It Must've Been the Mistletoe

by L. P. Dover

  Jeanine sighed and tapped her chin. “Let’s see . . . I can’t think of anything for the outdoor stuff, but with her loving history, I’m sure you can think of something good. Maybe go to an antique store?”

  And just like that, I had an idea in my head. I’d just have to wait until I got back to Asheville to find it. “I believe you’re right.”

  Noah knocked on the door and walked in. “What’s up, Will?”

  I stood and slapped his shoulder. “Nothing much. I just wanted to wrap everything up before I head on my way.” Grabbing Stan’s file, I handed it to him. “Did Jeanine tell you about this?”

  Grin wide, he glanced down at the file. “She sure did. This is huge for us.”

  “It is. And I’m leaving it in your very capable hands.”

  Noah was a couple of years younger than me, but I wouldn’t have hired him on as a partner if he couldn’t handle the clients. He nodded and held out his hand. “I won’t let you down.”

  Shaking his hand, I looked over at Jeanine and then back to him. “I’ve got all the faith in you. And if you ever need anything, you know how to reach me. You’ll have to come out to North Carolina sometime and let me show you both around.”

  Noah’s phone rang, and he sighed. “I’m down for it, brother. If I don’t see you before you go, good luck in Asheville. I’ll hold the fort down out here.”

  “You better.” I laughed and shook my head as he ran off.

  “I’d love to visit North Carolina,” Jeanine gushed. “My husband and I could rent a cabin and go to the Biltmore House. I’ve always wanted to see it.”

  Her comment sent a light bulb off in my head. “I think you just gave me an idea.”

  “Let me guess . . . you want to take Adeline there?” When I nodded, she giggled. “It’d be a perfect first date.”

  I sat in my chair and smiled. “Yes, yes it would.”

  Twenty-Seven

  Adeline

  All last night, I had searched through the attic, until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. Other than the chest with Adeline-Jane’s article, there wasn’t anything else I hadn’t seen before. Something told me there was more to my dream than just a dream. I wanted to find out more about the people in it. The library archive was the only place I figured I’d be able to uncover more information.

  I took a shower, got dressed, and was about to walk out the door when my phone rang. My heart spiked when I saw who it was. “Hello.”

  “Hey,” William replied. “How are you?”

  “It’s a Monday morning and I’m on my Christmas break. I couldn’t be any better. You?” I shut the door and leaned against it.

  “Can’t complain. Just busy wrapping up all my work stuff.”

  “Are you getting it done?”

  He chuckled. “Almost. I have a few things left to do before I head back to North Carolina. That’s why I’m calling. My flight gets in Wednesday around noon. I thought maybe you’d like to go out with me that evening? That is, if you’re interested.”

  I bit my lip to keep from squealing. “Of course. Where do you want to go?”

  “Well . . . I’ve never been to the Biltmore House at Christmas. Would you like to go there?” My heart stopped. It was like déjà vu, only the century was different. That definitely wasn’t a coincidence. “Adeline?”

  I cleared my throat. “I’m here. Going to the Biltmore House sounds wonderful. It’s beautiful at Christmas.”

  “Great,” he said, his voice low and deep. “It’s a date.”

  Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. “Sounds good,” I murmured. “I can’t wait to see you again.”

  “Same with you. It’ll be nice to get back home.” We said our goodbyes and I closed my eyes. I really wished I knew what was going on. I didn’t know what I was going to find at the library, but I had to search for something—anything to keep from going crazy.

  When I got to the library, it was exceptionally quiet. I’d been in there a gazillion times, so most of the librarians knew who I was. I went straight upstairs to the archives, only to stop when I recognized a familiar face.

  “Look who’s here on Christmas break,” I teased.

  Natalie’s head jerked up and she gasped. “I could say the same for you.”

  I walked over and sat down at her table. “What are you doing here?”

  She lifted her book. “I have to do a term paper on The Catcher in the Rye. Since it’s Christmas break, my little sister is home and I can’t concentrate when she’s there. That’s why I came here to read.”

  “I see,” I said, snickering.

  Her brows furrowed. “What are you doing here?”

  I nodded toward the archive computers. “I wanted to look up a couple of people from 1865.”

  “Really? Can I help?”

  “Of course. Come on.” She packed up her books and followed me to the archive section.

  “Can’t you just look for these people online?”

  Shrugging, I sat down at the archive computer. “I could, but it doesn’t mean I’ll find them. At least here, I can see actual records of people in this area during that time.”

  She pulled up a chair and sat down beside me. “Who all do you want to look up? I thought you had records of everyone in your family.”

  “I do, but I want to see if I can find people who were associated with them.” I didn’t have Adeline-Jane’s article with me, so I typed in the date it was published. When the article came up on the screen, Natalie’s eyes widened.

  “Adeline-Jane Hamilton?” Then, when she read further down about her death, she gasped. “Oh my god, this is horrible. She died by getting stuck under the carriage and drowning.” She looked at me and I nodded.

  “She was my aunt. Take a look at the locket she’s wearing.”

  Squinting her eyes, she focused on it. “What about it?”

  I lifted the locket out from under my shirt and held it so she could see.

  Mouth gaping, she glanced back and forth at my locket and the one on the screen. “Is it the same?”

  “It is. The owners of the antique store found it at the site where she had the accident, and had had it for thirty years, before someone came along and bought it as a gift for me.”

  “Whoa, that’s insane.”

  “I know. It’s kind of surreal. I’m wearing a locket that my aunt wore over a hundred and fifty years ago.”

  “So cool,” she whispered, sounding fascinated.

  “All right, let’s see if these people existed.” Taking a deep breath, I typed in Helen Carrigan’s name, along with the year. I couldn’t remember if my grandfather had told me stories about her or not. Maybe he did, and I just stored it deep in my brain. That could be a reason why I dreamt about her. If she wasn’t real, it’d make me feel a lot better. If she was . . . then it’d only accentuate how insane I was.

  “Aren’t you going to press the button?” Natalie asked, laughing.

  I shook my head. “You do it.” Closing my eyes, I heard the click of the button. A few seconds passed and all I could do was sit there, too afraid to look.

  “Don’t you want to see?”

  “I don’t know if I’m ready.”

  She snickered as she clicked the mouse. “Who is she to you? She looks pretty cool. I love her dress.”

  As soon as she said that, my eyes flashed open. When I saw the woman in the old picture, dressed in one of her fancy gowns, the air left my lungs. She was outside of her dress shop. “Holy . . .” the words caught in my throat. It was the same Helen from my dream. She stood at the door to her dress shop with the biggest smile on her face.

  “You okay, Ms. Hamilton?” Natalie asked.

  I swallowed hard. “Yeah. I think I’m done here. I’ve seen all I need to see.” I stood and clicked out of the archives. “I’m going to head out. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Natalie.”

  She pulled out her book and opened it up. “You too. See ya back at school.”

  Turning on my he
el, I glanced back at her one more time and waved. My mind was going ninety miles an hour. I didn’t know what to think. Dreaming of my great-grandparents was one thing; I’d studied their faces for years. But Helen was different. As far as I could recall, I didn’t know anything about her before the dream.

  Getting in my car, I headed down the road. I was tempted to call Jessica to find out if she knew where Margaret was, but I didn’t want to bother her. Yet all I wanted was an explanation. I drove to the café, so I could get another hot chocolate, and before I could walk inside, my attention snapped to a woman with curly brown hair, strolling down the sidewalk toward the shops.

  It looked like Margaret, but I couldn’t see her face. I hurried down the sidewalk, as she turned the corner beside the bank. Running to catch up with her, I came to a halt when I got there, and peered down the street. She was nowhere to be seen.

  “Looking for me?” a voice called out.

  Gasping, I jerked around. With an angelic smile, Margaret stood behind me, her hands clasped in front of her. “How did you get behind me? You were just . . .” I pointed down the other end of the street.

  She giggled. “I was, but I’m here now.”

  “Who are you?”

  Her eyes twinkled. “That’s a silly question. You know who I am.”

  “Seriously, what’s going on? Bridal Charms has no clue who you are, and then,” I pulled out my necklace, “you happen to buy the one locket that actually belonged to my ancestor. And Will knew apple pastries were my favorite. Oh, and he likes snickerdoodles!” I huffed, knowing I wasn’t making any sense. So, I tried again. “Strange things are going on that I have no explanation for, and you’re the only one who’s tied to it all.” I threw my hands up in the air. “It’s either that, or I’m going insane.”

  Her grin widened. “You’re not going insane, Adeline. When Jessica hired me to be her wedding planner, I just happened to be standing outside of Bridal Charms. It all worked out, as you can see. Her wedding was absolutely amazing.”

  “It was, but that’s not my concern right now.” I stepped closer and pulled out my locket. “What about this? Did you know it belonged in my family?”

  She stared at the locket and then met my gaze. “How would I have known that?”

  With a heavy sigh, I leaned against the building and closed my eyes. “I don’t know. I’m seriously losing my mind. First, I get sucked into a dream and you’re there, along with William. We fell in love, and everything was amazing until I woke up. But now that I’ve met him in person, he’s the same as the William in my dreams.” My eyes burned, and I opened them, turning my attention to the sky. “I love him, yet none of it was real.”

  Margaret took my hands and it was like energy pulsing through my skin. I looked into her eyes and she smiled. Ever since I’d first met her, there’d always been a glow around her, like a bright ring of light surrounding her body. “You’re not going crazy, dear Adeline. You might not believe this, but people have been known to share the same dreams. It can happen. There are documented cases.”

  I huffed. “If that’s true, then I’m obviously the only one who remembers it all.”

  She squeezed my hands and let go. “People have a way of remembering. It’s called déjà vu. He knew you liked apple pastries, right?”

  “That still doesn’t help. Even if he was real in my dream, he’ll never remember it the way I do. All that time we spent together is lost.”

  A mischievous grin spread across her face. “Do you believe in Christmas magic, Adeline?”

  I scoffed. “No.”

  Her brows lifted. “Are you sure about that?”

  To be honest, I didn’t know how I felt. “I don’t know. Was my dream real?”

  Still grinning, her gaze never wavered from mine. “Yes.”

  “How do you know?”

  A soft chuckle escaped her lips. “Because I was there.”

  The breath whooshed out of my lungs and all I could do was stare at her. A part of me still felt like I was dreaming. None of it could be true, could it? There was no such thing as magic . . . or was there?

  A man and woman turned the corner and she smiled at them as they walked by. Once they were gone, she stepped closer to me. “It looks like you don’t believe me.”

  “I don’t know what to believe.”

  “All right, let me prove it to you. It was Christmas Eve and I was in your room. You said you didn’t understand how you could feel so strongly for someone in a dream.”

  Slapping a hand over my mouth, I gasped. “Oh my god.” That was exactly what I’d said.

  She nodded. “And then I asked you how you knew it wasn’t real, and you went on and on about how you were in 1865, and there was no such thing as time travel, or any of that crazy mess.”

  There was a bench a few feet away, so I stumbled over and sat down. “I did say that.”

  “Yes, you did.” She sat down beside me. “You also asked if you would remember it all, and I told you that if you wanted to remember, I’d make it so.”

  My eyes burned. “And I said yes. Even if it hurt, I wanted to remember what love felt like.”

  “And now you do,” she replied. “I told you once before that yours and William’s paths would cross, whether Jessica set you up or not. Your dream just gave you a little nudge.”

  “Will he ever remember it all?”

  She shrugged. “That’s up to him. From what you’ve already said, he seems to be showing signs of it. Even if he doesn’t remember, you already know that you two have a connection. He loves you . . . he just doesn’t realize it yet.” Her grin came back. “But I know there are ways you can help him.” She patted my shoulder and stood.

  “How?” I asked.

  “I’m sure you can figure that out.” She winked and started down the sidewalk.

  I jumped to my feet. “Margaret!” Stopping mid-step, she glanced at me over her shoulder. “What about the rest of the dream? Were my grandparents and everyone else real?”

  “It was your dream, Adeline. If you believe it was real, that’s all that matters. With a little mistletoe and a lot of Christmas magic, anything’s possible.” She walked up to the corner and smiled at me one more time before disappearing out of sight. It made no sense, and I had no clue who or what she was, but deep down, I knew she was a Christmas angel.

  Twenty-Eight

  Adeline

  William: Just landed. I’ll call you when I get home. I’m going to try and unpack a few things before we go out.

  Me: Perfect! Glad to see you made it back safely. If you need help, let me know.

  William: The company is always welcome.

  Tuesday came and went in a blur. I’d spent most of the day buying things for the Christmas party. There were tons of baking that needed to be done. However, all I could think about was William. His flight had landed, and I knew that in a couple of hours, I’d see him again.

  I’d just put the last of the snickerdoodle cookies in the oven when my phone rang. I looked at who it was and smiled. “You’re still on your honeymoon. You shouldn’t be calling me,” I joked.

  Jessica giggled. “Whatever. I wanted to see how you were.”

  I sat down at the kitchen table. “Good. I have a date with your brother-in-law today.”

  She gasped. “Seriously? Where are you going?”

  “The Biltmore House.” Which was perfect, because if I wanted him to remember me, I should start with what we did in our dream. He loved snickerdoodle cookies, and he was the one who took me to the land before the Biltmore House even existed.

  Jessica squealed. “I’m so excited. If things work out between you two, you could be my sister-in-law.”

  I burst out laughing. “Don’t get carried away, Jess. It’s only our first date.” At least, as far as everyone knew. William and I had been together a lot more than that. Now, if I could only get him to remember.

  “Still,” Jessica replied. “I have faith in you two.”

  So do I.
“Thanks. Now, why are you calling me on your honeymoon?”

  “Just catching up with you. As much as I love my husband, I miss my best friend. We’ll be back tomorrow night.”

  “I can’t wait to see you. As you know, I’ll probably be over at my parents’ house, so my mother and I can bake and watch holiday movies.”

  “I wish my mom and I had awesome traditions like that,” she said with a sigh. “Usually, I’m working, or on call. I think this is the first year I’m actually free.”

  “Well, I’m glad. Even though I’ll probably be jealous of you when you get home, being all tan.”

  “Oh, you will be. I don’t even have any tan lines!” She giggled. “Make sure to tell that brother-in-law of mine I said hey. I’m happy to see he’s not working as soon as he gets back.”

  “Me too. Now, you take care of yourself and I’ll see you when you get back.”

  “All right, girlie. Love ya.”

  “Love you too.” We hung up and it was just about time to take the cookies out of the oven. I’d colored the dough red and green, just like William’s mother had when he was a kid. I pulled them out of the oven and my phone rang again.

  “Will,” I greeted.

  “Hey, what are you doing?”

  I breathed in the scent of the cookies. They smelled heavenly. “Nothing much. Just getting ready to wrap up your homecoming present.”

  “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I wanted to. Did you just get in?”

  “Yep, just a few minutes ago. I’ll be opening some of my boxes soon. If you want, you can come talk to me while I unpack, then we can head out to the Biltmore House. I reserved our tour time for seven o’clock.”

  Grabbing a Christmas plate out of my cabinet, I scooped the cookies onto it. “Sounds good. I’ll be over there soon.” I was about to hang up, then stopped. “Hey, wait. Do you have a Christmas tree?”