“No, but I was serious when I said I came here to help. It wasn’t an idle offer.”
“You really were serious about getting that Service Merit Badge, weren’t you?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I would never joke about that.”
She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, though, where are you from?”
He shrugged. “I’m from the City.”
“New York City is a long commute,” she said.
He waved his hand in the air. If there was a chance that the Forest Festival could still work for this year, he would be there to help it. “I don’t mind staying. I have … some time off I can take.”
“You’re nice, and you were helpful with Edna, but why would you take time off for this? You’ve never helped in the Forest Festival before, and you’re not local.” Suspicion seemed to lace her words.
Troy knew he couldn’t lie to her. He also knew that the full truth was something that he couldn’t share either. He focused on what he could honestly share. “Can’t I just want to help?” he asked. “I like the badges.”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “Do you need service hours? Are you out on parole?”
Troy laughed. He thought about the conversations he’d had with his college roommates recently. “No. I’ve saved a lot of time off. I’m here because I needed a different pace in my life, to really get into the Christmas season this year. The city was stifling, and I just needed to breathe a little. A coworker of mine mentioned that this town was great for that, and that the Forest Festival was one of her most favorite childhood memories. Listening to you talk about your aunt and reading the letters … I realized that this might be the exact opportunity I was looking for.”
“You picked a great time of year to come. There’s something about the change in the seasons here. The red leaves still hanging on to the trees. And then with the Forest Festival on, everything is beautiful when it’s covered in snow.” Tension seemed to lift from her shoulders. “I would appreciate the help. Normally I’d fly a few people from my company out to help, but I already know what’s on their list for this week.”
Troy nodded. “When do we start?”
Hailey looked around at the boxes they’d been sitting on, waiting for the movers to come. “Right now.” She pulled out a notebook and a hand carved wooden pen. When her pen hit the paper a list appeared almost out of nowhere.
“You really know what you’re doing,” Troy said, impressed.
“It’d be faster on my computer with my event planning templates, but this will have to do for now.” She drew boxes and columns on the paper. “The first thing we’re going to need is the sponsor’s names and the donation list. I’m sure that’s what Edna was hinting at finding among the files. She wants to know that it will be worth putting on the benefit for.”
“What kind of donations?” he asked. He knew that he could spend up to $10,000 of his own money, but that wouldn’t get them very far. But he needed to do something with the money—pay for a service, hire a crew. Something. He couldn’t simply donate it.
“We’ll have a better idea when we see the list. Sponsors for the trees. Sponsors for the event. It’s going to cost more than a pretty penny to put it on. I would have assumed they’d have a fund from last year to get this one started, but Edna and her team have gone a different direction with their foundation since my aunt passed away. But I can use the money my aunt donated. That’s mine to figure out what to do with, so it’s a start.”
Excitement flowed through him as he thought about working with Hailey for the week. “So you’ll find the list, or can I help going through boxes tonight?”
“I’ll find the list. Does tomorrow work for you? What time will you be here in the morning?” she asked.
“I’m staying at a hotel not too far from here. I can meet you any time.”
“How about over breakfast?” she asked.
He nodded. “Where?”
“You’ve never been to Red Oaks before?”
He shook his head. “Never.”
She smiled. “Then The Pancake Tower it is.”
“Do they have good pancakes?” he asked jokingly.
She laughed. “You haven’t lived until you’ve had their Buffalo Tower.”
“I assume there’s only one in town?”
She nodded. “Yes. It’s a great little place. We could go over plans and see what is feasible in a week.” She stood up from the boxes. “I’m going to assume that the moving crew will be here in the morning, and maybe Edna will call me when they’re available. We should probably go.”
He agreed and held the door open for her. She locked up the building, then unlocked her car with the push of a button.
He opened the car door for her. “Drive safe,” he said.
She paused by her door before getting in, looking directly into his eyes for a long heartbeat. “Thanks. You too.”
He helped her into the car and watched as she drove out of the parking lot. He wondered if his brain was more aware that he might be able to help with the Forest Festival in a significant way, or how smooth Hailey’s hands were when he’d helped her into her car.
When her taillights disappeared down the winding road, he wished he’d gotten her number. Maybe they could have grabbed dinner tonight together too. At any rate, breakfast tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.
Chapter 3
Hailey brought the last of the boxes into her aunt’s house from her rental car. She set them in the living room. Thanks to Troy from New York City, she’d been given a week to prove herself. If this Forest Festival was meant to be this year, he’d be the one to help her. A thrill ran through her. He’d been helpful and attentive. He didn’t have to help. There was no obligation for him, and he didn’t have the personal tie that she did, and yet, he’d said he would help her this week. She looked around the front room, needing a quilt to wrap up with. She turned on the fireplace, and headed upstairs to get the desired blanket.
The wooden stairs groaned in a few places, and she ran her fingers along the chair rail. The dust lifted easily onto her fingers. It would definitely need a cleaning before she listed. She peeked her head into the first room. It wasn’t where her favorite blanket was stored, but she paused in the doorway. Hailey bit her lip. If she was going to stay at her aunt’s house for the next week while she worked on the Forest Festival, she’d have to reacquaint herself with the house, without her aunt here.
She inspected room after room, memories flooding into her mind with each flicker of the lamps that burst to life when flipped the light switches. She remembered playing hide and seek in some of the rooms, crouching behind the nightstands or under the beds. Her aunt had always let her pick which room she wanted to stay in, and sometimes she picked a different room, but her favorite one to stay in had pale blue walls, and a large window overlooking the backyard. Three more squeaky footsteps on the hardwood floor had her to the last closed door on the left.
Her heart squeezed as she flipped on the next light. The pale blue walls seemed darker than she’d remembered in the summer, or maybe it was just the lack of daylight brightening up the space. The butterfly quilt she loved was folded lovingly on the foot of the bed. Happy memories of reading in the corner rocking chair and pretending she was a princess in this room raced through her mind.
It had taken her until now to really explore the place again. She’d been through the main floor rooms, but she hadn’t wanted to disturb the upstairs. She ran her hand across the smooth wood of the nightstand table and picked up the picture displayed there. It was her and her aunt in the backyard on a picnic blanket. Hailey couldn’t have been more than nine or ten in the picture. “Miss you,” she said softly to the picture, when she replaced it on the nightstand.
She pulled the butterfly quilt off the end of the bed and hugged it. The heartache at missing her aunt expanded in her chest. It was too much to process right now. She closed the door of her favorite room and headed back downstairs.
Once she was settled on the
couch, she dug through the paperwork until she found a list of donors and donations. Sponsors from previous years were also paperclipped together. Thankfully it hadn’t taken her too long to find them. After a light dinner, she made some hot chocolate.
She opened one of the boxes that held letters to her aunt, the box that she’d only skimmed through. She pulled out a folder from five years ago and snuggled into the blanket that was wrapped around her, to read the letters. After an hour of reading she was convinced that trying to keep this tradition going was worth it. And without Troy she wouldn’t have even had a chance.
* * *
Hailey breathed in deeply as aromas of hot maple syrup and crispy bacon wafted toward her when she walked toward the entrance of The Pancake Tower the next morning. She looked around the bustling restaurant crowded with people, and even more memories, but didn’t see Troy.
Framed photographs of the latest winners of the Pancake Tower Challenge proudly displayed smiling men and women next to large stacks of pancakes. The popular diner looked the same as it had every time she’d come with her aunt. The blue sparkly vinyl still covered the booths, and the pads of the chairs. Had they been well taken care of or just recovered over the years? Either way the place held its value.
Hailey didn’t have to wait too long for a booth to empty and be cleared before she was seated. She looked around again for Troy, her mind swimming at the memory of him yesterday—how he’d helped her, how he’d volunteered to assist her, how they’d just looked at each other, his chocolate brown eyes making her melt when he helped her into her car. Maybe they should have exchanged numbers yesterday—that would probably be a good thing for this coming week as they worked together.
His shiny dark car, more gray than black, pulled up in front of the restaurant. Her heart thudded against her chest when he got out of his car. She’s noticed how good looking he was last night, but now as he walked into the restaurant, she took in all of his features with a heightened sense of appreciation. He’d lifted the boxes with ease yesterday, his muscles strong and defined. With a leather jacket covering them up, she focused on his neatly trimmed beard that showcased his chiseled jaw. His smile drew her in. When he came toward her booth she blinked, not wanting to be caught staring.
“Good morning,” he said. His greeting felt like sunshine on the brisk October morning.
She smiled widely, hoping he hadn’t noticed her staring. “I thought you’d ditched me, not that I’d blame you,” she said playfully.
He tilted his head at her. When she couldn’t handle his gaze anymore she glanced down at her menu. She knew exactly what she wanted to order, but there was no reason for him to know that, and the menu provided a buffer from that smile and his chocolate eyes.
He pulled her menu down gently, his eyes connecting with hers, making her feel warm inside, like she’d already polished off the pumpkin hot chocolate that she had yet to order. “I took a wrong turn.”
She shook her head, holding in her laugh. “Some Boy Scout you are.” She glanced out the window. In less than a month the whole town would be enveloped in snow, the town always feeling like a Winter Wonderland. “I hope you’ll come back for the Forest Festival. It really is something amazing.”
“I wouldn’t miss it. It will be the best Forest Festival Red Oaks can remember.”
Hailey nodded. Troy’s enthusiasm caught her, seeming to sweep her up in a hot air balloon of hope.
“I like the way you think,” she said.
He smiled, showing his teeth like she’d given him a huge compliment. “In my humble opinion, it’s the only way to do business.” He opened his menu and asked Hailey for recommendations. Troy ordered, and so did Hailey.
They talked through Hailey’s process for tackling this next week. It was focused on sponsors, and on looking at the venue, and asking previous businesses that had been used, for support. Tackling this felt like the most important event planning account she’d ever been handed, and more than anything she wanted it to measure up to the high standards her aunt had set for the event and the town. Hailey knew she had the skills to do this, and with the way Troy was diving in head first to this project, she wasn’t concerned about the tight deadline or the outcome. Troy exuded confidence and strength, and last month she’d thrown a birthday party with eighty children invited on a tight schedule. She had this Forest Festival, no problem.
“We have a lot of donations to sort through. Many businesses donate trees and donate various other things in kind. I can’t quite tell what all the donations are. My aunt must have had a system for remembering it,” Hailey said, glancing through some of the paperwork she’d brought from her aunt’s files. “At any rate, the businesses are where we should start, to see if this list is still accurate for this year. The events center looks like it has been booked for the Forest Festival, but I’m not sure if Edna has cancelled that booking or not. So that’s another thing to check.”
“You’re certainly organized,” Troy said.
Hailey smiled. “I have to be in my line of work. It’s all about getting everything in a row. I can better analyze and execute an event when everything is in order.”
Troy grinned. “Any other goals for the week?”
“I think if we can at least get twenty trees and decorations donated this week, along with a few other businesses for sponsors, that should be enough traction to convince Edna to help us out with the advertising. I also think we should talk to the hospital and see what their needs and goals are this year for Christmas. Maybe they have some ideas.”
Troy nodded. “Where were you going to have the moving crew move the Christmas trees and decorations?”
Hailey hoped there would be room at the foundation’s new headquarters, but she doubted she could arrange that on a Saturday. “In my aunt’s garage, at least for the time being.”
“And those would be used as decorations at the festival?”
She nodded. “Everything will be donated.”
“What about talking to the guy who owns the tree farm?” Troy asked, looking down at one of the papers from the file.
“Good idea,” Hailey said. “We can drive by the lot and talk to him.”
Their food came out, and Hailey laughed at how wide Troy’s eyes became when he saw the Buffalo Tower he’d ordered. “You didn’t tell me it was enough to feed an army,” he said.
“Like I said, you haven’t really lived or visited Red Oaks until you’ve tried it.”
The tower was covered in whipped cream. He took a bite. “Wow, this really is amazing,” he said.
Hailey smiled. “I’m glad you like it. My aunt and I would split a short buffalo stack when I would come and visit her.”
He moved the plate toward her. “There’s more than enough to share.”
She laughed, gesturing to her much smaller stack. “I have more than enough here,” she said.
They talked more about the coordination for the day, deciding to follow the leads for the hospital and the tree farm today, and then work on sponsorships on Monday when more local businesses would be open.
Troy polished off half of the Buffalo stack, before he gave up on eating the rest. He paid for their meal, and walked toward the exit. Troy stopped at the wall of framed pictures. “Are those the Buffalo Tower eaters?”
Hailey shook her head. “These are the pancake tower winners. Each of them ate all of those pancakes in less than an hour.”
Troy’s eyes widened. “Local town tradition?”
Hailey nodded. “Free Tower pancakes for a month if you can do it.” She pointed to a wall with a much smaller group of pictures. “Those are the Buffalo Tower eaters. You have to eat all of it in less than forty-five minutes to get your picture up there.”
“It can’t be done,” Troy said.
Hailey laughed. “Well those five did it. Free meals for a year if you do it though.”
“Not worth it,” Troy said, patting his stomach. “I’m so full from just half of it.”
Ha
iley smiled. “You have to admit it’s the best thing on the menu though.”
“I can’t admit that until I try other things on the menu,” he said. “Looks like we’ll have to come back.”
“Looks like we will,” Hailey said, looking into his eyes.
He opened the door for her and they stepped outside. Hailey wrapped her scarf around her neck against the chill in the air, though the sun was shining.
“Should we ride together?” Troy asked. “I’m happy to drive.”
She nodded. It would be much easier to coordinate if they were together. “Sounds good,” she said.
He opened the door for her, and she settled into the luxury sports car, Italia Midnight. They headed over to the building and met the movers. They were just finishing. Once everything was loaded Hailey locked the door, wondering why she bothered when it was going to be torn down in two days.
She gave an address to the movers for her aunt’s house and the code to the garage so they could unload everything. When the moving crew finished their job, Hailey’s aunt’s two car garage looked like the leftover remains of the Christmas decorations that people picked through following New Year’s. It was only a temporary home, since all of this decor would be used to help create the Forest Festival.
Hailey gave Troy directions to the tree lot. They arrived at the barren area. Hailey directed him where to park, and they both got out of the car.
“Where are we?” Troy asked, looking around.
Hailey spread her arms out wide, turning almost in a complete circle. “This is the Red Oaks Tree Farm, or at least it will be.” She gestured to the open space between the tall, skinny buildings that seemed to be smashed together on Main Street. “I know it doesn’t look like much, but this area holds the festivities in the town. In the summer it’s the home of traveling carnivals and where the 4th of July parade starts. There’s enough room here to house all of the floats as they wait their turn. In the winter it’s the Tree Farm.”
“This looks like a great location,” Troy said, looking up and down the street. “Should we start talking to local businesses while we’re here, and save the hospital visit until Monday?”
The Billionaire’s Christmas Miracle: The Billionaires’ Christmas Gifts Romance Page 4