“I might have made it up to spend more time with you,” he admitted.
“I might have known that when I agreed,” she said, tucking up close against him.
Chapter Twenty-five
Sheila couldn’t believe it was already the eve before Christmas Eve. Two weeks had sounded like such a long time to spend in Chestnut Ridge, and now she didn’t want it to end.
She got up and made her bed, still exhilarated from last night’s win.
Christmas is almost here.
She was wearing the pajamas with holiday penguins on them that Natalie had given her last Christmas. It had become their tradition to give each other pajamas, and she couldn’t wait for Nat to open the ones she’d picked out for her this year. It was a complete coincidence, but the pattern was called Jolly Good Forest and in muted dark gray and white they looked like a winter Christmas to Sheila, and with the tiny birds amid the snowy limbs, they were sort of perfect following the Christmas Tree Stroll win.
The wooden floors were cold this morning. She pulled warm socks on, then went downstairs.
Orene greeted her. “Good morning. How’s it feel to be a winner?”
“Fabulous.” She poured a cup of coffee and joined Orene at the table. “You should be exhausted. How do you keep up this pace?”
Orene shrugged. “I just do what I feel up to for as long as I want to, and then I take a nap and do it all over again.”
Sheila enjoyed the first sip of coffee. “If only it were that simple. I can’t believe how fast the time has passed.”
“Maybe you need more naps.” Orene lifted her brows. “Could help. Santa will be here before we know it.”
“On the bright side, I’ve been so busy that I didn’t give anyone their presents early for the first time in maybe forever.”
“Well, not for lack of trying,” Orene reminded her.
“True, but you resisted my insisting nature and saved me from myself.”
“You are welcome.” Orene looked quite pleased with herself. “Isn’t this more exciting?”
“I’ve been too busy to even think about it. I want to do something for Tucker, but I don’t want to embarrass him with anything expensive. I mean, we really just met, and he probably won’t be giving me a gift. But it would be so nice to do something for him. He’s pretty much made my holiday. He deserves some kind of thank-you. Don’t you think?” She pushed her fingers through her hair and groaned. “Am I overthinking this?”
“No. I think it’s nice that you want to let him know he’s appreciated. I’m of the school of thought that homemade gifts are always the best way to go in this situation.”
“True. Right!” Sheila nodded. “You are brilliant. Do you always know the right thing to say to everyone, or just to me? Never mind. Doesn’t matter. Would you mind if I did some baking today?”
“Not at all. Make yourself at home.”
“That would be great. I’m going to bake Tucker something special for Christmas.” She got up from the table. “I’m going to take my coffee upstairs. I need to wrap all those presents for the Jacob family that were delivered yesterday.”
“I was afraid the UPS man was going to ask to spend the night he was so exhausted after carrying all those packages to the porch.”
“They had some amazing sales going on. I stuck to my budget, though.”
“It looks like you spent a fortune.”
“I didn’t, but I do hope it helps them have an easier holiday. It just breaks my heart that they went through that.”
“There are a lot of other families going through tough times too. It’s too bad more people don’t help each other the way you are doing. This world would be in a much better place. Kindness breeds kindness, ya know.”
“I know what you mean.” She stood. “Actually, ‘kindness breeds kindness’ sounds like a really good Christmas Tree Stroll theme.” She tapped her head. “I’m tucking that away for next year.” She pressed her finger to her lips. “Shh. Our secret.”
“I told you! You’ve got the Christmas Tree Stroll bug. You’ll have ideas all year long.”
“I definitely want to do it again. And I think this lesson in helping others is long overdue for me. I’ve never really done anything like this.”
