it’s just a tree, not a Christmas tree.”
That was true, and worse was that it was darkening the room.
“I think I have some extra lights in the storage room,” Hailey told Violet. “Would you like to decorate it?”
“Good thinking,” Mary whispered. “Now you and I can have a little time to chat.”
And a chat was just what Hailey needed. She hurried to the storage room where she rummaged around in her box of decorations, most of which were fall-themed, and eventually found the ornaments she remembered stuffing in there a couple of years back—a gift her mother had sent that she couldn’t bear to toss.
With a sigh, she studied the display case as she walked back into the storefront. It was half full again, but at least today she could send the leftovers home with Mary. She knew that Ben had a sweet tooth nearly as big as his daughter’s.
“Slow day?” Mary asked, following her gaze.
Hailey came around the counter and handed the lights and the box of ornaments to Violet, who wasted no time in starting on the closest branch.
“Come on,” Hailey said. “Let’s sit near the window now that the table is free.”
They waited only to make themselves coffee, plate two scones, and set aside a few cookies for Violet, who was too busy with her project to notice.
Hailey watched the little girl wistfully, remembering a time when she herself was so young and excited about the upcoming holiday. When every decoration seemed prettier than the next, and she would start nagging her parents about putting up the tree as soon as the weather turned a little chilly.
What happened to that wonder? To that feeling of magic that came around each year?
But of course…That little girl grew up.
And had her heart broken.
“Business has been slow ever since that coffee chain opened up in the fall,” Hailey told Mary. It felt good to let it off her chest, and she knew that Mary of all people would understand, given the slump she’d felt last winter at her ice cream parlor.
But this wasn’t a seasonal problem. That coffee chain wasn’t going away when the leaves budded on the trees.
And her customers didn’t show any signs of returning .
“It’s so unfortunate.” Mary shook her head as she stared out the window. “I can’t imagine trying to compete with that.”
“It’s not easy,” Hailey said, breaking off a piece of the chocolate chip scone, a big seller in her café, or at least it used to be. “I was hoping the novelty would wear off, but it seems that the choice has been made. People want the corporate experience, not the local one.”
“Don’t see it as a weakness,” Mary told her as she sipped her coffee. “You’re a small business and you should play that up rather than try to compete with something you can’t. Highlight what makes you different. What makes you special!”
Hailey considered this for a moment as she watched more and more people go in and out of the business across the street.
“I’ve offered seasonal drinks and baked goods,” she told her friend.
Mary just gave her a long look. “And so do they. Some people wait for it every year.”
True. Hailey felt her shoulders slump. “I’m in a rut.”
“Then you need to pull yourself out of it,” Mary said, sitting straighter in her chair. “Hey, if I can do it, you can do it.”
She could, because she’d done it before. When Pete left for Wisconsin and took all of their plans with him, she could have wallowed in self-pity and let her dreams fall by the wayside, but instead, she’d doubled down, putting everything she could into building a new life for herself .
But somehow, picking herself up for the second time was twice as hard.
And it would be best for her to remember that, she thought, as her eyes drifted down to the tree lot.
Mary looked over her shoulder to check on Violet, who was humming along to the carols on the radio while she worked on the tree, happy as a little Christmas elf.
“So, are you going to tell me who gifted you this tree or leave me in suspense?” Mary waggled her eyebrows.
“It’s not like that,” Hailey told her, only as she said it, her stomach had a funny feeling. Why had Pete given her the tree? To be nice? Because he felt guilty?
Or maybe just because he had extras, and she didn’t have a tree in the café.
Or at her apartment.
“You remember how I told you about my college boyfriend?” she started slowly.
Mary’s eyes widened with interest. “The one who couldn’t move to Chicago with you because his family needed his help with their farm?”
Well, when she phrased it like that, Hailey felt like a real jerk.
“We broke up,” she clarified. “Yes. He moved back to his hometown, and I never heard from him again.”
“And?” Mary could barely suppress her excitement. “What does this have to do with the tree?”
“It’s from his farm,” Hailey replied.
Mary looked confused. Maybe a little disappointed too, until her eyes lit up again. “Did he send you a tree? After all these years, he reached out? ”
If only it were that simple. “He’s selling his trees at the lot on the corner.”
“The one right there?” Mary all but squealed. She pressed her nose to the window and tapped it with her finger. “Ben and I were planning to take Violet there this evening! Does that mean that he’s there? That I’ll get to meet him?”
Now came the part that Hailey really didn’t want to think about but ached to talk about all the same.
“He’s there all right, but I’m not sure that you’ll get a chance to meet him if you go tonight,” she said, struggling to meet her friend’s eyes.
“Why? Are they closing early? On a Friday?” Mary pulled a face. Bad for business was the unspoken opinion.
“His cousin is helping him out,” Hailey explained. “Pete won’t be there tonight because…He’ll be with me.”
Mary’s eyes were as round as the ornaments that Violet was still hanging on the tree.
“Is that so?” She leaned in across the table. “You’re going on a date with your ex?”
“It’s not a date,” Hailey said, even though Mary’s expression told her that she didn’t believe it any more than Hailey did. “I’m just…showing him around the city.”
“I see.” Mary fought a little smile as she fell back in her chair. She studied Hailey for a moment and then said, “You look a little different today. There’s a light in your eyes that I haven’t seen before. ”
“It’s called fatigue,” Hailey told her firmly. “And stress. I told you that business is slow.”
“It’s called love,” Mary said primly.
Hailey chuckled and took another sip of her coffee. “If he didn’t happen to be selling trees on Armitage, I never would have seen or heard from him again.”
“But he is, and you have, so spill. I need every detail.” Mary clutched her mug in both hands expectantly.
Hailey pushed out a breath and started at the beginning. “He came into the café on Monday. He was as surprised as I was.”
And just as unhappy, she now recalled, feeling a twinge of hurt at the thought of the bad feelings between them. It wasn’t just her who had walked away that day with an ache in her heart, and the thought that she’d let Pete down in some way bothered her as much as it angered her.
Could he not understand her perspective? Did he take her refusal as something personal, when she wanted nothing more than a life with him—just not the new life that he was offering?
Mary’s brow pinched as Hailey gave her a brief account of the events of the past few days. “So he’s been working on the family farm all this time. Huh. Well, when you look at it like that…”
Hailey leaned forward. “Like what?”
Mary shrugged. “Maybe it really was that important to him to be back on the farm. If it wasn’t, he might have left by now. Gone to med school the way he’d always talked about. But he didn’t. And wouldn’t that have been worse? If he’d done all the things he’d said he would…without you?”
Hailey blinked down at the mug she was holding, her chest beginning to ache. Would it have been worse if Pete had eventually followed his dreams? Or was it worse to know that he’d given up on them? That he’d lost them…and her?
“I guess that’s what I did in a way,” she said, looking around the room. “I forged ahead, opened this café, and now…Now I’m worried I might lose it.”
Tears filled her eyes and her throat felt tight. She blinked quickly, not wanting to cry in front of Violet, who was now dancing around the tree, touching every ornament, singing Christmas songs without a care in the world.
“You are not going to lose the café,” Mary said, reaching across the table to put a hand on Hailey’s arm.
“There was a time when I never thought I’d lose Pete either.” Hailey sighed and dabbed her eyes with her napkin.
“You don’t know what the future holds,” Mary said. “No one does. And sometimes it holds surprises. Like Pete walking into your café. You could have blown him off, but instead, you’ve chosen to let him in.”
Had she? She supposed that despite her efforts she’d done just that by first agreeing to their little business arrangement and now agreeing to this date—or evening together. Yes, that’s all it was.
“What are you trying to say?” Hailey asked tearily, suddenly feeling too tired to do much more than walk home and crawl into bed.
“I’m saying that you need to look at that coffee shop opening up as an opportunity,” Mary said. “Things will have to change around here, and they already have, but it doesn’t have to be all bad.”
Hailey tried to muster some of her friend’s optimism. “There are people who like supporting smaller businesses.” She just hadn’t found enough of them lately.
“So give them what they want,” Mary said, as if it were just that easy. “Give them an experience that a big chain could never offer. Christmas is the best time to start.”
“But you already said that they’re famous for their holiday menu,” Hailey said.
“I’m not talking about just food and drinks,” Mary said. “I’m talking about people. About bringing some heart back into the community.”
Maybe Mary had homed in on what was missing from this business.
And from Hailey’s life.
Heart.
Because it had been taken, a long time ago, by the man who was now back in town. Back in her life. If she let him.