Page 8 of Cozy Hometown Christmas
“Okay.” Mason looked directly at Kristen, letting her know that he wasn’t intimidated.
“Sounds good,” Kristen said.
Irene looked pleased. “Great. But as you know, we don’t have a lot of time. This skating event is in less than a week in order to gear up tourist interest for the holiday season, so I’m going to need those plans in five days.”
Five days? Mason was used to working with tight deadlines, but skating-pond decorating wasn’t anything he’d ever done before.
“Okay then, sounds like a plan.” Kristen pushed up from her chair and headed to the door without even a backward glance at him. “See you in five days.”
Mason said good-bye to Irene and left. Kristen seemed confident that she’d win. She had the benefit of her family’s years of experience decorating the pond. But Mason had experience too. He had beaten plenty of competitors in his job. All he had to do was come up with a great design in five days. No problem. Hopefully, Kristen Woodward living across the street from him wouldn’t prove to be too much of a distraction.
Chapter 6
Kristen headed straight to the Pinecone Falls Café from Irene’s office. Truth be told, she was a little miffed that Irene was making this into a decorating contest. Her family had been doing it for decades, and all of a sudden, some newcomer got to horn in? She could tell that Mason had wanted to strike up a conversation as she left, but she’d hurried out of there as quickly as possible. He was the last person she wanted to get friendly with.
Not that she was worried. She’d win the contest, of course. She had to. Getting the gig to decorate the skating pond was a big deal because of the advertising. Her dad had always said that the billboard crediting them with the decorating had brought a lot of out-of-towners to the tree farm. Those vacationing in town for the festivities brought home wreaths and small trees, and they’d even secured several repeat customers from neighboring towns who had discovered how nice their trees were and came back year after year.
The Pinecone Falls Café hadn’t changed in as long as she could remember. Though she hadn’t lived in town in a long time, she still came to the café when she came home to visit. The smells of comfort foods and coffee calmed her as soon as she walked in. She stood just inside the door for a second, taking in the familiar sights and sounds.
Ivy waved from a booth in the back. Kristen navigated past the round tables up front to join her and Julie. She barely recognized Julie, since she hadn’t seen her since high school. The two women stood up, and the three of them hugged.
“Julie! I can’t believe you moved back to town too. How are things going?” Kristen hung her winter jacket on the back of her chair and sat.
“No one was more surprised than me when that happened.” Julie laughed. “I came back to help Gram have one more Christmas Eve party at the old inn and never left. I heard you recently moved back yourself.”
Kristen tried to keep her smile from slipping. She was truly happy to be back in town but hated explaining about the big breakup and losing her job because she had been engaged to her boss. Luckily, Ivy and Julie were polite enough not to ask why she’d moved back.
“Looks like you’ll both be running your family businesses,” Ivy said. “And I couldn’t be happier to have you both back in town.”
“Aww, thanks!” Kristen felt all warm and fuzzy inside, further proof that moving back had been the right move. She was exactly where she should be, and everything was working out perfectly. Well, except for the skating-pond problem. And the tree problem. But she didn’t want to ruin her lunch by thinking about problems. She turned to Julie. “How do you like running the inn?”
“I love it! My other job was so stressful, and this is nice. Gram is thriving. She’s started a knitting club in the big living room at the inn. Coming home was a good move.” Julie was practically glowing.
“It doesn’t hurt that she’s dating Nolan Miller,” Ivy said.
That explained the glow. Kristen remembered Nolan from when they were kids. He had been cute then, and though she hadn’t run into him on any of her visits home, he was probably just as good-looking now. “Doesn’t his family own that big old lodge?”
Julie nodded. “Barrington Lodge.”
“So how does that work out, since you guys are sort of in competition?”
Julie laughed. “It’s actually perfect. We work together now to make sure every guest gets the perfect experience. Some like the inn; some like the lodge. Works out pretty well. So what about you? Ivy mentioned that you’re going to be running the Christmas tree farm.”
Kristen told them how she was taking over her dad’s duties running the tree farm, attending the events, and decorating the skating pond. “Have you seen the new store in town with the artificial wreaths and trees?”
Ivy wrinkled her nose. “Tinseltown? Yeah, but don’t worry. We only have a live tree.”
“Us too,” Julie said.
“Well, looks like I’m going to be in competition with someone, just like you.” Kristen glanced at Julie. “Except I doubt it’s going to turn out as friendly as yours did.”
“What do you mean?” Ivy asked.
“It turns out we aren’t the only ones who want to decorate the skating pond this year. The Tinseltown people also want a chance. So Irene decided a competition was in order.”
Ivy’s left brow quirked up. “Competitors? Kind of like Julie and Nolan. Maybe you’ll start a romance with Mason.”
Kristen snorted. “Doubtful. Do you know him?”
