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“That’s cute. Speaking of cute…” she does a silly little smile and tilts her head toward the handyman from town who has been helping us out this morning. He brought a small collection of power tools to help us drill the holes into the ice and secure the poles we’ll be stringing lights and other decorations from. He’s also putting together a small stage for the DJ booth.
I cover my mouth and my smile. The older man’s butt crack has been aggressively on display all morning. I lower my voice. “Can you imagine being an unsuspecting snowflake? Just drifting down in your beautiful little life until you realize where you’re about to land…”
“Adam’s butt crack,” Caroline finishes, stifling her laughs.
“Welp,” Adam says a few minutes later. He dusts off his hands and looks at his work. “I’m gonna run by the shop and grab some two by fours and I’ll be back in a split.”
When he says “two by fours”, it sounds more like “tewbafurs”.
“Okay, drive safe.”
“And y’all walk safe. No slipping on this ice while I’m gone. Jesse told me to keep an eye on y’all today.”
“More like keep an eye on Andi,” Caroline mutters.
“Got it,” I say. “Wait until you get back to slip.”
He gives me a rueful laugh and points his power drill at me. “You’re a firecracker, aren’t you? Maybe they ought to shoot you off instead of all them fireworks you ordered.”
He drives off and I’m left to dig strings of lights out of boxes on the ice and carefully loop them around hooks on poles. It’s easy enough, but walking on the ice in our sneakers is perilous work. I nearly bust my ass every few minutes. At least Caroline is struggling, too. We’re both constantly slipping, swearing, laughing, and powering on with the task.
“This is going to be so perfect,” I say.
Caroline smiles over her shoulder. “I know. It’s probably going to be the best Frostival Finale we’ve had in years. Believe it or not, you are a much better helper than Jesse.”
I laugh. “For some reason, I can believe that.”
“So,” she says carefully. “Do you think you’ll be around next year to help? Or are you going to head back home when your parents leave.”
“Oh,” I say, caught off guard by the question. “I don’t actually know yet. I guess it’s hard to really picture what it’s going to be like living here once Jake gets back in the flow of the season and isn’t around. With him and my parents all gone, I just can’t say for sure. And I do have friends back home.” I can’t tell if I’m hedging my response for Caroline’s benefit or for my own. I know one thing: I’ve been operating under the assumption that difficult choices are only scary if I think about them. Therefore, I’ve been shoving everything scary into a mental closet, barricading the door, and pretending I don’t hear it thumping and thrashing as it tries to get out.
Totally normal, healthy behavior.
Caroline doesn’t look thrilled with my response, but she nods and smiles. “I get that. It’s a big deal to leave so much behind. I think that’s why so many people never really leave home. And if they do, they always end up getting pulled back to it. It’s honestly why I’m still here.”
“Did you always want to run a bed and breakfast?”
“Not exactly,” Caroline says. “I just… My mom was always so involved in town stuff. When I was a little girl, almost all my memories with her are doing stuff like this around Frosty Harbor. Decorating for the Frostival. Setting up for Valentines, Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween. Holidays were kind of like her Superbowl, and the whole town loved her for it. When she passed a couple years ago, I guess I felt the void she left. I didn’t really have to think too hard about it. I just knew I was supposed to step in and take over. Not just for me, but for her and the town, you know?”
I wipe at my eye, sniffing as I nod.
Caroline laughs and slips on her way to come hug me. The hug nearly knocks us both down. “You are hilarious,” she says. “It’s okay, really. I’m happy to be doing this stuff. It’s not sad.”
“I cry easily,” I say.
“I’m glad Jesse found you. I know you guys can’t, like, promise it’s going to work out. And I know it’s complicated. But, even if you end up going back to New York after the holidays, you’ve been really good for him. And maybe he has been good for you, too.”
“He has,” I admit. “I was feeling lost before I came here. I mean… obviously,” I say, laughing. “I ran away from my freaking wedding on the morning of. I even sat through makeup and got my dress on before it really hit me. But being here has felt good. And little by little, I think it’s showing me that everybody in my life was trying to support me while also being worried as hell about what I was doing. None of them really seem upset that I ran off from my wedding.”
As if I’ve summoned his attention by talking about the wedding, my phone buzzes. I glance down and do a double take when I see the name on the text.
Landon?
“What is it?” Caroline asks. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”
I smile, shaking my head and shoving the phone back in my pocket. “Not exactly. I just, um–” I shake my head again and decide that moment is going right into the closet with all the other scary, confusing stuff. Pretending I didn’t see that. Definitely not reading the text.
“Where should we put this?” I hold up a huge Santa head with a sparkly, pointy white beard.
