Page 46 of Sweet Christmas Comeback
“Ida, hush,” came Ruth’s gentle reprimand. “She’s doing her best.”
“Her best isn’t going to pay those electrical bills,” Ida sniffed. “A shame. I was starting to like her. She’s got her great-grandmother’s spine, just not her luck with men.”
Jade’s smile tightened another notch. She ladled out more cocoa. The liquid was dark and murky. Just like her future.
On the stage, the choir mercifully finished their song, and Mayor Clark Whitcomb took the microphone, his face beaming with forced cheer.
“Welcome, everyone! Welcome to the annual Frost Pine Ridge Tree Lighting ceremony!” A smattering of applause rippled through the crowd. “What a turnout! It just goes to show that the spirit of our town is alive and well!”
He went on, his voice a booming, cheerful drone, listing people to thank and local businesses to praise. Jade tuned him out, focusing on the simple, repetitive task of pouring liquid from a big pot into a small cup.
“...and of course, a huge thank you to Sugar Pine Sweets for providing these delicious holiday treats!” the mayor boomed, gesturing directly at her.
A wave of applause directed at her table made Jade’s stomach clench. People were smiling at her, raising their cups in a toast. It felt like a sympathy wave. A pity party. They were applauding her for showing up at her own public failure. She forced her smile wider, raising a hand in a weak, pathetic wave.
“And after the lighting,” the mayor continued, his eyes scanning the square with growing uncertainty, “we were hoping for sleigh rides provided by Carter Reindeer Farm, but it appears...” He paused, his smile faltering as his gaze swept theconspicuously empty space where Leo should have been. “Well, these things happen! Animal welfare comes first, naturally!”
A few murmurs of disappointment went through the crowd. Parents bent down to explain to confused children why there wouldn’t be sleigh rides after all.
Jade’s heart, which she thought couldn’t sink any lower, found a new, deeper level of the abyss. He wasn’t just not here for her. He wasn’t here for the town. He was a no-show. The man who was all about duty and tradition had bailed on the community’s biggest event of the year.
The irony was so thick she could have bottled it and sold it as molasses. The man who had called her a runner had just fled the scene.
She felt a hundred pairs of eyes turn from the empty space to her. She could feel their collective thought process: *Well, that’s it, then. The partnership is officially over. The bakery is doomed, and the reindeer man has bolted.*
The humiliation was a physical heat that crawled up her neck. She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. She wanted to evaporate. Instead, she just stood there, clutching a sticky ladle, the town’s living embodiment of a Christmas disaster.
“Alrighty then!” the mayor said, trying to recover his momentum. “Well, let’s get to the main event! The lighting of the Frost Pine Ridge Christmas tree!”
A cheer went up, but it was weaker this time, tinged with the awkwardness of the moment.
“Let’s have the countdown!” he yelled, trying to manufacture enthusiasm. “Everyone, join in! Starting from ten!”
The crowd joined in, a little raggedly at first.
“Ten!”
Jade’s gaze was fixed on the ground. She just had to get through this. Just a few more minutes.
“Nine!”
Then she could pack up her cookies and her shame and go home.
“Eight!”
She could call Mabel and tell her it was over. All of it.
“Seven!”
She could accept the cold, hard fact that she was alone in this.
“Six!”
She could start packing her bags for good. Because maybe Leo was right. Maybe she was just passing through after all.
“Five!”
Then she heard it.
