Page 40 of Christmas at Cozy Holly Inn
It isn’t yet.Julie couldn’t find her tongue.
Klaus narrowed his eyes. “Unless your grandmother is up to something.”
“What? No!”
“Then what is the real reason you’re here?”
Julie stood her ground, but it was hard. She hadn’t come here to get in the middle of family politics. “Like I told Nolan, I’m here to throw one last Christmas Eve party before the sale of the property. It’s the same reason I’m cutting down a tree.”
“I bought the propertyas is. Any damage on your part is a violation of the terms.”
At that, Julie did take a step back. “What? But… it’s a tree.” Her voice lacked the conviction of Klaus’s. She felt cornered, but she drew herself up anyway. “Gram said—”
Klaus scoffed. “I never trusted Ida with her eternally cheerful nature anyway. If she’s trying to break the contract, I won’t have it. Now, get off my property.”
As much as Julie wanted to argue, she didn’t have the will. As she shrank back, Ivy touched her arm. She hadn’t gotten in the middle of the problem, and Julie couldn’t blame her. They were both ignorant of the terms of whatever sale Gram had arranged. But Ivy did offer her support, and by the time they made it back to the inn, Julie had stopped trembling with the aftermath of nerves.
She shut her eyes and leaned against the door to the inn. “What should I do?”
“I say cut down a tree anyway,” Malcolm said.
“But the terms of the sale…” Julie took a deep breath. “I don’t want to screw things up for Gram. I’ll have to call her.”
“Later,” Ivy said firmly. “Let’s go inside and warm up. Is there some other way we can help today?”
As Ivy led her into the house, Kringle fled. He barely had a limp as he disappeared into the kitchen. But the flash of his white tail reminded Julie that she was home at the inn. She didn’t have to deal with Klaus or his son. Not even his grandson, who Julie had actually started to like. If there was one silver lining to today, at least Nolan hadn’t been there.
Arms still linked, she and Ivy made their way after the cat to the kitchen. Malcolm followed after. “Are there lights you want strung up along the roof? I can help with that if we’re not cutting a tree today.”
Ivy smiled at him. “Good idea, honey. Julie?”
Julie shook herself out of her reverie. She pulled herself out of Ivy’s hold and turned. “Actually, yes. I have a bin of outdoor lights I’ve been meaning to put up. There’s a ladder in the shed, I think. At least, there should be.”
“I’ll find it,” Malcolm said. “As long as the shed isn’t locked.”
“It is. Gram locked it up when she locked up the inn. I have a key in the kitchen.” As she rummaged through a drawer, she said, “But Ivy, I’d hoped to lure you inside after the tree to help me with something else.”
“Oh?”
Julie turned and offered the key to Malcolm. He took it but didn’t leave.
She pointed to the heap of bags she’d deposited in the corner earlier that day. “I want to make some party favors. There’s going to be a lot of them. I bought wine.”
Ivy grinned. “I won’t say no to wine.”
Malcolm chuckled and kissed the top of Ivy’s head. “I guess that’s my cue to leave.”
“So, what are we making?”
Julie hauled out the bags with the transparent ornaments, paint pens, wrapping paper, and Christmas-themed confetti she’d bought from the nearest ninety-nine-cent store. As she emptied the bags, she explained her idea, and they set to work.
But not without a fortifying glass of wine each.
Chapter 20
Nolan considered himself lucky that he’d even managed to find some vestige of the family’s old Christmas decorations, let alone that he hadn’t had his dad or Gramps breathing down his neck while he did it. Maybe he should have been more suspicious. The only box of Christmas decorations he’d been able to find had been the ones his mom had loved the best.
Most of these were ornaments for the tree. Crafts that he’d made during elementary school, small little gingerbread figures, the angel tree topper she’d loved so much. Handling each of the carefully wrapped ornaments made his chest ache. He missed his mom on and off during the year, but seeing these ornaments made it particularly hit home that she was gone. When he searched deeper into the box, he found more of her favorite decorations. Little figurines of Santa and reindeer, elves and snowmen, and especially more gingerbread men. These, he pulled out of the box and carried downstairs, arranging them in the public areas.
