A Movie Star for Christmas

by Jess Mastorakos

  “I mean, no matter what happens here in Snow Hill ... the ball, the guy, whatever. I’m not going back to L.A. to be an actress. I’m done.”

  18

  Nick

  Nick saw her walking across the grass to his cottage. He hated the way his heart picked up speed and his breath caught at the sight of her. He hated the way he wanted to open the door and meet her on the porch, swing her into his arms, and bury his face in her neck to get some comfort after the day he’d had.

  And it really had been a crappy day. He’d gotten no sleep the night before with the clean-up efforts, then he’d come home and showered only to go back to the scene of the fire to keep helping. Saving the ball was the last thing on his mind, considering it was going to take them weeks just to clean-up and repair the damage to the structure.

  Logically, he knew none of this was Holly’s fault. He’d had some time to get his bitterness out in the form of manual labor and sweat. But for whatever reason, she was still a symbol of everything he’d been working so hard on with his parents’ traditions going up in smoke. Or maybe, the hall going up in smoke was a symbol of their relationship going up in smoke when she left town. He didn’t know. He wasn’t an expert on feelings. But none of it felt good or right.

  Nick watched her from the window until she made it up the steps, then went to the door to open it before she knocked. He pulled it back, allowing her to enter.

  “Hey,” she said, her eyes searching his.

  “Hey.”

  “How are you?”

  Nick sucked in a deep breath, then closed the door behind her. “Tired.”

  “I can imagine. How’s the clean-up coming?”

  “Slow, but we’ll get there.”

  Holly looked around the cottage with a small smile. “I really do love it in here.”

  He nodded appreciatively. “Have a seat.”

  “Thanks.” She took a seat in one of the kitchen chairs he’d gestured to and then smiled when he sat across from her. “Listen, I have some good news.”

  “You do?”

  She beamed at him. “I have a plan. Well, Jack helped. So, it’s not just me.”

  “And what is this plan?”

  “Well,” she straightened her back and sort of bounced in her seat. “it’s been a busy afternoon. As we speak, the employees at Mack’s Toy Shop are working their butts off to wrap enough presents for the children of Snow Hill.”

  “Presents?” Nick asked, his mind too tired to connect the dots.

  “Yeah, for Santa and Mrs. Claus to pass out at the ball.”

  He scowled. “Holly, there is no ball this year. There’s no way we can–”

  “Just let me finish,” she interrupted. “There’s a banquet rental company gathering enough tables, chairs, and linens for the guests and the buffet set up. Jack rallied some of the crew and some volunteers in town to help with new sets for The Nutcracker and the photo op, and the producers agreed to let us use the Santa picture display we used in the movie for the ball since they’ll be done with it by then!”

  Nick studied her, a mix of emotions coursing through him. How could she just take it upon herself to set this plan in motion without even talking to him first? “Holly...”

  “Also, I was nervous about the clean-up not getting done in time, as hard as you guys work, so we also hired a third-party company to come in and take care of that. They’ll be here tomorrow. And Jack mentioned that the auxiliary room would need to be re-built or have the hole patched in order for the building to be safe for the night of the ball, so I figured it was best to hire it out.”

  “Hire it out?” Nick parroted. “Holly, this is what I do. You didn’t need to hire out something like that. I’m more than capable–”

  “I know you are,” she agreed. “But you’ll be too busy overseeing all of these moving pieces to actually get in there with a hammer or whatever. And hello? I still have a movie to film. Sometimes hiring it out is the best solution.”

  Nick snorted. “Yeah, okay. Easy for you to say when you’re sitting on piles of money. Money can’t fix everything, you know?”

  “Oh, trust me, I know. Money doesn’t protect you from backstabbers and bad things happening, but in this specific situation, Nick, it’s going to help us. You’re telling me if you had the money in the budget to do all of this you wouldn’t do it?”

  He blinked at her with no comeback. Of course, he’d do it.

  “So, you just don’t want to take the money from us, then?”

  He rubbed his face, knowing how crazy he must look after no sleep and all the labor he’d been doing. He was starting to wonder if he was even in control of his own reactions right now. Shouldn’t he be grateful for what she was doing? Well, now that he thought about it, he was grateful. But he was also overwhelmed and overthinking everything.

  “The decorations were all destroyed,” he pointed out.

  “We have a ton on set that we can use, and we’ll get the rest from The Christmas Shoppe in the town square.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest, considering this. That’s two stores in town that would be getting big orders just in time for the holidays. He knew the owners of both were probably ecstatic at the proposition. But what if they couldn’t restock in time for the rest of the town to shop there. No one would be happy about that.

  Nick pursed his lips. “I don’t know, Holly. I feel like you rushed into all of this without knowing enough about it to make sure it was going to work. Logistically speaking, what if you have all of these moving pieces and they collide into another mess?”

  Holly frowned. “I think it’s a good plan.”

  “Maybe it is, I don’t know,” Nick got up to pace, not sure if he was falling down tired or needing to burn off some energy. “Look. You have Harriet to take care of the details in all areas of your life. That’s not what it’s like in the real world. You can’t just snap your fingers and tell someone elsewhere to put your money and have it all work out. I guess, just ... tell her to call me and show me everything she did so I can see what I’m supposed to be ‘overseeing’ instead of actually getting my hands dirty with the re-construction of the auxiliary room. Then we’ll see if it’s going to work.”

  When Holly didn’t say anything, Nick turned to look at her. She just sat there, looking deflated, picking at her hands.

  “Holly,” he said, “I’m sorry, I’m just, trying to wrap my head around all of this.”

  She nodded and stood, heading for the door and opening it. “I’ll make sure you see the details and get the contact info for all of the vendors.”

  “Thanks,” he said, trying to wrack his brain for something else to say. He had no idea how to process the ball of energy that swept in here with her big plans and then reconcile that with the sad girl who just left without another word. Had he done that?

  Shaking his head, he slammed the door and crossed to the living room of the cottage. Maybe a nap would give him some clarity. Something in his gut told him he may have some apologizing to do.

  19

  Holly

  The vendors Holly hired had been making great progress with the hall. The clean-up had gone really well, and you could barely tell the fire even happened from the outside. They’d built a new auxiliary room in what seemed like no time at all and were already hard at work on the inside. She gazed up at the structure with her hand shielding her eyes from the sun. With all the heartbreak that evening had caused for so many people in this town, she couldn’t believe it was really going to work out. She was going to pull it off and there would be a Gingerbread Ball after all.

  “Hey, Holly,” Bill said from behind her, making her jump.

  “Hey, Bill.”

  “I wanted to give you an update on the offshore situation … I made some calls. You should have the rest of your money back from those accounts by end of business tomorrow.”

  Relief flooded over Holly. It wasn’t so much that she was desperate to have a bunch of money back, it was more that
she’d be able to pay her brother back for this Christmas mission. If he’d put all of his savings on the line and she wasn’t able to pay him back, she would have felt horrible.

  “Bill, you have no idea how much I appreciate that. I don’t know how you did it, and it’s none of my business, but I’m sure glad I had such an uber-connected co-star for this movie.”

  Bill laughed. “It has its perks to have friends in high places. Anyway, I hear it’s going well in there.”

  “It is,” she confirmed.

  “It’s really nice what you and Jack are doing for these people, Holly. Donating your own money like that to save their Christmas tradition. Not many people would be so generous.”

  “Thanks, Bill. That means a lot.”

  Julia joined them, putting her left hand on Bill’s shoulder so that the giant skating-rink of a wedding ring blinded Holly. “It’s still strange how much you care. I mean, the film is wrapping early and we’re all leaving. Why are you paying for their Christmas Eve ball?”

  Holly cut her a look but didn’t answer, and Bill apparently didn’t have the patience for this conversation because he walked away without a word.

  “Is it because of Nick?” Julia asked, conspiratorially. “Do you love him? Nick’s love can’t be bought. He’s not impressed with your money.”

  Holly sighed loudly. “Julia. Don’t you have anywhere better to be?”

  “Honestly? I should have just stayed in L.A. But I worked so hard to convince Bill this trip would be a great bonding thing for us that I’m sure he’d think it was weird if I left. So, here I am. Stuck in this small town with its small-town problems to keep me entertained.”

  “At least you’re honest ... sometimes.” Much to Holly’s relief, the director of the film was headed toward them from the set. She looked back at Julia. “Go find some other drama to watch. I have work to do.”

  Julia walked away just as Holly’s director walked up. She quickly changed her disgusted expression to one of warm professionalism. “Hi, Pam.”

  “Hi, Holly. Where’s Harriet?”

  Holly shrugged. “Hopefully back in L.A. by now. Why, what’s up?”

  “Nothing, I just hadn’t seen her lurking around the set the last few days. Did you fire her?”

  “Yep.”

  Pam shrugged. “Good. She seemed dirty. Also, I just wanted to let you know we had a minor re-write to this scene. See you back on set in twenty.”

  Holly took the script for the scene from her director. “Thanks, see ya.”

  “Hey, girl,” Robin said as she approached. “I just came from Colonial Hall. It looks amazing in there. The mayor is so grateful. The whole town is grateful. It definitely wasn’t in the budget to do all of this and it’s usually just sponsored by the inn, so we really appreciate you donating your funds and time.”

  “You’re welcome,” Holly replied, beaming. “It’s the least we could do.”

  Robin put her hand on my arm. “Listen, I saw Nick in there and asked if he knew where you were, and he seemed really strange. You guys still haven’t fixed things?”

  “Nope. I don’t think he thinks very highly of me after the way we left things the last time we talked.”

  “You should have told him about what Harriet did and that it was you and Jack who made all those plans and got it moving. He was wrong for thinking all you did was wave a magic wand at this problem.”

  Holly smiled sadly at her friend. “Can I really blame him for thinking that, though? I mean, Harriet really did take care of everything for me, to the point where she was able to steal my money for years and I didn’t even notice. I’m a fool. That’s why I got taken advantage of.”

  “Oh, honey, no. You got taken advantage of because Harriet is a bad person who manipulated you for her own gain. Not because you brought it on yourself.”

  “Thanks,” Holly replied half-heartedly. “Still, this whole thing with Nick is a mess. We have a connection, sure. I think we could be something really great. But with his history, I just don’t know if he’ll give it a chance.”

  Robin stuck out her chin. “Well, I’ll see what I can do about that. He and his mom were there for me when I needed them, and as far as I’m concerned, now he needs me.”

  “Who needs you?” Jack asked.

  Robin blushed. “Uh, nothing. Just girl-talk. See you guys later.”

  Holly and Jack watched Robin walk away, then Holly turned to Jack. “I feel like I’m stuck on a merry-go-round and everyone else keeps getting on and off but here I am, sitting on a unicorn, stuck.”

  “What?” Jack laughed.

  “I’ve been standing in this same spot for who knows how long and all of these things just happened,” Holly said, ticking each item off on her fingers as she went, “I managed to get a genuine compliment from a mega-movie star – who, by the way, fixed our money problem offshore so we’ll have our money by end of day tomorrow, then I had an argument with his witchy wife, then I found out from my director that everyone could tell Harriet was a snake but me, and finally, I accidentally inspired my new friend Robin to try to fix my relationship with Nick.”

  Jack whistled. “Wow. Yeah, that’s a lot.”

  Holly put her hands on her hips. “Now. What do you have for me?”

  “I was just coming over to tell you they’re almost ready for you on set. So, I guess, get off the merry-go-round and get back to work.”

  “Phew,” Holly said, wiping her brow.

  Jack craned his neck as if he were looking for someone, then kind of smiled and turned away. Holly followed his gaze and saw that Robin had been the reason for his smile. “You like her.”

  “Pshh, no I don’t.”

  “You totally do.”

  “Yeah, well, even if I do, I live in L.A. remember?”

  Holly crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you going to do in L.A. without me?”

  “You’re not seriously thinking of staying here for Nick, are you? I mean, you guys aren’t even talking right now and we’re leaving next week.”

  “Jack. I don’t know if I’m staying for Nick or for myself. But I really, really don't want to leave. Just look around. This place is my own personal slice of Christmas heaven. I’m in love with it.”

  “You have a problem,” he replied with a chuckle.

  “I get that a lot.”

  20

  Nick

  Nick wasn’t much of a sulker, historically. Even when all that stuff went down with Julia, you wouldn’t catch him moping around town looking like a poor sap. That just wasn’t him. Dark and broody in a way that suggested he was tough—maybe. But not mopey. Which is why it really bugged him to see the look on his own face in the large mirror in the foyer of the inn. He looked mopey, alright. He wasn’t in the mood to see or talk to anyone, but his mom had called him over saying she needed his help in the kitchen, so there he was.

  He scowled at his own reflection and went to find Joan. When he pushed open the door to the kitchen, he inhaled the familiar scent of freshly baked cookies and whatever hearty meal she was preparing for dinner. “Hey, Ma.”

  “Nick,” Joan greeted him. “Have a seat.”

  Nick noticed Robin sitting at the counter with a cup of cocoa and a couple of cookies. “Robin.”

  “Nick,” she returned the greeting.

  With narrowed eyes, Nick walked to the open seat next to Robin at the counter. “Why do I feel like this is a set-up?”

  “Because it is,” Robin answered.

  “Mom?”

  Joan shrugged. “You’re acting like a fool, son. And that’s the kind of thing that earns you a sit down from the meddling women in your life.”

  Nick blinked a couple of times, resolved himself to the fact that this was happening regardless of how he felt about it, and then eyed Robin’s plate. “Do I get some cookies and cocoa?”

  “Sure,” Joan said, fixing him up a cup while he reached over and took a couple cookies from the platter on the counter. “Are you ready now, dea
r?”

  “Lay it on me,” Nick said through a mouthful of cookie. He was clearly taking it seriously.

  Robin turned in her seat to face him. “First of all, Holly could have just left town when filming wrapped and let us mourn our Gingerbread Ball. She and her brother didn’t have to use their hard-earned money to help us out.”

  “Mmhmm,” Joan agreed.

  “Second,” Robin continued, “you were wrong for how you handled that whole conversation about her and her money. Totally wrong.”

  Nick raised a brow. “I mean, I don’t think it’s ‘totally wrong’ of me to think you can’t just throw money at a problem and expect it to go away.”

  Joan mimicked the expression on her son’s face and gestured at him with her mixing spoon. “No one threw money at this problem, Nick. She made a plan and she executed it. Just like you would have if you’d had it in the budget.”

  “You mean she told her assistant to take care of it,” he countered.

  Robin and Joan looked at each other, then Robin put a finger on her chin. “Hmm, hey Joan, have you seen any assistants around here lately?”

  “Who, Harriet? Why, no, now that you mention it, I don’t think I have,” Joan replied in the same tone of feigned confusion that Robin had used.

  Nick looked between them. “What are you going on about?”

  “Nick,” Robin said, “Harriet is long gone. Holly found out she’s been stealing money from her for years and she fired her on the spot. She did all of that work for the ball after she fired her assistant. She and Jack worked out all of the details with no magic wands in sight.”

  Nick swallowed.

  “And,” Joan added, “she hasn’t gotten the majority of her money back from some offshore accounts. It’s a whole mess. Jack used up all of his savings in the meantime since we’re on such a time crunch, and Holly will pay him back when she gets her own money back.”