Page 17 of The Christmas Cottage
The food was delicious, and she was hungry. She’d been hungrier than usual since arriving in town, she thought, and she wondered if it had something to do with the fresh air. Probably all the walking she did too, more than just her daily commute back and forth and then sitting at her desk all day. She finished everything on the plate, took her last sip of coffee, and refilled the mug, dosing it liberally with the peppermint creamer that she’d brought up as well.
She looked at her laptop. She was on her second cup of coffee, and done with breakfast, so she had no more excuses not to start her work. Not that she’d everneededan excuse to not start before. She was always off and running, her mind on the office as soon as she woke up every morning. But just then, she had the urge to go sit out on the small balcony that jutted off of her second-story room, and look out at the quaint view of the town while she sipped her coffee.
The view she wasn’t going to see again after this morning.
She never took vacations. She barely took days off. Maybe one day of not working quite as much wouldn’t be the end of the world.
Picking up her phone, she tucked it into her pocket just in case of a call, and went to grab one of the folded, quilted blankets that hung over a wooden ladder against the wall. Wrapping it around her, she picked up her cup of coffee and stepped out onto the balcony, breathing in the fresh, cold air mingled with the coffee-and-mint scented steam coming from her cup.
There was a wooden Adirondack chair on one corner of the balcony, and she dusted the snow off of it, sinking down into itwith the blanket wrapped snugly around her body. She sipped at the hot coffee as she looked out over the town, and she could feel herself relaxing by inches as she sank deeper into the chair and let out a long breath.
Fir Tree Grove might be a bit obnoxious when it came to Christmas, she thought, but it was a beautiful place. She could see a good bit of the town from her balcony—the diner with the line slightly out of the door to get in for breakfast, the shops on Main Street, the endless rows of trees at the Christmas tree farm. She could easily imagine enjoying this view without ever getting tired of it.
Where did that thought come from?
She definitely didn’t have any intentions of staying in Fir Tree Grove long-term. That made no sense. But she thought of her grandmother’s not-so-subtle hints that she really needed help, with the upcoming Santa event and with the toy store in general, and she let out a sigh as she took another sip of her coffee.
Mabel did need help. There was no question about that. Just Vanessa’s brief time at the shop had shown her that her grandmother was going to struggle, if she had to take care of The Toy Chest during the busiest season with an injured wrist. And Mabel was convinced that hiring someone else to help was just going to create more work than it was worth. Vanessa wasn’t sure she agreed with that, but Mabel wasn’t budging.
Could she really leave her grandmother without any help? It wasn’t her responsibility, technically, and Mabel had sort of tricked her into this spot. But she also knew that if Mabel had told her on that first phone call that she needed Vanessa to come out to help her run the toy store because she’d sprained her wrist, Vanessa would have turned her down flat. She would never have come out to Fir Tree Grove at all. And that thought made her feel surprisingly sad.
She thought of how isolated she’d been since her parents had died. It had been a long time, a little over ten years, and she’d kept herself endlessly busy with work all that time. She’d never stopped, never taken breaks, never made time for friends or a relationship. She’d kept herself running, refusing to let herself think about how she felt for even a moment, wanting distraction above all else.
But slowing down, even a little, hadn’t been as bad as she had thought it would be. She hadn’t started having panic attacks, or collapsed or fallen into depression. Remembering things about her childhood and when her parents were alive had actually been a bit… comforting. And when she thought of how Mabel clearly needed her,reallyneeded her, and how she was the only family her grandmother still had left and vice-versa, she felt a pull to help her. To stay a while longer, and enjoy this time with her family.
It was the holidays, after all. That was what was supposed to happen at Christmas. Could she really just walk away from that?
Her phone buzzed in her pocket at that exact moment, and she knew before even picking it up that it was Russell. He’d probably looked at her Google sheets and seen that her little icon wasn’t up at the top.
“Hey.” She took a sip of her coffee, and he barely took a breath before he was off and running.
“The new secretary is a disaster, Vanessa. She misplaced a file of orders yesterday. I had to pull them all again and have the other girl print them out. If you’d been here, you could have handled it, but things have really been piling up with you gone. Plus, half the office keeps rotating out for vacation for the holidays, and it’s only getting worse the closer it gets to Christmas. Everyone wants to use up all their PTO before the end of the year. I’m glad you’re at least working while you’re on vacation. Speaking of which, have you finished thosespreadsheets yet? I noticed you’re not logged in, and I took a glance at your email inbox, and there’s a good bit of work piled up. Usually by this time in the morning you’re already on it, so…”
The wheels in her head were turning as he ran on, his frantic rambling suddenly more grating than it had ever been before. She was suddenly frustrated with all of it. The fact that he was checking in on her and preventing her from enjoying even a single slow morning, the fact that he knew her schedule so well that he could pick up on any deviation from it.
And that wasn’t just micro-managing, that was on her too. She was predictable. She’d handcuffed herself to her job so thoroughly that she’d made herself indispensable, but not in a good way. She thought of the look she’d seen on Mabel’s face every time she picked up a phone call during a meal, or sent a text, or had to dart out to get back to work. She knew what her grandmother was thinking, that it was unreasonable that she didn’t have times where she was simply unavailable. That she didn’t get any time off.
Now, for the first time, she needed it. Her grandmother neededher. And as Russell finally came to a stop to take a breath, she cut in, knowing what she needed to do.
“Actually, Russell,” she said, as calmly as she could manage. “I’m canceling my flight out in the morning. I’m going to be staying longer in Fir Tree Grove.”
The silence on the other end of the line was deafening. Vanessa knew she should actually feel a sense of accomplishment. She’d never known anyone to shock Russell into silence before. But she just felt a tightening knot in her stomach.
“You can’t be serious,” he said finally. “I need you here?—”
“My grandmother needs mehere. She was injured, and she needs help with her shop. I know exactly who can cover my tasks while I’m away. Kaitlyn is very capable, and she knowswhat I usually handle. She and Jenna can split most of the work without you even really noticing anything has changed.” She doubted that, if only because Russell made it a point to insert himself into every task, just to feel useful. But it sounded good. “And I’ll continue to keep doing what I can from here. I’ll check up on things and make sure there are no loose ends. But I really need to help my grandmother.”
“Vanessa—”
“I’ve never taken time off,” she said firmly. “But I need this leave for family reasons.”
He couldn’t tell her no, she knew that. Well, she supposed hecould, but if he did, he’d be losing someone who was indispensable to his office. And she imagined he could probably get in some kind of trouble for refusing her any personal time for family leave, if she really wanted to look into it.
But it didn’t matter. She had plenty of money saved up to get by if she ran out of PTO, and even if Russell let her go, she would be fine until she could find another job. Even if he fired her, she knew she was in the right. She’d find something else.
It felt good to be able to hold her ground. “Fine,” Russell said snappily. “But I expect you back right after the holiday. And I need you to make sure nothing is left undone. Things can’t be left hanging here just because you need to work remotely over the holidays.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” she assured him, and then he hung up without another word.
