by Nancy Naigle
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
Anna beamed. “That’s the fun part about meeting new people.” She bobbed her head from side to side, then clapped wildly. “I can see the band.”
“Joy to the World” got louder by the step, and almost like the wave at a baseball game, kids raised their hands into the air trying to catch candy being thrown by men in elf costumes riding four-wheelers.
Anna squeezed Vanessa’s wrist. “This is so fun!”
The band moved with precision, lifting and twisting their instruments as they marched closer. In front of the band, a man dressed in a nutcracker suit carrying a candy-cane baton lifted the red and white stick up and down in the air, adding in a happy kick every now and again. The shock of silvery-gray hair shone in contrast to the tall black furry hat.
Vanessa recognized him immediately. “Look!” She pointed him out to Anna.
“Lordy goodness!” Anna stood. “That’s Buck!”
Mike remained seated. “He’s been doing that for as long as I can remember. He was mayor when he first took on that role.”
“Isn’t that fun.” Anna clapped and raised her hands in the air, shouting, “Merry Christmas.”
After the last note of “Joy to the World,” the drum corps tapped out a rhythm, then began playing “Jingle Bells.” The whole town sang along, including Vanessa and Mike.
“Fun, right?” he asked.
She nodded as she sang.
Next, a loud tractor putted down the parade route, pulling a trailer filled with decorated Christmas trees. She could smell the fresh pine from her chair. 4-H kids walked by, leading their goats and sheep with champion banners across their backs, followed by a pickup truck pulling a flatbed trailer with streamers hanging from the sides and three men wearing cowboy hats sitting on bales of straw, singing and playing “The Christmas Song” on guitar.
“I love this song,” Mike said.
She snuck a peek at Mike as he watched them sing. She admired how relaxed he was.
The Fraser Falcons Marching Band came next, with flag team and baton twirlers, doing a jiggy version of “Jingle Bells.”
“Okay, I’m going to head on down. Y’all are okay?” He made a thumbs-up.
“Yes.”
“See you right here. Don’t leave.”
“We won’t,” Vanessa said.
“I promise I won’t let her,” Anna said.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“I like his manners,” Anna said as he jogged away.
“Yes. That’s nice, isn’t it.” She watched him far too long, because somehow she hadn’t even noticed that the band had completely passed by and that crazy falcon mascot was right in front of her flapping its wings and wiggling its hind feathers again. Squawk!
She let out a sigh as Lilene stooped down next to her. “I thought that was you. Hey.”
“Hi. This is an awesome parade.”
“I know. Are you enjoying it, Anna?”
“I am.”
Lilene commentated the parade, filling in the backstory as a group of horseback riders carrying flags from a ranch nearby passed them, and four-wheelers full of dogs dressed up like Santa’s elves zoomed by. “Those are all rescue dogs up for adoption. Aren’t they cute?”
“They are.”
Everyone around her was smiling. Holiday spirit overflowed as they enjoyed the annual festivities. Guilt rushed over her about all the changes coming to this town for these people. People with families.
Sleigh bells rang, but not like the ones the band had used earlier. This jinglejangle was powerful and strong. The varying tones and pleasing tempo made her smile.
Everyone clapped and cheered enthusiastically. She and Anna stood to get a better view.
Two huge black horses clip-clopped, their huge feet lifting high with each step, and four more followed behind them, two by two. The nostrils on their black velvety noses flared, vapor puffing in white clouds as they trotted forward.
Lilene stood and cheered. “We’re so lucky to have these horses right here in our town.”
Six horses in all, just like she’d seen that first day in town, but rather than a simple wagon they pulled a shiny one big enough to carry a Christmas tree and Santa in the back with room to spare. This wagon had fancy gold accents and pretty lights. Santa ho-ho-ho’d as he waved and tossed favors.
All eyes except hers were on Santa. She was focused on the man sitting in the front of the wagon in the black shirt, red vest, and cowboy hat. Mike. Next to him, someone wearing a taupe Western hat held the reins. Between their feet, a black Labrador retriever had its paws on the rail, enjoying the ride.
FRASER HILLS PERCHERON HITCH sparkled in shimmering gold letters down the side of the high-gloss black wagon with red-and-gold wagon wheels. SPONSORED BY had been painted in script above the Porter’s logo on the front corner. I didn’t notice a sponsorship. I’ll have to look into that.
Lilene pointed to the very back horse in the hitch, closest to them. “That horse is almost twenty-five years old. He’s won blue ribbons and trophies galore. He’s well known in the horse world for his good genetics. He’s even been in magazines. He’s the closest thing this town has to a local hero.” She put her fingers in her mouth and whistled.
Mike offered a lazy smile that parted his lips.
Her heart tumbled, betraying the resistance she’d been trying to hold.
The hitch suddenly stopped. He turned and said something to the person driving the team; then he stood and stepped to the edge of the cart and extended his hand toward Vanessa.
The dog leapt from the wagon and danced alongside one of the handlers standing next to the horses.
Mike hooked his finger in her direction.
She raised her hand to her heart. “Me? There?” Her brows pulled together as she turned to Anna for support. “I can’t get up there.”
He nodded, encouraging her. At that moment big fluffy snowflakes began to fall around her.
Floats began to bottleneck behind the wagon.
Anna pushed her toward Lilene, who hurried her to the street. “Go!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The rest of the crowd seemed to fall away as Vanessa raised her foot to the step with her hand in his.
“Is there room?”
“Sure.” He pulled her up. His strength was notable. His hands were warm. In a mere second she was sitting next to him on the velvet bench seat.
He stretched his arm behind her and said, “Wave.”
She couldn’t contain her nervous giggle as she tried to spot Anna in the crowd again. “This is definitely a tight squeeze.”
“It’s warmer that way.” He laughed. “More fun too.”
“It’s high,” she said, a nervous titter to her voice.
“I’ve got you,” he said, putting his arm around her.
She could barely move. The firmness of his muscular arm steadied her as the carriage lurched forward and continued down the parade route in the falling snow. Snowflakes collected on the horses’ coats in front of her.
“This is amazing,” she said, looking at all of the decorative leather and shiny bells on each horse.
The horses were being managed with small moves and flicks of the wrist holding the bundle of long reins. Four men dressed in all black with red Santa hats and bandannas walked alongside the hitch.
Vanessa’s insides spun. The impact of their dinner-plate-size hooves vibrated through the wagon.
Smiling faces huddled together along the parade route, people waving and hoping for a surprise from Santa.
Kids tried to catch snowflakes on their tongues with so much delight that tears tickled her eyelashes. The hitch slowed to a walk up the next block, then turned down the alley behind the fire department.
Anna stood surrounded by firemen as they pulled to a stop.
Mike helped Vanessa to the ground.
“You looked so great up there. Both of you. You too,” Anna yelled to the driver, now s
eated alone. “We’ve got hot chocolate for everyone.” One of the firemen handed out sparkly red paper cups to everyone.
“Thank you for joining me,” Mike said to Vanessa. “Now, admit it. This town is special.”
“It is. You’re right.” She meant it too, but that didn’t mean business wasn’t still going to happen, and she was trying to make it the softest landing possible. “And there’s still a Christmas tree lighting to attend.”
His eyes pleaded with her.
“Help us.” He took her hands into his. “Just help us. And I’m really sorry about getting so angry about Mom. You’re right. She’s perfectly happy with that package.”
A wave of relief flowed over Vanessa.
Anna walked up behind Mike. “I can’t believe how big these horses are. I’ve ridden horses but these make the ones I rode look like Chihuahuas. These are like the Clydesdales, right?”
“No. Not at all, except they are both draft horses. Percherons originated in France, taking their name from the former Perche province.”
The driver of the hitch wagon climbed down and walked over to them. “One more reason to go back to Paris, right, Vanessa?”
“Misty?” Vanessa’s mouth dropped wide. “Anna, this is who I’ve been talking about.” She swung back around to Misty. “Is there nothing you can’t do? This is crazy! Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shrugged. “Kids at school kind of tease me about it. I didn’t want you to think less of me. Especially after you liked my ideas.”
“No way. You blow me away! I loved that ride. I can’t believe you can do that. I was impressed you could drive a stick shift. But this…”
“Yeah. You were. I didn’t know you knew my dad.”
“I…?” Vanessa blushed.
Anna lifted her hand to her face as she laughed. “Mike’s your dad?”
Misty nodded.
Vanessa finally put all the pieces together. “I had no idea he was your father.” She turned to Mike. “This is your daughter who went skiing on Thanksgiving?”
“That was me,” Misty said as Mike nodded.
The snow fell in smaller flakes now, but they were covering everything at an incredible rate.
“My, this is a small town.” Vanessa had herself braided right into everything in this town. Something she’d never meant to do.
“Small towns,” Mike said. “Whole different animal.”
“Dad, Vanessa is helping me implement some of the improvements I’d suggested at Porter’s.”
He looked at Vanessa. “Really?” Lifting his chin. “You’re not just leading her—”
“No. Not at all. I’m serious.”
He shook her hand. “Well, thank you. I jumped to some wrong conclusions about you.”
Thank goodness.
Anna rushed to Vanessa’s side. “Hey, buses are taking people over to the tree lighting. We need to go if we don’t want to miss it.” Anna shoulder-bumped Vanessa. “And you,” she said to Mike. “You seem to be pretty perfect. Handsome, knows how to admit when he’s wrong, and you do make a mean chicken stew.”
Mike pushed his hat back on his head an inch, grinning. His eyes locked with Vanessa’s. “I like your cousin. She’s one smart lady.”
“You’d like anyone on your side,” Vanessa teased, but she still wasn’t sure he wasn’t just throwing himself at her to get his way for the town.
“Thank you, Mike. We had the best parade seats around,” Anna said. “And the boys took good care of me.”
Mike did a half turn, his back to Anna, but thumbing that way. “She likes me.”
He was cute all right, but she’d never admit that to him. Vanessa gave him a flirty grin, then turned away. “Come on, Anna, we’re going to miss that tree lighting if we let this guy go on and on all night.” She lifted her hand in the air, calling out over her shoulder, “Thank you, Mike. We had a great time.”
One by one, school buses filled up and took folks over to the hospital for the tree lighting, then circled back around to get another load of passengers. It wasn’t all that far, thank goodness, else those five buses would have taken forever and they would be lighting the tree at midnight.
Still excited from the parade, people chatted and laughed, sharing goodies they’d purchased earlier. Some families had laid out blankets on the ground and sat down around the huge tree that stood tall in front of the hospital building.
Colored glass and metal, the architecture looked sorely out of place in the small town. New too. From here she noticed that each room of the hospital’s second and third floors had a single candle in the window. Some patients stood at their windows peering down on the activities.
After the second round of buses unloaded, teens wearing white choir robes carried wooden trays filled with beeswax candles with red ribbons wrapped around the bottom of each one toward the crowd.
“Here you go.” A young lady plucked two tapered candles from the tray and handed them to Vanessa and Anna. “The paper keeps the wax from dripping on you. You can light yours from mine.”
“This is so neat. I’ve never done this,” said Anna.
“Merry Christmas,” the young woman said as she moved through the crowd handing out more candles.
As the minutes passed, more and more candles were lit, bringing a joy to the crowd.
The moan of brass instruments was followed by the rest of the band in an instrumental version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Everyone hushed and moved in closer to the Christmas tree. The choir circled the tree, holding their candles in the air, and began singing along with the orchestra.
A single guitar plucked a few notes of “Silent Night,” and then everyone joined in and sang along, followed by “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”
Then a special trumpeting sound, not so different from one announcing that a bride was going to walk down the aisle, sounded, and everyone began singing “O Christmas Tree.” At the end of the first chorus, the lights on the tree lit up. Bright red, green, blue, gold, and white brightened the hospital lawn, and everyone collectively gave a gasp, then picked up with the next verses of the song.
Everyone cheered, then began blowing out their candles and making their way to the buses to go back to Main Street.
Anna pointed toward one of the windows above. “Look.”
“There must be six kids in that window.” Vanessa wondered what was wrong that kept those children inside tonight. It was easy to forget the heavy sorrows of the world when you were concentrating on the big picture.
“In several windows.” Anna waved. Some waved back. Anna clutched her heart. “I am so glad we came here.”
Vanessa took Anna’s hand. “Me too.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Monday morning, Vanessa got to the office before seven. When she sat down, she had a weird feeling that things on her desk had been moved. She looked around, unsure whether she was imagining it or not, but there didn’t seem to be anything missing.
She took her laptop from her bag and placed it on the desk. When she opened her email there was one from Robert.
She groaned, unable, or maybe more like unwilling, to deal with him right now. She had to admit that, with Anna here, she understood his tie to being with family over the holidays. And even more so from being around all of this here in Fraser Hills.
Anna had been so excited about going with Buck to cut down her own Christmas tree, she said she hadn’t slept a wink all night. Not in a complaining way, but with exuberance that superseded all the happiness she remembered with Anna. Real happiness.
Vanessa was glad she’d taken the time to set the expectation with Anna that she would be working late and would be staying at the corporate apartment tonight to get as much done as possible so they’d have time to do something fun on Tuesday.
Misty showed up at 9:00 sharp with her computer and a three-ring binder of reports.
“Knock-knock,” Misty said from the doorway. “Are you ready for me?”
�
��I am. Come on in.”
“Lilene said she’d adjusted my schedule.”
“She has. So, let’s get started.”
Vanessa moved over to the table next to the window so she and Misty could review the plans together. She listened quietly as Misty shared every project and the supporting documents with her, further ensuring the discussion points they’d gone over last night.
They uploaded the project plan into Vanessa’s system and then Vanessa walked through her thought process and the changes she’d make and where additional details needed to be fleshed out.
“Everything should be time-framed, and dependent milestones should always be connected. If some of those earlier steps get dropped you can end up with an eleventh-hour failure, and you never want that.”
“I see. So like right here.” Misty pointed to one of the steps that was required to get started.
“Exactly. So, let me show you how to mark those dependent steps.” She made examples out of the first few, then backed up the file. “You try it.”
Misty took over as Vanessa looked on.
“You’ve got it,” Vanessa said. “The other thing I see in new project managers is they overcomplicate things. That’s where really talking to the people who know and live the process is so important. Simple solutions are often the best.”
For the next two hours they talked through potential failure points and what checkpoints needed to be put in place to ensure they were on time and on budget.
At one o’clock, Lilene poked her head inside the door. “I hate to bother you two, but I brought a homemade turkey pot pie for lunch. Y’all haven’t moved from this office all morning. Can I bring you some lunch? I think you’ll like it.”
Misty said, “Oh you’ll love it. Lilene makes the best turkey pot pie around.”
“Then make it two. Thanks, Lilene.”
“My pleasure, ladies.”
They continued working and Lilene brought them lunch. Rather than stop, they kept right on working. While Misty worked on refining the retail and factory plan, Vanessa worked on the plan to completely empty the other warehouses and begin prepping them for Outdoor Sports Pro to take over the first of the year.