“I can’t think of any. And what’s wrong with Ted?”
Julie sighed. She tried to keep the frustration out of her voice as she answered, “He’s stuck in Boston. What if you cooked the food and brought it? I know it might be cold but…”
“I can’t.”
Julie was starting to hate those two words.
Jessica continued, “I cook on site for a reason. It’s why I was so excited about the two ovens you have at the inn. I just don’t have the space at home. Maybe if you could find a place nearby?”
Julie gritted her teeth. “Yeah, right. The only place close by is Barrington Lodge. There’s no way Klaus would be willing to help us out.” If she was reading between the lines right, he had deliberately planned to have the inspector stuck in Boston and unable to complete the inspection. No, Klaus and his too-small, Grinch of a heart were getting exactly what they wanted.
She was going to have to call off the party.
Head throbbing, she shut her eyes and tried to think. “Is there any other way you can think of?”
She didn’t hear Jessica’s answer because of the rumble of a car pulling up in front of the inn. That had to be Julie’s parents with Gram. At least they’d been able to beat the storm by flying into New Hampshire instead of Boston. She’d run out of time to fix this before their arrival. And she felt even worse for having gotten this close to bringing Gram’s dreams true only to have to dash them in the end.
“I have to go. Sorry—I’ll call back.”
Julie hung up the line and tried to pull herself together. She couldn’t go out there on the verge of tears. She pinched the bridge of her nose. She was an adult. She could handle this. Somehow.
Don’t do anything.Myrtle’s words.
Julie looked at the cat, who was disdainfully cleaning himself on the kitchen floor. “All right, Myrtle. It’s your play. You’d better bring us a miracle.”
Chapter 31
Pinecone Falls had really pulled through. Not that Nolan was surprised about it. He had only to drive into town and talk to one person about needing some last-minute decorations for the Lodge. Before he knew it, everyone in town was coming up to him and slipping something out of their pocket or purse. An ornament for the tree. A snow globe. Ivy even threw in an edible dog treat tree ornament.
That probably wouldn’t last long on the tree once Snowball noticed it.
By the time he’d returned to the house, Gramps and his dad had cut down the biggest tree Nolan had ever seen. It was a shame the thing would have to wait until tomorrow to be decorated because he had shopping bags full of ornaments for it. Not to mention the strings of lights, garlands, and other things he had picked up from a local store.
Upon seeing him step through the front door of Barrington House, Stan laughed. “What, did you buy out the whole town?”
Nolan set down the bags next to the huge tree in the corner. A double stairway curled up to either side of the front desk, leading to the wing of guest rooms. None of it had been decorated yet, but Stan and Gramps were bent over the tidy box of his mother’s old Christmas decorations, sorting through the items left.
Shaking his head in chagrin, Nolan said, “This is only the first batch. I have more in the truck. Word gets around fast, and the whole town came out to add to the takings. Gramps, I have your old tree topper in here. Barney from town kept it rather than selling it in his antique shop.”
The look on Gramps’s face was priceless. Nolan bent to riffle through the bags until he found the star tree topper Gramps loved so much. He smiled as he reached out gnarled hands to take it.
“I had this one since I was a boy. Never should have thrown it out.”
Gramps looked so frail that Nolan wanted to hug him. But he knew how unwanted such displays of emotion were, so he turned on his heel and marched out through the door for the second load.
It was the mark of a canine nose that Snowball was somehow able to smell the ornamental dog treat before Nolan fully walked through the door. His dog dashed out of the interior of the house, her tail churning the air, to stick her nose inside the bag holding it. Nolan laughed. “Not now, Snowball. You’ll get it on Christmas.”
Stan watched the dog with an uncharacteristically fond smile. “Do you remember your old dog, Rudolph?”
He and Gramps were rummaging through the bags already deposited in the entryway and pulling out the ornaments fit to decorate the main rooms of Barrington Lodge. Gramps had fistfuls of the faux-pine garland that seemed to go on forever. Nolan had picked up some real pine boughs to mix in with them that would add a nice scent to the rooms.
Nolan smiled, reaching down to pet his dog. “How could I forget? You and Mom gave him to me on Christmas when I was five.”
“You wanted a dog,” Stan said with a laugh. He helped Gramps extricate the rest of the garland, and without talking about it out loud, they both moved toward the left-hand staircase to wrap it around the railing.
“I’m not sure Rudolph counted as a dog. More like a small horse.”
Stan laughed again. “That dog sure could run.”
