“We do. Let’s go to the fire station and talk to Doris. She’s going to be so relieved.” Sheila headed down the driveway.
“Turn here.” Natalie jiggled the church keys. “I’ll show you the space. We can take some measurements before we go see Doris.”
“Excellent idea. You know, staging is my specialty.”
“I’m counting on that,” Natalie said. “I want this to be the best Christmas the Jacob family could imagine under the circumstances.”
“We can make anything happen together.” Sheila gave Natalie’s hand a squeeze. “Like Thelma and Louise.”
“There will be no darting off cliffs in this car!” She looked over her head. “I doubt it even has a roll bar.”
“Even if it does, this thing cost way too much money for that kind of reckless shenanigans.”
“Take this path here.” Natalie pointed to the gravel road that veered off to the right between two corner fence posts.
Sheila made the turn, and it was only a moment before the little church came into view. It wasn’t old, which was what she’d expected. “Why does Paul Grandstaff have a church on his property, anyway?”
“He’s a little eccentric. He has a good reason for everything, though. When his wife died, he had this built so he could come out here and be close to her. His daughter is buried in the cemetery. He had Jesse build a resting place for Jeremy’s ashes here too. It’s really pretty.”
“You didn’t tell me that. Natalie, that’s good.” Sheila had worried about Natalie keeping his ashes in her house. It just seemed so depressing. “This place is as charming as can be.”
Sheila pulled to a stop. From the outside, the white building with its tall peak looked taller than it was wide. It didn’t look much bigger than some of the supersized sheds people had behind their homes for storage, but she’d seen those things turned into tiny houses for families to live in. It could be super cute with some out-of-the-box thinking.
The front doors were a gentle sage green. Tall pencil-point evergreens flanked each side. It was simple, but the elegant detailing, like the wrought-iron shutter dogs and ornate doorknob, probably salvaged from an old building, gave the place character.A pretty church bell hung in a tower that stretched high above them.
Natalie unlocked the front door, and they stepped inside.
It was chilly. She reached for the thermostat and the mini-split, and the heat started blowing. “We’ll get it warmed up in here.”
The entry was like a hallway. Sheila, being a real estate agent, out of habit, opened each of the doors. A bathroom on one side, and a kitchenette on the other side. “This will work.”
In the main part of the building, only six pews, three on each side, filled the far end near the platform where a wooden bench held a Bible.
“Paul said we can have Jesse get the guys to empty the place and move the pews out to the barn to store them while the family is here.”
“I’d suggest we keep two of them. It’s a lot bigger inside. It looked tiny from the front, but it’s long. We can probably lay our hands on a long table they can use for meals, and put that right over there near the kitchen.”
“Great idea. I know the fire station has a ton of eight-foot tables they use for bingo nights. I’m sure they’d lend us one.”
“We can throw a heavy tablecloth over it and tack it underneath so the kids can’t pull it down, and put something childproof in the center.” Sheila twisted, looking left and right. “A Christmas tree in the corner over there?”
“Yeah.” Natalie marched to the spot, lifting her hands high in the air. “And it can be tall!”
“I’ll find an area rug to anchor a living space. A couch and, ya know, we could use another pew instead of chairs. I think the kids would be fine with a pew to sit on for television, and they can’t mess them up since they’re wooden.”
“True.”
“I’ve got so much stuff at the office for staging. If we struggle to find anything, we could get Randy to stop and pick up some of my inventory.”
“We have a great Habitat for Humanity store and a Goodwill not far,” Natalie said. “We should be able to dress this up pretty easily. They might even be willing to donate or discount some things for us. You’ll be surprised. People will come out of the woodwork to help.”
“That’s so refreshing.” Sheila took a couple of pictures, then used her phone to measure the room dimensions. “We can make this very homey. It’ll probably have to take them through at least spring for the insurance company to pay out and come up with a plan. By then, outdoor-living weather will be here, and there’s plenty of running space for the little ones.”
“I can’t wait to tell them.” Natalie pulled out her phone and placed the call. “Let’s call Doris now.”
She punched in the phone number and put it on speaker. “Hey Doris. It’s Natalie and Sheila. We’ve got great news. We’ve got a place lined up for the Jacobs for the next six months. And it’s free.”
“What? How did you do that?”
