“A little. Malcolm has worked with Mason before when ordering supplies for the farm.” Ivy’s husband, Malcolm, worked on a large farm in the next town.
“He has? Why would the farm need fake Christmas items?” Kristen wondered.
“Oh! Mason doesn’t work at the store. At least he didn’t used to. He’s a sales guy for the big fertilizer company they use at the farm.”
So Mason wasn’t even part owner of the store? That made things even worse. Or maybe it made them better. He was likely just passing the time by helping his father out, so maybe his heart wouldn’t be in the project.
“He doesn’t live here, does he? I don’t think I’ve met him.” Julie looked up from her perusal of the menu.
“Nope. Lives away from here but is helping his father get set up. He’s not a bad guy. Kind of cute.” Ivy’s gaze returned to Kristen.
“He seemed average to me.” Kristen pretended to study the menu. She didn’t want to admit that Mason was attractive. He was her competitor, and it might not be wise to get too friendly. Besides, she’d just gone through a big breakup and wasn’t really ready to get involved with anyone, and the fact that he didn’t even live in town sealed the deal.
Lucy, the café owner, came over, and they ordered. Kristen got her favorite: grilled cheese. No other restaurant made it as well as the Pinecone Falls cafe.
As they settled in with their meals, discussing town gossip and what they’d been doing in the past years, Kristen felt right at home. Everything was going to be great from here on out, she assured herself as she pushed away the gnawing worry about issues with trees and skating-pond competitors.
Chapter 7
Dorothy set the wreath on the nail sticking out of the middle of their front door. Charlie had put that nail in decades ago. Last year, that thought would have started a flood of tears, but now, it made her smile. She was making progress, and that was a good thing.
The wreath was one of the most gorgeous they had for sale at the farm. Luckily, the smaller pines were pretty healthy, and Ethan had made up dozens of wreaths, which were selling well. This one was adorned with gold-trimmed red velvet ribbon and clusters of small gold and red ornaments.
She ran her fingers along the needles just to make sure none of them fell out too easily. They didn’t. But while the smaller trees were doing well, the balsam firs, their most popular for Christmas, were suffering.
Dorothy sighed. If Charlie were here, he’d have known exactly what to do. It was all up to Ethan now, and she had the utmost faith that he would figure it out. They still had a bit of time before the rush for trees would start.
She stood back, breathing in the crisp, cold air mingled with the scent of pine from the wreath, which looked good on her red door. A simple white spotlight on the door would be perfect. Maybe some candles in the windows. That would be elegant, not overdone like the house across the street. Earlier in the day, the man who lived there had put up more garland and a fake tree!
He hadn’t decorated the tree yet, so the artificial green of its branches stood out like a fly on a Christmas cookie. In Dorothy’s opinion, it looked horrible.
“What do you think, George?” She glanced down at the cat, who was sitting at her feet, staring up at the wreath.
“Meow.” George glanced over at the house across the street. Then he looked back at the wreath then up at Dorothy.
Suddenly, he sprang off the porch and started running toward the other house.
“Oh, no, no, no, no.” Dorothy ran down the steps and scooped him up. The road wasn’t busy, so she wasn’t worried about traffic, but she didn’t want George wandering over into the neighbors’ yard. Perhaps she would have to keep him inside.
She cuddled George in her arms as she looked back and forth between the two porches. Come to think of it, hers did look a bit bare compared to the one across the street. She wouldn’t do anything as garish as that, but a few more decorations wouldn’t hurt. She didn’t want his house to get all the attention. Maybe some nice twinkle lights and garland—made out of fresh evergreen boughs, of course. Perhaps she could put at least one tree out… once the problem with the trees was solved.
Kristen’s car coming down the road caught her attention, and Dorothy waited in their driveway, holding George.
“How was your lunch with the girls?” Dorothy was more than delighted that Kristen was already reconnecting with her childhood friends. It was one more thing that would keep her in town.
“Wonderful. Did you know that Julie is running the Cozy Holly Inn?” Kristen petted George on the head, and they started up the walkway to the door.
“I heard about Julie. I think Ida is pretty happy about that.”
“She came back to town to just like me. Might be an epidemic.” Kristen noticed the wreath on the door. “That looks great. Are you going to put up more decorations?”
“Well, I noticed that they have a lot more across the street.” Dorothy nodded in the direction of the excessively decorated porch. “And I was thinking we might want to do a little extra decorating this year. You know, keep up with the Joneses.”
Kristen’s brows drew together. “That’s a good idea. I just got back from the town hall, and Irene deemed that there would be a contest for decorating the skating pond.”
Dorothy’s heart jolted. They always decorated the pond. Charlie had said it was one of his best forms of advertising. She should have done it herself last year, but she had been too deep in her grief to even consider it. “A contest?”
“Yeah.” Kristen gestured toward the house. “Apparently, your neighbor wants to decorate the pond too.”
