Sweet Christmas Kisses (142 page)

I was sure surprised to see the name and number of the local bed and breakfast show up on my phone when it began to trill. Mrs. Jenson, the proprietress, was concerned that one of her boarders was in Serendipity for nefarious reasons—possibly aimed at me. He had asked a lot of questions and had been pumping people for information. Seems he had been particularly inquisitive this morning when he’d had breakfast at The Diner. Mrs. Jenson’s sister and brother-in-law own The Diner, and although they’d been happy enough to talk to the guy at first, when Barnett left, everybody in The Diner started wondering out loud about his purpose in Serendipity. One of the other customers said he had heard the guy asking nosy questions along the same line when he was having dinner at Al’s Place the night before.

It was Mrs. Jenson’s considered opinion that the people of Serendipity needed to stand up to anyone who would put their own interests before the interests of others. Especially when those people weren’t “from here.” And most especially, if they had an inclination to destroy a local landmark like the Standish Christmas Tree Farm.

“Seemed to me a real good thing that she’s looking for extra help, don’t you agree, honey? Lillian’s a strong woman. She’ll hold that family together—you mark my words.”

Jared Barnett didn’t understand how a small town works, and I doubted he would realize what his lack of education might cost him.

Tuesday morning dragged by. Whether people were already off work and heading somewhere for the holiday or what, they certainly weren’t calling me. I met a couple of other realtors for lunch for some networking. The relationships between real estate offices here in Serendipity was much more pleasant than I’d experienced in the city.

“Melissa, I heard about that guy Barnett. What a crazy idea he’s got, huh? Can you imagine people building mansions like he’s talking about here in our county?”

“No, not really. But he seemed to be convinced.” 

“I told him to his face that he was crazy. Not in a hateful way, you know.”

“I’m sure you were very subtle about it.”

“Maybe not subtle, but you know, I sugar-coated it some. Thanks for thinking of us, we’ve all given it our consideration, and just so you know, the guys in white coats have been alerted to the make and model of your vehicle.” He guffawed and slapped his knee.

I was glad to get out of there. Although I doubted the luxury development could happen, I wouldn’t have shut Barnett down if the kind of property he wanted had been available. The conversation over lunch had been a reminder of the kind of narrow thinking that had stunted the growth of our county for years. With factories moving out or simply shutting down and nothing much new coming in, we needed to be looking for options, not throwing ideas out before they had a chance.

It made me angry and sad at the same time. Serendipity was a neat little town with a lot of potential, but we were very adept at ruining opportunities for ourselves.

I piddled around my office the rest of the afternoon, and even did some housework carrying my phone in my pocket and listening for the doorbell. Just when I was ready to put the “Closed” sign in the door, the doorbell rang. Jim Standish was standing on the front porch peeking through the glass at me. I opened the door.

“Mel. We need to talk.”

“Jim. Well, you look different.” He was wearing a dark gray suit, white shirt, and a red necktie with tiny green Christmas trees woven into it.

“These are my work clothes for the day job.”

“I’m not sure when I last saw you looking so dressed up.”

“Maybe prom.”

Did I need that? Had I actually somehow deserved that?

“Yeah, maybe prom. The night you ruined my life.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“The night you started ruining my life then. Let’s see. Dump Melissa, marry Diana, get set up in the law firm, make big bucks, and be very happy.”

“Mel, don’t do this.”

“Oh really? Why shouldn’t I? What can I possibly hurt? Matthew isn’t here, so as far as I know, I can say anything I want to you.”

“Why not say it in front of Matthew?”

“Because he worships you. He loves you, Jim. Maybe you haven’t noticed.”

“Yeah, I noticed. Matthew is a great kid, and I wouldn’t do anything to hurt him. Which is one reason you and I are having this discussion now.”

“Your mom will wonder why I’m not there to pick him up on time.”

“That’s okay. She and Francie will keep him busy. They’ve got a million things to do this week, you know. It’s almost the Christmas season.” He was really shouting now. “Not that you care what that means to my family. All you care about is money and making a big name for yourself back here in the little hometown. What happened to you after you left here, Mel, to make you so cold-hearted?”

“Nothing happened to me after I left. It’s what happened
before
I left that changed everything.
You
changed everything, Jim. Don’t accuse me of being driven by money and making a name for myself. That’s your own profile, isn’t it? Except you had the trophy wife and her precious daddy to help you. Pretty neat set-up, and I’m sure glad you didn’t let me get in the way of it. Little boring Mel, so love-struck. I would have followed you anywhere. And you broke up with me with no explanation at all, and rode into the sunset of success. Well, now that the trophy wife is gone and her daddy’s law firm kicked you out, how’s life treating you, Jim?”

Other than a muscle working overtime in his lower jaw, he looked completely calm.

“Life’s not working out too well. I managed to live through that series of poor decisions and was getting along okay with my own small law office, and settled into my new little house on the farm, and then—boom—Dad died. And everything seemed to fall on me as the oldest son. But I worked hard and thought the family would get through okay. Then you showed up and I had the crazy idea that the two of us might make amends. I fell for Matthew, as if he were my own kid, and you and I had some moments. But what I hadn’t realized was that all this time, as my mom babysat your son and you wormed your way back into our lives, you were scheming to ruin everything.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“I know about Barnett. I know you’ve been talking to him. He came to see me today, Mel,
after
he paid a visit to my mother. Do you know what that did to her? She considers you almost one of her own, you know. She kept telling me that Barnett wasn’t being honest about his conversations with you. But I can see in your eyes that her trust in you is misplaced. You’re representing him, aren’t you? You’re somehow working for him to get us to sell the farm. How can you do this?”

He stopped, took a deep breath, and continued, almost in a whisper.

“Mel. I was falling in love with you again. I thought—I thought we had a chance this time. That our lives were headed in the same direction at last.”

He went out, leaving the door standing wide open. A cold November wind blew through me as Jim Standish got into his blue pickup truck and drove away for the last time.

****

I pulled into the parking area by Lillian’s house afraid of what my reception might be when I appeared to pick up Matthew. I parked, took a deep breath, and walked up the front porch steps. Francie opened the door before I could knock. She had obviously been crying. She stepped out onto the porch with me and closed the door silently.

“Mel? We’re pretty confused here about what’s going on. This Barnett guy, you know?”

“I understand—Jim told me the guy came out and talked to your mom. I can’t believe his nerve.”

“But—you didn’t know what his plan was, right? He said you did. He said you had seen the drawings and thought it was great. But I know that can’t be true.” Her eyes were pleading.

“Francie, I had talked to the guy, but that’s it. I don’t represent him.

“Jim says you were trying to get us to sell. That you were getting close to our family—you know, like the old days—so we would listen to you when you were ready to spring this idea on us.”

“Francie, how can you think for a minute that I’d do something like that?”

“I don’t know what to think, Mel. You were gone, then you were back. You didn’t keep in very good touch before, but suddenly you’re here all the time. And Matthew—you know, he’s stolen our hearts. We’re so confused. This is such a horribly hard time for us right now, anyway….”

I put my arms around her and hugged her tight. What in the world was that Barnett guy trying to do here? Making me out to be some kind of infiltrator wasn’t going to encourage the Standish family to sell. It was nuts.

Francie was crying for real now. “Mom says—maybe that’s what people think about us. That we’re just sitting on this property for no reason, and there’s all this money to be made for the whole community, but we’re not letting it happen. Mom says maybe we should just sell it and get out. I couldn’t believe the words came out of her mouth. I really couldn’t. It’s like her heart was broken all over again.”

“I’m not a perfect friend, but I would never, never push Lillian to sell this land. Now with your dad gone, the farm represents a lot to her. I remember Harry talking about how the farm started, that he had inherited it when his dad died. And since he and Lillian loved Christmas so much, they planted a few trees. And over the years, they just kept planting and buying little bits of land to add to the property, and eventually that was the entire farm. They were original thinkers, because this was the first Christmas tree farm in the area. I think they’re the first entrepreneurs I was ever aware of.”

“Mostly I have just taken it for granted until lately.”

“Sure, because you were raised here. That’s human nature.”

“It’s cool that you remember Mom and Dad’s story.”

“They’re important to me. Your whole family is so special to me, Francie.” I put her away from me, shaking her a little. “Francie, honey, wake up and smell the wassail.”

She looked at me, blinked, and started to giggle. “Wake up and smell the
wassail
?”

“Honey, it’s two days before Thanksgiving. Besides the fact that Jared Barnett is one of the smoothest liars to grace our fair town, the other big news is that we have a Christmas season to get through. Or maybe I should say, we have a Christmas season to bring to our county. Isn’t that the way your dad looked at it? He was just a few pounds and a flowing white beard shy of being Father Christmas himself. I don’t want to let him down, that’s for sure.”

Francie hiccupped some leftover tears.

“None of us wants to let Dad down. I worry about Mom….”

“Which is why I need to go inside and talk to her. Okay, Francie?”

Lillian was more jangled than angry. She hadn’t wanted to believe Barnett, and when she had called Jim about it, he had immediately sided with the liar.

Wow, that rankled. Did he hate me so much?

Francie took Matthew over to “work” in the Christmas shop for a little while so I could talk to Lillian. I knelt by her chair.

“Lillian, there is no way I would try to push you into selling the farm. If you wanted to sell, sure I’d be glad to assist in whatever way was appropriate. Barnett and Jim would be quick to point out that I could make a tidy sum working on the deal. But whether or not to sell, whenever, is entirely your call. You and your kids have to decide the right thing to do here, for all of you.”

“Melissa honey, I didn’t want to believe it. I shouldn’t have let Jim―That boy. When will he ever learn?”

I wondered the same thing myself. One minute Jim was falling in love with me and the next minute he was accusing me of high treason against Christmas. Somebody was conflicted, and in a big way.

Lillian went to the kitchen sink and washed away the signs of crying, dried her face with a paper towel. “Well. I have a Thanksgiving dinner to start. It’s Tuesday night, for goodness sake.” She picked up a wooden spoon and gestured me toward the door.

“Honey, you and Matthew be sure and arrive Thursday by 11:30. I have a feeling this Christmas season is going to start even earlier than usual.”

I checked with Francie and Matthew. They assured me that they had loads of work to do, and wouldn’t miss me if I needed to run an unexpected errand.

Instead of turning around and going down the driveway to Tree Farm Road, I put the SUV into four-wheel drive and headed toward the trees. I was pretty sure I saw Francie’s face in the Christmas shop window as I went past, and that now she was giving me a thumbs-up.

It took a little longer than I expected, but I managed to find my way to Jim’s house. Years ago when we were dating he had brought me up here, stepped off the size of the house he would build for us. We’d be happy here, in our cozy little log home. I’d help on the farm and he would work in a law firm. We’d have two kids—a girl who looked like me and a boy who looked like him. Yep, we had it all figured out. But one of us had decided to chuck our plans.

I pounded on his door until he opened it. In jeans, flannel shirt, and sock-footed, he looked comfortable and angry at the same time.

“What do you want?” he growled. 

I stood in the doorway with my arms crossed. “How about honesty? That would be different.”

“Meaning?”

“Start with why you suddenly dumped me in high school, and then finish by telling me why
in the world
you would believe a desperate real estate developer over me. Don’t worry about trying to spare my feelings, because apparently I don’t have any.”

He sighed and I swear his shoulders sagged six inches.

“Come inside, Mel.” He didn’t wait to see if I did it or not, just walked away and dropped into a big rocking chair by the cold fireplace. I followed him in, closed the door behind me, and perched on the hearth directly in front of him.

“I’m waiting.” Seething was more like it. I tried not to tap my foot to hurry him up.

“Yeah.” He scratched his jaw. “Remember when I told you about this cabin? About how I was going to build it for us?”

“Of course.”

“I was going to be a lawyer and we would have two kids, and—do you remember what you were going to do?”