Country Wishes

by RaeAnne Hadley

  “That was me hitting the counter because you were off in some dream world, not listening to a thing I was saying.” Just then the door jingled, causing both women to look up at the same time. “Where did that bell come from?” Elsie squeaked out in surprise.

  Ignoring the older woman, Harper greeted the next customer.

  “Morning Mr. Perkins, what can I do for you today?” The man laid down a small box with a colorful Christmas label on it.

  “Hi there Miss Harper, just getting some running done for the misses today, she’s not feeling well. We’d like to ship this box to our daughter in California. Do you think it’ll make it there by Christmas?”

  “Well I’m sure we can come up with something, let’s get it weighed and see what your options are.”

  Harper turned, brushing her arm against Elsie but the elderly lady wasn’t immune to her charms. “I’ll let you avoid me for now but I wanna hear more about that gentleman of yours.”

  “Good lord Elsie, he’s not mine. Why don’t you go postmark something.” She waved the woman off and got back to her customer.

  The lunch hour, the busiest part of their day, went by in a flash. The door opened so many times Harper ended up scrapping the bell. She’d explained away its necessity as festive with the Christmas season and all but it only ended up driving them both crazy. She purposely left out the part about using it to alert her in case Fin decided to show up, even though she realized as the day went on, she wouldn’t mind seeing him again.

  Approaching the conveyor in back where Elsie was double checking the tape on the packages, Harper garnered her attention with an evil smirk. “It’s about time you did some work around here.” She held up her hands in surrender, “just kidding. Looks like the days’ Christmas pre-rush is over for now, do you mind if I sneak off to lunch for a while?”

  “That’s just fine with me. Nothing I can’t handle here.” Harper had grabbed her things to head out when Elsie stopped her with only a few words.

  “Except for this.”

  “Except for what?” Harper turned to see a piece of paper dangling from time and mail-weathered fingers. Puzzled, Harper snatched it from her.

  As she read the short note, heat crept into her cheeks once again. “Where did this come from?”

  “Can’t talk now dearie, got a customer.” The woman jumped from her spot when the bell dinged on the countertop but Harper caught the look of amusement on Elsie’s face as she turned. She better not be up to something.

  Fin sat at a corner table at the local diner staring at the cup of coffee before him, probably cold by now. Maybe she wasn’t going to come. Did he read the signs all wrong last night? Hoping by the rose tint coloring her cheeks each time he’d touched her, she liked him at least a little. He’d procrastinated for the better part of a week about taking that Santa letter to the post office because his shyness always took over at inappropriate times.

  The torture promised by the twins was his motivator. He swore they had some freaky superhuman abilities to be able to tell when he was lying so he’d had to suck it up. Not that he could tell them no anyway. I really didn’t think our meeting went that bad yesterday. Except she still hadn’t shown up and he made sure to drop the note off plenty early too. No way would Mrs. Whiddamore not give it to her. She just didn’t seem that type.

  “Hey sugar, how about you let me warm up that coffee. It’s gonna be a chunk of brown ice pretty soon.” The waitress grabbed the cup, not waiting for his approval and plopped a fresh cup down, pouring more of the steaming brew.

  “Thanks Bonnie, guess it’s just not holding my interest today.”

  “Are you sure I can’t get you anything else, a piece of pie maybe?”

  “No, it’s okay, I’m kind of waiting on someone. You know, like a late lunch date?”

  He knew his meaning finally sunk in when her jaw dropped and her face paled. She recovered quickly, however.

  “Well sugar, if you need anything at all, you just give me a shout okay?” She winked, tapped her red nails on the Formica tabletop and sashayed away.

  As Fin picked up the hot cup, someone knocked on the café window. His brother stood there; face plastered to the glass. Fin shook his head. “I knew I should have gone somewhere else.”

  On the way to Fin’s table, his brother Kaleb flagged down the waitress for a to-go order.

  “Hey little brother, if I would have known you were gonna be here I wouldn’t have ordered my food to go.”

  “It’s ok, I’m actually meeting someone.”

  He tried to look away but came in contact with their waitress as she stared holes through him. He shifted in his seat so his back was facing her direction. She was nice enough but he wasn’t interested.

  Unfortunately, his brother’s shit-eating grin told Fin that Kaleb was definitely interested in digging for more details. I swear he’s like a pit bull looking for a buried bone.

  “So, who you are meeting?” His brother would hound him forever about it.

  “You don’t know her. Hey, don’t you have somewhere else you need to be?” His brother didn’t take the hint.

  “If I didn’t know any better little brother, I’d think you were trying to get rid of me. Is this a date? What’s her name, maybe I do know her?”

  “Damn its Kaleb, would you please just go, before she gets here?”

  “Alright, alright. I gotta pick up the girls at the daycare anyway. Our trusty weatherman says we’re in for a doozy so don’t be doing anything stupid.”

  Kaleb pushed in his chair, grabbed his food from the counter and turned back around to Fin. “Oh, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He laughed and headed out the door.

  “That pretty much leaves the doors wide open then.” Shaking his head, Fin waved as his brother walked by the window and out of sight. When he looked ahead again, Harper was standing at his table.

  “Hi. Mind if I sit down?”

  “Oh hey, of course,” he scrambled to stand and get the chair for her. “Please sit.” He helped with her coat and pushed in her chair as she sat then returned to his own seat.

  “Would you like something to drink?” Fin was already signaling Bonnie to their table.

  “A coffee is fine, thank you.”

  “Hi Harper, nice to see you again.” The waitress said sarcastically as she filled her cup to the rim and took both Fin and Harper’s orders then disappeared almost as fast as she’d appeared.

  Fin reached out to touch Harper’s hand. “Thanks for meeting me. I wasn’t sure if you actually would.”

  “Well a girls gotta eat right? Besides, you didn’t seem like the serial killer type and we are in a public place so I figured, what did I have to lose?”

  Her laugh was so genuine and infectious that the tension in his shoulders relaxed the longer he was in her presence. However, the more she talked in her animated and surprisingly sexy way; the tightening found other areas to inhabit. He’d need to get a handle on that reaction.

  They’d spent the next hour getting to know each other a little bit more. Fin shared that he’d come back home after his sister-in-law died and he was living and working on the family tree farm with his brother because of the twin nieces he’d mentioned earlier. They’d lost their mother at birth and Kaleb had had a rough time with it.

  “I swear those girls are the most precious things on this earth but man are they evil.”

  “Really? How can two three-year old girls be evil? They sound positively adorable.”

  “Oh, they’re trouble, trust me. You definitely need to meet them. Hey, I know, are you doing anything tonight? We’re just having pizza so nothing special.”

  “Well I don’t know…” He could tell she wasn’t sure by her hesitation to say yes.

  “Listen, I promise it’ll be fun and I’ll be have.” He gave her his pleading puppy dog face. “I’d love for you to come.”

  “Lord, how can I say no to that face?”

  “Great, what time do you get out of wor
k? I’ll be over at the Boy Scout tree lot and I have to pick up the pizza at Tony’s anyway so I can just stop and pick you up on the way.”

  “We close at five so I should be ready to go by quarter after I suppose.”

  They left the table and Fin paid the bill after a few seconds of arguing. Out on the sidewalk, Fin held the door while Harper loaded herself into her vehicle.

  “Thanks for lunch Fin, I owe you one. I’ll see you around five.” He closed her door and watched her fidget with the key in the ignition of her old Jeep then cranked it over but nothing happened. She pounded the steering wheel in frustration.

  “Man don’t do this to me now.” He watched her turn to look at him, concern and panic written all over her face. He motioned for her to roll down the window hoping he could offer her some help.

  “That didn’t sound too good Harper. Do you mind if I try?”

  “Yes please! That would be great, thank you.” Harper jumped out of the seat and let Fin in.

  He pumped the gas pedal and turned the ignition but he only heard ticking.

  “Shit.”

  Harper leaned in through the open window, “I don’t like the sound of that, what’s wrong with it?”

  “Well I’m no mechanic but I do fix a lot of stuff on the farm. I think it’s your starter. It could also be a dead battery but I really think we better get it checked out. Jaxon’s the mechanic mastermind so I’ll give him a shout and see if he can get the Jeep picked up.

  “This isn’t good. How am I going to get to work?” Fin didn’t know if she was actually talking to him as she’d wandered off a little.

  “Harper it won’t be a big deal at all. I can drop you back off at work and I was going to pick you up right after anyway so it all works out.”

  “I can’t make you do that. What about tomorrow or the next day? You don’t even live in town. I don’t want you going out of your way just to run me all over tarnation.”

  Fin ignored her ramblings and helped her get her things from the Jeep and locked it up since they’d be leaving it until Jaxon could get it.

  “So, milady, please let me escort you to my truck.” He made a butler-type bowing motion while pointing to his truck parked across the street. “Let’s get you inside and crank the heater then we’ll go drop off your keys to Jaxon and see if he’ll be able to check it out.”

  “You really don’t have to do this you know? I mean I really, really appreciate it but you don’t have to.”

  “I know I don’t Harper but I want to. That’s what friends are for right?” When Harper looked his way, he wondered if friends was all she was looking for.

  Chapter Three

  What in the hell am I doing? Harper was dumbfounded. Nothing was going according to plan today. She’d slept awful and restless the night before, bombarded with dreams of the new guy she’d met. She’d also taken quite a ribbing from Elsie when the new guy invited her to lunch today. Thankfully that lunch actually went pretty well. He’d shared his family dynamic and she felt so bad for his nieces having their mother taken so early on in their lives. She couldn’t wait to meet them. She’d been on her own for so long with no parents that she felt a kinship with the twins.

  The day couldn’t get much worse than it was right at the moment and she didn’t have the extra money for a mechanic bill but it was clear her car was not going to start. Dread crept into her head, worrying what they would find wrong. Didn’t really matter though, she needed a car and that’s all there was to it.

  “Hey Harper.” He’d reached over to grab her hand from the seat beside her. “It’s gonna be okay, I promise.”

  “Do you think it’ll be expensive? Things have been tight this month so I’m just a little worried.”

  “Jaxon’s a very reasonable and understanding guy. I don’t think there’s anything for you to worry about okay?”

  They drove the rest of the way down Main Street to West Side Service Station in silence. She couldn’t help but worry that whatever was broken would end up costing her more than she could afford. Her car wasn’t the most reliable but in the dead of winter, she needed something and a new one wasn’t in the budget anytime soon. Jaxon seemed like a nice enough person so only time would tell.

  After begrudgingly handing over the keys to her beat up baby, Fin dropped her off at work and promised he’d be back when she was done. Harper went in the front door of the post office and just as she’d expected, Elsie was waiting.

  “I was starting to worry about you child. Must have been one heck of a lunch.” A familiar smirk crossed the woman’s face.

  Harper couldn’t help it when her emotions took over. She got as far as the counter, put her things down and burst into tears. Just like the grandmother she wished she had, Elsie pulled her into an embrace and held her.

  “Oh goodness, what happened?” She brushed the hair from Harper’s face and helped her with her coat. “Come on, let’s get you into the back. No worries, we’ll fix whatever it is.”

  Harper couldn’t even talk the sobs were wracking her so hard. She sat down at the kitchenette’s table in the back room where a storage area had been turned into an overnight room in case the weather ever got bad. Elsie sat across from her and held her hand until she’d calmed enough to tell her what happened.

  “Whatever it is, just tell me. We’ll work through it together. I’ll tan the hide of that boy if he hurt you.” No wonder Harper loved this woman. She’d become so much more than just a trainer for her job.

  “Well I had a really nice lunch actually and Fin was great. I agreed to have pizza with him at his family’s farm tonight. He walked me to my car…”

  “Oh, I’m glad he was such a gentleman.” Elsie interrupted. “But why were you crying then if it wasn’t him?”

  “He was really great but then when I got ready to leave my Jeep wouldn’t start. Fin tried it too and said he thought the starter went bad.”

  “Is that it? Because your car wouldn’t’ start? I thought maybe he’d done something to you.” The older woman pursed her lips together and her forehead crinkled a bit.

  It sounded so unimportant when she said it that way. “Yes, and it’s a huge deal to me. I don’t have the money to pay for car repairs right now.” Harper covered her face with her cold hands.

  “There, there; everything will work out the way it should. Don’t you worry, Jaxon’s a very understanding young man. I’m sure he will let you set up some sort of payment plan. He deals with these kinds of problems every day and knows you will need your car.”

  Harper looked at the woman curiously. “You make it sound like no big deal; how do you do that?”

  “Because it’s not a big deal, not here anyway. This is a good town with good people willing to help out their fellow neighbor, or post mistress.” Elsie winked at Harper and rose from the table. She warmed up a cup of hot cocoa and handed it to her.

  “Now I think there’s no better time than the present to write that Santa letter.” The elderly woman scrounged in a couple of metal desk drawers until she found a blank piece of paper, an envelope, and a pen, lying them in front of Harper. Then she laid a quarter alongside the other items.

  “While you do that, it’s time for me to head home. I have a date with a bowl of homemade beef stew and the Hallmark channel, something about a lady and a miracle I think.” Elsie gathered her coat and other things, hugged Harper from behind and kissed her cheek. “Enjoy your dinner tonight and make sure to tell Fin and Kaleb hi from this old lady. Squeeze those twins for me too. And, don’t forget the wishing well.” Then she was gone.

  Harper stared at the blank paper, no longer contemplating whether she should do it, but what to actually write about. She needed a miracle right about now.

  Fin stared at the green digital numbers above the radio in his truck. Twenty minutes past five.

  “Should I go in and get her or just be patient?” He knew she was alone because he’d seen Elsie walking home a while ago and no new customers had gone in or out w
hile he sat out front. As the streetlamps started to pop on, he thought he could see small specks floating in their light.

  A knock on the passenger window got his attention. Harper. He pushed the unlock button. She climbed in with determination, the height no match for her. “I’m sorry I didn’t open the door for you. How was the rest of your day?”

  “Oh no big deal, I’m a big girl. The afternoon was pretty quiet actually. The few people I had come in, mentioned we were due for a bad storm. Are you sure dinner tonight is a good idea?”

  “That’s why I have a big 4-wheel drive truck. It’ll go through most anything. Let’s go get the pizza and head on out.”

  Twenty minutes later they were out of town headed north toward the farm. The falling white stuff had turned to sleet, coating the roads

  “If we don’t get there soon, I’m breaking open this pizza box. It smells so good.” Harper picked up the boxes to smell at the seam.

  “Go ahead, I won’t tell.” He laughed when she shook her head.

  “No way, I’m not messing up dinner. They’d know just by looking at the pizza. Although, I could tell them you did it.”

  There was that laugh again. It was magical, sending chills through his whole body. “I love your laugh.”

  “You’re nuts. I laugh like a hyena. Oh wow, is this your farm?”

  Fin pulled in the driveway marked with two monstrous Blue Spruce trees, adorned in Christmas lights. They’d grown so big one could barely see the welcome sign standing beside them.

  “Fin this is gorgeous. There are trees as far as I can see.”

  “Probably a lot you can’t see either. We don’t’ just do Christmas trees. We have a lot of different landscaping yard trees too. Maple, Oak, and a lot of others. Even some fruit trees in the greenhouse.”

  Fin parked in front of the main house and shut off the engine. When he looked at Harper, her eyes were transfixed on the scene before her and her mouth hung open.

  “You look like you’ve never seen a house decorated before.” He jumped out, rounded the back, and opened her door. She hadn’t moved. He lifted the pizzas off her lap.