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“Will you take me home now?” Cobb asks her as they walk with their hands still clasped together. To an outsider they might look like teenagers on a romantic first date, but to the two of them, they feel more like soldiers holding onto one another after they’ve survived a bleak battle.
“Yeah, I’ll take you home,” Marigold says, falling in step next to Cobb. The ocean rushes onto the shore to their right, breaking on the sand. “That’s what I’m here for.”
Athena
The bookshop looks like a winter wonderland. Athena had kicked it into high gear, staying at the store until midnight to hang decorations and to make Marooned With a Book look festive. And, true to her word, Harlow had used her marketing skills to quickly advertise the event, posting on the bookstore’s Facebook page, website, and Twitter account, along with an Instagram photo of Athena up on a ladder hanging tinsel over a bookshelf. Then she’d made quick posts to Shipwreck Key’s social media pages, using a cute graphic she’d whipped up of elves reading books and stringing popcorn with the details of the event.
At ten o’clock, Elijah is there holding three giant Tupperware containers of cookies, The Ronnettes are singing “Sleigh Ride” on the sound system, and both Harlow and Athena are buzzing around in Christmas sweaters and earrings shaped like snowflakes.
“You owe me,” Harlow says, brushing past her sister with her arms full of holiday books for kids. She’s setting up the story time corner in the back room of the shop, with one giant stuffed chair for herself, and a big patch of carpet for the kids to sit on and listen as she readsThe Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The Giving Snowman,andHow the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Athena watches her fondly. Harlow can grumble all she wants, but while she and her sister have different personalities and interests in life, Harlow is just as big of a softie as she is when it comes to things like putting on an event for kids. She’s also happy to do something that will bring foot traffic into their mom’s store, and helping her sister come up with ideas to get the attention of this hot man who is standing in front of her now with freshly baked cookies in hand is right up Harlow’s alley.
“Cookie delivery,” Elijah says, holding out the Tupperware containers as proof that he comes bearing gifts.
“Come in, come in,” Athena says, feeling a little shy in his presence. “Thank you so much for making the cookies. You can put them right there.” She points at a round table that she’s covered with a vinyl tablecloth in a poinsettia print. The icings and sprinkles are already set up in the center of the table, with a cup full of plastic knives to spread the frosting and decorate the cookies.
“No problem whatsoever,” Elijah says, setting the containers down and then taking a proper look at the shop. “Wow. Remember that scene inElfwhere Will Farrell stays at the department store all night and everyone shows up the next day to find like, Lite-Brites with exquisite decorations, a whole Lego universe, and every rope of tinsel in the world wrapped around everything?”
Athena laughs as she looks around at her own handiwork. “Yeah, but this is nothing like that.”
Elijah points at a string of white paper snowflakes that Athena has cut out and strung up across the shop like streamers, and then turns to look at the fake tree she’s set up and decorated. “Um,” he says. “It’s kind of exactly like that.”
Athena smiles, pleased. “Thanks. I just used my mom as inspiration. When it was time to decorate the White House every year, she always said,When it comes to perfume, dessert, and champagne, sometimes less is more. But when it comes to holiday cheer, more is always more.”
Elijah laughs appreciatively. “Your mom sounds amazing. I haven’t met her yet.”
Just then, Ruby comes down the narrow staircase that leads up to her tiny above-store office. She’s been paying bills and answering emails since seven a.m., and she’d promised to leave Athena alone to coordinate this entire event, which she’s done.
“As luck would have it,” Ruby says, holding the banister as she descends, “the amazing mom is right here. Ruby Hudson,” she says, extending a hand. “And you must be Marigold’s son. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Elijah Hartley,” he says, shaking her hand. “My mom has said how much she loves you—all of you—and the book club,” he adds, sounding like a polite young man there to pick up Ruby’s daughter for a first date.
“Well, we’ve certainly cobbled together quite a group of women,” Ruby says with a smile. “Your mom is one-of-a-kind, that’s for sure. We all adore her.”
“As do I,” Elijah says. “Hey, I was here the other day looking for a book, and I couldn’t quite find it before Athena strong-armed me into being her professional baker.” He casts a glance at Athena and her face burns. “Would you mind showing me where I could find the new biography about John Wilkes Booth?”
Ruby leads the way to the middle room, where biographies and historical books are shelved. “The Lincoln assassination—very Christmasy,” she says, waving him over to a spot that Athena can’t see from the front desk. As they disappear from her sight, Athena lets out the breath she’s been holding.
She’s only got a moment to herself before the sleigh bells that she’s hung over the door start to jingle and the children pour in like someone’s turned on a faucet. Athena’s smile starts to flag as she counts little heads amidst the chatter of high-pitched children’s voices. She didn’t even know that Shipwreck Key was home to over fifty small children, but within twenty minutes, the store is filled with them.
“Damn, girl,” Harlow says, materializing at her side in a Santa hat as she sucks on a candy cane. “You’re like an elementary school teacher right now. What do we do with all of them?” Athena scans the store with wide eyes. Her mom had always secretly harbored a desire to be a high-school teacher, so maybe Ruby will clap her hands and bring them all to order. “Also, where are their parents?”
Athena’s eyes scan the room, but there are almost no parent-like figures to be found. It seems like many of them have simply ushered their offspring to the front door of Marooned With a Book and then vanished like Santa up the chimney on Christmas Eve.
“Maybe we should have said something on the invitation about having a parent present,” Athena says, realizing much too late that this is precisely what she should have done. She turns to look at her sister. “What do we do with them now?”
They look at the kids, several of whom are just eating cookies without decorating them, or squeezing icing from the tubes directly into their mouths. (These are all boys, Athena notes, watching as the girls sit down at tables and begin to quietly spread glitter and glue on paper without any direction.)
“I think we should have figured that out before they showed up,” Harlow says with wide eyes.
“Not helpful.”
Elijah walks out of the middle room with three books in his hands and Ruby trailing behind him. Ruby looks at her daughters and makes a face that indicates her mild displeasure at the chaos.
“Hey,” Ruby says in a stage whisper as she leans across the counter and looks at her girls. “You need to get these kids under control and give them some direction.”
“But there are just…so many of them,” Athena says, standing there stunned like a bunny caught eating carrots in a garden.
