Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Theo pushed open the door of Whiskers and Wags, Coral Sands’ pet shop and dog groomers, and was greeted by the nose-tickling scent of dog food. Overhead, bells jangled cheerfully.
He was holding a folder of posters in his hand, and he glanced at the front window of the pet boutique and noticed that there was still room there for a few more posters.
He’d visited three local businesses already that morning, putting up posters for his band’s next performance, and all of those establishments had their windows and billboards stuffed with posters and flyers.
Christmas was a busy time in Coral Sands, and there were many events happening.
Still, he’d been able to find a spot for his posters everywhere so far, and he was hoping that Whiskers and Wags wasn’t going to be the end of that streak.
“Good morning, Jill,” he said, stepping up to the counter, where Jill, the owner of Whiskers and Wags, was jotting down notes on a tablet. “Would I be able to put this poster up in your window?”
Jill looked up and smiled. “Sure, if you can find a spot for it, that’s good with me. I hear your last show was a big hit. I’m hoping to make the next one.”
Theo grinned. “Thanks. We’ve got a new and improved set list, so it should be a great time.”
He went over to the window and was just starting to stick a poster to the glass when Harper walked up beside him.
“Hey, Theo! You could have taken my spot.” She laughed. “You’re putting something up and I’m taking something down.” She pulled off the brochure for the adoption event that she’d hung up in the window of Whiskers and Wags. “Looks like you’ve got the last little chunk of available space there.”
Theo chuckled. “There are a lot of posters here, that’s for sure. It’s thoughtful of you to be taking yours down right away to make space.”
“Eh, it’s good exercise for me, going around town and taking all the posters down.” She laughed. “Besides, obviously, shop windows are hurting for space these days. Coral Sands is quite the hopping place—we’ve got enough activities to go around for everyone.”
“No wonder we’ve got so many tourists even with the beaches closed.” He gestured to the posters. “Heck, I’d travel across the county to take this basket-weaving class too.”
Harper chortled. “Truly. I will say though, I think our North Pole Village is the cutest ‘Meet Santa’ experience I’ve ever seen.”
“Agreed. And Leonard is the perfect Santa Claus. He told me that the little kids like to pull on his beard, and they get all freaked out when they realize it’s real. They usually think he’s actually the real deal. He told me I did that when I was a kid, but I don’t remember it.”
“What, you don’t remember believing that Leonard was the actual Santa Claus?”
Theo clearly remembered a time when he’d thought that the jolly, rotund old man—whose long white beard was thick and curly—was actually Santa Claus. He’d seen him walking down the road in summertime and wondered why he wasn’t at the North Pole.
“Oh, let’s not bring up my past follies. Maybe just my present ones—I’m feeling a little disappointed with myself for not caving and adopting an animal at the shelter’s event the other day. It was really a fun day. I’m glad it worked out so well.”
“Hey, don’t change the subject—there’s still time to adopt an animal! We have two cats left and one dog. All angels.”
“Truce, Harper, it was a joke! That’s awesome that so many animals got adopted, though.”
“Isn’t it?” She let out a blissful sigh.
“I’m still holding out hope that they’ll all be adopted by Christmas.
This one older man keeps coming back to look at the cats and a family stopped in earlier today and they loved the dog.
I think I might get my Christmas miracle for all the fur babies after all. ”
“Awesome.”
Harper crumbled up the old poster she’d taken down and stuffed it unceremoniously into the tote bag she had slung over her arm. “Good to see you, Theo. Don’t think I’m going to let you forget about adopting a pet.”
He laughed and waved goodbye to her, then went back to sticking his poster in the window.
He had just finished and was starting toward the front door, intending to leave, when he saw Michelle burst into the shop.
She was holding a pink leash that was attached to the goldendoodle puppy that the Sutton women had just adopted.
The puppy was sniffing the floor voraciously, tugging at the leash so hard it looked as though Michelle was struggling to hold onto it.
“Puddle,” Michelle said. “Calm down, buddy. You’re not hunting criminals here. We’re just running errands.”
Puddle didn’t listen to Michelle and darted back toward the door, nearly tripping her owner with the leash. She barked excitedly, wagging her tail, as if she was begging to go back outside.
“Puddle, please,” Michelle said, exasperated. “Can you chill for like three seconds?” She looked up in the next moment and noticed Theo standing there, watching them with an impish grin on his face.
“Hi, Michelle.”
“Um, hi Theo.”
For a moment they stood there staring at each other. Theo was smiling and Michelle was shuffling her feet, looking flustered.
“You picked a rambunctious one, I guess,” Theo said, looking down at Puddle, who was lying down now and chewing on the corner of the doormat.
Michelle lifted her chin defiantly. “Actually, Puddle is extremely well-behaved.”
“Really?” Theo couldn’t disguise his quizzical expression. “Are you training her to vandalize property?”
Michelle looked down and noticed Puddle chewing on the doormat. “Puddle! No! No, baby girl. We don’t eat things that don’t belong to us.”
Theo laughed. He bent down and scratched Puddle behind the ears. The puppy chomped playfully on his leather jacket sleeve. “Wow, she’s a killer. You’re going to need all hands on deck at The Birchwood House in order to keep this little monster out of trouble.”
A flicker of concern passed over Michelle’s face, and it made Theo feel that he’d taken his teasing too far.
“Hey, I’m just joking,” he assured her. “You’ve got it under control, I’m sure. And you’ve got your mom and Elaine to help you, obviously. If I were Puddle, one look from Elaine would make me behave perfectly.”
Michelle wrinkled her nose. “Actually, my mom and grandma are about to head out of town for a little while, so I’ll be watching Puddle by myself.”
“And running the hotel by yourself?” Theo asked, his eyebrows lifting.
Michelle squared her shoulders. “Yes. What’s so surprising about that? I’m not worried. It’s going to go smoothly, I’m sure.”
Theo couldn’t help smiling inwardly at her bravado. Personally, he would have felt extremely perturbed by the idea of having to handle all that by himself, but Michelle’s confidence seemed to be mostly genuine. He detected only the faintest glimmer of uncertainty in her eyes.
“Well, good luck,” he said out loud, starting toward the doors. “Don’t forget to send out Morse code if the ship starts sinking.”
Michelle let out an indignant snort and then pointed to the folder he was carrying. “Are those posters? Is your band playing again?”
“We are.” Theo felt a surge of energy, hoping that Michelle wanted to come to their next concert.
So far, she’d been at all of his band’s performances, but she’d always acted like she had some other reason for really being there.
He hardly dared admit to himself how much he wanted her to be excited about coming to see his band perform. To come see him perform.
“Um, cool.” Michelle cleared her throat. “Well, I’ll probably be busy, but good luck to you guys. I hope it’s a great show.”
“Thanks. See you later. Good luck with Killer over there.” Theo forced a smile before stepping outside in the winter air.
As soon as he’d taken a few steps away from the pet store, he sighed. Why did it always have to be this song and dance with that woman? She never acted as though she really liked him, only as though she was holding him at arm’s length.
He shook his head, trying to think about something else. Try as he might, however, for the rest of the morning he kept imagining Michelle showing up to his show and clapping louder than anyone.