Chapter 10
TEN
By Wednesday, Hailey was almost feeling the call of the holiday spirit. She’d arrived at work before the sun had even started to peak behind the thick gray winter clouds, before the lights to the tree lot had been switched on for the day.
She’d sold out of her hot chocolate at the lot every day so far, and today she decided to tempt fate by offering some of her peppermint brownies to accompany them.
She was just sprinkling some crushed candy canes onto the pan of chocolatey batter when Mandy burst in through the rear kitchen door, her cheeks pink from the cold and her eyes gleaming.
“Morning!” she said, as she quickly unwrapped her wool plaid scarf and hung it with her coat on the hook next to Hailey’s. “Oh, Christmas brownies. Those are sure to go fast. ”
“I’m making them for the tree lot,” Hailey explained as she slid the tray into the oven and set the timer.
“You should make an extra batch for the display case. Sales were up yesterday.”
It was true, they were, mostly by coupon users, cashing in on a one-time deal. Maybe they would be inspired to return, or maybe they were just bargain hunters who didn’t feel like standing in line at the chain across the street. Either way, Hailey tried not to get her hopes up too high. But Mandy had a point about making brownies for the café. The ingredients were already out on the counter, and it wouldn’t hurt to have some extras on hand in case her first batch at the lot went quickly.
Mandy washed her hands and tied on an apron, quickly setting to work on the chocolate muffins that were a customer favorite…and Mandy’s, too. Most days recently, there were enough left over for her to bring home after her shift.
They lapsed into silence as they worked, each focused on the task at hand, and Hailey fell back on the same thought she’d had since her talk with Pete. Both of them had chosen their family businesses over a future together, and now they were each on the brink of losing what had mattered enough to keep them apart all these years.
“It isn’t right,” Hailey muttered under her breath.
Mandy looked up in alarm. “Did I add the wrong ingredient?”
Hailey laughed. “No. Sorry, I was just talking to myself.” It was a bad habit and one she’d been guilty of many times lately. Maybe it really was time to get a cat .
Mandy set down her measuring cup. “What’s going on? Is it about the café?”
“Yes, no. It’s about a …friend.” Pete was a friend, technically. Even if he’d once been oh so much more. “You know the guy across the street at the tree lot? Pete? We knew each other in college.”
“You did ?” Mandy’s eyes were wide. “He’s kind of cute.”
Kind of? More like the cutest man she’d ever met, and was still to meet, as luck would have it. Hailey sighed and picked up her wooden spoon. There was no use dwelling on his good looks right now.
“He stopped by after the cookie decorating event, but I didn’t have much chance to chat.” Mandy sounded disappointed.
“That’s because Mary was giving him the Spanish Inquisition.” They exchanged a look and both laughed.
“So, were you guys like…friends? Acquaintances?”
“Nearly engaged,” Hailey told her, feeling a strange satisfaction at Mandy’s reaction.
The muffin batter momentarily forgotten, Mandy gaped. “You almost married the guy from the tree lot?”
“Well, he wasn’t working tree lots back then, but yes. He proposed. And I said no.” All amusement over the titillating story evaporated, and in its place was a sad sort of silence. Hailey blinked quickly, feeling the emotions get the better of her. She started to mix another batch of brownies, but her vision was blurred by hot tears.
“Wow,” Mandy finally said, going back to her batter, more slowly this time. “That must have been difficult.”
“The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Hailey confirmed with a nod. “Not that he left me any choice.”
She sighed, thinking of how for one glorious, amazing moment, she’d thought that she really could say yes—until he’d gone and told her the realities of the situation.
“We were supposed to move to Chicago together, and instead he moved back home to run his family’s tree farm.” She shrugged. “It’s been years and…I’m over it.”
“You sure about that?” Mandy asked, not looking completely convinced. “I mean, the two of you seem to still have something.”
Did they? Or was a shared history and broken dreams all that bonded them now?
Hailey supposed that it was better than resentment.
“There’s nothing between me and Pete,” Hailey said, even as the thought of that night on the carriage ride filled her mind and made her stomach flutter a little.
Hunger, she told herself. She’d been working all morning and hadn’t stopped to eat. She’d barely even stopped for some coffee. She was determined to save her business. For her grandmother. For herself.
And Pete, she knew, felt the same.
Once again, they shared something. Just not the life they’d planned.
“Pete chose his family business over me,” Hailey told Mandy as she shed the wrappers from candy canes. “But then, I suppose I chose this business over him. Either way, we didn’t choose each other. And now…” She knew not to reveal too much to her only employee. Not at Ch ristmastime. Not when there was a glimmer of hope that things might turn around. “Now his farm is struggling. I think he needs to sell every tree on that lot, and at the other lots his cousins are running.”
“That’s why he proposed this arrangement with the café,” Mandy said, with a cluck of her tongue. “He must really be desperate.”
Desperate enough to ask for her help. That couldn’t have been easy for him.
And it definitely wasn’t a ruse to spend more time together either.
Pushing away the hurt that snuck up on her, Hailey said, “He gave up so much. Was it worth it in the end?”
“I guess it comes down to what lets you sleep at night.” Mandy picked up a serrated knife and began slicing a brick of milk chocolate, one of three varieties used in the muffins.
Who said anything about getting sleep? Hailey had struggled enough since that chain across the street had opened, and now with Pete’s return, slumber might never come again.
Hailey walked into the storefront, started the coffee, and turned the sign on the door, then went back into the kitchen to do some more baking, leaving the door ajar this time in case a customer entered. She folded some chocolate chips into her second brownie batter, nearly jumping when the bells from the storefront chimed.
Mandy met her gaze across the work top. “Is that…a customer? You only turned the sign a moment ago.” She se t down her wooden spoon. “I’ll go see what’s going on out there.”
Hailey didn’t even have time to transfer the scones to a basket before Mandy was back through the swinging door, her mouth twisting into a smile she couldn’t suppress.
“You’re needed in the storefront, Hailey.”
Hailey looked at her assistant suspiciously, but she wasn’t about to argue. Her heart began to thump as she followed Mandy into the café, wondering what all the fuss could be about until she saw it: a line. An actual line of people gathered at the counter, murmuring and chatting and discussing their options as they pointed at things through the display case.
She barely had time to think, much less react, even when all she wanted to do was jump for joy.
Just like the slowdown had never happened, she and Mandy fell automatically into their old routine—Mandy working the espresso machine while Hailey handled the counter line. They kept an eye on the timer and took turns popping into the kitchen to check on the brownies and muffins—which sold out as soon as they carried the tray into the storefront.
Hailey caught Mandy’s eye and slid her a smile. Everything might just turn out all right after all.
Pete closed his laptop and rubbed his neck, wincing at the knots that had formed in the two hours since he’d sat down. No matter how many times he crunched the numbers or analyzed scenarios where he was laying off staff or cutting other necessary costs, he couldn’t find a way to cover the loan by January 1, and his last attempt at asking for an extension hadn’t received a reply yet.
He looked down into his mug. Cold. And a film had formed on the top since his last sip.
He checked his watch, realizing with a start that Hailey was probably already setting up her stand—if she hadn’t already come and gone—and stood to grab his jacket from the hook on the door.
Sure enough, she was in the holiday shop, whisking up her sweet concoction when he rounded the path a minute later. Her hair was pulled into a low braid today, poking out from her thick wool hat. She grinned when she saw him, one of those big, knowing grins that told him she knew something he didn’t.
“Uh-oh. What is it?” he joked, feeling his mood lift.
She didn’t try to contain her excitement. “We had fifteen customers within our first hour of opening this morning! Two of them I recognized from the cookie event, but the rest must have been from the lot.”
He rolled back on his heels. “It seems our little joint venture is working. See, I—”
She held up a hand. “Okay, you were right. You have a real knack for business, you know.”
“Not always.” He rubbed his jaw, wishing he hadn’t said anything, that the regret he was feeling wasn’t muddled with a greater pull, one called guilt .
“Still worried about the tree farm?” Her voice was soft, but he didn’t want her concern. Didn’t deserve it, actually.
It had been too easy to blame her. To feel the rejection. But that wasn’t entirely fair. He’d asked her to put his family over her own. To put her dreams on hold. To make him all she would ever need from life when he knew that she deserved so much more than he was offering.
“Let’s just say that I’ll have to sell every tree in this lot before I can take a breather,” he said.
He saw her eyes pass over the lot, at the rows upon rows of trees that had been cut and shipped, waiting for someone to come along and take them home.
He saw the doubt, even though she tried to hide it, that matched his own.
“Well,” she said brightly. “Christmas is still a week away.”
Their eyes locked as silence fell and he wondered if she was thinking what he was: in one week, Christmas would be here, and he’d be gone. Back to the farm where she never wanted to live, and he’d never have made her. Back to the long days and lonely nights with only memories to keep him company.
But then he thought of the alternative. Losing the farm. Or worse—the family house.
It would be another part of his father gone for good.
He couldn’t live with that.
Just like he couldn’t live with the situation he’d faced eight years ago, either .
And even though he’d loved Hailey, and wanted a life with her more than anything, there was still something bigger than that keeping him from her.
There still was.
Clearing his throat, he recovered himself. “Forget about my business troubles. We should celebrate your success.”
She demurred, shaking her head as she unwrapped a plate of delicious looking brownies. “Oh…I don’t want to jinx it. And…that doesn’t seem fair, does it? For only one of us to be happy?”
It didn’t seem fair at all, but that’s what he’d chosen to live with for the past eight years. It had been enough for a while, thinking that she was happy with the choice she’d made, the one that perhaps he’d made for both of them. That their plans for a life together might be over but that she’d at least salvaged some part of it.
“I’m happy if you’re happy,” Pete told her. When he saw the frown between her eyebrows, he said, “I mean it, Hailey. Besides, I can’t help but feel like maybe I was a little part of it.”
“You are,” she said, giving him a long look of understanding. “If you hadn’t suggested that I sell my hot chocolate here, things might not have turned around for me.”
“Oh, I don’t believe that,” Pete said, meaning it. Hailey was a smart woman, always had been. It was what had drawn him to her in the first place, along with that sweet smile. “What about your cookie event? I had nothing to do with that. ”
“No, but you got me out of my rut, so thank you,” she said. “Honestly, I feel more motivated than I have since that chain opened. I thought I might ramp up the effort. Do you think you’d want to sell these treats in your shop today? You and Mike can split the leftovers.”
“Don’t let Mike hear you say that or he won’t be motivated to sell anything,” Pete said with a laugh. His cousin’s sweet tooth was even bigger than his own, and Hailey was the best baker he’d ever met, not that he’d ever tell his mother so. “Do you still want me to hand out the coupons?”
Hailey nodded. “I printed out some more. And some flyers for my gingerbread house event. As much as I’d love to charge full-price, I’m not there yet. Maybe I never will be again.”
A shadow fell over her face, replacing the earlier delight, and Pete was eager to see the smile return to her eyes.
“You’ve seen some improvement. That’s a very good sign. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s to celebrate the small things. Enjoy the present. Not worry about the future.”
She jutted her lip, her smile hesitant. “You’re right. I don’t know how long it will last, but I’m going to enjoy this feeling while I can.”
Pete stared at her, fighting the urge to close the distance between them, pull her into his arms, and kiss that smile right off her lips. His entire body felt warm in her presence, and that empty void that he’d carried with him day after day, year after year, was finally gone .
And he intended to enjoy it. While he could.
“I mean it,” he said. “We should celebrate. Maybe some of your good news will wear off on me.”
She hesitated long enough for him to wonder if he was pushing too hard. Making this more difficult for not just himself, but for her.
But then she nodded and said, “Okay then. What should we do?”
His pulse raced and he realized that he hadn’t thought that far ahead. He wasn’t thinking about anything when it came to Hailey, never did. With her, it was all reaction. Emotion. Heart.
There was no strategizing like he did with business. With Hailey, he had always lived in the moment. Enjoyed each moment. Looked forward to tomorrow.
“You leave that up to me,” he said. “What evening are you free?”
“Saturday night? After my gingerbread event? Sundays are my late start days, otherwise I’m up at four to start prepping.”
He grinned. “Saturday it is then. Come by the lot…around eight?”
“Sounds like a plan,” she said, before shooing him off to add the secret ingredient to her hot chocolate.
A plan, Pete thought. It was the only one he had at the moment.
And maybe not the best one.