Page 17 of Sweet Christmas Comeback
She pulled out her folder, and Leo was impressed despite himself by the neat diagrams and careful notes inside. She’d mapped out three different potential routes, each with detailed timing estimates and marked stops for refreshments.
“This is thorough,” he said, studying her work.
“I may have gotten a little carried away with the planning,” Jade admitted. “But with only six days left, I figured we should cover all our bases.”
Leo examined the routes more carefully. The first one was ambitious—a grand tour of the town’s most scenic spots that would take nearly two hours to complete. The second was more modest, focusing on Main Street and the immediate downtown area. The third was basically a large circle around the town square.
“This one,” he said, pointing to the ambitious route, “would be beautiful, but it’s too much for the reindeer. Two hours of pulling loaded sleighs? They’d be exhausted.”
“I was afraid of that,” Jade said, making a note on her paper. “What about this one?” She indicated the middle option.
Leo studied it more carefully, walking over to a fence post where he could spread the map out properly. “This could work. The distance is reasonable, and most of it’s on level ground. But this section here,” he pointed to a steep hill marked on her route, “that’s going to be a problem with passengers in the sleigh.”
“Too steep?”
“Too steep going up, and potentially dangerous coming down. Reindeer are sure-footed, but sleighs can get away from you on a downhill.”
Jade frowned at her map. “What if we modified it? Took out the hill section and maybe added a loop around the park instead?”
“That could work.” Leo found himself leaning closer to look at her modifications, catching a hint of her perfume—something warm and vanilla-scented that reminded him of the bakery. “The park loop would be nice. Level ground, good views, and there’s plenty of space for people to gather.”
They spent the next hour refining the route, with Leo offering practical insights about what the reindeer could handle and Jade adjusting her precise timeline accordingly. Despite his initial resistance to the whole project, Leo found himself getting caught up in her enthusiasm. She asked good questions, listened to hisconcerns, and adapted her plans without complaint when he pointed out potential problems.
“What about capacity?” Jade asked, tapping her pen against her notebook. “How many people can the sleighs safely carry?”
“Depends on the sleigh. The big one can handle six adults, maybe eight if some of them are kids.”
“So if we do fifteen-minute rides with a five-minute turnaround, we could manage...” Jade scribbled calculations in the margin of her paper. “About twenty-four people per hour per sleigh. If we run for three hours before the tree lighting, that’s potentially 72 rides total.”
Leo stared at her math. “You just calculated that in your head?”
“I may have mentioned I like numbers,” Jade said with a slight smile. “Is that too ambitious?”
“It’s definitely ambitious,” Leo admitted. “But doable, as long as nothing goes wrong.”
“What kinds of things go wrong?”
Leo considered this. “Weather’s the big one. If it snows heavily or gets icy, we’d have to cancel. Equipment problems—harness breaks, sleigh runner cracks. And then there’s the reindeer themselves. They’re animals, not machines. If one of them is having an off day...”
“We should build in buffer time,” Jade said, making more notes. “And have backup plans.”
“You really do think of everything, don’t you?”
“I try to.” She looked up from her notebook, meeting his eyes. “Is that annoying? I know some people think I’m too... organized.”
There was something vulnerable in the question, as if she’d been criticized for this before. Leo thought about the careful way she’d approached his reindeer, the respect she’d shown for theirlimitations, the way she’d adapted her grand plans to fit practical reality.
“No,” he said firmly. “It’s not annoying. It’s smart. And it’s probably going to save us from disaster when Mayor Clark’s expectations meet actual logistics.”
Jade’s smile was radiant. “Thank you. That’s... that means a lot, actually.”
They worked for another hour, fine-tuning details and discussing contingencies. Leo found himself appreciating not just her thoroughness, but the way she thought about problems. She didn’t just want the festival to succeed—she wanted it to be safe, enjoyable, and sustainable. She cared about the details that would make the difference between a good event and a great one.
“I think we’ve got a solid plan,” Jade said finally, gathering up her papers. “Though there is one more thing I wanted to ask about.”
“What’s that?”
“Pine garland. Apparently the artificial stuff Felicity used on our window boxes outside the bakery violates some historical bylaw, and we need to replace it with real pine before we get fined. Mabel thought you might know where to get good branches.”
