Stan must have told him, unless word was already circulating through town. It might be, given the size of Pinecone Falls and the notoriety of Ida Green’s Christmas Eve parties.
“That’s what she told me.”
Snowball tried to wedge her way in between them without success. When she whined, Nolan dropped his free hand to her head.
Gramps narrowed his eyes. “But why? Ida Green closed down the Cozy Holly Inn.”
Nolan nodded. It was a fact, not a question.
“But now her wild granddaughter is here throwing another party.”
“I don’t know if I’d call her wild—”
Gramps grunted, cutting him off. “I don’t like it.”
You don’t like most things, these days.Nolan wisely kept that thought to himself.
When Gramps looked around the kitchen as if suddenly recalling where he was, he looked weary. He made his way to his customary chair at the kitchen table. His newspaper was there, neatly folded and tucked to one side.
“I think I will take that coffee.”
Gramps always had a mug on the go, but he must have been too distracted by the news to bring it with him. Nolan fished a stoneware mug from the cabinet and poured a cup of fragrant, black coffee. He set it in front of his grandfather, who might as well have been a statue.
Nolan almost touched his shoulder—almost. But whatever web of grief and memory Gramps was caught in, he didn’t want to interrupt. He didn’t want to be drawn into that dark vortex. He had his share of grief over the loss of his mother, too, even if he seemed to be the only member of the family able to come up for breath.
He didn’t know what else to say, so he took his coffee cup with him and started toward the work he knew awaited him.
Gramps’s voice stopped him in the door.
“Watch her.”
Automatically, Nolan looked down at his dog. But it wasn’t Snowball that Gramps was talking about. The husky had taken to being Nolan’s silent shadow, as she mostly did while they were in Barrington Lodge.
“You mean Julie?” Nolan asked. What in the world was Gramps getting after?
“Yep. You can’t trust those Greens. Ida was always up to something, and I bet the granddaughter is no different.”
“I’m not going to stalk our neighbor. Do you even hear yourself?”
Gramps scowled. “She’s up to something, I tell you. Why go to all that work to clean up the inn and decorate and make food for one party when you aren’t even in business?”
At least one inn around here has some Christmas spirit.Nolan didn’t say that out loud.
“I take Snowball out in the woods near there every morning.” He had no intention of spying on Julie, but maybe this would appease his grandfather. It really was Snowball’s favorite path, and he didn’t see why he shouldn’t continue to do what he’d done every day for years.
“Good,” Gramps said.
But from his tone of voice, it sounded as though he meant,Not good enough.
Chapter 13
The caterer, Jessica, was younger than Julie thought she’d be. She was in her mid-twenties, a robust woman with a ready smile and bright eyes. The moment she stepped into the inn, she said, “Let’s see this kitchen.”
She sounded, of all things, excited.
Julie led her through the inn, chatting all the while. “Do you cater a lot of events like these?”
“No, not many, but I do a lot of business lunches in the general area. Weddings, anniversaries, sometimes birthdays. I’ve heard of Ida’s Christmas parties, but it’s always been my aunt who catered them in the past. And I think Ida did some of the cooking herself.”
