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"Yes?"
I wait until she looks up at me, the sadness in her eyes making mine sting. "There is no excuse for what James did. I don't care what your mother did or said, he was your fiancé and the very least he should have done was wait to dump you until after he bailed you out. You deserve so much better than that asshole."
She smiles, but there's no joy in it. "Maybe hold your judgment until you've met my mother. I don't blame him for not wanting to marry into our family."
"I don't care if your mother is Satan's personal assistant. You deserve better."
She turns her head just enough to kiss the palm of my hand, and that kiss goes straight to my heart. I love this woman. I think I've loved her since the moment I walked up to her in Drummers and she asked me to help her get her fiancé back.
I push down my feelings. Feelings don't matter as much as compatibility and timing and circumstances. A serious relationship should grow from logic, not passion.
"Thank you," Cherry says again, fluttering her lashes. "Now, show me your bedroom."
CHAPTER THIRTY
Cherry
Iemerge from Josephine's big barn to see another truck pull up and park next to the ten trucks already here. "Wow."
"I'm going to need you to be in charge of directing people," Josephine says. "You're the brains of this operation."
I shake my head as a tiny two-door hatchback with snow tires comes up the drive. "When you said you'd had a few offers of help, I wasn't expecting the whole town."
She smiles, the skin around her eyes crinkling. "We help our own in Yuletide. Plus, everyone's excited about your ideas for the farm. Everyone benefits from a new tourist attraction."
It still feels like I might wake up at any moment from this dream. It was so wonderful when I presented my ideas to Josephine three days ago and she told me she loved them and wanted to move forward. She had a few suggestions and tweaks, and I'm sure there'll be more along the way, but she even loved my over-the-top ideas. Like having Santa come down a chimney to greet the tourists or hiring a bunch of local high school students to be Santa's elves.
Not only did she love my ideas, she wanted to start right away. "There's no time to waste," she'd said. She's still going to work her accounting job until we can prove the farm makes enough money to sustain her and her parents, but she says she has a good feeling about this.
"Where do you want us?" two older men in overalls, hats, and gloves, no winter coats, ask.
"What are your skills?"
"I'm a carpenter," the first man, with pale skin and rosy cheeks, says. "Heard you want to add some wood-working details to this big old barn?"
"That's right. We want to house the reindeer that will be available for public viewing here, and we'd love to make it look more Christmassy. I'm not sure what's possible, but we have a good supply of donated wood, scraps and imperfect pieces, for you to work with."
He nods. "Got any ideas what you want? Jo said you're the idea woman."
"I do." I open the binder I've been carrying around all day and flip to the page I want. It's filled with doodles I made. "We could go subtle, with holly leaves and berries, as well as snowflakes carved discreetly into beams and posts, or we could go all out and have candy canes, snowmen, Santa, and all the Christmas stuff we want. Jo said it would depend on what you think you can do."
"Not anything I usually do, but I can make it work," he says. "Knowing Jo, she'll want to go with the more in your face Christmas stuff."
I flip a page to a drawing I did of Santa in his sleigh being pulled through the sky by reindeer. I'm no artist, but I can draw well enough to get the point across. "My pie-in-the-sky dream is to have something like this on the front of the barn, the first thing visitors see when they walk up."
He points to the paper. "Can I take that?"
"Of course."
He wanders off with my picture, mumbling to himself. Josephine said he'll charge us, but he'll give us a good discount. I turn to the other man, with deep brown skin, sparkling brown eyes, and a warm smile. "What skills do you have?"
"I'm a doctor, but I'm really good at demolition if you've got that kind of work."
I don't ask how he knows he's good at demolition. "Josephine wants to clear a trail for a hay wagon to take folks all around the farm, but there are some trees down on the back half of the property. You any good with a chainsaw?"
He grins like I just offered him a hundred bucks. "Sure am. Just point me in the right direction."
I'm so busy for the next few hours that the morning feels like a blur.
