by Jenny Hale
“Will you stop?” he asked on their way down the stairs. A grin broke through and he shook his head. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I’m ridiculous? I’m not the one who won’t tell his date his last name.”
“We’re not on a date,” he said, exasperated.
“Then why did you stay for dinner?”
“You’re obsessive,” he said, trying to hide his laugh.
“I’m optimistic. There’s a difference.”
“You’re crazy,” he teased.
“Maybe, but neither you nor your coffee shop have a name. Kind of weird if you ask me…”
“Is there a better name for a coffee shop than Coffee? Why does it have to be something else?” he challenged.
“You want to draw people in, give them a feeling.” She touched her fingers to her thumbs in the meditation stance, making him chuckle. The truth was, she did get a feeling whenever she was in there, and she thought they could convey it to others. Lila felt friendship and camaraderie, coziness and good cheer––even when he was in one of his foul moods.
“People will come if they want coffee.”
“What if you named it…” She stopped and faced him. “Theo’s Coffee? Make it more personal.”
He shook his head.
“Or more eclectic, like Dairy Coffee—we don’t do almond milk?”
He cracked a smile.
“You could call it Something Different! That’s a great name for your coffee house.” She gave him a big, cheesy grin. “Because the shop and its owner are definitely… different.”
“What’s wrong with the shop the way it is?”
“You actually want my opinion?” she asked.
“Not really, to be honest,” Theo replied.
“It needs character. People don’t want just coffee. If they did, they’d make it at home. They want the atmosphere. What are you offering them that they can’t get in their kitchens?”
“I’m plenty busy with just the coffee.” He started walking again, taking a path that led between two barren maple trees.
“Right, but it’s mostly to-go orders,” she said, keeping pace beside him. “What about creating a spot where the community can come and take a load off? You want to keep your customers coming back for more, give them something they can’t get anywhere else—you. And on the rare occasions when you allow me to see your personality, I have no doubt that if you let them in on who you are, your shop would be standing room only.”
“What if I like it the way it is?”
“Don’t you want everyone to know about your shop? Don’t you want people to—”
He froze, his jaw clenching. “No,” he clipped. Then he pulled ahead of her, his feet crunching on the frozen grass, his strides too big to keep up with. Confused, she jogged to catch up with him, but that only seemed to make him speed up more.
“What did I say?”
“Nothing,” he said, shutting her down, but she wasn’t budging.
“You’re right,” she said straight back to him. “I said nothing wrong. You work in retail, but you don’t want to talk to anybody. You sell a product, but you don’t take time to market it or provide everything the customer needs.”
“Look, there’s a reason I am the way I am, and nothing you say is going to change it.”
“Tell me the reason then,” she demanded.
“Something happened…” He snapped his mouth shut, turning his gaze toward the tree line as he clomped away from her.
“You can’t just stay closed off forever.”
“Says who? You? Because you know what I’ve dealt with? You know what it’s like to have to create a different life for yourself, whether you wanted it or not? I don’t think you do.”
When they got to the porch of Eleanor’s house, Lila was out of breath and still wondering what had just happened between them. Theo stomped up the stairs and she stopped him just as he knocked on the door.
“What in the world is the matter?”
“You don’t get it at all! And you don’t need to. Just butt out.”
She flinched, needing a minute to get her bearings again. “Something is clearly eating at you, and you can’t possibly go through life like this. You’ll never survive it.”
He turned away from her, but she stepped in front of him.
“My parents died,” she said. “I don’t have a single person apart from those three girls I walked into your shop with who gives a hoot about me, and I don’t love my job or even know what I want to do in life, but never have I let any of it eat at me until I treated others the way you’re treating me right now. Whatever happened to you isn’t who you are, and I pray that you figure that out sooner rather than later, because in the meantime, you’re wasting a whole lot of precious moments.”
Eleanor opened the door, slicing through the moment. “Oh, hello,” she said cautiously, when she registered that Theo was at her door.
“Hi, Ms. Finely,” he said calmly, having clearly worked to get himself together. “I just wanted to come by with Lila to tell you that I’m sorry if I wasn’t hospitable when you came into the coffee shop. I’m not the greatest at…” He looked over at Lila. “I’m not great at being friendly with people right now.” His chest filled with air and then he let out the breath. “But I shouldn’t have taken out my own frustrations on you. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, dear, that’s just fine. Thank you for the apology, and thank you for offering to fix the pipe out in the cabin.” She ushered them in. “It’s freezing. Why don’t you two come on inside and warm up.”
Lila pushed aside the hurt and irritation she’d felt on the doorstep and went inside. A little flutter of happiness floated up inside her once she was in the cabin. Eleanor had tidied up, all the Christmas lights were glowing, and the tree glistened in the corner. The gifts Lila and Piper had wrapped up were still sitting under the tree.
“The fire’s dwindling,” Eleanor said, hurrying herself over to it. “Let me get it going for us.”
“I’ve got it,” Theo said, as he picked up a couple of logs from the hearth and threw them onto the fire, making the flames crackle and hiss.
“Thank you so much,” Eleanor said. Then she clasped her hands together hospitably. “Would either of you like to have anything to drink? I’ve got some cider I can warm up.”
“Don’t worry yourself for us,” Lila told her, sitting down on the sofa. “I—we—just wanted to pop over to see how you were doing?”
“Same as always,” she said. “Thanks for checking on me. It’s chilly in here. I’m going to get myself a mug of cider to keep warm, so I’ll go ahead and make three. It’s no trouble. Y’all chat and I’ll be back in a second.” She bustled into the kitchen.
Once they were alone, Theo came over and sat down next to Lila. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
“Thank you,” she told him with a smile. “And if you do it again, I’ll call you out on it every single time, so you’d better not.”
He allowed a little show of affection in his eyes.
They sat together in the quiet house, the silence heavy between them.
Then Theo noticed a guitar on a holder in the corner of the room. The silence must have been getting to him because he stood up and went over to it, lifting it off the holder and spreading his fingers across the strings on the neck. He carried it over to the sofa, picking out a chord and then tuning it. Then, out of nowhere, he began to play. His fingers moved effortlessly. He strummed the tune to “Silent Night,” and it was so beautiful in the stillness and hush of the cabin under the white Christmas lights that it gave Lila goose bumps.
Eleanor came in with a tray of mugs and set them down on the coffee table. “You are wonderfully talented,” she said, bringing one of the mugs to the table nearer to him.
“I wouldn’t say that. I play a little bit,” he said modestly. “Do you?”
“Oh, no, dear. I can’t play a lick. That guitar belonged to my husband.”
“Hmm,” he sai
d, thoughtful.
Eleanor picked up her mug but didn’t drink from it. Her eyes glistened with tears for the lost love of her life.
Lila lifted the mug to her lips, inhaling the cinnamon and nutmeg before she took a sip, savoring the delicious flavors.
“I wouldn’t want Chester to see what’s become of this place,” Eleanor said. “My husband worked so hard to make the cabins beautiful.” She shifted in her chair, moving her reading glasses from the arm where they’d been sitting to the small table beside her. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, a soft smile on her lips at the memory. “The grounds were so pretty back then. Nothing like they are today. We had endless wooden walkways that led through the woods to scenic overlooks of the hills, with little signs that told the history of the area. The whole trail was covered in wildflowers—Chester and I scattered the seeds every year. Oh, it was so beautiful…” She let out a wistful sigh.
“I’m trying to keep it going,” she continued, “but it’s been harder and harder. There’s so much to offer in this little town, but I need a miracle to draw people out here these days.” She set her mug down and swiped a tissue from the box on the table. “I don’t know why I’m telling you both this,” she said.
“Edie works in PR. Maybe I can pick her brain to see what she’d suggest that could help boost sales.”
Eleanor nodded but didn’t seem encouraged. “It would take a lot. I’m clearly not great at giving people what they want these days.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. My friends and I loved it from the website, and while it wasn’t quite what we thought it would be, it’s still a great place to stay. We’ve loved being here.”
“Lila, dear,” replied Eleanor. “That’s kind of you to say, yet everyone has left but you, and you’re sitting here with the plumber because your cabin is full of water. Not exactly the vacation spot you were hoping for, I’m sure.”
“She’s actually sitting with a barista, if you want to get technical,” Theo said, obviously trying to lighten the mood, which warmed Lila’s heart. He started strumming again quietly.
Eleanor looked happier after his comment. She closed her eyes and swayed to the gentle lilt of music before taking a sip of her drink.
“We’ll figure it out,” Lila said. She wasn’t sure how, exactly, but she was going to do everything she could to save Fireside Cabins.
Twelve
Lila stood next to Theo’s old Ford truck, bundled up to her chin to keep warm. She had her hands on her hips, staring at the roofline of her cabin after their chat with Eleanor, her breath puffing out in front of her from the cold. “These cabins would be so pretty if they were decorated with Christmas lights.”
Theo didn’t protest, which wasn’t like him. She’d expected some sort of shrugging-off, but he’d remained quiet.
“I guess it’ll take more than Christmas lights to get this place going again,” she carried on, but he hadn’t seemed to hear her, his eyes on his phone.
“I have to go,” he said abruptly, his face like stone. He ran around to the other side of his truck, getting in and starting the engine.
“I’m coming with you!” she said, climbing up inside and shutting the door. The sight of his face just now had scared her, and there was no way she was letting him go without knowing what was happening. “What’s the matter?” Lila asked.
“I have five missed calls and a text from Rex on the cell phone his dad gave him to use for emergencies when he’s out on the farm. He said he’s lost in the woods behind his house and doesn’t know how to get home.”
“Oh no.”
“Judd and Trudy are probably still working in the fields and aren’t answering their phones. They probably think Rex is playing in the yard near the house like he always does.”
Theo pulled out, hugging the curves of the private drive as they made their way through the hills and down to the main road. He was quiet, focused, both hands tightly on the wheel as the truck whooshed past the frozen evergreens, the sky an inky black without a star to be seen. Lila shifted in her seat, her feet hitting a pair of work gloves on the floor, and stared at the white beams from the headlights shining on the dark asphalt of the road.
“You seem to know Rex really well,” she noted, eyeing him to judge his level of worry.
“Yeah. I give him guitar lessons.”
“You’re a music teacher too?” she asked, surprised.
“No. I just help Rex. I was playing my guitar when Judd was teaching me how to repair the plumbing, and he asked if I’d show Rex how to play. Judd offered to waive the charges for any future plumbing on the shop in exchange.”
“Did Rex give an indication in his text about where he could be?”
“Not really.” Theo’s jaw clenched. He was noticeably worried. “He just said, ‘Come quick. My leg is hurt.’”
“Oh my gosh.” Lila clasped a hand over her mouth. “It’s freezing outside. We have to find him.”
“We will,” he assured her, although she had no idea how he could be so certain, given the immense expanse of woods surrounding the property. “If he has to go to the hospital though, the nearest one is twenty miles away.”
“So Rex is out in the wilderness, all alone in the dark?” Lila felt a swell of panic, thinking of Rex trying to manage by himself with an injured leg.
“He’s too young to be by himself. Actually, why don’t you text him now to let him know I’m on my way?” Theo fished his phone from his pocket, put in his Touch ID, and handed it to Lila. “Tell him we’re about three minutes away.”
Lila messaged Rex and waited for a reply, her heart pounding like a snare drum when the little boy didn’t answer. She handed the phone back to Theo. The vast hills rolled past them, adding to the bleak darkness that surrounded the truck.
When they got to the farm, Theo parked outside the old farmhouse and bounded up the stairs to the long country porch, ripping open the screen door and then the main one with Lila right on his heels. A large pot that sat empty for the winter teetered precariously when Theo rushed past it. Lila caught it, steadying it before she went inside.
“Trudy? Judd?” he called out, his head swiveling back and forth. Theo grabbed Lila’s hand and took off down the hallway, leading the way to the area of the farm open to tourists, the shimmering Christmas trees lining the path that took them through the crowds of eager shoppers, past the horse ring, and out to the Christmas tree lot where they found Judd.
“Y’all look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said with a bright smile, as he lifted a tree out of its stand and bent down to place it on the ground so he could tie it up for a waiting couple.
Theo leaned over and whispered in Judd’s ear, and suddenly the man’s face matched theirs, the tree dropping with a whooshing thud. “I’m terribly sorry,” he said to the couple. “Paul!” he called to one of the workers. “Come tie their tree up for them.” Then Judd, Theo, and Lila made a dash for the woods behind the house.
“I’ll take the northeast corner of the farm,” Judd said with purpose. “He sometimes likes to play there. I’ll try to call him.” He took off, pressing his phone to his ear as he ran.
“Let’s go,” Theo said, grabbing Lila’s hand. “I have another idea of where to check.” They sprinted through the field toward the side lot that butted up next to the woods. “It’s not like him to leave the farm. He usually stays close. But there’s a family of deer over here that he loves to watch. He always sends me photos.”
Lila’s fingers were already numb, and she couldn’t feel her nose. She worried about how cold Rex must be by now. “Think he’s watching them now?” she said, her head rotating back and forth frantically, searching for the little boy.
“I wonder if he followed them into the tree line and didn’t realize how far he’d gotten.” He pulled out his phone. “It’s worth a shot to try to text him and ask.” When he didn’t get a reply, he started calling. “Rex!”
They entered the dark woods, and Lila joined in.
“Rex!”
Theo kept hold of her hand as they navigated the thick brush between the trees, and he seemed to notice her trembling, squeezing her fingers in his reassuringly. “We’ll find him.”
They walked for quite some time, all the while keeping the original tree line in sight so as not to turn back on themselves. The air was crisp and eerily silent, the only sound coming from the snapping of twigs under their feet as they made their way further into the forest. Suddenly, Lila spotted something—a pulse of light from the icy ground. Theo rushed over to it and picked it up.
“It’s Rex’s phone,” he said. “Damn spotty service. My text just now went through.” Then a rustle from beside them caught their attention.
With a tear-streaked face, Rex came running toward them, wrapping his arms around Theo’s waist and burying his head into his coat, sobbing.
Lila let out an exhale so big it felt like she’d held all the air she had in her lungs while they’d searched.
“Hey, buddy,” Theo said calmly to Rex as he went to work, checking Rex’s legs. “What happened?”
“I almost touched the deer,” Rex said through his tears. He buried his head again, and Theo comforted him, opening his coat and wrapping him in for warmth. “And I saw two more, so I wanted to try to pet them even though I knew they’d never let me. I fell in a hole and hurt my leg.” Rex reached down, holding his right ankle.
“How does it feel now?” Theo asked, his voice soothing and tender.
“It’s a little better.”
“Okay,” he said, clearly relieved. “This is my friend Lila. She came with me to help find you,” he explained.
Lila smiled at Rex as he looked up from Theo’s coat. “Remember when Theo took me on a horse ride, and you stayed with my friends?”
“Yeah, I ’member.” Rex wiped his tears with the back of his sleeve.
Theo picked him up. “Lila, could you call Judd and tell him we found Rex?” He tossed her his phone.
As Lila held the phone, selecting Judd’s name from Theo’s contact list with still-shaking hands, Theo spoke softly to Rex, telling him it would be okay and he knew the way home.