Chapter 21 Jace
JACE
Jace honestly didn’t believe, at first, that Holly’s naive optimism about the neighbors turning up to help them would be rewarded. It was too ... too Christmas holiday movie, too cheesy to believe.
But they came.
As Noelle got the word out about their extended hours, as well as the tree farm needing extra money to make it through the holiday season, people came.
And came.
They brought their friends, they brought their families. They came back to buy a second tree after the first one.
And there was hardly a single customer for the entire next couple of days who didn’t shove a few dollars into Holly’s cheerful box labeled SAVE OUR TREE FARM! As word spread, people who had already bought their trees began showing up just to put money in, too.
“Here you go,” said the red-haired toy shop saleslady, stuffing a handful of bills into the slot in the box. “On behalf of me and the kids.”
Jace didn’t know the matronly lady with half-moon glasses who showed up with an envelope that she slipped quietly in the box, but Holly clearly did. “Mrs. Wilberf—That is, Mags. You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to,” Mags said. “How’s that sweet little pup getting along in his new home?”
Holly’s lips quirked as if she was struggling not to smile. “He’s the best dog ever.”
“I knew he was perfect for you,” Mags said soulfully. Looking past Holly, she noticed Jace. “Oh, speaking of perfect, isn’t that the nice young man who—”
“Is very busy, sorry!” Holly said. Hustling Mags off, she put an arm around the older woman’s shoulders. “I don’t suppose you know any way to take the squeaker out of a bacon-shaped chew toy, do you?”
People just kept coming. And coming.
Jace was aware the Colonel was writhing inwardly at the tangible show of support.
Now and then he’d vanish off to the barn, from which came loud hammering noises and Christmas music played at full volume while he dealt with his feelings.
But then he would emerge and come up the hill to shake hands with each and every person who donated . .. and those who didn’t, too.
With the tree farm running from dawn to dusk and late into the night, they needed all the help they could get.
Jace was aware that he wasn’t entirely welcome in the house—nothing about that seemed to have changed—but he was still working on the tree farm, cutting trees and occasionally standing down by the road holding up a homemade sign, painted by Holly with enthusiasm if not that much artistic skill, that said GET YOUR TREES HERE! OPEN ‘TIL 9!
Holly brought meals up the hill to Jace when he wasn’t at the tree farm.
“I’m still mad at you, you know,” she said, slamming a warm, covered Tupperware container down on his table.
“I know. What can I do to make it up to you?”
“Just ... be here,” she said, and whirled away, almost running down the hill to the house.
But she kept coming back.
And he kept being here.
“I’m not going to let Dad make my choices for me,” she said, shoving a plate of Christmas cookies into his hands.
“I believe you.”
“But I need to get through the holiday first,” Holly said, searching his face with her gaze. “Just promise you won’t leave.”
“I promise.” And he meant it. Sneaking out was the coward’s way. One taste of it had told him that wasn’t the kind of man he wanted to be.
Jace’s wolf remained stubbornly just out of reach. His hands were nearly back to normal—and being around Holly seemed to help with that—but whatever communion he and his animal had almost reached was once more unattainable. And he didn’t know why, or what to do about it.
He was still worried about Rob coming back to cause trouble.
The tree farm was too busy during the day for anyone to get away with sabotage, but at night, he had started sleeping in the hay in the tree farm shed, curled up in a pile of blankets he brought down from Mistletoe Manor.
He stashed the blankets behind the hay during the day, and to Holly’s dad it just seemed like he’d arrived early.
The yawning could be excused by the early hour, and Holly and her sister supplied plenty of hot coffee.
“One thing about it, though,” Holly said as they sat on the back of the tree wagon between customers, swinging their feet and eating sandwiches that Noelle had come up the hill to bring them.
(She had also brought Cupcake. From inside Holly’s coat: SQUEAKASQUEAKASQUEEEEEEEEK.) “Christmas presents are a no-go this year, except for the ones I already bought. Which is fine; Kaden is the one who really matters, and it looks like between me, Dad, and everything Noelle brought in her suitcase, he’s going to have a wonderful Christmas.
” She glanced sideways at Jace, her lashes downcast. “But I don’t have anything for you. ”
Holly giving him a gift had never even occurred to him. Just the idea was wildly extravagant. And this kicked him in the gut with the idea that he had absolutely nothing for her, and no way to repay her for everything she had done.
“Don’t worry about it,” he protested. “Everything you’ve given me so far has been more than I could have dreamed of. I don’t know how to pay you back.”
She gave him another sideways look, her mouth twisted wryly. “Pay me back for what, sleeping in the shed?”
“What?”
Holly reached out to tweak a piece of straw out of his hair. “You think I don’t know you’ve been spending the nights out here? To keep Rob away, I’m guessing?”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Does your dad know?”
“No, he thinks you’re up at the Christmas cottages.” Holly sighed and removed Cupcake from her coat, setting him on the ground (SQUEAKA!), and began stacking their plates to return to the house. “This whole thing is starting to turn into a giant mess. I need to have it out with Dad, but—”
“Not until after Christmas,” he said, making a fingers-crossed gesture.
“Yeah.”
But now that the topic had come up, he couldn’t stop thinking about Holly, and the fact that he had absolutely nothing to give her, not even a way to pay her back for his room and board at the farm, let alone anything special.
When he thought about it, though, he realized that he actually could think of something.
It involved getting into the house. He thought about sneaking in. Then he remembered the cold, ugly feeing of slipping away without talking to Holly, and the discomfort of creeping in and out of the house, even with her permission.
While Holly and her dad were busy at the tree farm, he went and knocked on the door.
Noelle opened the door. It let out a delicious waft of cinnamon and sugar smells, as well as Christmas carols blasting from the kitchen, in loud competition with the sound of children singing on a kids’ Christmas movie on the TV.
Noelle was wearing an apron, with flour on her cheeks.
Behind her, Kaden sprawled on a dog bed on the floor with Cupcake next to him, watching the Grinch on the TV screen.
“Oh, hello there,” Noelle said cheerfully.
“You know, with everything going on, I don’t think I’ve properly introduced myself.
I mean, you know who I am and I know who you are, but have I even said hi?
Well, this is me saying hi.” She thrust out a hand, the knuckles decorated with flour, and clasped his. “What can I do for you?”
“Uh, hi. I actually wanted to do something for Holly,” Jace said. “Make a present for her. But it’s going to involve going upstairs and getting something of hers.”
Noelle’s cheerful face turned uncomfortable. “Um ...”
“I promise it’s nothing weird,” he said quickly. “She has a doll that was damaged. I want to fix it for her. That’s all.”
“Oh! Come on in.” She opened the door for him. “That’d be wonderful. Holly won’t admit it, she thinks she’s too grown-up for it, but she loves those dolls. Do you know where it is?”
“I think so.” Having spent a couple of nights in the room next to hers, he’d seen the doll on a shelf, among the sewing supplies. He just wasn’t sure if it had been moved. “Which room are you staying in? I think it’s in the room with the sewing machine.”
“Kaden and I are in Ivy’s old room, the one that’s the library now. It seemed easier to move some books around than to try to hide all the pointy things. C’mon upstairs.”
Although she seemed to believe him, she still accompanied him up the stairs, which he figured was reasonable. The doll was right where he remembered it, wrapped in a scarf on a shelf between two boxes of sewing supplies.
“Oh wow,” Noelle said, peering past his shoulder as he unwrapped it to check and make sure it was the right one. She was a lot taller than her sister, seeming to have gotten more of their dad’s height. “What happened to it? Did one of the dogs get hold of it?”
“I didn’t see,” he hedged. “But she was really upset.”
“How were you planning to fix it? You’re going to need sewing supplies to do the dress up again. Do you sew?”
“Uh,” he said helplessly. He had many handcrafting skills, but that wasn’t one of them.
Noelle smiled. “Let me get you some sewing supplies. I know where everything is.”
A few minutes later, she was frustrated, pulling things out of drawers. “Well, I used to know where everything is! Someone’s completely rearranged it. Look at this mess.” She held up a snarled tangle of yarn. “This looks like it’s been dropped in the mud. Who in the world has been in here?”
“Not me,” Jace said hastily. He wondered if this was more of Rob’s sabotage, though messing with sewing supplies, in a room Holly almost never went into, seemed a little far-fetched.
Noelle winced as something started beeping downstairs. “Look, let me go take the cookies out before they burn, and then I’ll help you collect some supplies up here. Want to come down and eat a cookie?”