Tidings of Joy: Based on a Hallmark Channel original movie Page 10

  “People say, ‘come do this charming super-cute winter thing. Ice skating.’ And then your feet are freezing and—”

  “What happened to the ‘getting to experience everything in town so you can write about it’ girl?”

  Katie thought for a moment, then stacked her things. “Using my own words against me is low. But effective. I can’t promise winter sports, but decorating, I can. Yes.”

  Ben smiled and handed Katie her bag. “Don’t forget this.”

  She took it, absolutely charmed. “Thank you. Decorating. Tomorrow. You and me.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The next morning, Hannah changed clothes three times before finally settling on a red sweater with a wide black-and-white plaid. Not too dressy, but not like she hadn’t tried at all. Plus, she always received compliments when she wore red.

  I’ve known Elliott for years. Why is today any different? Relax.

  But it was different. Something had changed, or was it just that Katie had made that suggestion the other day at the inn?

  And then there was that awkward slip-up. It’s a date!

  She still couldn’t believe she’d said that. How awkward. Part of her wished she could avoid him forever, but she really didn’t want to do that. She liked spending time with him, and she hoped he could fix the snow globe.

  They hadn’t exactly set a time, he’d simply said morning, but she knew he was an early bird. She’d hung around the house as long as she possibly could, then made her way down to the shop. Since Elliott had bought the old building and reopened, she’d missed Mom and Dad more than ever.

  Elliott’s truck was parked out front. She hesitated at the front door. He was working on the snow globe. The only one in the shop. She opened the door and stepped inside.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  He lowered the piece and smiled. “Hi. I’m glad you came.”

  “Me too.” She moved closer to the counter. “I mean, I want to help if I can. You know.”

  “I was up late working on it last night.” He scooted the somewhat-repaired snow globe into view.

  “Oh my gosh. It’s looking good.” She reached for it and turned it carefully. “So good.” Overcome with relief, she took in a deep breath. “Thank you so much, Elliott. I know this was a nearly impossible task.”

  “I wanted to help you.” His words were soft, kind. Comforting.

  “You are so wonderful.”

  “Let’s see if we can get it back to a hundred percent.”

  “Okay.”

  Elliott held the miniature church in front of him, the tiny steeple between a pair of hemostats. With the steady hand of a surgeon, he positioned it back into place and let the glue take hold. “What do you think?”

  She clapped, smiling. “I can’t believe it.”

  “One step closer.” Elliott didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until he’d glued the church back into its place of honor in the center of the decorative base. Still missing the glass globe, at least the trees and the horse-drawn sleigh were back in place too.

  “Oh.” It came out more of a sound than a word. Hannah swept her sweating hands together and let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this, Elliott.”

  “It’s my pleasure.” Without pause, he looked into her eyes.

  The warmth of his gaze made her heart leap.

  “Now all that’s left is to let the glue dry,” he said. “Megan said she’d help us get the glass blown to the exact measurement.”

  “You’re a lifesaver.” Giddiness from being so near him left her a little wobbly. “It’s nice being back in the shop.” She meandered through the space, remembering how much time she and Thomas had spent here as kids. She ached for those childhood days when her parents had filled this space with their hard work—where she’d learned that singing made any task more fun. She and Momma would sing through every single project.

  “I love this place. Fixing things. Giving broken things a new purpose.”

  “You did a nice job on the remodel. My parents loved it here. Said it was like a second home. I took my first steps right over there, apparently.” She walked over to that spot and stood. She could hear her mom telling the story, like she had a hundred times.

  “I’m excited to carry on the tradition that they’d built, even if it is after more than a ten-year pause.”

  “The years just flew by. This building just sitting here empty. I don’t know why we never thought to do anything with it.”

  Elliott shook his head. “Sometimes we’re too close to the memories to think of a place in any other way. Sometimes it’s like that with people too.”

  Was he trying to tell her something? “Maybe.” Or maybe it’d been too hard to face those old memories. Out of sight meant out of mind, and what you didn’t think about couldn’t weigh on your heart. “Thomas and I spent so much time here. Chasing, playing and fighting like siblings as close in age as we are have a habit of doing.”

  Elliott came around the counter to stand next to her.

  “We used to go on all kinds of treasure hunts around this place.” She spun the handle on an old hand-crank vise that was still on the counter.

  “Treasure hunts?”

  “Sometimes like scavenger hunts. Mom would give us a list, but mostly we were looking for Mom’s wedding ring. She lost it in the store one day. My brother and I spent weeks searching for it.”

  “Where did you find it?”

  “Never did.”

  “No.” He looked sincerely sorry about that.

  “She ended up finally replacing it, but she said the ring would be here somewhere in the store.” She let her arms fall to her side. “But we never came across it. Being in here makes me feel close to my parents again. Like we’re all home for Christmas again after all these years. That probably sounds crazy.”

  “No. It doesn’t. You know, they’re working on opening the pond. Once they do, if you’d like to—”

  “I’d love to,” she said before he could finish. She shook off the blunder. “We should definitely go ice skating together.”

  “I’ve improved enough since high school and can keep up.”

  “Keep up?” Hannah smirked. “With me?”

  “You were the best skater in the high school. And the valedictorian, and the drum major. Keeping up with you took a lot, but I can still remember trying to get you to ice skate with me. You’d always speed away.”

  “I don’t remember it being that way at all. I remember it as being so much fun.”

  “Really? Well, then I wish I hadn’t mentioned it.” He shook his head, as if trying to stir up the memory. “I was so embarrassed I couldn’t catch up to you. That’s why I quit skating and started piano lessons.”

  “Oh, gosh. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

  “No. It’s fine. You were still the best friend anyone could have had.”

  She’d really hurt him. Her heart sank. “Had?”

  “Could have. Still are. You know what I mean.”

  She chose her words carefully. “Well, you’re…also still a good friend.” She wanted to tell him she thought they could be more, but she was struggling for the words.

  Elliott smiled, gazing at her for a long moment that made her insides zing. She lowered her lashes.

  “Should I call you when we’re ready to take the next step?” he asked.

  Those words, next step, caught in her brain. She jerked her head up.

  Their eyes locked. Hannah couldn’t think of anything except him saying the next step. Was he feeling this too? But they’d been friends for so long. Wouldn’t she have noticed before now?

  Hannah touched her face. “What? Umm, what do you mean? Next step?”

  “Yeah.” He tu
rned back to the counter, pointing to the nearly repaired snow globe.

  “Oh? Right. Yes.” She recovered quickly, now realizing he was talking about the snow globe project—not the two of them. Did I really just do that? “Great! Please do that. Yes.” She fumbled a little, finally escaping before saying something else embarrassing.

  She raced down the steps feeling like a fool, but when she looked over his shoulder, he was standing there with a half smile and his head cocked in amusement…or something. Hopefully something good.

  Hannah walked straight out of the store to town square without so much as a pause. Her heart was still racing. She was so relieved the snow globe could be repaired, but even more than that, her heart was doing back flips, and those were for the man behind those repairs.

  She touched her brow, damp with sweat even in the cool air. Oh Elliott, I hope I’m not the only one feeling this way.

  When she came around the corner, David stood there in the alley with his hands in front of him like a movie director. As she got closer, she noticed the picture of her parents in his hands. “Do you think that’s where the picture was taken?”

  David turned and nodded. “I do. I mean, I can almost line up the whole thing. I just don’t understand why someone would remove that mural. And why?”

  “Maybe it got damaged in the Christmas blizzard?” Hannah said. “I guess that picture would’ve been about the time of the blizzard.”

  A tsk came from behind them. Joe had walked up. “It’s a shame. The mural really would have been nice to keep up.”

  David stared up at the wall, still puzzling through this. “I was really hoping I would find it before my dad got back to town. I wanted to show him that I’d solved another puzzle.”

  Hannah placed a hand on his shoulder. “Think of it this way. You found something about both Evergreen town history and our family history. He’s going to be excited to see you either way.”

  “I can’t wait to see him. It’s been a couple of weeks this time.” David stood there mesmerized by the wall that had once had the mural on it. Maybe what made it more interesting to him was that the picture had his grandparents in it. He’d never gotten the chance to know them. They’d have loved him so much.

  It was such a gift that she and Thomas had stayed so close over the years, and when he and his first wife had had David, she’d been the proudest aunt on the planet—like he was her own.

  Carol walked around the corner from the Kringle. “Good morning. You’re here early.”

  “David’s still trying to figure out that picture,” Hannah said.

  “And now the key too.” David lifted the photograph of his grandparents again. “Two mysteries at once.”

  “When I was a little girl, my dad would take breaks from the bakery out here,” Carol said. “And sometimes I’d come out with my chalks, and I would write all over this wall. He would put a milk crate down, and I would stand on it…right about here.”

  “You’d have thought he’d mention there’d once been a mural there.”

  “He never did.” Carol walked to the center, and then turned to face the wall. With imaginary chalk in her hand, she swept her arm through the air. “I would design plans for my own diner. The windows were up there. The counter over there, and I’d always put the door here, because see…” She pointed to a spot about eye level now. “There’s a little knot in the wood here somewhere that’s shaped like a keyhole. See, it’s right there.” She pointed playfully, as if enjoying the memory, then jumped back, startled. “Wait!” Carol put her hand on the wall, then tapped it. “Is it an actual…?”

  Hannah raced over to see.

  David clocked in to what was going on. “It’s a real keyhole? Do you think the key from the sleigh fits it?”

  “I don’t know, but this could be something wonderful…or nothing at all.”

  “We should try it.” He was so anxious that he was jumping like a kangaroo on coffee.

  “Let’s gather everyone. If it’s nothing, no big deal, but if it’s something, don’t you think the gang would like to be a part of it?”

  “You’re right,” David said. “I’ll run down the Historical Society phone tree and get everyone to come over.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Katie stood in the inn’s kitchen, refreshing her cup of coffee. She popped a tiny quiche into her mouth. Megan provided such a wonderful spread of delicious nibbles that Katie was afraid she wouldn’t fit into her holiday dress if she wasn’t careful.

  I’m sure going to miss Barbara’s County Inn when it’s time to leave.

  A few pounds was a small price to pay for the new friends and memories she’d made here.

  The days were clicking off much quicker than she’d like. Her phone rang. With coffee in hand, she hugged the phone to her shoulder as she doctored it up with a sugar cube and creamer as she answered.

  “Did I wake you?” her mom asked.

  “No, I’ve been up for a while. I’m dressed and ready to go.”

  “Does that mean I’m going to see that story soon?”

  “I just have a few more tweaks to make. But I wanted to start fresh this morning.” Katie slid the copy she’d reprinted at the library last night from her notebook.

  “Well, I can’t wait to read it,” Pam said with all the excitement of someone who’d had four cups of coffee already that morning.

  “Mm-hmm.” Katie picked up the print out, glad this last bit of work would be done and she could get back to what she’d come for—vacation-mode. Only, it wasn’t her article. It was a readers group discussion guide. She groaned. “Oh, no. Except I grabbed the wrong paper off the printer last night and—”

  “Sorry, what?”

  Her breath caught when she realized what had happened. “Oh, no. Mom, I’m going to have to call you back.” She slugged back a sip of her coffee and put the mug in the sink, then grabbed her coat as she race-walked out the door to get to the library before someone else found her notes.

  She knew the walk to the library by heart now. Her boots clicked on the wooden walk in front of Daisy’s Country Store. A pretty gold-dipped snowflake ornament caught her eye in the window, but there was no time to stop and shop now.

  As she walked past Allie’s red truck parked along the street, she heard someone call out her name. Across the way, a crowd was gathering in the alley next to Kringle Kitchen.

  “Katie.” She spotted Ben in the crowd. “Katie, come over here.”

  Hannah, David and Michelle were all staring down Kringle Alley too. Nan and Nick stood off to the side chatting, their faces beaming.

  “What is going on?” Katie went up on tiptoe so she could see.

  “I honestly don’t know,” Ben said. “David called me to come down. He said they’d found something. He called everyone in the historical society.” He looked around. “As usual, word travels far and fast around here.”

  Another woman chimed in. “I just saw the crowd gathering and stopped. I don’t know, but it’s exciting.”

  Carol came out of the diner, and with a dramatic shrug, she gestured to Hannah and David to join her. “I don’t know about all this.” She balled her hands into fists then crossed fingers on both of her hands, excited about something. “It’s a long shot, but…I don’t know, I just have a feeling.” She took David by the hand. “Come on.”

  The two of them marched right past that huge growing group of locals up to the wood slat wall of the building.

  David took the key from his pocket, and together he and Carol twisted it into the keyhole that’d been long hidden-in-plain-sight behind the stained wooden siding.

  It took a little wiggle. To the left. To the right. Followed by a click that caught Carol and David so off guard that they leaped out of the way. The trim pieces on each side of the building pulled back, and then every horizontally stacked board plummeted into a well-
planned stack in a trough below.

  The sound of over two dozen boards slapping to the ground in a heap was a little dizzying, but as the racket subsided, a collective gasp replaced it.

  Every single person standing there looked up in awe. The only stained boards of the facade that remained were those along the peak of the gable roofline. From the point at the tippity-top all the way to the bottom was one massive masterpiece embedded into a larger-than-life shadow box painting of an Evergreen winter.

  “That’s the painting from the picture of my grandparents,” David shouted.

  But it was so much more than just that.

  The opening around the painting held carved wooden pieces—snowflakes, evergreens at the base with a single snowman, top hat and all. Twenty-four wooden boxes, each one numbered, framed the shadow box from knee high all the way to the top.

  Katie stumbled back, but Ben caught her by the arm. “Is this the, uh…”

  “What in the—” He looked to the others. “Is this the time capsule?”

  “Wow.” Ezra still stared above. “So it’s…”

  Michelle covered her mouth with her hands. “I can’t believe this.”

  “Is this…is it the time capsule?”

  “Yes! Finally!” Nan threw her gloved hands in the air as she spoke. “I cannot tell you how many hints we had to drop. And how perfectly we had to time all of this.”

  Carol’s jaw dropped. “You knew about this?”

  “Oh ho.” Nick grabbed his belly as he laughed. “We’ve been dropping hints for three years!”

  Nick and Nan were busting at the seams with joy.

  “Wow,” said David.

  “What? For years?” Hannah’s eyes popped open wide. “You’ve known all these years?”

  Nan explained with dramatic flair. “The timing had to be just right so you’d all be curious—”

  “But not too curious.” Nick added, joining Nan in front of the time capsule.

  “Until December first of this year,” Nan announced, throwing her arms wide. “Today!”