Game on, Sugarplum.
He tugged the sweater on over his head.
The sweater was soft, absurdly festive, and smelled faintly of Mrs. Bishop’s lilac perfume. He looked ridiculous—and, surprisingly, didn’t mind.
“Alright,” he said. “Now, where were we?”
“You were asking me about some bulbs,” Zach reminded him.
“Right. You’re right. Two thousand isn’t enough. Better make it five thousand.”
“I don’t know… are you sure you don’t wanna make it ten thousand?” Zach motioned across the street. “Do you see how much work your girl over there is putting in?”
Liam was about to object and say that Cassidy wasn’t his girl—until he realized Zach had said it more as a friendly term than a relationship status update.
Zach was still looking outside. Liam followed his gaze. Across the street, Cassidy stood in front of her shop with a measuring tape. She dragged one of the chairs over to the window and stood on it so she could reach the top of the window. They watched her measure the window vertically, then horizontally, then diagonally.
“What do you suppose she’s doing?” Zach asked, arms folded as he leaned against the front counter.
Liam mirrored him on the opposite side. “No idea. But she’s got to be freezing. She’s been in and out of there all morning.”
“Maybe she’s working on reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements? That seems a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”
“Not if you don’t want your decorations destroyed or stolen. That Gingerbread Jerk still hasn’t been caught. Didn’t you see what happened to the nutcrackers at the Kettle?”
“No. What happened?”
“They cracked more than nuts,” Zach said. “Both of them toppled. Busted right up. And you know those suckers weighed a ton. I think they ended up tossing them.”
“Are you kidding me?” Liam asked, standing straighter. He’d been hoping the Gingerbread Jerk wasn’t here to stay. Things like that didn’t happen in Maple Falls no matter how intense the holiday competition got.
Maybe Cassidy was trying to make her light-up plans thief-proof.
He was just relieved she hadn’t marched down to the hardware store to interrogate poor Mr. Alders. He could picture it now, Cassidy, all fired up, pointing a finger in Mr. Alders’ face with one hand and holding a candy cane in the other. It definitely wouldn’t end well, and it wouldn’t help her new business either. If Liam knew one thing about living in Maple Falls, it was that you wanted the older folk on your side.
Liam continued to watch her. She measured once more, putting notes in her phone.
She’s going to burn herself out at this rate, he thought. More concerned for her than anything.Or maybe she’ll win—and leave you wondering how you ever thought you stood a chance.
TWENTY-NINE
CASSIDY
Wednesday, December 10th
Cassidy was feeling pretty accomplished. She’d managed to overnight a holiday train set—complete with a train table—that was scheduled to arrive tomorrow. She planned to spend the evening working on a tiny marshmallow village to accompany it.
She’d also decided to paint the front shop window with snowflakes and rolling hills. Everything would be done in white, with touches of glitter to catch the light. It was going to be beautiful. Liam’s rustic charm and farm-boy swagger didn’t stand a chance.
She was outside in between waiting on customers, measuring the length of the front window for the third time to make sure she had enough paint, when Liam strolled up.
“Oh, it’s getting serious if you’ve got the measuring tape out,” he teased.
Cassidy looked up and smiled, her eyes immediately landing on the bright green sweater stretched across his chest.
“I wasn’t sure if you were going to wear it.”
