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“Welcome home, indeed,” I murmured to myself as I made the trek back to my parent’s house, where I was staying until I could locate a rental of my own in Holly Ridge. Now it seemed like I might end up staying with them longer term, if I wasn’t guaranteed to be here longer than the rest of the year. I had started to count my chickens, assuming my contract would be easily renewed following a successful festival.
I barely noticed the familiar and comforting scenery of my beloved hometown as it crawled past my windows, the same houses and landmarks that I’d known my whole life blurring into nothing more than background noise as I contemplated the task in front of me.
“C’mon, Blaire, plan a spectacular Christmas festival to save the whole town! How in the world am I supposed to pull that off?!” I said to myself.
I had been working my entire adult life toward the goal of coming back home and running the Christmas festival. Everyone had assumed I would just coast off my Dad’s coattails when it came to getting a job, so I set out to prove them wrong. I didn’t want to get the job through those connections. I wanted to get the job because I was the best for it. So, after college, I found myself in other small towns around the tristate area working on their festivals and special events, gaining experience and credentials to return home with. It turned out I was fantastic at what I did, succeeding in growing any festival I had worked on, and navigating small-town politics was something I was born to do, but none had stakes like this before. I had never been in charge by myself before either, there was always someone I had to answer to, who would try to take credit for my successes. It looked like that wouldn’t be any different in this scenario either, with Winterberry Glen’s CFO having to sign-off on almost everything I do, but at least I could count on him not trying to take credit for Holly Ridge-related successes thanks to the town feud. I’d just have to watch out for sabotage instead, which was definitely something I had experienced before. To say I was wary of men who worked in government would be an understatement. Not everyone was honorable and transparent like my dad, a lesson I learned the hard way.
I was returning to Holly Ridge and the festival ahead of schedule—this is what I get for not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I thought I was being recruited because of the reputation I had built for growing and succeeding in those other towns, but it was really because the council knew I was the only sucker loyal enough to this town with a chance in hell of pulling it off successfully. I’m not sure if that stung more than a nepotism hire right out of college would have or not.
My thoughts returned to the town. Once word got out the town’s future was in danger, an even bigger blow for people would be that the consequence of failure was being absorbed by Winterberry Glen. The animosity between Holly Ridge and Winterberry Glen was not something that I had ever understood. Whenever I had encountered anyone from Winterberry Glen over the years, usually at the Wally World that was located at our towns’ borders, they had seemed just like anyone from Holly Ridge, but the bad blood was strong and deep for most people in our town. I made a mental note to visit the archives at the library to read up on the feud. I could sense a research project resulting in color coded notes in my future. This just added an extra layer of complications to what seemed to be an already impossible scenario.
Parking my car in my parent’s driveway, I steeled myself for the onslaught of sights and sounds that would await me. My dad was embracing his retirement with both hands, and though my mom had never worked outside the home, her joy at having her favorite companion home all the time radiated through the air. Throw in my niece and nephew, who my parents watched during the day when they weren’t in school, and it was a whole host of energy I wasn’t sure I was prepared to face after the sneak-attack meeting I had just endured. At least my sister would still be at work, saving me from the internal comparison I couldn’t help but make between our lives. I had been focused more on accomplishing a career goal than on adding to the family’s roster with my own husband and family, while she had managed to do both.
“Auntieeee Blaire!”
A blur of limbs and blond hair charged down the hall toward me as soon as I opened the door, and my niece, Holland, launched herself at me. Dropping my bag just in time, I relished her quick cuddle until she started wriggling, demanding to be put down to rejoin her partner in crime and twin brother, Hollis, back in the kitchen. The entry hall was lined with the Greene family photo museum, many photos featuring the very festival that had just been dropped in my lap like the hot potato from hell, with one terrifying expiration date attached.
“Blaire, is that you?” My mom called to me from the kitchen, where I saw she was elbows deep in flour when I rounded the corner.
“Yes, Mom. I do hope Holland isn’t in the habit of greeting strangers off the street with that sort of enthusiasm.”
My mom smiled at me good-naturedly, knowing my snark was all for show. With her graying hair in a neat bob, and the blue eyes I had inherited from her twinkling, I knew she was fully in her element—baking with the grandkids.
Just then, the back door opened and my dad walked into the kitchen from the backyard where he was no doubt tinkering in his workshop—and maybe hiding a bit from the overwhelming kid energy that had taken over the house during their spring break. Though dad was supposed to be “taking it easy” now that he was retired, he had the spring in his step of a much younger man, with shining green eyes and a salt-and-pepper beard to match his hair.
My parents had bought this house thirty-five years ago when my sister was a toddler and before I was born, so it was the only family home I had ever known. Everything felt familiar and warm, calming me a bit, even with H&H—as I lovingly, and also sometimes exasperatedly, referred to the twins—chanting at Grandma to let them taste the batter.
Dad took one look at me and said, “What’s wrong, Blaire Bear?”
My dad and I have always had a special bond. Maybe it was because I was the baby of the family, maybe it was because I shared his deep love and appreciation for Holly Ridge and all of our town traditions, but regardless, I definitely do not relish having to be the one to share this news with him.
“Well, the whole town will know soon enough. I found out the reason my contract included such strong finish-the-project-or-else vibes.”
Something in my tone alerted my mom that this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation, so she turned to the twins. “I’ll get these cookies into the oven. Why don’t you two head into the living room and read for a few moments? When the cookies are done, we’ll have some for dessert with lunch.”
Though my niece and nephew were balls of energy, they also loved to read. The Greene bookworm gene was too strong to be stamped out by my brother-in-law’s athletic prowess. They thundered into the next room, arguing over who was going to be able to read more pages before lunch was served.
Once Holland and Hollis were out of earshot, Dad turned to me.
“Okay, Blaire, what’s going on?”
Dad did a good job of letting go of town duties and responsibilities once he retired and the council had taken over, trying to let the town move on while he transitioned to the next phase of his life. But I knew this wasn’t going to be easy for him to hear.
“Well, the council has really made a mess of things. All of those projects the council undertook that were supposed to make money? Sure seems like they weren’t at all successful and the town is bankrupt. If this year’s Christmas festival isn’t a success, Holly Ridge is going to lose its town charter and get absorbed into Winterberry Glen.”
I sat down roughly onto one of the kitchen stools with an audible huff, the magnitude of the situation I had just signed myself on to for the next nine months hitting me.
Dad leaned on the kitchen island, forcing me to look him in the eye. “I heard rumblings that things were bad, but I didn’t realize they were this bad. Is that why they hired you?”
“Yes, though I don’t have complete free rein. There’s someone from Winterberry Glen who will be involved—keeping an eye on the planning and making sure things are fiscally responsible and all that.”
I sat at the island in my parent’s kitchen, surrounded by two of my biggest cheerleaders, all the comforting reminders of home and the scent of chocolate chip cookies wafting in the air, and yet I found myself too overwhelmed with the uncertainty of where to start first.
“Their CFO wasn’t able to be at city hall with the council today for some reason, so I need to be in touch with him sometime this week to set up our first meeting, and then I’ll find out more of what the oversight will look like. Until then, I think I’m just going to go upstairs and sleep for a few days. Hope that this is all just a bad dream.”
My mom winced in sympathy, saying, “Well, at least wait another ten minutes, so you can sleep with your stomach full of warm chocolate chip cookies.”
At this, my stomach growled, I don’t even think I realized I was hungry, and the cookies did smell delicious.
