Hope at Christmas

by Nancy Naigle

  And maybe he’d be right, but this wasn’t his decision.

  Eventually she’d have to discuss it with RayAnne if it really looked like an option, but they hadn’t been in Hopewell very long. Could they even make this decision right now?

  RayAnne came back into the living room with a bowl of milk and a box of cereal. “Can I turn on the TV?”

  “Sure.”

  “How do you just sit here in the quiet?” RayAnne lifted the remote and aimed it, filling the room with her favorite morning show.

  Unlike a lot of kids RayAnne’s age, her daughter chose to watch a morning show for adults. The mixture of current events, news, weather, and entertainment kept her young daughter informed and gave her the chance to form her own opinions, apart from what Sydney shared. Of course, it also made for some interesting questions.

  “My favorite song!” RayAnne leapt from the couch and got closer to the big screen.

  The country singer filled the screen, nearly life size in their living room since Sydney had let RayAnne pick out the television. Sixty-five inches was the biggest they’d had and thank goodness this front room was so big. It was like a theatre in here.

  RayAnne danced around the room to the popular song. There went Sydney’s calm and balanced morning.

  Rather than let it bother her, Sydney rolled with the moment. Flinging her quilt to the side, she danced alongside RayAnne to the upbeat country tune that was really just a remix of a song she’d grown up on.

  “You know all the words, Mom!”

  “I’m just too cool,” Sydney said. A few energetic steps in the morning never hurt anyone.

  With the last beat of the drum they both dropped to the couch. “That was crazy,” RayAnne said, half out of breath.

  “It was. Now eat up so we can hit the road. Don’t want you to be late for school.”

  RayAnne grabbed her bowl and started shoveling spoonfuls of cereal into her mouth as she tromped up the stairs.

  Far from ladylike, but she wouldn’t change a thing about her wonderfully unique daughter. RayAnne was the best thing Sydney could have ever done in her life.

  Chapter Nine

  Sydney dropped RayAnne off at school and then drove over to Main Street and parked in front of Cookie Doe. As soon as she opened the car door the air smelled of spicy gingerbread.

  A man exiting the bakery with a cardboard box held the door for her. She slipped inside, eyeing the full case as she approached the counter.

  “Good morning,” the man behind the counter said. “You’re back. I must be doing something right.” He straightened his apron.

  “Everything I’ve had has been good. I’d say you’re doing it all right. I thought I’d pick up something to go with our morning tea down at the bookstore. What do you recommend?”

  “First, I think we should introduce ourselves. I’m Dan. My wife Cookie is the one who does all the baking.”

  “Nice to meet you, Dan. I’m Sydney. I’m helping out down at The Book Bea through the holidays.”

  “I heard. Welcome to Hopewell.” He rubbed his hands together and glanced into the case. “So, today, I recommend the scones. Fresh cranberry-orange with a citrusy drizzle on top.”

  “That does sound good. I’ll take two.”

  He grabbed a pair of long-handled tongs and gently pulled two scones out of the case, then slid them into a white bag.

  She pulled out her wallet.

  “This one is on us. You’ll have to come one afternoon so you can meet Cookie. She gets up in the middle of the night and does most of the prep and baking. I run the place in the daytime, but I know she’d love to meet you.”

  “Thanks, Dan. I’ll do that.”

  With the bag in hand, she walked outside and hitched the collar of her jacket up around her neck.

  She looked for RayAnne’s bike in the window at Wheelies. It really was a pretty bicycle. When she’d been RayAnne’s age all she’d had was her brother’s hand-me-down mountain bike. She’d ask Bea to make one of her famous big bows to put on it for Christmas.

  Wes had decorated Wheelies’ window with wreaths hanging at different levels on long pieces of shiny bicycle chain. Each one was made out of a different size bike wheel or sprocket with sparkly ribbon and evergreen sprigs woven into its design.

  The Book Bea was still dark when she got there, but it was early and that would give her time to brew tea before Bea arrived.

  She let herself inside and turned the sign to OPEN. Bea’s tradition of being open anytime she was there seemed like a good one. Why miss a sale just because of the time of day if she was there anyway?

  Lights on, tea brewed, coffee made, and six Christmas CDs loaded into the stereo brought the place back to life again. At five minutes to nine the timer for the Christmas lights in the front window came on.

  Even Monday morning seemed appealing here.

  She stepped behind the counter and pre-cut several sheets of shiny wrapping paper about the right size for a book. That would save time when they were busy.

  Her cell phone chimed. Diane was going to stop by later. Things felt so right.

  The door chimes jingled. Her first customer of the day. She looked up to see the mayor walking toward her. “Good morning, Mayor. What can I do for you?”

  “I’m so glad you’re open early today. My wife saw that pop-up book in the display window and says we have to have one for the grandkids. Please tell me you have some left.”

  “Just so happens I do. I’ll even wrap it for you.” By the time the mayor walked out she had two more customers. The morning was busy and she felt like she was at the top of her game for a change, but she hadn’t heard anything from Bea yet.

  By eleven o’clock she was more than a little worried about Bea. Why hadn’t she at least called? Sydney hadn’t thought to ask Bea for her home phone number. She riffled through the papers at the counter, then in the office for something with a phone number on it. Sydney found an old set of loan papers that had an address and phone number on them. She dialed Bea, who finally answered on the fifth ring.

  “Hi Bea, it’s Sydney. I was worried. Is everything okay?”

  “Oh goodness. I meant to just lie down for a moment. I’m so sorry.” Bea’s voice was heavy and slow. “I must’ve fallen asleep.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’ve got everything under control here. I just wanted to be sure there wasn’t something wrong.”

  “I’m okay, dear. I can’t believe I let you down.”

  “Don’t you worry. I’m here to help however you need me to. I opened up and we’ve had a really good morning. Even sold a couple more pop-up books because of the window display.”

  “Oh, Sydney. You are my angel. I knew someone would come along that would make things right. It was you all along. I’m so glad you came to Hopewell. Thank you.”

  “I’m excited we’re having such a good morning after our jackpot day yesterday.”

  “I think The Book Bea is going to outlast me,” Bea said sounding more awake and cheerful.

  “Don’t say that. Can I bring you something? What can I do?”

  “You’re doing it,” Bea said. “You’re such a help. I don’t know how I thought I’d manage through the holidays.”

  “That’s why you hired me. I’ll help you. I want to do more than that. I want to help you keep the The Book Bea open indefinitely.”

  Silence.

  “Are you okay?” Had she offended Bea? Maybe Bea didn’t want to sell the store to her after all. Had she just been polite yesterday?

  A quiet sniffle came across the line. “You are exactly what I’ve prayed for Sydney. You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you say that. The right path is always there. That store has been mine. So pay attention.”

  Sydney hugged the phone tighter. The Book Bea felt like her true path.

  “Sydney, I believe your future has found you here in Hopewell.”

  A swirl in Sydney’s chest made her wonder if her heart had skipped a beat. “Bea, h
ow will I really know when my future has found me? What if I choose the wrong path? What if moving RayAnne away from Jon was a bad idea?”

  “Honey, your path will present itself. That’s the way it works. You only have to be open to accepting it when it comes.”

  “Things just got crazy in Georgia. I kind of ran away from that situation rather than deal with it straight on. I’m not sure running away qualifies as finding your path.”

  “Sometimes that’s the best we can do. It’s going to be okay. You’re on a good path.” Bea spoke in a hushed tone. “Trust me, my angel. And what better time of year than Christmas for magical things to happen, and wishes to come true?”

  This is really going to happen. Her hopeful heart pounded. She swallowed back the excitement. Until they talked money she didn’t dare get her hopes up. She needed to stay calm, and be practical.

  The front door opened, and another customer walked in. “We’ve got more customers. I’ll check in on you later.”

  “I’ll get myself together and be there soon. I really am sorry about this.”

  “Oh, Bea. It’s no trouble at all. Stay home and rest. I’ve got this completely under control. I’ll even call at the end of the day with all of the numbers and we can go over the ledger together in the morning if you’re up to it.” Bea didn’t argue, so Sydney took that as a win. “Get some rest.” Sydney hung up and went to help a customer who was balancing a hand basket and an armful of books. “Let me help you with that.”

  As soon as the customers cleared out Diane walked in. “What a morning. I meant to pop in on you early this morning.”

  “That’s fine. Everything okay?”

  “Oh yeah, Tony had a customer’s car towed in from the interstate. Young college gal on her way up to Virginia to be with her folks. But it’s not a quick fix. He called to see if I could give her a lift to the hotel.”

  “That was nice of you.”

  “Least we could do. Wouldn’t it be awful to be stranded in a strange town?”

  Sydney felt like she’d been stranded this whole year.

  “I was telling Tony about you last night. He told me to tell you if you need any help at all to call us first. If he can’t handle it, he probably knows someone who can.”

  “Thanks. So far, so good, but I’ll definitely take him up on that.”

  “Good. He’s a fixer. It’s what he does. Full-time hero whether it’s at the garage or for neighbors. It’s what made me fall in love with him.”

  “I can’t wait to meet him,” Sydney said. There’d been a time when she’d thought Jon was quite the hero.

  Diane pulled her scarf off and looked around. “No customers?”

  “It’s been pretty steady all day. This has been my first break. Coffee?”

  “I’d love some.”

  They settled in the plush oversized chairs with their coffee. No flavored creamers, no lattes or cappuccinos, just regular old coffee. And free. She’d calculated in her budget that by not meeting with her old friends in Atlanta for the fancy-schmancy coffees they all favored she’d saved over eight hundred dollars already.

  Diane recapped her day and filled Sydney in on some of the activities the school put on through the year that parents usually helped with.

  “I almost forgot,” Diane said. “Tony reminded me that I should’ve told you about the Ruritan Club Steak Dinner coming up next week. It’s just ten bucks a plate. All the guys cook and wait on us. It’s kind of neat for a change, besides I love seeing Tony in an apron.”

  Sydney almost spit her coffee trying to picture Jon serving in an apron. He’d never have gone for that—well, unless there was a deal to be landed by doing it. She really needed to figure out how to still like him while not loving him. He’d been the best part of her life for a long time. He’d treated her well, and had been an excellent provider. And as bad as it hurt that he’d cheated, for the first ten years of their marriage it was pretty darn great. One day she hoped she could forgive him. But right now it was still too tender.

  “You’ll meet a lot of the locals there. There are also several single guys in the Ruritan Club. A couple of them are pretty successful and good-looking, too.”

  “No thanks. I’m not even out of this marriage.”

  “Come to the dinner anyway. You can never have too many friends. Those boys know how to put on a good feed, and RayAnne will see a lot of the kids from school there, too.”

  “Okay, put us down for two tickets.”

  Diane’s phone blasted “School’s Out Forever.” “Oh. Time to pick up the kids from school already. Man, this went too fast.”

  “It sure did.” Sydney got up and got her purse and her BE RIGHT BACK sign from behind the counter. “I’m so glad you came by. I really needed some girl talk time. I feel like we’ve been friends forever.”

  “I know. I feel the same way.”

  Sydney stuck the handwritten sign on the door, locked up, and hoped things would be okay. More than one customer had said they were used to the hours being hit or miss, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

  She and Diane walked out to their cars together and Sydney followed Diane to the school.

  RayAnne and Jenny were standing at the curb when Sydney drove up. She wondered if RayAnne would still be in a sunny mood this afternoon or if she needed to brace herself for an arctic blast. To her pleasant surprise, RayAnne waved and bounded over to the car.

  “Hi, Mom,” she said, leaning over and giving her a kiss.

  Sydney bunched her lips. “Should I be worried?”

  RayAnne laughed. “No-oo.”

  “I hope you don’t mind, but Bea isn’t feeling well. We’re going to go back to the store for a couple hours until closing time.”

  “That’s cool.”

  “Great.” She didn’t dare question the attitude adjustment for fear of scaring it away.

  “We were talking at lunch today,” RayAnne said.

  “We?”

  “The girls. Jenny and them.”

  Sydney nodded.

  “So, at lunch everyone was talking about Christmas trees and how their parents always do all the decorating.”

  Sydney had to admit the perfectionist in her always liked to take control of that, too. Did it really matter if all the ornaments were clumped in one place, or big balls were at the top and small ones at the bottom?

  “I was thinking since we’re not going to use our old artificial tree at our house, what if we put ours up at The Book Bea? It would look so pretty! I could invite the kids from school to come and we could all decorate it however we want. And since Dad won’t be here until late Wednesday, we could do it, like, right after school lets out for Christmas break on Wednesday. Please? Everybody thought it was such a cool idea.”

  Sydney parked in front of The Book Bea. Did she even need to ask Bea about this? She’d pretty much already given her carte blanche on the decorating. Plus, if the kids came to decorate that could bring in parents. Parents meant customers. Customers meant sales. No brainer.

  “I think it’s an amazing idea.” She’d give Bea a quick call later to give her a heads up.

  “I know.” RayAnne got out of the car. “And you and I can hang our favorite ornaments on that tree, too. You know, so you won’t feel sad while I’m gone.”

  Sydney walked around the car and stepped up on the sidewalk next to her daughter. “Sounds like we’ve got after-school plans on Wednesday. You can tell your friends at school tomorrow.” She watched RayAnne. Not so much as a flinch when she referred to the girls at school as her friends. “We’ll get the tree out of the garage tonight. We’ll set it up tomorrow after school so it’ll be ready for y’all.”

  RayAnne wrapped her arms around Sydney’s waist. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You’re the best.”

  How had she been so lucky to have a daughter like this? “We can bake some cookies for everyone.”

  “And cupcakes. Can we make cupcakes?” RayAnne’s eyes danced.

  “S
ure thing. With red and green sprinkles!”

  RayAnne nodded. “And the green sherbet kind of punch. I love that. Plus it’s Christmassy looking. That would be so awesome. Right?”

  “Absolutely,” Sydney said starting to get excited about it herself.

  RayAnne ran ahead of Sydney up the walkway to the porch of The Book Bea.

  “Figure out where you want to put the tree and we’ll clear a spot for it before we leave.”

  Sydney took the BE RIGHT BACK sign down and stood there looking around. Bea’s words echoed, “You don’t have to be looking. Your path will present itself. That’s the way it works. You only have to be open to accepting it when it comes.”

  She straightened the store, hoping to calm her wandering mind. She’d wanted so badly to talk details with Bea today, but that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Excuse me, it’s Sydney, right?” The man’s voice caught her off guard.

  “Yes. Hi.” She pushed her hair back behind her ear. “Sorry, I was miles away there for a second.” She recognized him immediately from yesterday. One didn’t just forget those arresting eyes. “Mac. Hi again.”

  “I didn’t see Bea. Is she here?”

  “No. She wasn’t feeling well. Can I help you with something?”

  “She orders books in for me from time to time. I teach history over at the high school.”

  “I used to love history. Could never remember the dates so I never got good grades in it, but I always liked the stories.”

  The young boy to his side spoke up. “He’s the baseball coach, too.”

  Mac blushed. “My son. And biggest fan. Seth.”

  “Hi, Seth. My daughter is around here somewhere. Y’all are probably close to the same age.”

  Seth looked around.

  Mac fumbled with a piece of paper. “I have all the information on the books here. Titles. Author. ISBN. Do you think you could order one of each for me?”

  “Sure.” Sydney took the piece of paper and tried to act like she knew exactly what to do, although she was completely clueless about where Bea ordered her books. But she could certainly find out. “Happy to. If you want to leave me your number I can call you and let you know when they arrive.”