The Best of Times: A Dicken's Inn Novel

by Stansfield, Anita

  “Okay,” Chas said, breathing deeply, as if she’d just avoided a near collision.

  “What are we talking about?” Jackson asked.

  “It’s been a tradition ever since we opened the inn,” Chas explained. “We had our grand opening at Christmastime right after the renovations were completed. We opened it for tours and served refreshments, and it helped get the business off the ground. After that, people around town started asking if we were going to do it again because they had such a good time, so we made it a tradition.”

  “With the house already decorated,” Polly said, “all we really need to take care of are the refreshments, right?”

  “Right,” Chas said.

  “And Charlotte will be doing most of that, right?”

  “Right,” she said again.

  “And we’ll all just pitch in to help that day, and we can all play waiter that evening, and we’ll help clean up. It’s not a big deal.”

  “I can do that,” Jackson said proudly.

  “Do what?” Chas and Polly both asked at the same time.

  “Be a waiter. I went undercover as a waiter once.”

  “Really?” Chas said, and Polly laughed.

  “It’s not funny,” Jackson said, pretending to be offended. “I was very good at it.”

  “That’s pretty cool,” Polly said. “What else have you learned to be for secret missions?”

  “It was not a secret mission; it was just a little undercover work.”

  “Whatever your FBI definition might be,” Polly said, “it sounds secret to me. What else did you do?”

  “Oh, exciting stuff,” Jackson said. “Janitor, pest control, bartender, store clerk a few times. But the most exciting was ticket taker at a theater.”

  “That’s hilarious,” Polly said.

  “So, how often do we encounter FBI agents passing themselves off as normal people?” Chas asked.

  “Rarely if ever, I’m sure,” Jackson said. “Did you just say I wasn’t normal?”

  “Ordinary,” she corrected. “I meant ordinary.” She took his hand. “You are far from ordinary.”

  He made a disgruntled noise, then insisted on being present while the women discussed the open house and their plans. He was pleased when there was actually something he could do to help, and that Chas was willing to let him do it. The next day he was given a list of errands and a list of things to get at the grocery store. He was glad to see Chas keeping busy with something that kept her from thinking too much about Granny’s absence, although she still spent far too much time just sitting or resting in Granny’s room.

  “Maybe you should just move into this room,” he said that evening when he found her there again. “It’s bigger than yours, and you spend more time here anyway.”

  “Maybe I will,” she said and changed the subject.

  The following day was very busy, but Chas was relieved to see how smoothly everything came together with the help of her friends. When guests started arriving, she was amazed to see that Jackson had been serious. He had no trouble being completely comfortable with inviting people to look through the house, and answering questions about it. And he was often seen carrying around trays with food, or making certain the punch bowl remained full. She wandered around, mingling with guests, some of whom she knew and some of whom she did not. The scented candles that were burning throughout the house, along with the soft Christmas music playing in the background, gave her a sense of anticipation for the holiday that she hadn’t felt since Granny had left her. She also loved the chatter of people having fun in her home, and realized that she loved this tradition as much as, if not more than, anybody else.

  “You’re pretty good at this,” she said to Jackson during a quiet moment while they hovered where refreshments were set out on the sideboard in the dining room. “Maybe I should hire you.”

  “You can’t afford me,” he said and chuckled. “Maybe you should just marry me.”

  “Is that a proposal?” she asked.

  “It’s a wish,” he said and kissed her quickly before he went back to work.

  After the last guests had left the inn, Chas found Jackson in the kitchen, wearing one of her aprons folded down and tied around his waist. He was washing the baking sheets that Charlotte had used to bring her variety of baked delicacies, while Polly and Charlotte were packaging the majority of the leftover food for the freezer. Jen and Michelle were combing the house for stray garbage and dishes and making certain all was in order.

  “Thank you,” she said, sidling up next to Jackson with a clean dish towel that she used to dry the pan he’d just washed.

  “A pleasure,” he said and kept washing.

  “Did you go undercover as a dishwasher?”

  “Yes, actually, but it only lasted a few hours.”

  “What a relief for you,” she said, and he laughed.

  With the open house behind them, the holiday was fast approaching, and Chas put all her efforts into creating the best possible celebration. She missed Granny every hour of every day, but she found strength in imagining her close by, observing all the preparations with a sparkle in her eye and a smile on her face. During the moments when she felt tempted to grieve over Granny’s absence during this most precious time of year, Chas turned her thoughts instead to Jackson. Having him in her life didn’t replace her grandmother’s presence in her home, but his being here for the holidays gave her more to look forward to. His company assuaged her sadness and made her losses more bearable.

  The countdown to Christmas began with a day in the kitchen, where everyone was involved. Chas always purposely scheduled this day on a Monday or Tuesday when there were few if any guests at the inn. There was only one couple staying in the Carol on Tuesday evening, and there were no guests on Monday, so there was no one to take care of Tuesday morning. As always, Chas had scented candles burning and Christmas music playing quietly. She considered that creating the perfect atmosphere was one of her gifts, and she took it very seriously. Charlotte always supervised the baking projects, giving her children special assignments, and Chas supervised the making of fudge and caramels and chocolate-covered pretzels. Polly was patient about stirring candy that had to get to the perfect temperature, and the children were mostly occupied by cutting out batch after batch of sugar cookies. Chas loved watching Jackson. He was wearing one of her aprons, guiding the children, and covering himself with flour. At moments it seemed he had a great deal of experience with children and was perfectly patient with them; at others he seemed like a child himself, and she wondered what his Christmases had been like when he was young.

  By suppertime phase one was completed, and the countertops in the kitchen were covered with a variety of candies and baked treats, waiting for the finishing touches to be done during phase two on the following day. They ordered pizza for supper and worked together to wash all of the dishes and put everything in order before it arrived. After they’d eaten, they all gathered in front of the TV to watch a Christmas movie while they strung popcorn and cranberries, which were added to the already-decorated Christmas tree for a homey effect.

  After Charlotte and her children had left and Polly had gone to her room to read, Chas and Jackson sat near the Christmas tree, holding hands while they looked into the flames of a fire that he had kept burning throughout the evening. Chas took the opportunity to ask him something she’d been wondering all day. “Tell me what Christmas was like when you were a child.”

  He made a disgusted noise. “If you want the day to remain cheerful, we shouldn’t talk about that.”

  “Was it really that bad?” she asked.

  “It really was,” he said. “My mother tried; I’ll give her credit for that. But a holiday was just another excuse for my father to be drunk, and since he spent all of his money on booze, there wasn’t much money for anything else. Enough said. What was Christmas like when you were a child?”

  “Almost like today,” she said. “Granny taught me and Charlotte everything we k
now. Until the house was renovated, some of it was in pretty bad shape, but it always felt like home. Granny loved Christmas and worked hard to make it wonderful, even if there wasn’t a lot of money.”

  “You live her legacy well, then.”

  “I try,” she said and got a little sniffly. “I miss her.”

  “I miss her too,” he said. “I can’t imagine how much you must miss her.”

  “Having you here helps,” she said. “I’m grateful for that.”

  He kissed her hand. “I’m grateful too,” he said and smiled.

  The following morning, Charlotte and the kids arrived after breakfast, and they all spent the day frosting and decorating cookies with artful details. The kids made a glorious mess with the different colors of frosting and the variety of sprinkles and decorations. After lunch, having given the cookies time to dry, lovely gift plates were assembled with some of everything they had made. And everyone sampled a little bit of everything, along with hot chocolate, just to make sure it all was good enough to share. That evening they went caroling and distributed the goody plates to many friends and neighbors and people that Chas went to church with.

  The next day Chas and Jackson watched Logan and Karlee while their mother did some errands and finished her Christmas shopping. They decided to build a snow fort in the backyard, and had a great snowball war, boys against the girls. They had to really bundle up because it was so cold outside, but after the girls won, they went inside for hot chocolate by the fire and another sampling of Christmas goodies. That evening, after the children were gone, Chas and Jackson shared a nice dinner with Polly, then they all watched another Christmas movie. They had to pause it twice for carolers that came to the door with music and home-baked offerings, but then they had different goodies to sample during the rest of the film. Chas kept Jackson’s hand in hers as much as possible, silently thanking God at regular intervals for bringing him into her life and for allowing him to stay through the holidays. She simply pushed away any thought of his inevitably having to go when the new year came.

  The following morning Jackson went into town in search of the perfect gift for less than ten dollars. The only good thing about his shopping excursion was how much he thought of Chas and how she’d warmed his life while he looked with apparent futility for something that would be appropriate. He had to go home for lunch, since he knew Chas was expecting him, then he went out again, being purposely vague, even though he knew that she knew what he was up to.

  He did find some simple gifts for his mother and sister that he mailed off while he was out, and some silly ones for Charlotte and Polly that were cheap and meaningless but would provoke a good laugh. He enjoyed finding something for the children, since kids were easy to buy for and he’d gotten to know Logan and Karlee well enough that he could get them gifts that were not ostentatious or presumptuous, but would still be fun. Still he struggled to find something for Chas, but when he did find it, he knew it was perfect. The little porcelain statue of an angel had a Victorian look to it, and for some strange reason it reminded him of Granny. He held his breath and looked at the price, thinking he would cheat if it was beyond the limit. $9.99. Perfect! He had it wrapped so that there was no chance of Chas seeing it before Christmas, then he took all of his purchases back to the inn. When he came in the back door, he became aware of Chas in the parlor visiting with some women. He took his things upstairs, including the wrapping paper he’d purchased, and wrapped the gifts. When he saw from the window that the ladies were leaving, he took his wrapped packages downstairs and put them under the tree, loving Chas’s curiosity as she read the tags.

  “Who was here?” he asked.

  “My visiting teachers,” she said, and he responded with silent confusion. “Like home teachers, only it’s women visiting women. You know how we women need someone to talk to.”

  “Yes, I do know that,” he said with a chuckle, then he noticed a very large package beside the tree with a tag that indicated it was for him from Chas.

  “That cost less than ten dollars?”

  “It did,” she said proudly.

  “Can I get it in my luggage when I leave?”

  “If you can’t, you might have to leave it here . . . and then you’ll have to come back and get it.” She let out a mischievous chuckle. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “This isn’t one of those tiny little gifts with lots and lots of packing is it?” he asked, and she just laughed. He silenced her laughter with a kiss and refused to think about the day he would have to go back to Virginia without her.

  Amidst the Christmas preparations, while Chas was busy doing other things, Jackson took note of some minor repairs that needed to be done around the inn. He went into town and found the hardware and other materials he needed, then he took it upon himself to fix two slightly dripping faucets, some broken baseboards in the hall, and a cupboard door in the kitchen. He replaced some light bulbs that required a ladder in order to reach them, and some that didn’t. And he kept shoveling snow from the walks and steps whenever it fell; with the series of storms they were having, that was almost daily. Chas was ridiculously grateful for his efforts, and told him more than once that she was impressed with his handyman skills. He told her it was the only thing he’d gotten from his father that was of any value. The man could fix anything, and Jackson hadn’t hired anyone to do a repair on his behalf in all his adult life. Chas told him he’d make a perfect innkeeper. He agreed and kissed her, and they both ignored the uncertainty of whether or not that would ever come to pass.

  On Sunday they went to church together, where they enjoyed a lovely Christmas program during sacrament meeting. Jackson went to Sunday School with Chas, and then Ron, one of her home teachers, invited him to come to priesthood meeting with him while Chas went to Relief Society. Jackson gave her a glance that was somewhere between amused and panicked, but he said to Ron, “I’d love to. Thank you.” At least he liked Ron; that was a good thing. Chas prayed that it would go well, then focused on the Relief Society lesson. Afterward, Jackson made no comment beyond, “It was fine.” She just left it at that and thanked him for going to church with her.

  The last night of the year that Chas kept the inn open was December 23. The final guests left the morning of the twenty-fourth, and the remainder of the day was spent preparing for tomorrow’s great Christmas feast and putting together some charity baskets that would be delivered secretly after dark to some struggling families in town. They wrapped gifts and sorted food according to lists that Chas had been compiling and planning for days. Charlotte and the kids came over for supper, and they all enjoyed soup and cornbread and a Jell-O salad layered in white, red, and green. After they had eaten supper and cleaned up the dishes, they made their deliveries and were successful at not getting caught. Charlotte took her kids home to try to get them to bed, and Polly made popcorn so the three of them could watch It’s a Wonderful Life before they went to bed themselves. Chas cried at the end of the movie, then she had trouble stopping when she was struck with a wave of missing Granny so much that it hurt. But Jackson allowed her to use his shoulder and offered words of comfort and assurance while she got it out of her system. They finally kissed goodnight at the foot of the stairs, and the next morning they awoke to falling snow. Chas fixed waffles and bacon for breakfast while Jackson went out for his run in spite of the weather. Then they sat to eat with Polly, and Jackson teased her and Chas for wearing funny flannel pajamas.

  “Oh, we’ll be in them all day,” Polly said. “It’s tradition.”

  “I see,” Jackson said and chuckled.

  A little while later Charlotte and her kids showed up, all wearing funny flannel pajamas. “I would have gotten you some,” Chas said to Jackson, “but it was over the ten-dollar limit.”

  “How tragic,” he said with sarcasm.

  Karlee and Logan had obviously been up very early and had already opened their Christmas gifts at home. They eagerly showed Jackson, Chas, and Polly what S
anta had brought them before the group all gathered in the parlor to open the gifts under the tree—except that the one Chas was giving to Jackson wouldn’t fit under the tree.

  The gifts were all a big hit, and Jackson enjoyed the silly gifts that Polly, Charlotte, and the children gave him. He assured them that a pair of Christmas socks with reindeer on them and a tie with Charles Dickens on it were exactly what he’d always wanted. The ten-dollar gifts that Chas and Jackson exchanged were saved until last, and he noted how Polly and Charlotte seemed to magically distract the children and usher them from the room when it came time to open them.

  “They thought we might like a private, romantic moment,” Chas said to him.

  Jackson glanced at the huge box with his name on it. “Is that meant to be romantic?”

  “Use your imagination,” she said.

  “Okay, but you go first,” he insisted and handed her the beautifully wrapped package. “It was wrapped at the store,” he said, as if she might not know. “I could never do something like that with a bow.”

  “It’s lovely,” she said and removed the tag. “But I like this part better.” She held it up, pointing to how he’d written, To Chas, with all my love for Christmas, Jackson. “I’m going to save it forever.”

  “You do that. Just open the present.”

  He wasn’t disappointed by her reaction, and he didn’t even have to explain it. She took one look at the little angel statue and said, “It’s Granny.”

  She got tears in her eyes and cooed over it, declaring that she would put it in her bedroom to watch over her always. Then she put Jackson to work opening the huge gift. And sure enough, it was a package, inside of a package, inside of a package. They laughed together as he kept unloading wads of newspaper and other packing materials only to find another wrapped gift, and another. When he finally came to a small box that was wrapped with more care and beauty than the others, she put her hand over his so he would hesitate. “I have to explain,” she said. “I didn’t actually go out and buy this. It’s something I came across in a drawer last week; something we used to sell here at the inn, and yes, it sold for $9.95. I actually had some made especially for the inn as a marketing thing at one time, but this was the only one left. I knew it was perfect, so I hope that’s okay.”