by Krista Lakes
“Okay.” Lucy drew out the syllables, obviously unsure what her boss was doing. “That’s not usually your move, but sure. I can move the meeting to... Devonsville. Wow. Middle of nowhere.”
Nathan barely heard the disdain in Lucy’s voice. He was already planning. Not only would he get to inspect the company first hand, he’d get to see Holly.
It wasn’t sound business to mix business and pleasure, but for the first time in his life, Nathan didn’t care if it cost him a little bit of money.
That, if nothing else, surprised him. Money was everything.
“Are you sure about this, Nathan?” Lucy asked. “Are you really sure you’re feeling okay?”
“I’m feeling better than I have in weeks,” Nathan assured her. “Just make the changes.”
“Okay. You’re the boss.” Lucy’s shrug was practically audible. “I’m just telling you it’s not a good idea.”
“Thank you, Lucy. Just do it.”
The line was quiet for a moment. Then the keys clacked. “It’s done.” Lucy’s voice was sullen and low.
But Nathan didn’t care.
He hung up on Lucy and went back to evaluating ECT. It was like stepping back in time to when he first started his own business. The little things about the company fascinated him. He had so many plans just by looking. He hadn’t been this excited in years.
And his excitement wasn’t even including the prospect of seeing Holly again.
Chapter 22
Holly
“You seem... sad.” Aliyah glanced over from the passenger seat, her dark eyes looking Holly over like she was worried her friend might be sick.
Holly kept her eyes on the road. Aliyah had gotten the car from the lot, but Holly was driving home.
“Was it that guy?” Aliyah pressed. “You were pretty happy yesterday.”
“Yeah.” Holly sighed. “Have you ever connected with someone immediately? Like, you don’t even need to know them for more than an hour to like them?”
“Sure.” Aliyah leaned back in her seat. “I liked you the moment I met you.”
Holly smiled at the memory. On her very first day as a teacher at Devonsville Elementary, Holly had been overwhelmed and nervous. She was worried that everyone would think she’d gotten the job because of her father rather than her education and experience.
Aliyah had plopped down next to her in the lunch room. “We’re now room buddies,” Aliyah informed her. “And I have a feeling we’re going to be friends, too.”
Aliyah had always been a good friend.
“Did you feel that with this guy? I need a name for him, by the way. And some details.” Aliyah crossed her arms and glared at her friend.
“His name is Nathan. And yes. I did.”
“Then why are we driving away? If you feel something, you should go with it.”
“This isn’t a romance novel,” Holly chided. “He’s not going to sweep me away to his castle and everything will be sunshine and roses. He has a job. One that keeps him stupid busy. I have a job.”
“One that keeps you stupid busy?”
Holly narrowed her eyes at her.
“Yes. My job at the school and at the bookstore are important. We’re just too different. We talked about it. It wasn’t going to work. Our lives were just too busy.”
“So, it was just really amazing vacation sex?”
“I guess it was.” Holly felt empty at the words. “It was just vacation sex. Besides, he hates Christmas.”
“Well, then I know he’s not the one for you,” Aliyah said. “You made the right choice then. It wouldn’t work out between you. You love Christmas.”
Holly nodded, but she found herself missing Nathan already. How was it possible to miss someone she’d only known for two days? Somehow, it felt like she’d known him her whole life.
She sighed. She needed to stop thinking about Nathan. He was gone. The weekend was just a wonderful weekend. Nothing more.
“So, you hungry?’ Holly asked, pulling onto the highway and away from the resort.
“Actually, I am,” Aliyah replied with a smile.
“I’ll stop at the next gas station for sandwiches.” Holly grinned at her, wide and as annoying as possible.
“It will be a shame when I murder you,” Aliyah said, shaking her head.
Devonsville sat just off the main interstate about an hour from the Wyoming border and two hours from Denver. The state college was only a few miles away, and as a result the town had a fun college age appeal. Many of the houses were rented out to college students as they were cheaper here than closer to campus, but the students kept them in good repair.
There were lots of small restaurants and a lively downtown with bars and shops. Students liked to bring their parents to Devonsville when they came to visit for the fancier meals and the parents stayed in Devonsville for the cheaper hotels.
Lights adorned the trees, though there seemed to be less of them this year. The news that ECT was leaving was hurting the town. Houses were going up for sale. Several businesses were closing as spouses prepared to move.
Holly’s apartment was cold and empty when she arrived home. She’d dropped Aliyah off at her house and now was on her own. Her small building was a modified motel with outside entrances. Holly kept a small potted plant on the porch, but it was long dead with the winter. The sun had already set and the sky was cold and gray. Holly wondered if it was going to snow again.
She hoped so. White Christmases were always nice.
Holly walked up the steps to her apartment, kicking the dirty parking lot snow from her shoes as she unlocked the front door.
“Oh good, you’re home.” Mrs. Krasinski popped her head out of the apartment next door. Mrs. Krasinski was a retired housewife with too much time on her hands some days. “These arrived for you. I didn’t want them to get too cold, so I brought them in.”
Holly frowned. She hadn’t ordered anything recently, though a relative could have sent something.
Mrs. Krasinksi’s door opened and she stepped out carrying a beautiful vase full of roses and lilies. Holly’s eyes opened wide in surprise.
“I didn’t order this,” Holly stammered. “Are you sure it’s for me?”
“It’s got your name on it,” Mrs. Krasinski replied. She handed the vase off to Holly. “I think you might have a secret admirer.”
Holly set the vase down on her welcome mat and reached for the card nestled in the flowers. She wondered if Mrs. Krasinski had already read it, and figured she had.
Thanks for a wonderful weekend.
-N
A smile filled Holly’s face as her heart warmed. She picked up the vase and took a deep breath in of the flowers. They smelled sweet and fresh and as far from winter as she could imagine.
“So, who are they from?” Mrs. Krasinski pressed.
Holly smiled at her, kicking her bag inside the door. “You were right. A secret admirer.”
She waved to her neighbor and shut the door, cradling the flowers to her chest. She set the vase on her small kitchen table, admiring how the flowers already made her apartment feel warmer.
She shook her head, smiling at the flowers. She wasn’t sure what Nathan was doing by sending her these. It was probably just a nice gesture, and one she did appreciate.
Holly shrugged out of her jacket, hanging it on a chair, and then hit the thermostat up a couple of degrees. She couldn’t afford to go too high, but it was too cold to be comfortable even with a sweater on.
Her phone rang, and for one hopeful moment, Holly thought it might be Nathan.
Instead it was her father.
“Holly! Are you back home? How was your trip?” Her father’s voice crackled over the phone and she smiled.
“Hi, Dad. The trip was awesome,” she told him. “I got to go skiing, and the hot-springs at Blue Aspen are just as amazing as everyone says they are.”
“Oh honey, I’m so glad.” She could hear him smiling. “And the award? How was that?”
<
br /> Holly thought about the small statue tucked into her bag, but that wasn’t really what she remembered about that night. She wasn’t about to tell her father about Nathan, though.
“It was great. The food was amazing and there was an open bar,” she said instead. “Oh, and remember that band, The Tones? They were the music for the night.”
“I saw them in concert once. They were pretty good.”
“How are you doing, Dad? You survive the weekend without me?” Holly put the phone on speaker mode and picked up her bag to start putting things away. She carried everything into the bedroom and plopped it on her bed.
“It was quiet. I was hoping for better, but...” He sighed. “I’m sure I’ll sell everything off after Christmas.”
Holly hated the defeat in his voice. The bookstore was her father’s dream. He and her mother had opened it before Holly was born. Holly had grown up walking among the shelves of stories. She’d spent more of her life in that store than she had at home.
And it was closing. Her father had thought that e-books would be a passing trend and that he shouldn’t change because of it. That had been a rough time, too. He’d nearly closed then, but he opened up a coffee shop and reading area. He expanded into business books. When he did that, things started looking up again. But, then the news of ECT leaving Devonsville hit. The majority of his money came from supplying technical books for ECT offices.
The loss of ECT was the store’s death knell. She’d spent the last three months desperately trying to change that, but nothing she did seemed to matter. Without ECT’s purchases, and their large customer base, the store was no longer viable.
It was the end of an era.
Holly’s father hadn’t announced the closure yet. Holly secretly thought he was hoping for a Christmas miracle. The plan was to announce it at the end of the Christmas party. He would give out his last books and presents. Then everything would go on sale and the business would close at the end of the year.
“It’ll work out,” Holly told her dad.
“Yeah.” He had enough money that losing the store wouldn’t bankrupt him. “I was actually thinking I might travel.”
The idea of her father traveling made Holly laugh. The man hated being in the car longer than ten minutes. He couldn’t stand airplanes, boats, or trains. He traveled by reading books.
“That sounds like a great idea,” Holly told him. They both knew it wasn’t true. But, it was better to sound optimistic about the future than worrying and being sad.
It’s what Holly’s mother would have done.
“Well, I’ll let you go and unpack. I’m sure you’re tired from skiing all weekend.”
Holly was tired, but it wasn’t from skiing.
“Thanks for the call, Dad,” Holly said, pushing thoughts of Nathan from her mind.
“I love you, kiddo.”
“I love you too,” she replied, a smile on her face.
They both hung up and Holly stood in her room. It was still cold.
Holly grimaced and put on fluffy pajamas and curled up in bed. The blankets slowly warmed as she grabbed a book. She held the book in her hands, looking like she was reading, but the words just kept sliding past without absorbing. Her thoughts were on Nathan.
She missed him. She wasn’t sure how it was possible to miss someone she barely knew, but she did. She ached to have him in bed with her, reading his own book.
She sighed and put the book down. She turned off the light.
She had a busy day tomorrow. She might as well be well-rested for it.
Chapter 23
Holly
Holly woke a full hour before her alarm went off. She lay in bed with the covers up to her chin. Her cheeks were cold, but she didn’t want to turn the heat up. The old apartment building leaked warm air like a sieve and her heating costs were already too high this year. Better just to wear an extra sweater. Or stay in bed.
She heard her coffee-pot click on, the machine on automatic. Soon the scent of coffee filled the air and she found the siren’s song of endless energy irresistible. She slid out from under the covers, wrapped a robe around her and shuffled into the kitchen.
The sun was still barely cresting the horizon, and the kitchen was full of shadows. Holly went on autopilot, reaching for a mug, the creamer, and finally the coffee. She sighed with contentment at the first sip.
And then she thought of Nathan.
He liked his coffee with sugar, no cream.
She shook her head. It didn’t matter how he liked his coffee. He was probably back in San Francisco by now. She wondered if he would look into ECT for her like she asked. She didn’t doubt that he would, just that anything would come of it.
She glanced at her phone to see if there were any new messages or updates, but the screen held nothing but a new like on a Facebook post. She sipped on her coffee and started the shower, telling herself to get on with day and stop thinking of a man she was never going to see again.
“It was a dream,” she told herself. “A marvelous dream, but it wasn’t real.”
With a sigh that came straight from her soul, she put down her coffee and got ready.
She arrived at school the required thirty minutes before the first bell. She wore comfortable slacks and a fluffy white and red sweater. She was glad she didn’t have to pay for the heat at school, because for the first time all morning she finally felt warm.
She went around the room, putting the graded writing assignments on each student’s desk. Today they would be transferring the now fixed paragraphs to handmade snowflakes and hanging them around the classroom. In a few hours, her room would look like a frosted paper winter wonderland.
“Ms. Jones?”
Holly looked up to see the school secretary in her door. Ms. Chellie handled everything that came through the front door of the school from attendance to packages to the new swing set they’d ordered last year.
“Hi. Is someone going to be absent today?” Holly asked, standing up from her desk. Ms. Chellie didn’t usually come by in person to inform her of an absence, but it happened from time to time.
“Nope. These came for you.” Ms. Chellie stepped to the side, letting in a delivery man. The man had a vase bursting with the most beautiful red and white roses Holly had ever seen. It was massive, with sprigs of holly poking out among greenery between the roses.
“Just put them on my desk,” Holly told the man. “I’ll get you a tip.”
“No need, ma’am,” the delivery man replied. “It was included in the purchase. Have a wonderful day.”
He tipped his hat and hurried out of the classroom. Ms. Chellie glanced out the door to make sure he really was leaving before coming over to admire the flowers.
“Holy cow,” Chellie whispered. “I didn’t know they made vases this big. Or flowers like this.”
Holly reached for the pretty red card sitting carefully on the top of the flowers.
Happy Tuesday
-N
The smile that filled Holly’s face was slow, but permanent. She had a feeling that it wouldn’t go away for the rest of the day. There was something wonderful about knowing that someone was thinking of her. It was a great way to start a day.
“Who’s N?” Chellie asked, peeking over Holly’s shoulder. “And does he have a brother? Cousin? Good friend?”
Holly laughed. “I met him up the award thing,” she explained.
Chellie took a deep breath in of the flowers and shook her head. “I think you did more than just meet. You made some sort of impression. Especially since this isn’t all he sent.”
Holly frowned. “What do you mean?”
Chellie grinned. “The library just got a delivery notice. Apparently, they’re getting two 3D printers and a bunch of state of the art virtual reality learning gear. The nurse had to come in because all the librarians were hyperventilating they were so excited.”
Holly’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
“It’s a donation from Paradigm Te
chnologies. But, given the size of those flowers, I’m guessing that’s where ‘N’ works,” Chellie said with a knowing smile.
Holly didn’t know what to say to that.
“You must have made an impression. I hope you got his number. He sounds like a keeper.”
Chellie gave Holly a friendly pat on the back before returning to the front office. Students would be arriving soon. Holly stood staring at the flowers, trying to figure out why Nathan would send such an amazing gift.
It was meant for her. She knew it. Even though it was addressed to the school, it was a gift to her. She was a teacher and he sent her something she could only dream of to help her teach. He’d picked the perfect gift. The flowers were nice, but her students and school were the way to her heart.
“What is he doing?” Holly said aloud to the empty classroom. Probably just being nice. It cost his company very little to send this kind of thing and they would get a great tax deduction for it.
She barely had enough time to send him a thank you text before her students came running in. Everyone was red nosed and had snow on their boots, but they were all happy to see her.
“Ms. Jones! Ms. Jones!” they all called. “We had a snow-day yesterday!”
Holly laughed, greeting them and getting everyone settled at their desks. The mornings were always high energy, and today was no different. With the snow-day on Monday, there was only three days of school this week. Friday was the town holiday parade and celebration, so the school year ended on Thursday.
The classroom buzzed with energy. The kids were still amped up from their day off and the rumors of cool things happening in the library. They kept wanting to smell Holly’s flowers and asked her a million questions as to where she got them, who sent them, what she was going to do with them, and if there were bees inside of them.
Holly took it all in stride. She loved being a teacher and this was part of it. It took a while, but she managed to settle them at their desks and to look over their writing assignments. It was easy to get them to work on making paper snowflakes. She handed out paper and scissors and let the kids follow their imaginations.