Chapter 34
Fredrik
“She can’t have left!” I shouted, trying to get up from the bed Felicity and Jackson had imprisoned me in.
I’d been examined by the town doctor, then harassed by half the town after they brought me home to rest my fractured rib.
Eileen and her friends had visited one by one, carrying pies and gingerbread, asking endless questions about Noelle and me, as well as about the handsome doctor in charge of my care.
Thankfully, my mom and Felicity had taken over receiving them, sparing me from most of the inane conversation.
And now, I was staring at a photo of a CLOSED sign on The Christmas Wonderland window, papered over with pages of the latest Almanac, featuring stories about me punching the town mascot and, of course, the Christmas lights in my store.
I’d bartered with the reporter, trading a short interview on my complicated relationship with Christmas in exchange for them keeping Spencer’s name and face out of their publication.
He didn’t deserve any publicity—positive or negative—especially if he was planning to sue me.
Jackson took his phone away. “I don’t know where she is. I’m just telling you that the shop is closed.”
“I need to get there.” I tried to get out of bed, but Felicity stopped me, shooting Jackson a furious look.
“Are you trying to make him worse? Why does he need to know about the store? If Noelle decides to run off, there’s nothing he can do about it anyway.
Two buses left yesterday. She could have been on either of them. ”
“Does he not deserve to know?” Jackson asked, folding his arms. “If it were me… if I were head over heels for someone and actively looking for them, I’d be pretty pissed if my closest friend or sister was keeping things from me.”
He emphasized the word sister, meeting Felicity’s gaze head-on.
“Wait, what have you not told me?” I demanded.
Felicity chewed her lip, looking torn. Finally, she cleared her throat. “I went in this morning to clean the bookstore, and she’d taken her things. All gone. The key was on the counter.” She dug into her pocket and handed me Noelle’s spare key.
“No note?” My voice cracked.
She shook her head. “Sorry.”
“She wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye,” I insisted, wanting so badly to believe my own words. “She wouldn’t just… leave.”
They both gave me a sorry look.
“What?” I shouted. “She loves me. I love her. We belong together, and we both know it.”
“Look at you!” Jackson grinned. “What happened to friends with benefits? You were so happy you didn’t have to worry about commitment or meeting her friends and family.”
He was a true multitasker, simultaneously poking fun at me and scandalizing my sister.
“Please tell me you didn’t say that!” Felicity directed her fury at me, and I swallowed hard.
“She suggested it, but it didn’t last long. I mean, I got so jealous I punched Ralph.” I tried to hang my head, but the pain flared in my chest, and I had to raise my chin again.
“Why would she suggest something that stupid?” Felicity huffed in disappointment. “I thought you guys were endgame, not some stupid hookup.”
“We are!” I whacked the bottle of pain pills off my nightstand.
As Felicity bent to pick it up, and Jackson focused on staring at her ass, I rolled out of bed, pressing a pillow to my chest.
If I avoided unnecessary movement, especially twisting, I was fine. I could walk. And I had to get to my store. I had to find the note. If she’d really left, there must have been a note.
“Three days of full bed rest, you idiot!” my loving sister screamed as I hobbled out of the room and out of her reach.
I knocked over a heavy hat rack on my way to the door, blocking the hallway. It bought me five extra seconds, which was enough to make it to my car and lock the doors before my self-appointed home health nurses caught up. Unfortunately, the windshield was frozen solid, so I couldn’t drive anywhere.
I started the engine and cracked the window, peering at Felicity’s disapproving face. “I’ll just wait for it to thaw.”
“How environmental of you.”
“What do you think you’ll find?” Jackson asked, sidling up next to her. “I showed you the store. She gave you the key. She’s not hiding anything… right?” He glanced at Felicity, who sighed.
“No! If I had any clue where she was, I’d tell you! I want you guys to work it out. I also want to kill that rich dude.”
“Say the word. I’ll make it look like an accident,” Jackson offered.
Felicity gave him a tired huff. “Let’s spare the world you as an assassin.”
“Can you guys stop the foreplay and help me with the window? Then I promise I’ll open the doors, and you can come along to babysit me as much as you like.”
Jackson coughed, and Felicity looked at her shoes. “Yeah, fine,” she muttered, buttoning her coat and taking the scraper I passed through the window gap. “But I’m driving.”
Something was definitely going on between them, but I didn’t have time to worry about it. Not now. They cleared the windshield, and I kept my promise, moving into the passenger seat.
As we entered the town center, I scanned the streets for any sign of her. The town was crowded with tourists, but there was nobody in a fluffy peach coat. Nobody who looked like her. Making Whoopie looked unusually busy, with a small crowd spilling into the street.
“Can we check that out?” I asked.
Felicity shrugged, parking illegally across the sidewalk. “Jackson would love to investigate.”
“No problem, your majesty.” My best friend climbed out of the back seat to see what was going on.
I took my opportunity. “What is going on between you two?”
Felicity looked indignant. “Nothing!”
“Well, then something’s going on with him. He told me he deleted Tinder.”
“Probably just ran out of space for all the other dating apps,” my sister grumbled, but I could tell she was listening. Processing.
“No, I think he’s serious. It’s weird.”
“Well, he won’t be getting serious with me.”
“Why do you hate him so much?”
She stared out the window, her brows drawn. “I don’t hate him. He’s just… the epitome of all the guys I’m trying to keep my daughter away from. The kind who’d just use her, you know? The kind who won’t even remember…”
I nodded. Just like Kailee’s dad, who couldn’t handle responsibility.
Who ran at the sight of the first dirty diaper.
“Yeah, fine. Well, can you hold off biting his head off until I find Noelle and marry her? I know he’s not perfect, but he’s my oldest friend, and I want him to be the best man at my wedding. ”
“Your wedding to the runaway bride who ran away before you even proposed to her?” Felicity looked at me like she was reasoning with a toddler.
“Who said relationships are easy?”
Her face softened into a smile. She wasn’t a hugger, but she patted my shoulder with tears in her eyes. “Honestly, I’m so happy to see you moving on.”
And that was when I realized I’d changed. I’d really changed. Even with my desperation to find Noelle, I felt more alive than I had in years. Life had high stakes again. It had meaning. And I was ready for it.
“It’s just a party for Audrey. Noelle’s not there,” Jackson reported, hopping back in the car. “I checked the Sip, too. Eileen said she vanished. Didn’t come to the crochet club, but some random Korean girl did.”
“Korean girl?” My pulse kicked up. “When? Last night?”
“Yeah, she just turned up at the meeting to buy yarn. Said she’d heard about them from a friend but apparently didn’t know Noelle.”
Noelle had told me about her friend who got her the Christmas store job. Grace! She’d never mentioned her nationality, but I was fairly sure her boss had been Korean. Maybe Grace was, too.
“Let’s go,” I said.
We drove to the bookstore, crawling past The Christmas Wonderland. No lights inside. The window was entirely covered with pages from The Almanac. Why paper them so thoroughly, and why now? The season wasn’t even over. Who would renovate during the busiest week of the year?
“Stop!” I told my sister. “I need to get closer.”
“I checked the door. It’s locked,” Jackson said, but he got out and helped me out of the car anyway.
We tested the door and examined the window for gaps.
There was no way to see inside. Getting a closer look at the town paper, I browsed the story of me hitting Ralph and the one about my store.
They painted a picture of a deeply troubled man.
Jealous, possessive, and allergic to change.
I bristled. Could I really blame Noelle for running?
On paper, I sounded worse than her ex-fiancé.
“I just wanted to let you know it’s cute. The whole being in love and delusional thing. Adorable.” Jackson patted me on the back. “I much prefer this to the walking zombie. Even if it’s, what, the seventh stage of grief?”
“I thought grief only had five stages.”
“I guess you’re more advanced, my man.”
I shook my head at him and pressed my ear to the door. Delusional or not, I didn’t care. “I hear something. Like music.”
Something faint, rhythmic. Christmas carols.
Jackson moved me aside and listened. “Could be coming from next door. Or upstairs.”
“Or from that back room!”
“Sure.” He looked at me with compassion and pity.
We walked to the bookstore, and I unlocked it, bracing myself for the chaos we’d left behind.
But Felicity had already cleared the broken shelf and stacked the books by the wall.
Otherwise, everything looked the same. Crowded, dark, and ugly.
Suddenly, I saw what Noelle had seen. Why she’d wanted to add lights and decorations.
She’d been right. And she was the only hope my business had. I was running out of cash. If I didn’t want to close shop, I needed her. Every part of my life needed Noelle’s magic touch.
Bracing my ribs, I climbed upstairs and checked the office she’d been sleeping in. The bed was made, the desk clean. The Christmas lights still hung in the window, but she’d left nothing else behind. No clues. No sign she’d ever been here.
Was I delusional? Clinging to baseless hope? I wandered down the hall into the bathroom, praying for a miracle. A Christmas miracle.
And there it was. A damp towel. Hanging on the rack, far too wet to be two days old.
She’d been here. Maybe last night or perhaps this morning. I held the towel to my face, tears stinging my eyes. It smelled of berries and vanilla. Of her.
If she was hiding in her store and using my bathroom, I had hope.
But first, I had to take my reformed philanderer friend’s advice and make room in my life. Not just a little. A lot of room.
I hurried downstairs, ignoring the way my ribs ached. “Guys. I need your help.”