by Debbie Mason
But she’d promised Glamma when they’d spoken this morning that she’d come. They couldn’t talk for long. Supposedly her mother had become tightfisted, at least where long-distance phone calls were concerned. Arianna planned to send a cell phone to her grandmother and put her on her plan. At least they could talk without her mother monitoring their phone calls. Then Arianna would know for sure if Glamma really wanted to be there.
She took off her coat and glanced at the lone spare hanger on one of the many metal coatracks that lined the hall. She was glad no one was around because hanging a coat on a hanger wasn’t as easy as everyone thought. Stretching up on her toes, she tossed her coat over the top of the rack. Self-consciously, she tugged the sleeve of her sweater over her compression bandage and then took a restorative breath before following the noise to the double doors.
The smile she’d pasted on her face faltered when she entered the packed and overheated room. And it wasn’t only a case of nerves that caused the smile to fall from her face. It was the fact that everyone seated at the tables looked like they were almost finished with their meal. She looked around to see if it was just at this end of the room. It wasn’t. Anger vanquished what was left of her nerves, and she marched to where the volunteers were now preparing to serve dessert.
“Hey, partner, nice hat. Where have you been? We were getting worried about you,” Connor said, giving her one of his panty-melting grins. He wore a chef’s hat and an apron over a white shirt and jeans, which should have ensured he looked like an idiot and all panties stayed firmly in place. Instead, he looked delicious. Clearly her anger was making her delirious. But if he thought the grin would work on her and she’d forgive him, he was oh so wrong.
“Sorry I’m late, Evie,” she said to the dark-haired woman a few places down from Connor. “Someone put the wrong time on my calendar.”
“Really? The time was right on mine. I actually got here an hour early. I helped with the setup, didn’t I, Evie?” Connor said, holding Arianna’s gaze.
“Yes, and you were a big help, Connor,” Evie said, offering Arianna a smile. “Don’t worry about it. Grab an apron and—”
“Get over here, partner. There’s lots of room beside me. I’ll show you how it’s done.” Connor winked, gesturing to the pumpkin pies in front of him.
“There’s a reason why there’s room beside him, Arianna. He’s a little aggressive with the pie knife. You’re probably safer down here with us,” Sean called from the other end of the long line of tables.
“I should be okay, thanks. And I need a word with my partner.”
“Maybe it’s you who should be careful, son. Those sounded like fighting words to me.” Sean chuckled.
“No worries. I’m armed and dangerously sweet and tasty.” Connor held up a can of whipped cream and waggled his eyebrows at her as she came around the table, drawing laughter and groans from the other servers.
Arianna gave him a look and then moved in beside him. “I’m onto you, partner,” she said out of the side of her mouth.
“Come on, you don’t really think I’d put the wrong time on your calendar, do you?” he said as he put down the can and turned to get an apron off one of the carts behind him.
“It’s more your mother’s style, but I wouldn’t put it past you.” She shivered when his warm hand curved around the nape of her neck. “You would do anything to win, and don’t bother denying it.”
“As long as it was legal and didn’t hurt anyone, you’re right. I would. Now put your hand here so I can tie your apron,” he said, holding her hair against her head.
She did as he asked, a little startled when, after he knotted the ties at her neck, he reached around her waist. “It’s okay. I can do it.”
His head dipped, his lips grazing her ear. “You forget I share an office with you.” He finished tying the bow at her waist and then straightened, smiling down at her. “I can’t believe you wore that thing,” he said, and flicked the paper turkey’s head.
“I promised George.”
“See. You proved my point. You don’t hate kids. You love them. Just like you don’t hate dogs. Here.” He took out his phone, and before she could stop him, he took a picture. He looked down at the screen and laughed. “We need to take another one. You look like you’re planning to murder someone.”
“I am. You.”
“You know what they say: Hate is just love in disguise.”
She thought it was a good thing his phone pinged as the last word left his mouth, drawing his attention to the screen instead of her. Because she was afraid her expression might give too much away.
“George thinks you look great in the hat. She says if the Gazette takes a picture of you to let them know she made it. The kid’s something else,” he said with a grin, looking down when there was another ping. “What did you name your dog? She has a bet with her friends. And here’s a hint—because, from the look on your face, I can tell you haven’t named him yet—they think you’ll go with a Christmassy name since he was obviously an early Christmas present.”
Mrs. Ranger had been unable to babysit the puppy yesterday, so Arianna had taken him to work with her. He’d been a hit with the youngest generation of Gallaghers, every last one of them, and there were quite a few. Arianna was just happy he hadn’t bitten anybody. Truth be told, she was quite proud of how he’d behaved. He did have some adorable moments.
“Of course he has a name.” She lied because when she’d called the dog dog during the Gallagher-clan visit yesterday and they’d discovered the puppy didn’t have a name, they had been horrified. “It’s…Humbug,” she said, drawing a pumpkin pie toward her. She glanced down the table to see what size slices everyone was cutting.
“So what, that makes you the Grinch?” Connor asked.
“It does.” And without her grandmother here and with the year she’d had, Arianna thought it apropos.
“I don’t believe you. Just like I don’t believe you don’t like kids and dogs.” He leaned in to her. “Just like I don’t believe you don’t lo—like me.”
She pretended she didn’t hear him and picked up the knife with her left hand. After several months of it, using the wrong hand to cut was beginning to feel normal. Except she needed her other hand to hold the pie plate.
Connor took the knife and plate from her. “Sorry. I don’t trust you with a knife,” he said, surprising her by letting her lack of response to his lo—like comment go.
Lately he seemed to be all about pushing her buttons, and he’d just pushed the biggest button of all. No matter how much he drove her crazy, she couldn’t deny she still had feelings for him. Given the way the majority of women in town responded to him, she should probably cut herself some slack. The man was easy to fall for; it was falling out of love with him that was hard.
“All right, if you had your heart set on being the pie cutter on our team, I’ll be the plater and the whipped creamer.”
He must have mistaken the expression on her face as disappointment that he’d taken the knife from her. Well, it wasn’t like she planned to correct him, at least about that. “Those aren’t even words, and we’re not partners or a team. We’re opponents, competitors.”
“You’re looking at it all wrong. Sure, we’re both going after the same job. But right now our mandate is to repair the rift our campaigns created in town. By working together, working through our differences, we’ll show the people of Harmony Harbor that they can too. Events like this one are perfect. They bring people together. There’s proof.” He pointed the can of whipped cream at the table across from them. “It took four people to pull those two off each other at the last protest march on Main Street, and now they’re breaking bread together.”
“Actually, I think they’re fighting over the last bun.”
He grinned. “Still, you have to admit it’s a major improvement over beating each other senseless with our campaign signs.”
“Well, Thanksgiving is pretty much over, so—”
&nb
sp; “Babe, we have the biggest, bestest almost-month-long event of all time just around the corner—Christmas.”
“Bah humbug.”
Chapter Twenty
Nine days later, on a snowy Saturday night, Arianna was having a hard time keeping up her Grinch persona.
“Was that an ooh or an aah?” Connor asked as he tucked the white furry blanket around her and her puppy (now known as Comet, thanks to George and her cousins) in the back of the horse-drawn carriage. They were the grand marshals of Harmony Harbor’s holiday parade.
“You have to admit Julia’s window display is pretty spectacular,” Arianna said, waving to the crowd gathered along Main Street. The owner of Books and Beans had outdone herself this year. She’d re-created the ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast. The loudspeaker piped “Tale as Old as Time” onto the street. Last year Julia had taken over the parade and added her own magical touch, ensuring the local businesses were more prominently featured than ever before. As the floats rolled up Main Street, each of the stores lit up with a wave of the grand marshal’s wand.
Connor laughed. “Yeah, Aidan makes a great Beast.” He made a give me gesture with his fingers. “It’s my turn to wave the wand.”
“You’ve had twice as many turns as me.”
“Fine. We’ll wave it together.” He wrapped his hand around hers and made an elaborate arc before pointing the wand at Holiday House. As if by magic, the shop lit up with pink, green, and yellow lights, and the crisp night air filled with the sounds of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” The front door opened, and children dressed as elves flooded onto the sidewalk to hand out candy canes. “How about two for your mayors?” he called to the elves.
They were immediately showered with candy canes. Arianna ducked, covering her head. “Maybe you should have pointed to one elf.”
“No way. This is awesome,” Connor said, sticking a candy cane in his mouth and stuffing the others in his pockets—before Comet could eat one, she assumed. “Aren’t you going to compliment me on saying ‘mayors’ instead of ‘mayor’?”
“Uh, no. It’s about time it sank in that you’re not the only one—” She sighed as they passed the burned-out buildings. “You’re trying to distract me, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “You were having fun. I didn’t want the memories of that night to spoil this one.”
“I appreciate the thought, but I’m honestly much better. I’m at Holiday House at least a couple times a week, working with Evie on our proposals for the community center. We’re presenting them to the council next week.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “Surprised you, didn’t I? You’re not the only one who wants to make a difference in Harmony Harbor, you know.”
“That’s great. Tell me—”
“Wave the wand!” people yelled from either side of the street. Connor looked around. “We’re falling down on the job.” He stood up and moved the wand like a conductor leading his orchestra. All around them the darkened storefronts lit up, and the carols rang out in discordant notes on the street.
“You’re fired!” his brother Michael called from farther down the road.
Connor waved the wand like he was throwing a football in the pub’s direction at the same time the carriage hit a rut in the road, throwing him off-balance. He lurched forward, and Arianna lunged, grabbing the back of his coat. She jostled Comet, who’d been buried under the blankets half-asleep, and he started barking. Which must have spooked the horses, because they took off.
“Hang on!” the driver yelled, trying to get the horses under control.
“I wanted to hold on to you all night, but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Connor said, his arms wrapped tightly around both her and Comet, who was squashed between them. Comet didn’t seem to mind; he’d stopped barking at least. “Thanks for saving me, by the way. I should probably kiss you in case we don’t survive this wild ride.”
“Connor, we haven’t been on a wild ride since about half a minute after it started.” She laughed at his genuine look of surprise.
“Seriously?” he said.
“Just kiss the girl,” Charlie Angel yelled. He stood outside the Salty Dog wearing a pirate’s costume.
Connor pointed the wand over his shoulder, and scenes from The Little Mermaid began playing across the front of the pub, with the song “Kiss the Girl” coming through the speakers.
“I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a sign,” Connor said.
Arianna angled her head to the side. “Is that Cherry dressed as Ariel?” Connor glanced over his shoulder. “In the canoe in front of the pub,” she told him.
“Yep, and if that big guy gets in with her, they’re going to end up on the sidewalk.” He leaned over to tap the driver on the shoulder. “Can you stop at the harbor front? Thanks,” he said when the older man nodded. “We’ll stand up and wave the wand together.”
The boats in the harbor were also decorated with Christmas lights. Once Connor and Arianna waved the wand, the boats would light up and fireworks would illuminate the night sky, signaling the end of the parade.
Connor looked down at Comet. “We should probably put the blanket over him so he doesn’t bark. We don’t want to end up in the harbor. Grams will never forgive us if we don’t get to the manor on time.”
“I wasn’t planning on going back to the manor, Connor. I have to work on the proposals tonight.”
“You have to come to the manor. We’re playing Mr. and Mrs. Claus.”
“You can’t be serious?”
* * *
Colleen sent a book sailing across Kitty’s suite in the manor’s tower, hitting her grandson on the behind.
“Bloody hell,” Daniel yelped from where he knelt on the floor with his head under his mother’s bed, searching for Colleen’s memoir. He pulled his head out to look around the room. “Nothing but dust bunnies under there,” he said, retrieving the book Colleen had thrown.
Rubbing his behind with his free hand, he stood and put the book on the bed and then walked to the desk he’d searched earlier to no avail. He didn’t realize that Jasper had recently moved her memoir from the locked drawer in the desk to a safe behind the landscape on the wall. Jasper had moved it after Colleen’s failed attempts to get in the drawer had resulted in her spilling a cup of tea on important papers.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Colleen murmured when her grandson reached for the painting hanging on the wall above the desk. She focused on the two books on the coffee table in the sitting area. Once they were hovering in midair, she sent a blast of mental energy at them. One after another, they smacked Daniel on the back of his head. He dropped to his knees, covering his head like he was under attack. He stayed that way for several minutes before slowly lowering his arms to look around, his face pale. Staggering to his feet, he hightailed it out of the room.
Following after him, Colleen chuckled when he closed the door behind him, muttering, “The room’s bloody haunted. The damn book isn’t worth getting myself killed for. There’s probably nothing of value in it anyway.” He walked off, casting a nervous glance back at the room while rubbing his head.
“My ghostercising paid off, Simon,” Colleen told her sidekick when he joined her on her walk to the great room. “Now that I’ve taken care of Daniel, we can enjoy a stress-free Christmas party.”
After the local Santa Claus parade, the doors to the manor would be opened wide to welcome the paradegoers with hot chocolate and cookies, a special appearance by the Widows Club carolers, and a visit with the jolly old elf himself.
“Do you realize, Simon, that this will be the first drama-free Christmas season we’ve had in two years? Last year was even worse than the year before, although it turned out well in the end. But it’ll be a real treat to get into the spirit of the holidays without a looming disaster hanging over our heads.”
Simon gave her the side-eye and a you’re tempting fate meow.
“Oh, go on with you. Daniel might sulk a bit, but he’s given up o
n the book and causing trouble for Arianna and Connor. And those two, from what I’ve heard, are one step closer to their happily-ever-after.”
That got her another tempting-fate meow.
“I admit, it doesn’t look good with them on opposing sides, but they’re working hard to bring the town together. And they might not know it yet, but it’s also bringing them closer together. It’s just a matter of time before Arianna brings Connor around to her vision for Main Street.”
Simon parked himself in front of Colleen and cocked his head to the side. If he were a person, she’d no doubt be getting a pursed-lip look. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
He responded with one of his you can’t be serious meows.
Colleen had no idea what he was going on about, but she was quite impressed with how well she’d come to read his… “Bejaysus, you’re right. I was so wrapped up in their romance, I forgot what was at stake. If Arianna brings Connor over to her side, Daniel has too much to lose to sit on the sidelines. And if Connor brings her over to his, Caine Elliot is one step closer to razing the manor. Except I’m as canny as the lad and outmaneuvered him. All we have left of my great-grandchildren to get on to Save Team Greystone are…Daniel’s daughters.”
She sighed. She didn’t need to overtax her brain to know which way they’d vote. They’d barely spent any time at the manor with Colleen and the family. Still, she’d added a codicil to her will that just might turn the tide in the manor’s favor. “Don’t bother with any more of your smarty-pants meows. I know very well the fix we might be in, but I refuse to let it ruin my day.”
She floated from the top of the second floor down the grand staircase with a smile forming on her lips. Boughs of cedar were draped on the banisters and decorated with trailing gold bows and fruit. Gold pots of poinsettias graced either side of the red runner. In the great room with its soaring ceilings, there was a roaring fire in the stone fireplace, beside which stood an elegant eighteen-foot tree decorated in white lights with red and gold balls and ribbons. In front of the tree sat a red velvet wingback chair waiting for Santa.