by Krista Davis
Tiffany stiffened. “I don’t need to. As a matter of fact—” she checked her watch “—my boyfriend should be arriving in about an hour.”
Linda clapped her hands against the sides of her face. “No! You really have a boyfriend?”
“You don’t have to sound quite so astonished, Mom.”
Linda hugged Tiffany. “I thought this day would never come. Why didn’t you tell me?” She cast a critical eye over her daughter. “Shouldn’t you go change?”
“What’s wrong with this?” asked Tiffany.
“Don’t you have something prettier?” Linda smiled at her daughter.
Tiffany appeared to be getting miffed. “No.” She turned and walked away from her mother.
“Sweetie! Wait!” Linda ran after her.
EmmyLou sighed. “Holidays! Why did anyone ever think it was a good idea for families to reunite once a year? I guess you see a lot of this kind of thing at the inn.”
Actually, I didn’t, but to be polite, I nodded. After all, we did see quite a bit of unusual behavior.
At that moment, sleigh bells rang merrily. Children squealed and dogs barked. Dale and Doris smiled as the sleigh drew close to the big tree in the center of the green. They were clearly having fun handing gifts out to children, dogs, and cats.
My own little Twinkletoes surprised me by appearing in the crowd. But instead of nabbing a catnip toy, she jumped into the sleigh, hissed briefly at Muffy, the Pomeranian, and settled comfortably on Doris’s lap, where she was rewarded with a cat treat.
But her fun didn’t last, because Dale and Doris disembarked and handed out gifts as they talked to children. Trixie followed Twinkletoes’s example and jumped into the sleigh. They snuggled together on the seat and watched the merriment from their perch.
When Doris and Dale returned to the sleigh, Trixie nabbed a giant stuffed toy in the shape of a squirrel and ran back to me, dragging it over the snow.
I debated retrieving Twinkletoes from the sleigh, but Doris appeared perfectly happy with her feline company.
Most of the dogs and kids were too interested in their goodies to get underfoot, but I appreciated that Buck made sure the sleigh pulled away slowly. Watching it glide over the snow with the bells ringing warmed my heart. Who could possibly be unhappy?
EmmyLou, for one.
I turned to look at her, but my gaze fell on Holmes laughing with Norma Jeanne, who had changed into running shoes.
It was like he’d stuck a dagger through my heart.
Seven
I literally shook it off. I was not going to be that way. Not, not, not!
I walked back to the inn. Trixie dragged her new toy over the packed snow, unwilling to accept my help.
The woman who had earlier taken the tip stood on the front porch as though she was guarding the entrance. I now suspected she was the evil Vivi everyone had talked about. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she glowered at the world as though she was very angry.
Trixie bolted up the stairs and past her with the giant toy in her mouth.
I walked up the wide stairs, but Vivi didn’t bother to step aside as most people would have.
Inside the inn, Shelley nabbed me. “Are you helping me serve cocktails and appetizers to the Richardsons and Thackleberrys in the Dogwood Room?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll handle cocktails if you can circulate with the appetizers.”
I nodded my head in agreement. “Just give me a second to change clothes.”
Outside, someone screamed. I ran to the door. The Thackleberry family clustered on the porch. I stepped outside. “Is everything okay?”
EmmyLou passed Vivi. She whispered to me, “Just the usual Thackleberry drama.”
Vivi still held one arm across her chest. But the fingers of her other hand were now poised on her jawline, her long, pointy, bloodred nails tapping her face. “I heard that, EmmyLou.”
“Vivi,” said EmmyLou, “can’t you just let him have his fun? It’s Christmas!”
Vivi turned a hateful face toward her stepdaughter.
EmmyLou spoke in a soft, level tone. “Please don’t spoil it for Dad. Or for Norma Jeanne. Just once, let us have a happy holiday.”
EmmyLou walked past me. I stepped inside and closed the door, feeling very sorry for their family. But I had no time to linger. I shot upstairs to my apartment on the third floor of the inn. While I sometimes took the elevator, I figured walking up the two flights probably did me good. I had the top floor of the building all to myself, save for the huge storage room on the other end.
My holiday decorating binge had extended to my quarters as well. With trees all over the inn, it seemed silly to put up a tree in my living room, but I had anyway. This was the first time I could remember that I wasn’t leaving home for Christmas, and I had always longed to put up a tree of my own. I had bought a small tree, gone overboard with lights, and scoured the Christkindl booths for just the right ornaments.
I paused briefly to admire it, then hurried on to my room to change clothes. Not because of Norma Jeanne’s chic style, I told myself. One really shouldn’t serve food to guests in semi-grubby jeans.
It wasn’t as though I didn’t own pretty clothes. I had worked in fund-raising in Washington, DC, for years. Still, as I looked around my walk-in closet, everything seemed too dressy or too casual. I didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard.
I finally settled on simple navy trousers and a white lace top with short sleeves. I added gold hoop earrings with a smattering of inset rhinestones for sparkle. I slid my feet into flats so I wouldn’t trip while serving, and quickly brushed my hair back into a sleek ponytail.
Twinkletoes sat on the dresser, watching me. Her new catnip mouse, made out of a strong blue cotton fabric dotted with white snowflakes, lay at her feet. I slid a red velvet ruffle adorned with white lace edging over her head, expecting her to complain. Instead, she appeared to take pride in it and purred. I placed a matching one on Trixie, noting that they were made by the Thackleberry company.
With Trixie leaping ahead of me and Twinkletoes strolling with feline stealth, I rushed downstairs to an empty lobby. Everyone appeared to be outside watching the Yappy Hour parade. Everyone except Linda, who worked in the Dogwood Room, and Blake, who was sprawled in an easy chair, with one leg draped over the arm. He had changed out of the harlequin trousers. He now wore a white sweater accented with five wide vertical stripes in black. His trousers were cut short, exposing his bare ankles. He wore black velvet loafer-style shoes. Lazily lifting his right hand and flicking it, he said to his mother, “More to the right.”
Two large trunks were open by the fireplace with tissue papers and ornaments spilling out of them. It looked as messy as it had when I was decorating the room.
Linda looked up at me when I walked over. “Hi! Your grandmother said I could do this. It’s just not Christmas without our stockings on the mantel.”
Indeed, she had hung stockings for every member of the Thackleberry family, plus extras for Holmes and his family. The fireplace and mantel were huge, but there were so many stockings that they crowded it.
“That’s a lot to travel with.”
I was thinking about how much it must have cost Linda to fly with trunks of decorations when Blake said, “One of the perks of having a private plane. You won’t believe what they wanted me to pay for an extra suitcase on my commercial flight.”
“I hope you brought some normal clothes,” said Linda without looking at him.
Blake ignored her. “That isn’t the half of her stuff. She has a train set in that blue trunk.”
“I love decorating for the holidays. Rose was telling me about her Christmas village that she didn’t put up this year. She’s bringing it over so I can set it up here!” Linda gazed around. “I don’t know where it should go.”
I di
dn’t, either. “Maybe I can arrange something for you while you’re at dinner tonight. How much space do you need?”
She went into a mind-bending explanation of the myriad ways she could organize the houses. With a hill or mountain, which she liked because we were in the mountains. Or entirely flat. It could start on the floor or be on a table. I was a little bit overwhelmed.
Blake smiled at me smugly, as though he found it all très amusing.
But there was one thing that worried me. “You do realize that cats and dogs run loose here. We can’t be responsible if they break the lovely village pieces.”
“Honey, I’m willing to take that chance. I’ll replace anything they break. We don’t usually stay someplace this nice for the holidays, and I want everything to be perfect.”
“You always bring all this with you?”
“Decorating for the holidays is my joy during the season. Some people like to bake, some love the shopping, I decorate. And let me tell you, we’ve spent it in some spots where the only holiday décor was a head-bobbing Santa and some filthy gray tinsel on the registration desk. Vivienne believes in traveling on the cheap.”
It wasn’t any of my business, but I asked anyway. “What about your parents and siblings? Can’t you make an excuse to celebrate with them?”
Linda closed her eyes for a long second.
Blake answered for her. “We’ve been shunned.”
“Shunned? You’re Amish?”
A grin crept onto Linda’s lips. “No. But none of my relatives want to spend the holidays with us because—” she looked around before whispering “—they’re afraid Vivi will come.”
“She seems—” I searched for a gentle word “—complicated.”
“She’s a shrew and a miser is what she is. The woman cannot be pleased. Dale is the sweetest man you’ll ever meet. None of us have the first clue what he ever saw in her. But we’re not allowed to say a word to her about her boorish behavior because she has a heart condition. Contrary to what one might think, she’s actually quite delicate. But it’s so annoying that she gets away with saying and doing offensive things, and we just have to accept it.” Her eyes widened. “Oh my gosh, here they come. Is there somewhere I can stash these trunks?”
“Sure.” I grabbed one trunk, and she lifted another.
Linda followed me along the corridor to a housekeeping room. “Oh wonderful. It’s not locked. You don’t mind if I sneak in here like a little mouse to do some nighttime decorating, do you?”
“Make yourself at home.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wondered about the wisdom of saying that to her.
When we walked out, Doris stepped off the elevator with Muffy, whose outfit put us all to shame. She wore a green dress decorated with rhinestones and matching green ruffles around her haunches. The ruffles were trimmed in red and glittered when Muffy moved.
Linda took Doris’s arm and strolled with her to join the Thackleberrys.
Shelley headed toward me with a tray of hors d’oeuvres. She handed it to me and pointed to each item as she spoke. “The ones with the white dot on top are blinis with smoked salmon and a dab of crème fraîche. Those are mini flatbread white pizzas, and of course, these on the buns are pulled pork sliders. They’re all canine-friendly. I’ll be back with drinks.”
Gripping the tray, I ventured through the mingling Thackleberrys and offered the selection to Doris, the family matriarch, who now sat comfortably in a French country armchair with Muffy in her lap.
Doris helped herself to a blini, promising Muffy a taste. Muffy did not seem reassured and had no qualms about extending her nose toward the blini. Smiling, Doris broke off a bite and fed it to her.
Tiffany knelt on the floor beside Doris and petted Muffy. “Can I dress up Muffy and walk her in the parade tomorrow?”
Doris was clearly delighted. “I brought a number of outfits for her. Would you like that, Muffy?”
Muffy only had eyes for the blini.
Behind me, I heard Blake speak in a snotty tone. “So where’s this mysterious boyfriend, Tiffany? Shouldn’t he be here by now?”
I presented the tray to Holmes and Norma Jeanne while listening to the chatter.
Tiffany checked her phone and cried out, “Oh no! His flight was canceled. He’s at the airport trying to book another one.”
Blake laughed hysterically. “How convenient. That’s the best you can do? Really, Tiff, you should have broken his leg. That way you wouldn’t have to make up more excuses for your imaginary boyfriend.”
Linda gasped. From her expression I guessed that she hadn’t considered the possibility that Tiffany might have invented a boyfriend. “Honey, I’m sure he can catch another flight.” Unfortunately, the uncertainty in her tone conveyed her doubt.
Tiffany glared at her brother. “He’s very real. Which is more than I can say for you. Who dressed you in that costume?”
I glanced at him when I moved on and realized that his trousers flared out at the hips like riding jodhpurs.
“Those who get their clothes from Frumpy-R-Us are hardly in a position to judge.”
“You mean your hind end is actually that wide?” Tiffany threw right back at him.
Linda seemed oblivious, but I didn’t think it was a coincidence that she changed the focus of the conversation. “Norma Jeanne, will we all be gathering here in the summer for your wedding?”
Eight
Norma Jeanne smiled at Holmes, who seemed uncomfortable to me. “I don’t think so, Aunt Linda. I had a city wedding in mind. And Tiffie will be one of my bridesmaids, won’t you, Tiffie?”
Tiffany appeared surprised but hugged her cousin fiercely. “Of course I will!”
Blake raised his eyebrows and held his head high as though he was expecting an invitation to be a groomsman. None was forthcoming.
A man with a receding hairline plucked a white pizza off my tray. His beard was shot through with silver and kept very short to follow the contours of his face. “Norma Jeanne, I think you ought to consider a Wagtail wedding. It’s beautiful in the summer. You could have it right here at the inn. I bet they host a lot of weddings. You could make a grand entrance on my arm right down that big staircase.”
I gathered he was Norma Jeanne’s father, Barry, who also happened to own the architecture firm Holmes worked for. I’d been told he introduced Holmes to his daughter.
If anyone had asked me, I would have said Holmes was looking a little bit queasy. But maybe that was just my wistful imagination.
Norma Jeanne spoke with the confidence of someone used to getting her way. “Oh, Dad! I really have my heart set on the society wedding of the year. I’ve already picked out one of my dresses.”
Now I thought her dad turned a little green.
“One?” asked her father. “How many do you need?”
“Three. One for the service, one for dinner, and one for dancing. And there’s a wedding planner in Chicago who constructs ceilings out of flowers! Don’t worry, Dad, you’ll feel like you’re in the great outdoors, only it will be even better.”
Her father choked when he said, “A ceiling?”
Doris piped up from her seat. “Everybody makes too much fuss about weddings these days. Your great-grandfather and I were married in the church. My mother sewed my wedding dress by hand, and it’s still the prettiest one I’ve ever seen. Afterward, we all went for lunch at my uncle Stan’s Polish restaurant.”
“Where did you go for your honeymoon, Grammy?” asked Tiffany.
“Niagara Falls. Your great-grandfather and I spent many happy vacations there.”
I was having fun listening to their conversation when I noticed Dale beckoning me from the foot of the grand staircase. I scooted out to him, and he immediately nabbed one of the pizzas.
“Mmm. Delicious. Holly, I have a favor to ask of you. Your grandmother tells me
you’re up late every night helping Santa.” He winked at me and handed me a stack of envelopes. “Could you sneak these into the stockings in the wee hours on Christmas morning?”
“Yes, of course. How did you know there would be stockings?”
“I know my family very well. Linda always hangs stockings. Blake is inherently lazy and complains about everything. Tim will have had too much to drink by now, Barry will do whatever EmmyLou tells him, and Norma Jeanne will always be the socialite drill sergeant. Just watch. You’ll see that I’m right.”
I stashed the envelopes in the lobby desk as fast as I could and was right behind Dale when he strode into the Dogwood Room bellowing, “Ho ho ho!”
“No no no,” chanted Blake. He sighed and his face contorted with disgust.
Dale stared at his grandson for a long moment. He picked up a glass and a spoon and clinked on it. “My lovely family—what a joy it is for me to see you all here together. This has been a most interesting year for me.” He stopped and gazed around at them with a big smile on his face. “In fact, it has been so remarkable that Santa Thackleberry will be bringing each of you a special surprise in your stockings this year.” He raised a finger and placed it beside his nose just like Santa in The Night Before Christmas. “There is magic in the air, my children.”
Norma Jeanne raised her wrist and tapped her diamond watch. “Sorry to interrupt your speech, Gramps, but we don’t want to be late for our dinner reservation.”
They began to collect coats and start for the door.
EmmyLou turned to her husband, Barry. “Would you get my coat and purse from our room?”
He passed me on his way to the stairs.
I overheard Norma Jeanne murmur to Holmes, “You know what will be in my stocking, don’t you?”
Holmes tilted his head.
“A honeymoon in Bali, silly!”
If you asked me, Holmes turned nearly as green as the Grinch.