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He pointed toward the ceiling, where so many Christmas cards were displayed in long rows from front to back. In the movie, Peter’s character had hung all those cards himself to show Jessica’s character how much he loved her.
“Do you know where I can get a thousand Christmas cards?” Landon joked.
“I’m pretty sure I don’t, but I think you and Audrie do.”
No, Christmas cards weren’t the right approach. This needed to be original. But it had to be special. The pressure was making it hard to think.
“Audrie loves Christmas,” Christian said, staring straight ahead. “You could bring her here and immerse her in a winter wonderland.”
Christian chewed his lip thoughtfully, looking around the rapidly emptying barn. No, that wouldn’t do. She’d spent two weeks working here. Plus, this was her childhood hangout. She might even have negative memories associated with him and this ranch together after the way the past week or so had gone.
He thought back to a conversation they’d had about Christmas in July. She’d said if it were up to her, she’d have a Christmas in July parade through the middle of Corbin every year. Santa on a sleigh with snow. As the memory came back to him, suddenly, he knew exactly what he had to do.
“I have an idea,” Landon told Christian. “I could use your help.”
21
Audrie didn’t get out of the salon as early as she’d planned. As it turned out, Hope was long overdue for a break, and most of that afternoon’s customers were Audrie’s anyway. Neither of them said it out loud, but chances were, those customers would rather Audrie cut their hair, even though they were both good at their jobs. People tended to get a little uneasy about switching hairstylists at the last minute.
So, by the time she exited her salon, locking up, Audrie was aching from head to toe. It wasn’t just the physical exertion. She’d had a long, grueling couple of weeks. The stress was taking a toll on her, both mentally and physically.
What she needed to do was go home, run a warm bath, soak for a good half hour or so, then climb into bed with a book. Maybe she’d be able to take her mind off her broken heart. Doubtful, though.
Sighing, she turned and started toward the parking lot. Up ahead, something was coming her way. She assumed it was a vehicle as she looked down at her phone, barely registering it out of the corner of her eye. But there was something off about the movement. It wasn’t someone walking or a car.
Finally, she lifted her head and squinted into the distance. She really needed to get her eyes checked. She’d noticed lately that her faraway vision had gotten fuzzy. That might explain the occasional headaches she tended to get at the end of the day.
But fuzzy vision or not, the scene in front of her didn’t make sense. It looked like a large animal—two legs in the front, two legs in the back. Brown. It was a horse.
What was a horse doing, trotting down Main Street? Was there a parade she’d missed? Had they suddenly gotten an influx of people who didn’t believe in electric vehicles? Maybe she’d stepped out of her salon and gone back in time.
Those latter two things were just absurd, and she would definitely know if a parade had been scheduled. In Corbin, people obsessed over things like that way in advance, blowing them out of proportion like they were the events of the year. That was what happened when you didn’t have much going on in your town.
Audrie slowed to a stop on the sidewalk at the point where she would have hung left to go to her car. She couldn’t just get in and leave like it was any other day. This horse would keep trotting this way. She had to know what was going on. She had to stand here, gaping as it passed, like any other small-town resident would do.
Turning, Audrie checked to see if there was a crowd gathered up and down the street that she’d somehow missed. With a parade, residents would line both sides of the road.
But there was nobody. It was a ghost town. Not unusual after five o’clock on a Saturday. There were no restaurants or attractions in the area immediately surrounding her salon—just a mini-mart across the street and an auto repair shop next to it. Both businesses were dead right now.
She felt awkward standing there alone, but the horse kept clip-clapping toward her. Well, in her direction. It clearly wasn’t here just for her. Where was it going? And was there someone controlling it?
As the horse got closer, she saw some sort of platform behind it and a man was standing on it. A man in a Santa costume. He was alone on the platform, which was covered in what looked like snow. With the beard and hat, she couldn’t quite identify who it was. Maybe it really was Santa. Santa had come to Corbin. If so, it had to have something to do with the Christmas movies filming here.
Maybe Sugar Cookies Productions was doing a promotional run through town. Surely, somebody would have mentioned that. Besides, this wasn’t the ideal time to come through here.
But things were more active up the road. Santa would find families with kids if he kept going toward the diner, which was usually hopping at dinnertime on Saturday. As the horse got closer, though, his steps started to slow.
“Ho ho ho!” Santa pulled on the reins as the horse slowed to a stop.
Audrie gaped at the man. She knew that voice. That voice didn’t belong to Santa. That voice belonged to Landon Dixon.
“What on Earth?” she asked, looking around.
Had someone talked Landon into playing Santa? Why?
Landon set down the reins. He then walked to the edge of the platform and jumped down, dislodging large chunks of snow in the process.
“I don’t have much time,” he said. “I don’t know how long this horse will stay still.”
