Chapter Eight
“Did you getthem to set out the extra cones to help direct traffic?”
Mason took a breath, willing calmness, but this had been going on for the last few days. “Dad, stop. It’s been taken care of. You’re stressing me out.”
“I just want to make sure—”
“I know. Trust me. If you want to see if I can handle the season, then you need to let me handle it. Why don’t you go see if Mom needs help with anything? Last I saw, she was doing some last-minute decorating in the marketplace.”
Daniel frowned. “I already tried that and she said I was bugging her and to go see if you needed help.”
Mason attempted to keep from smiling. It seems he and his mom were experiencing a similar problem. It was clear, no matter what Daniel had promised, he was having trouble letting things go and hadn’t stopped pointing out when Mason chose to do something a slightly different way than him.
“Maybe you can go check on my bees then.”
His father huffed. “What’s there to check?”
“It was really windy last night. Just make sure the winterization I put up hasn’t been blown away.” He had put up a wall on the west side of the hives to block out the worst of the bad weather a few weeks earlier. The wall was temporary for now but he wasn’t too concerned about it. It was more that his father taking a long walk would do them both a lot of good.
His father grumbled about how Mason should be focused on the Poinsettia Paradise and not the bees but he, at least, went away.
Mason returned to his work but his attention was captured when a gray pickup truck pulled through the gates with a small, white horse trailer. Worried that the farm’s regular Christmas Santa was up to something, he made his way toward it. He wouldn’t put it past Stan to transport live reindeers without telling anyone.
Except, when the driver door opened, Natalie stepped out. His step faltered. There he was, being thrown off guard again even when he knew she was coming.
“Hi,” she said, her breath light. “I’m not sure where I’m supposed to set up.”
“Natalie. Hi. I can help you.”
She got into the vehicle and he helped direct her to a spot beside another vendor, Placerville Waffle Company. When rotated, the horse trailer had the wordCOFFEEpainted in a military font at the top. While it was enclosed with solid walls, he worried she wouldn’t stay warm enough while working and was calculating which heating lamp he could sacrifice to sit between her truck and the waffle vendor. At least it would be something.
“Do you need help unhitching the—”
“I got it,” she said, going to work by unhitching the trailer and setting down the jack to level it.
As much as Mason wanted to help her get situated, he hadn’t offered to help the other vendors and couldn’t do so now without people, like his dad, taking notice. As much as he hated to, he sauntered away and returned to his previous task.
When it got close to opening, he, with Bentley, walked through the vendor area to check on things. While the horse trailer didn’t appear to be anything special on the outside, he could see it had been converted. No one would describe it as sparkling top-of-the-line, but an order window had been cut out of the side. Inside there were coffee machines and supplies on shelving. Natalie, still wearing her parka, was outside the truck, writing a menu on a chalkboard hanging beside the order window.
“Everything good?” he asked.
She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Yup.”
“I brought you this.” He held out a bright red potted poinsettia, offering it to her.
She looked at the flower, frowning, before meeting his eyes. Her shoulders locked into a line. “Look, Mason, I don’t really need you to be giving me flowers—”
He stopped her before she made the situation more awkward. “Oh, no, I… All the vendors have them. We like to spread the holiday decorations throughout the farm. It’s my mom’s idea. Gives patrons a real experience. You’re the last one on my list who doesn’t have one in your, uh, truck window.”
She took the poinsettia from him. “Oh. Okay. Thanks.” She looked at the plant, a worried expression flashing across her face as she chewed on her lower lip. “You’re not expecting this plant to be returned to you alive are you? I don’t exactly have a green thumb. I’m a plant killer.”
He gave her an assuring smile because he found every part of her adorable, even the parts considered deadly. “You don’t have to do anything. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on it, like a plant wellness check.” Mason noticed her shiver from the cold. “You know, I think I have an extra heat lamp. I was going to put it between you and the waffle truck, if that’s all right. It might not give a lot of heat, but it might help a little.”
Her face softened. “Really? Yeah, th-that’d be nice. Thank you.”
He opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted with the noise of a car horn going off to the tune of “Jingle Bells,” making the vehicle heard before it was spotted barreling through the gate. Beside him, Bentley barked his displeasure, adding to the sudden chaos.
Shit.
