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If she was expecting a ‘hello’, though, she was sadly mistaken.
Franklin stopped when a couple of feet separated him from Gloria and her new friend. With a suspicious expression on his handsome face, he pointed.
“What is that?”
She thought it was obvious. “It’s a snowman.”
“What’s it doing on my property?”
“I made it for you.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” she shot back. “I was bored. I didn’t expect this much snow. I didn’t bring a shovel with me when I moved, and I didn’t want to risk going down the path to buy one yet. I trust my car now that you fixed it. The tires? Not so much.”
Franklin pointed at the snowman’s head. “It’s got a hat on it.”
“It’s a Santa hat.”
“Why?”
“You and your why’s,” teased Gloria. “It’s December now, Franklin. Christmas is in a couple of weeks. I haven’t been able to start decorating the way I plan to just yet, thanks to the snow, but I thought a Santa snowman might spruce the mountain up a bit. Since you’re leaving your house plain, I made this for you.”
“I thought we decided we weren’t decorating up here.”
“No. You decided that. I decided you were being silly.”
“Gloria…”
Progress, she thought. Even though he said her name the same way he scolded his younger sister, at least he wasn’t still calling her Ms. Watson. She’d take what she could get.
Gloria swooped down, picking up the three Oreo cookies she brought from inside. One, two, three, right down the middle. Buttons for the Santa snowman’s imaginary coat.
She could sense Franklin at her back. As she grabbed the carrot and the scarf still lying near her feet, she gave the Santa a nose before wrapping the scarf around his neck.
“You don’t have to like Christmas,” she called out behind her, “but I do. There. What do you think?”
Franklin cast a dark eye over her snowman. “Looks like some of the animals up on the mountain will have a couple of snacks tonight if it even stays up that long. Your Santa looks a little lopsided.”
Gloria resisted the urge to pick up a gloveful of snow and throw it at him. Somehow, she wasn’t sure her grumpy neighbor would appreciate an impromptu snowball fight.
Even if she thought he really, really deserved it.
The next morning, she woke up with a touch of hope in her heart.
Please, please, please let it be clear out there.
If she didn’t get a chance to connect with someone other than her handmade Santa Claus—that was still standing in front of Franklin’s cabin and still had its nose at least, thank you very much—she was going to lose her mind.
Drawing the curtain in her bedroom away from the window, she let out a soft sigh of relief. The flurry that began late last night must have been a simple blip because there was barely anything on the ground.
That decided it. She’d been dying for days to head back into town. She wanted to find out from some of the locals exactly how she was expected to decorate her cabin to match. Being cooped up the last few days, Gloria did a lot of thinking. Just because Franklin didn’t have any holiday spirit, it didn’t mean that she was going to be basic and boring.
Great Aunt Patti wanted Gloria to give living in Hamlet an honest try. Having the entire village decorated to match was a decades-long Christmas tradition for the locals. She wasn’t going to let Franklin Scrooge stand in her way of trying to take part in it.
She already bought white lights and green lights from Walmart, and she was pretty sure she got the right reflective ribbon. It was the matching wrapping paper that had proved elusive. She figured, if she asked someone down at the coffeehouse, they would know where to get it, especially since both the coffeehouse and the owner’s main house up front were decorated, too.
Plus, now that it was firmly Christmas season in Hamlet, Addy’s oven was working double-time. Last week, Gloria tried an absolutely amazing cranberry scone and she was looking forward to sampling more. Even hearing the menu had nearly made her drool, while managing to give her some ideas when it came to some unique holiday flavors of her own. She couldn’t wait to see what Addy had baking today.
