AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Mia Brooks-French stoodbefore the Christmas tree inside their family bookstore the last Saturday of November, seeing red. Usually, she loved everything about this time of year—the thrill of shopping for just the right gifts, submerging herself in the season’s tastes and smells, and seeing their adorable little town of Bourbon Falls all lit up at night. But sometimes the holidays had a way of bringing out the Scrooges of the world.
After seeing the advertisement they’d received in the mail yesterday, this year’s Scrooge award would be going to fellow independent bookstore Books-A-Plenty in neighboring South Bend. Not only had they recently expanded their flyer distribution to overlap Brooks Books’ territory, but now it seemed they were hosting the same exact ornament-decorating event Mia’s family had put on each of the last five years. Even worse, they were doing it on the same day as the event at Brooks Books.
“Traitors,” Mia growled as she rearranged ornaments on the tree inside their window display. “I thought we indies were supposed to support each other, not steal one another’s ideas and customers. And this is our Bright Minds fundraiser—we’re helping bring cheer to kids at Riley Children’s Hospital, for crying out loud!”
Bright Minds was a campaign she started after a fellow teacher at their local elementary school had a child go through something no child ever should: cancer. Thankfully, after several surgeries, the cancer was successfully removed and her son had remained in remission. But watching her friend’s family make countless trips to Indy, each time struggling to put poor Sampson in his booster seat while he kicked and wailed that he didn’t want to go back, inspired Mia to help, especially during a time of year that should be full of Christmas cheer. So, they’d gathered all the town’s best knitters, bought a boatload of special yarn, and made as many bright and cheery chemo caps as they could by Thanksgiving. The bookstore donated a matching number of new children’s books, bundled them with the caps, and then drove the wrapped presents two hours south to Riley’s in Indianapolis. Now, the kids had something waiting for them besides needles and procedures. It was such a hit with the families there that Brooks Books decided to make it an annual donation event.
But yarn and books cost money, which had been the motivation behind starting the ornament-decorating event. In the past, customers throughout the region had come to decorate clear glass bulbs and support their Bright Minds cause. But if those same people could go to the bigger, fancier Books-A-Plenty, where would that leave next year’s kids at Riley?
Aunt Faye came to stand beside her, having just finished restocking the children’s section. “I’m sure Books-A-Plenty had their reasons. Besides, if it was going to happen any year, this is the one that will hurt us the least. We were blessed to have had a few exceptional months this fall, thanks to the fundraiser. Not everyone has been so lucky.”
“But stealing our ornament-decorating schtick? Come on. That’s just salt in the wound.”
Aunt Faye shrugged. “I’m more curious to find out who their ‘special guest’ will be. Clever of them to build suspense over which best-selling author will be doing a signing that weekend in addition to the decorating.”
“I wish we had an amazing best-selling author lined up. Someone with a huge local following to lure the customers here instead of South Bend.” Mia frowned at the gappy ornament placement on this side of the tree. Clearly, her middle sister, Delaney, had hurried through her assigned section in the wee hours of Black Friday morning. Probably, she’d been eager to get back to bed. And to Isaac. “I guess it’s a good thing I hadn’t made it to Hobby Lobby yet for glass bulbs and acrylic paint. But what are we going to do to raise money for our supplies if we can’t decorate ornaments? It’s a town favorite!”
“We’re not doing ornaments this year?”
Mia looked up to see her sixteen-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, step into the room, cheeks rosy from spending the afternoon outside helping her aunt Delaney at the lot full of freshly cut Christmas trees across the street. So far, no snow had fallen in Bourbon Falls and the temperatures had remained fairly mild. But this was Indiana, which meant that could change at any moment.
“No ornaments? Says who?” Delaney asked, emerging from the hall leading to their back entrance a few steps behind Brooklyn. “We always paint ornaments.”
“Not this year, I’m afraid.” Aunt Faye handed her B-A-P’s flyer as they all huddled around the front register.
“‘Come join us for some holiday spirit’?” Delaney’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, I’ll show them some holiday spirit all right. I should have plenty of red and green spray paint from—”
“No, Delaney,” Aunt Faye said, easing the flyer from her hands. “We had our big fundraiser in the fall. Now it’s time to let Books-A-Plenty have their moment in the spotlight.”
“But they’re right next to Notre Dame,” Brooklyn countered. “So they’re in the spotlight every day. I’m with Aunt Del—this stinks.”
Mia nodded. “Agreed. But since their flyers have already been sent out, it’s up to us to come up with something different to rival their event. Something this town can get excited about that we haven’t done before. Something…I don’t know.”
“Yeah, me neither,” said Del. “Maybe it’s time for a Meeting of the Minds?”
Mia forced a smile. If anyone could successfully brainstorm the perfect new event for their bookstore, it was that group of amazing local women. After all, hosting a regional talent show that had helped save the bookstore a few short months ago had been their idea. Unfortunately, now that the leaky roof crisis was over and Del had finally found herself a man, that same group of women had shifted their focus to finding Mia the next prospect for happily-ever-after. Which she’d done her best to avoid. But if it would help the bookstore come up with another successful event, she would endure an evening or two of their dating scrutiny.
“I’ll send out an invite later,” Mia said. “We can have it at our house Monday evening. Brooklyn and I were already planning to get the house decorated this weekend. Weren’t we, sweetheart?”
Brooklyn, her nose buried in her cell phone, didn’t respond. Mia sighed. Maybe cranking up some holiday music while spending some quality decorating time together would get Brooklyn to unplug and reengage for a while. Mia understood that teens operated differently than when she was this age, but all tech and no talk didn’t seem like the best idea—something she and her daughter sparred about occasionally.
Del gave her a wink from across the way. “I think that’s a great idea. You get the house ready, and I’ll stock up on snacks and booze—er, beverages. Don’t want to give Mrs. Harper an excuse not to come.”
“Nope,” Mia said. “We’re gonna need as many minds as possible to come up with a doable event on such short notice.”
She looked to the Bourbon Falls annual chamber of commerce calendar hanging behind the checkout counter and its listing of dates beneath a picture of their town’s beloved historic train depot blanketed in snow. Two weeks—that’s all the time they had to work with. And while Aunt Faye didn’t seem too concerned about the Bright Minds funds they might miss out on because of the event overlap with B-A-P, Mia refused to sit back and doing nothing.
But what to do?
Her worries were interrupted by the bell over the front door tinkling as a customer walked in. A quick glance at the clock showed Mia it was five minutes after closing. Shoot, they’d gotten so wrapped up in their conversation that they’d forgotten to flip over theOPENsign and lock the front door.
Hopefully, whoever it was wouldn’t stay long. Mia now had a house to clean and decorate, on top of grading papers and planning for her third-grade classroom’s upcoming holiday party. She left the others to change the sign and lock the front door, hoping to offer a subtle hint to whomever had just walked in.
As she rounded the new releases table, however, Mia had second thoughts about hurrying their newcomer away. He was tall and lean, with chestnut hair and matching stubble on his chin. Jeans hugged his lower body in all the right places, and with no coat on, the way he had the sleeves of his Henley pushed up revealed toned forearms. Sunglasses hid his eyes, and for the briefest of moments, she wondered if he was some kind of celebrity, hiding from the paparazzi.
Especially since this guy could have easily played the stunt double for Ryan Reynolds. The nose wasn’t quite right, though, she decided as she drew closer. Probably, he’d just been sparing his eyes from the brutal, early evening sunset.
