Season of Joy

by Annie Rains

  No. He’d be working in another town, one with bigger problems and a bigger salary for its town manager. Someplace where he wouldn’t walk his dog next to a pretty woman. Someplace where he wouldn’t be called Scrooge and think of it as an endearment.

  The week after the tree-lighting ceremony was a blur for Rosalie.

  There were walks with Everett before and after work. Softly exchanged words and long, slow kisses. Rosalie invited him to her house for dinner. He politely declined, claiming he had a lot of work to do. She invited him for breakfast at the bakery. He politely declined, same reason. She invited him to join her on the dog walk through Sunshine’s Christmas Tree Lane. He hedged. Rosalie refused to be discouraged. It was a busy time for him. Love could be patient and so could Rosalie.

  “Where’s Everett?” Kimmy didn’t have a dog but she’d agreed to lead the pack for the evening dog walk with Remy.

  “He said he probably wouldn’t make it.” If not for their twice daily walks, Rosalie would’ve thought Everett was giving her the brush-off.

  She couldn’t worry about Everett. There were at least thirty pet owners milling about on Garden Court. It was seven o’clock. Time to organize the group into a line to walk the neighborhood and admire the Christmas displays.

  “Okay, everyone stay on the sidewalk and follow the Saint Bernard,” Rosalie said when she had some semblance of a line formed.

  Yap-yap-yap.

  Everyone turned.

  “It’s Santa!” someone said, inspiring holiday greetings from others for Everett.

  He waved, moving to join Rosalie at the end of the line with a small smile.

  Rosalie gave Kimmy permission to start before turning to Everett. “Thank you for coming.”

  There was a furrow in his brow as if he’d had a rough day at work. “Tink needed a walk.”

  “And you did too, I bet.” She linked her arm through his.

  Everett slanted her a glance, expression lightening. “And I wanted to see you.”

  Her heart soared. This is what she’d been waiting for, a sign that she meant something to him. “Most people are here to take in the holiday lights with their fur babies.”

  “Merry Christmas and all that,” Everett said flatly, the crease returning to his brow.

  “Merry Christmas and all that,” Rosalie repeated. Whatever problem he was facing, she knew he’d find a way to work things through to everyone’s satisfaction. Rosalie stretched on her toes to kiss his cheek.

  “What was that for?” Everett slowed as they approached the rest of the crowd, who’d bottlenecked to admire a yard with a Star Wars–themed holiday display.

  “A kiss for luck.” Rosalie snuggled closer. “You’ll make the right choice. You always do.”

  He frowned. “The town council approved the parade ending on Sunny Avenue.”

  “Really? That’s wonderful.” And just in the nick of time. The parade was in a few days.

  Everett walked in silence, accompanied by his frown and his furrow.

  “Is there a problem?” Rosalie asked, unable to shake the belief that they’d be closer if Everett would just open up to her about his concerns and his feelings.

  “No. I’m just trying to figure out some work stuff.” Everett patted her hand, finding the hole in her mitten.

  That simple touch. It reassured. There was more here than heated kisses.

  But nothing she said for the rest of the walk seemed to change his mood.

  The day of the Christmas parade dawned sunny and bright.

  Rosalie’s holiday inventory was running low. And like any good retailer, she’d restocked with merchandise for the next holiday—Valentine’s Day.

  Aunt Yolanda had come by, making noises about needing an early dividend to make car repairs but backing off when Rosalie asked her how much she needed. She’d given Rosalie’s new merchandise a frown.

  Kimmy showed up to help Rosalie, in case there was a rush after the parade. She’d brought her three-legged kitten, Skippy, and immediately purchased a collar decorated with Valentine hearts and a set of Christmas-themed cat toys.

  The Widows Club board entered the store with Mims’s adorable granddaughter, Vivvy. Bitsy waved, and then the group drifted over to the live pet display, which Eileen had restocked with roly-poly puppies and a pair of brown furry guinea pigs. Vivvy and Mims were singing “Must Be Santa,” flinging lines at each other as if they were in a rap battle.

  “I think you and Everett make a cute couple.” Kimmy sat on a stool behind the register with Skippy in her lap.

  “Are you still blue about Haywood?” It seemed better to change the subject to a man her sister had always been sweet on than to talk about Everett and a future together. He’d kept Rosalie at arm’s length all week long.

  “Haywood was my childhood crush.” Kimmy cuddled Skippy. “And Ariana was his.”

  “But you dated him—”

  “One time,” Kimmy said briskly. “Don’t make it more than it is. They’re engaged. Now about Everett…”

  “Don’t make it more than it is.” Rosalie’s heart panged. Nothing seemed right between them, not even their walks.

  People were congregating on the sidewalks of Sunny Avenue. The high school band was scheduled to bring up the rear of the parade and perform one last song in front of Rosalie’s shop. It was perfect for business but Rosalie couldn’t enjoy it.

  “I asked Haywood to look for a space for me to open my own sandwich shop.” Kimmy stared out the window, gnawing on her lip. “I figured if you could open a store, then I could go out on my own too.”

  “Oh, Kimmy.” Rosalie hugged her sister. “What a fabulous idea.”

  “You don’t think I’ll fail?” Kimmy’s normal smile was conspicuously absent.

  Rosalie was quick to encourage her sister. “I think your gourmet sandwiches are going to be the talk of the town.”

  “Look, Gammy!” Vivvy pointed out the window. “It’s my parade.”

  “Life is too short.” Rosalie hugged Kimmy again. “Don’t let the parade pass you by.”

  Chapter Nine

  The Christmas parade was a huge success.

  Rerouting the gala to end on Sunny Avenue reduced the amount of congestion on the streets and sidewalks.

  Afterward, Everett requested a group of people meet at the town hall. He couldn’t put off what had to be done any longer and neither could Kevin.

  Sheriff Drew Taylor arrived first. Shortly afterward, the fire chief showed up. And finally, Kevin and Yolanda joined them in the conference room.

  Everett left the front office open since many residents had told him they’d be dropping off toys for the toy drive. He took a seat against the wall, intending to let Kevin deliver the bad news.

  “First off…” Kevin looked about as comfortable as a chicken trapped in a coop with a fox. “Thank you all for coming. We wanted to use this time to brief you on our progress in balancing the budget in time for federal funding consideration.”

  Everyone nodded. They all knew about the budget crisis.

  “We’ve come to a point where some hard decisions have to be made.” Kevin met the gaze of each person in the room. His smile was the perfect balance of compassion and regret. “We’re going to have to cut the budgets for emergency services and—”

  “Hang on.” Sheriff Taylor’s back stiffened. “You want to cut public safety?”

  Kevin’s expression didn’t change. “Yes, and—”

  “Is that wise?” the fire chief asked, just as angry as the sheriff. “Shouldn’t you be cutting nonessential services?”

  Kevin nodded mutely. His gaze came to rest on Yolanda, and he paled.

  Silence stretched through the room. Kevin let it linger too long.

  Everett stood. “What the mayor is trying to say is that if a miracle doesn’t occur by December thirty-first, we will have to lay off someone from the sheriff’s office, someone from fire services, and someone from nonessential services here at the town hall.”
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  “You mean me?” Yolanda said in a small voice. She stared at Everett, not Kevin.

  “We mean you,” Everett said in an equally small voice. “I’m sorry.” Despite his best intentions, he’d grown fond of the prickly woman.

  Something fell to the floor in the lobby.

  Everett stepped out of the conference room, leaving further questions to the mayor.

  “I…oh…” Standing next to the Christmas tree, Rosalie picked up the set of toy dishes she’d dropped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.” She stared at the dishes and then set them near the overflowing toy drive box.

  He’d just let her aunt, her investor, know she might lose her job. She couldn’t brush this off the way she brushed off everything else he’d done in town.

  Everett moved closer, waiting to hear Rosalie’s opinion of him, prepared for the worst.

  “So this is what you’ve been working on?” She stared at the floor. “What you’ve been stressing over? A plan to fire people?”

  “We’ve been trying not to fire people.”

  It was as if she didn’t hear him. “This kind of thing doesn’t happen in Sunshine. We hire our friends and neighbors. We don’t let them go, especially not at Christmas.” Finally, her gaze came up to meet his. “Your job is done. You’re leaving. You came here to do this horrible thing, and now…and now it’s over and you’re leaving.”

  “Yes.” He could stay another six months per his contract. But if Rosalie stopped talking to him, stopped looking at him like he hung the moon, and stopped kissing him…he’d just as soon leave.

  “But you and I…” She gestured back and forth between them. “I’ve been defending you and your reputation. And all this time…” The blood had drained from her face. “You really are Scrooge.”

  She whirled and rushed out the door.

  “Rosalie, wait.” Everett grabbed his coat and followed her, leaving Tinkerbell behind.

  Rosalie didn’t wait. She walked away with a gait just short of a run. “If my aunt can’t find a job, I’ll have to cash her out. This changes everything. And you knew. You knew it was coming at me head on.”

  “I couldn’t tell you.” He reached her side, dodging holiday shoppers.

  “I ordered specialty products through Easter.” She pulled her knit cap around her ears as if she didn’t want to hear him. “And I’m a horrible person for thinking about myself when my aunt just lost her job.”

  “Technically, we have ten days to save her job.” Snow and salt crunched beneath his feet as they crossed a street.

  “I wish…I wish…I wish I could find the words to express how disappointed I am.” Her big brown eyes were shadowed with sadness.

  “If I’ve given you the wrong impression…” Everett couldn’t finish that thought. He’d given himself the wrong impression. It was time to come clean. “I’m forty. I’m rebuilding my career. I don’t know where I’ll be next year.”

  From down the street, Bitsy wished them a Merry Christmas.

  Rosalie returned the greeting. And then she rounded the corner and shifted back into quick-step mode. They had reached the end of the block before she spoke again.

  “You never say it to anyone.” Rosalie turned and stayed him with a gloved hand on his chest. Her pink skin was apparent through the ever-widening hole in her red mitten. “You never tell people Merry Christmas.”

  “I’m not feeling very merry,” he said in a gruff voice. Truthfully, he hadn’t in years. He resisted the urge to draw her into his arms and forget about budgets and layoffs, knowing his touch would be unwelcome.

  “Did you ever say Happy Thanksgiving?” Rosalie’s hand moved over his heart.

  I hope I have a heart when this is over.

  “Rosalie…”

  “I’m not sure what’s been going on between us.” She drew back, taking her hand and her warmth with her. “There was…We were…” She raised tear-filled eyes. “I thought I loved you.”

  Loved. Past tense. If it was…If it had been…His heart seemed to shrivel in his chest.

  In the distance, Christmas music played. People’s voices and laughter drifted on the air.

  “Rosalie…” Everett couldn’t seem to string a sentence together. He didn’t know how to react. What to say. What to wish for.

  When he didn’t say anything, she resumed walking, crossing her arms over her chest. “I knew we were different in some ways, but I thought you were the kind of person who’d do anything to protect people and their jobs.” She choked on what sounded like a sob. “I was wrong. So don’t worry about disappointing me by keeping your feelings to yourself. I don’t want to hear them.”

  Feelings? That was the trouble. When Everett was with Rosalie, he felt too much. He felt happy and hopeful. He felt like he belonged in Sunshine and that could never be the case. He was a hatchet man. People who didn’t already hate him were going to hate him as soon as word of the layoffs got out.

  “It’s okay,” Rosalie said softly, walking a few steps ahead. “You may not love me but you gave me something I haven’t had since Marty died. I can see my future. I couldn’t see it before. Things were in the way. Anger. Grief.” She waved her hands as if waving them aside. “The future was all so tenuous and uncertain. And then you bought me a cup of hot chocolate.”

  Now wasn’t the time to admit he hadn’t been that generous.

  “Rosalie.” Panic. It trilled through his veins. He didn’t want to lose her. “Rosalie, slow down.”

  “I can’t.” She marched ahead. “For the first time in a long time, things are turning around for me. And no matter what happens when I go around that corner toward home…” She stopped suddenly, and her voice turned cold as she faced him. “You won’t be with me.”

  “Rosalie.”

  “Everett!” Down the block, the front door of Rosalie’s childhood home swung open, and her mother leaned out. “We’re having tamales tonight. Come inside. You look like you haven’t had a good meal since Spam tacos.”

  The wind gusted, and Everett felt as if he might blow away.

  “All your plans. All your numbers.” Rosalie backed away. “And you didn’t plan for me. You didn’t see…”

  Rosalie was right. He hadn’t figured falling in love in his plans.

  “And now…” Rosalie swallowed thickly. “All my plans won’t include you.”

  “Everett is such a jerk.” Kimmy sat in the corner of the couch in the apartment they shared above their parents’ garage. “Firing Aunt Yolanda? She runs that place. I don’t know how you could fall for him.”

  “Hey, don’t judge.” Rosalie took a love letter from Marty out of a small cedar chest. She’d found the letter in his bureau after he died. “I didn’t question why you fell in love with Skippy.”

  Kimmy dangled a cat toy over the kitten’s belly. “Skippy’s never going to mastermind dastardly deeds like Everett did in this town.”

  “You know it’s not like that.” Rosalie unfolded the worn paper. It was becoming fragile from being read so frequently. “He was hired to do a job.”

  On the floor next to her, Remy rolled onto his back with a mild grumble.

  “Yeah, well, if you’d been working at the town hall, he’d have fired you.”

  “Yes.”

  Kimmy stopped playing with her kitten. “And you’re okay with that?”

  I am so not okay.

  “Don’t judge my attempt at adulting.” Rosalie smoothed the love letter on her leg. “I’m a business owner trying to see what’s good for the town. But you know I hate that he gave Aunt Yolanda the ax.” She’d told her aunt she was canceling her spring merchandise orders, which would free up cash in case she was let go. “Am I upset with Everett? Yes.”

  “That’s my girl.” Kimmy went back to her cat-toy game.

  Rosalie turned her attention to Marty’s letter.

  My darling Rosalie,

  If you’re reading this, I’m gone. And for that alone, I want to apologize. My job requires
me to protect and serve. And if you’re reading this, I’ve had a truly bad day, and I ache for putting you through it.

  I can imagine you sitting down and reading this. I can hear your voice in my head, telling me I should have been more careful. I can hear your grief and your anger and your words—you’ve always been good at tossing words. Kind words. Loving words. And yes, angry words.

  It’s okay. You can be angry with me. If I’m gone, it’s because I was doing something I believe in and because bad stuff sometimes happens to good people. Be angry. It will give you a reason to go on until the anger fades.

  I know it may take time, but I want you to remember how much I love you. I want you to remember how important we felt it was to live a life looking outward, helping to spread love and kindness in small and big ways. Take time to grieve, love, but then look around and know that it’s okay to reimagine your life. Our jobs take a toll. It’s okay to move on, to find another way to touch people’s hearts. To live again. To love again, even if you have to fight for it. Even if a good man has to fight for you.

  Try new things. Live in new places. Cut that hair you love so much. Take a risk. Reach for a new dream. You won’t be alone. I will always have your back. When you look up at the stars, know that I’m the brightest one shining back on you.

  I won’t be home tonight but I can keep this one vow, the promise I made you on our wedding day. I will love you to the end of time.

  All my love, Marty.

  “You shouldn’t read that letter so much.” Kimmy handed Rosalie a tissue.

  “I’m going to read this letter until it disintegrates in my hands.” Rosalie wiped her eyes. “And do you know why? Because it reminds me that I loved a good man. And that when I fall in love again, it should only be with another good man. Someone Marty would approve of.”

  And that man wasn’t Everett Bollinger.

  “How’d it go?” Everett stood in the doorway to Kevin’s office.

  Kevin was slumped in his chair with Tink in his lap, his gaze attached to a spot on the wall. “About as well as you’d expect. Rationally, they get it. Emotionally, you and I are the Antichrist.”