Page 1 of Carry Me Through Christmas

Chapter 1

March

Blaire

You know how they always say you can’t go home again? I’ve never actually believed that. Coming home again to Holly Ridge to head up the Christmas festival has always been my plan, my dream, what I’ve been working toward, but I never imagined it would be like this.

I walked up the front steps to city hall, pausing for a moment to take a deep breath before reaching for the brass door handle attached to one of the stately oak double doors, making sure my sensible pencil skirt, flats, and blazer were straight and neat and steeled myself for what was ahead. I had paired my standard business armor with my favorite blue shirt that had the double impact of being my favorite color and making my eyes pop. A little power suit and power color combo. Even if I was feeling all jumbled up inside, I was sure to present a powerful front.

I opened the door and my eyes immediately found the row of pictures of past mayors on the left-hand side of the entry hall. Among those pictures was the picture of Dad, mayor of Holly Ridge for twenty-five years before he retired five years ago. I was intentional in not letting my eyes land on the photos of the City Council—created in a change to town governance structure after Dad’s retirement—on the right-hand side of the entry hall. They were the reason this homecoming wasn’t as joyous as I imagined.

I walked up a short set of stairs and smiled at Larry, the city hall security guard, who had known me since I was a little girl coming to visit Dad at work. “If it isn’t the prodigal daughter, back to save the day,” Larry greeted me.

“Saving the day is what Greenes do in this town, Larry.” I responded with a confidence I wasn’t sure I completely felt.

Fake it till you make it, right?

I continued down the long hall to the Alder conference room, where my soon-to-be bosses had indicated I should meet them. Taking one more deep breath, I took in the three individuals sitting on one side of the table, heads together in conversation. Rudolph, the council president, with an unfortunate red nose—I wish I was kidding—sat in the middle. Agatha, a stern-looking woman, sat on his right, and Arthur, Agatha’s twin brother, sat on his left. Their conversation ceased as I entered the room. I moved to take a seat across from them and pulled out my notebook, ready to get this meeting started.

Rudolph cleared his throat. “Thank you for meeting with us today, Blaire. As Mondays are some of the busiest days for the town council, we’ll jump right in.”

I restrained my scoff with a slight smile I knew didn’t reach my eyes. From my understanding, Mondays were only busy because the council refused to take appointments any other day of the week. Instead, I simply replied, “Looking forward to it.”

Rudolph continued. “As you know, we hired you to take over running the Holly Ridge Christmas Festival this year. The festival’s fund has shrunk significantly over the past several years, and if this year’s festival isn’t a success, it could mean the end of the Christmas festival for this town.”

I shuddered internally. “Yes, I’m aware of the situation. Agatha was kind enough to forward me the financials so I would know what I was working with in terms of a festival budget before signing my contract.”

Arthur jumped in at this point. “Ah, yes, your contract. Did you bring it with you?”

I hadn’t expected to need to use so much restraint so quickly, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised given how much disdain I held for the three people sitting across from me.

“Of course, I have it here.” Reaching into my bag and pulling out the detailed and extensive contract the council’s lawyers had apparently felt was necessary to lock in a festival planner, I handed the contract across the table. Even if the contract seemed unnecessarily complex, I knew I would have signed any document that brought me home to work on the Christmas festival. Even if some of the terms about finishing out the planning and preparation for this year, regardless of financial or oversight changes, had seemed a little extreme.

“Excellent,” Rudolph responded. “Unfortunately, the Chief Financial Officer from Winterberry Glen wasn’t able to be present with us today, so the next thing you’re going to want to do is make an appointment to meet with him to talk about next steps for the festival planning process.”

It took a moment for that to sink in, my brain short-circuiting as I asked, “Wait, what?! Why is someone from Winterberry Glen working with me on our festival?”

“Well, actually,” Arthur continued, pushing those glasses firmly back onto the bridge of his nose, where they were determined to not stay, “a more accurate description is that someone from Winterberry Glen will be supervising your work and approving budgetary expenditures.”

This didn’t help things make any more sense.

“Okay,” I said, “that seems to be splitting some technical hairs, but again, the question is why?”

Rudolph’s cheeks flushed red to match his nose.

“Well, Blaire, it’s like this. Not only does the future of the Christmas festival rest on the success of this year’s planning, but the future of the town does too.”

For a moment, I was too stunned to speak. Then, with a panicked edge to my voice, I exclaimed, “What does that mean?!”

“What it means,” Agatha responded, “is that the festival funds are not the only funds that are depleted. The entire town budget is in the red. If the town defaults on its budget one more time, the state is going to disenfranchise the town and merge it with Winterberry Glen. As part of that process, the finance officer from Winterberry Glen must be involved in all major town spending decisions, so we can limit the damage to the financial future of the newly incorporated area if the towns are combined. I assume the...unpleasant history between Holly Ridge and Winterberry Glen won’t be a problem for you, given the stakes.”

Speechless wasn’t a state I found myself in often, but here I was, absolutely and positively at a loss for words. I couldn’t believe that in the five years since the town council had taken over, things had really gotten this bad. Of course, I had heard rumblings that infrastructure projects were going unmet and that school funding had been cut. But that was happening everywhere. How in the world could the future of the town have come to this? These buffoons had taken control of our town, and apparently, ruined everything.

“How is this the first I’m hearing about this?”

Arthur answered. “It’s been kept under wraps, but now that you’ve been told as the planner of the Christmas festival, a press-release is going out today. Soon everyone will know that you’re the last hope to save Holly Ridge.”

The unfairness of this statement hit me in waves. Why in the world ha’ the council let the town’s budget problems get so bad that we were to the point of needing a last hope? I opened my mouth to say as much, but Rudolph, Arthur, and Agatha were exiting the conference room, leaving me to sit alone in stunned silence.

---