“Consider it done,” Lincoln said, feeling a smile on his face to match hers. “I’ll come by the shop sometime next week to work out the details.”
“Mom! Mom, watch this!” Katie’s voice carried across the rink, and both adults turned to see her attempting a small jump. She landed successfully, her reindeer nose glowing triumphantly.
“That was amazing, sweetheart!” Imogen called back, and Lincoln could see some of the tension leave her shoulders as she focused on her daughter’s joy.
“She’s really gotten fearless on the ice,” he observed. “I remember when she was afraid to let go of the wall.”
“She gets that from her father,” Imogen said, then immediately looked like she regretted the comment. She rarely mentioned Katie’s father, and Lincoln had never pressed for details.
Before he could respond, Katie was skating toward them, Emma right behind her.
“Lincoln, can we do the light show now? Please? Emma’s dad is coming to pick her up soon!”
Lincoln checked his watch. “Perfect timing. Let me go set everything up.”
He made his way to the light booth, aware that Imogen was joining the girls at the edge of the rink to watch. This was hismoment to create something magical—not just for the kids, but for her. He wanted to give her a few minutes where she could just enjoy watching her daughter experience pure joy, without worrying about anything else.
Lincoln dimmed the main arena lights and started the first sequence of his carefully programmed light show. Red and green spotlights began to dance across the ice in rhythm with the opening notes of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”,and the children’s light-up noses became part of the show, creating moving points of red light that complemented the programmed effects.
He could hear the squeals and gasps of delight from the kids as the colored lights swirled around them, turning the ice into a magical winter wonderland. Lincoln had synchronized the lights to build with the music, and he could tell they loved it. Katie was spinning in circles, Emma nearby, and he saw a smile on Imogen’s face as she watched, her stress momentarily gone.
That made him feel best of all, he realized. Seeing her expression lighten for a minute made him feel like all of the hours spent planning the show were worth it, even more than the excited cheers coming from the ice. As simple as his life was these days, he thought, this made him feel more fulfilled than anything else ever had—seeing the result of all his hard work be the excitement and wonder of the kids on the ice and Imogen’s smile from where she was standing.
If there was one thing that Lincoln Blackwell knew for sure, it was that he didn’t regret coming back to Fir Tree Grove for a second.
CHAPTER THREE
The afternoon rush at The Toy Chest had been relentless, but Mabel Stewart wouldn’t have had it any other way. She stood behind the counter, brushing wisps of her curly, silvery bob out of her face as she rang up the last customer, a harried-looking mother who had three board games tucked under her arm, a box containing a train set in one hand and two stuffed animals in the other.
“These should keep them busy through New Year’s,” the woman said with a grateful smile as Mabel finished ringing her up and handed the items over to Vanessa, her granddaughter, to begin wrapping them. Vanessa smiled back at the woman as she began prepping a red-and-green striped bag each for the stuffed elephant and horse, complete with silver, glittery tissue paper.
“Oh, I’m sure they will,” Mabel replied with a knowing chuckle. “And if they don’t, you know where to find us. We’ll be here all through the holidays.
As the bell above the door chimed the woman’s departure, Mabel let out a contented sigh and surveyed her domain. The Toy Chest was her pride and joy—a warm, colorful place full of happiness and imagination for the children who came to browse, and a place where parents could feel sure that they’d be able tofind what they needed for their kids… or get help picking it out if they didn’t. She loved her shop year-round, but at the holidays there was a special kind of magic to it, she thought. Santa’s throne was at one side, surrounded by bags stuffed with tissue to make them look round and full, and there was an old-fashioned letterbox to one side of it for children to drop off their letters to Santa—which Mabel promptly forwarded on to the parents.
The Christmas tree, which she’d gotten from George Lowery’s tree farm as always, brushed the ceiling and sparkled with lights and strings of snowflakes and berries, and had candy canes hanging from the branches that the children who came in were free to snag. And of course, the window displays were what she was especially proud of—old-fashioned, gorgeous displays with faux snow, tiny trees, train sets and nutcrackers, a winter wonderland facing out to the street, tempting customers to come inside.
She’d spent years upon years perfecting the store and making it into everything she’d ever hoped it could be, and she loved it dearly. It was made even better now by the fact that her granddaughter, Vanessa Stewart—now Hayes after her wedding—now worked side by side with her in the shop.
“That was the last of the afternoon crowd, it seems like,” Vanessa said, neatly folding up and putting away the remnants of the wrapping paper and gift bag paraphernalia, before heading over to start straightening a display of picture books that had been thoroughly examined by small hands throughout the day. “I think we can finally breathe.”
Mabel smiled as she watched her granddaughter work, and began to tidy up the counter around the register. Vanessa had proved to be a godsend. For years, Mabel had pushed back against any idea that she needed help with the shop, but when she’d sprained her wrist badly two years ago, she’d had to admit that she couldn’t keep up with the bustle of the holidayseason without assistance. It had taken a little grandmotherly finagling on her part, but Vanessa had ended up helping her for the season, coming to visit Fir Tree Grove from San Francisco, temporarily at the time.
It had ended up becoming permanent. And she couldn’t have asked for a better helper. Everything Vanessa did was done with careful attention, all of the precision that had made her once an invaluable office employee for her boss back in California now focused on the shop. Every surface was cleaned and dusted and polished until it gleamed, every book and game organized perfectly, every display righted and arranged so that it looked exactly as it had when Mabel first set them up.
They’d grown so much closer too, over the past two years, Mabel thought fondly. For so long she’d been estranged from her granddaughter, the only family she’d had left, and for years she’d thought she’d come to terms with it. She’d understood that it was hard for Vanessa to reach out back then, with her parents gone as the result of a car accident and her life so busy and so far away. She’d understood too, that Fir Tree Grove had held memories for Vanessa that she’d have a hard time revisiting after the loss of her parents. But life had a way of bringing people back together when they needed each other most, and Mabel couldn’t be more grateful for the second chance they’d been given.
“Are you and Jackson doing anything fun tonight?” Mabel asked as she started preparing to take out the trash for the evening, setting the bags by the back door as Vanessa started dusting the window displays.
“Maybe a nice dinner at home? I’m so tired, and we still have a lot to do to get the house ready for the holidays. Besides, it’s hard to go out when my husband is such a good cook.” Vanessa laughed. “I don’t know how he still wants to when he runs the diner all day, but he never seems to get tired of it.”
“I wouldn’t complain for a second if I were you,” Mabel said with a laugh, and Vanessa shook her head.
“Oh, trust me, I’m not.”
Jackson Hayes, who had charmed Vanessa with his coffee and a perfect eggnog latte from the beginning, owned the Snowdrift Diner in town. Mabel had thought that he and her granddaughter would make a perfect couple from the moment that she’d noticed that the two of them were starting to make eyes at each other, but it had taken Vanessa longer to come around. Pumpkin lattes and homemade eggnog creamer aside, Vanessa had been a big-city girl through and through, all designer clothes and fast-paced lifestyle. No one had expected her to stay, least of all Vanessa herself.
But Fir Tree Grove had gradually won her over, as had the chance to be closer to her grandmother, and the slowly budding romance between her and Jackson. By the end of the season, she’d decided to stay, last Christmas they’d gotten engaged, and now the two of them were happily married.
