by Nancy Naigle
“I didn’t call her old,” Virgil said, straightening.
“Yeah, don’t tell her I did either.” A ho-ho-ho echoed from Geoff’s pocket. Mom’s ringtone. “Great. She must know that I’m talking about her,” he said. “Let me get this.”
“Before you do, we’re having problems in the Cape Cod store.”
Geoff answered the phone. “Hey, Mom. You’re on speaker. Virgil’s with me.”
“Happy Black Friday to you both.”
“I was just telling Geoff that we’re having a problem up in the Cape Cod store. I was going to see if you wanted to go with me. I’m flying out in about an hour. I’ll buy you dinner at Lefty’s.”
“You know that’s my favorite restaurant, but I’m afraid I’ve already made plans,” Rebecca said. “Besides, there’s really no need to be flying off for dinner in another town when we have so many charming places to try right here. So, what’s this about a problem in the Cape Cod store?”
“The water main broke and the city has shut down water to the whole street.”
“That shouldn’t slow down sales,” Geoff said, relieved.
Virgil shook his head. “The part of the story where the water main break is right in front of our entrance and will block our parking lot will. Not to mention that it flooded part of the front of the store, but I’ve already got a team on that.”
Geoff slung back in his chair. “Man, and things were going so well.”
“Yeah. We had a great night there. Thank goodness we were open when the main broke. The team was able to move things out of the way. No damage to merchandise.”
“Hallelujah!” his mom sang out.
“I’ll get things going as quickly as I can,” Virgil said. “Hopefully we’ll just lose a couple of hours.”
“A couple of critical hours on Black Friday.” Geoff pulled up the store sales and started calculating the potential loss.
“If we’re not back online in a couple of hours I’ll get some signs made up extending the special sales through the weekend.”
“Thanks for handling it, Virgil,” his mom said. “Now, Geoff, the reason I called is to let you know that I’ve just committed to donating two hundred Christmas stockings, candy canes and coloring books to the Pleasant Sands Christmas Giving Project. We should probably add some type of goody. Don’t we have those chocolate marshmallow Santas?”
“We do, and why not add those ornaments with the year on them?” He’d rather write them off as a donation than have to clearance them anyway.
“Perfect. Can you get that pulled together for me? They’ll pick them up next Thursday. We’ll be putting the stockings together at the church that evening. You might get Chandler to post something in the store in case anyone would like to volunteer to help.”
Geoff shot off an email to Chandler while they were on the phone. “Done.”
“Perfect!” she exclaimed. “I’m enjoying being an active part of this community. Isn’t Pleasant Sands enchanting?”
“I suppose it is.” The only thing he cared about was that the town was proving to be a moneymaking location for the store.
“Now, bring me up to date. What do the numbers look like? I haven’t had a chance to look.”
“All of the stores are tracking to forecast. Would you like to place a wager on which store is leading sales at this moment?”
“No way,” she said emphatically. “It’s always the one you are standing in.”
“Yes. Yes, it is.” He took that as a compliment. Not something she lavished on him often.
“I’m going to do a little holiday shopping with some of the gals from the Christmas Giving Project committee this afternoon. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the store. I have an idea I want to run by you.”
“You know I’ll be wondering all day what it is you have on your mind.”
“That’s what makes it so fun.”
It made it fun for his mother. It drove him absolutely crazy. If there was one thing he couldn’t stand, it was being out of the loop.
Chapter Ten
DID YOU KNOW?
Heart of Christmas has been serving customers on Black Fridays since before it had that nickname.
Heart of Christmas opened in 1925.
The term Black Friday was coined in 1961.
Thank you for being a part of our legacy.
Black Friday shoppers mingled in front of the tall arched doorway of Heart of Christmas waiting for the store to open.
Jeremy jogged to the front door and flipped the sign to OPEN, then flung open the door and threw out his arms. “Merry Christmas, everybody. Come on in!”
He was just a big kid. Angela couldn’t be luckier to have these three on her team.
The shoppers rolled in. Angela’s heart leapt when she saw Marie and Chrissy among them, both dressed in festive red.
“What are you two doing here?” Angela held her arms out and Chrissy ran into them.
“Mommy said if you say it’s okay we can help today. She said I can say, ‘Thank you for coming, and Merry Christmas,’ to the customers, just like you did when you were little like me.” She extended a white-stockinged leg. “Look. I even got to wear my good shoes.”
“Beautiful.” Angela had bought Chrissy those black patent leather Mary Janes. She knew how much she loved them.
“You were her age the first time you worked Black Friday,” Marie said.
“I was.” Angela stooped over and tapped Chrissy on the nose. “I’d love to have your help.”
“And I’ll hang out and help run herd over her. Really, sis, we want to help.”
She hugged Marie. “Thank you. You’re my angel-in-waiting.”
“Always,” Marie said.
“And forever.” Angela held Marie tight, and for so long that Chrissy ended up wrapping herself around the two of them.
“It looks like it’s going to be a busy day. We’d better get to work,” Angela said, finally breaking the hug. “How about you help at the counter, Chrissy? You can welcome people when they first come in, and after they buy their stuff, you can thank them.”
“I’ll be very good at that,” Chrissy said with a curtsey and skipped to the register, where Stephanie was already ringing someone up.
“Merry Christmas,” Chrissy said cheerfully.
Marie made herself busy at the counter, removing price stickers and helping wrap ornaments in the pretty tissue paper.
The shoppers sounded like Fourth of July fireworks spectators, the way they oohed and ahed as they walked by the gorgeous displays, and children discovered the train in motion above their heads.
“Let me help you with that,” Angela said to a customer eyeing one of the hand-carved Santas. “He’s so lifelike.” She handed the customer the piece, and just as she looked up, one of her favorite customers race-walked by. “Jean? Hello! Merry Christmas.”
“Hi, Angela. I promised the kids some time in Snow Valley,” Jean said, herding her kids into a line like little ducklings and counting to be sure they were all there. “And their personalized ornaments. It’s tradition, after all.”
“You brought the whole crew.” Angela wondered how any woman managed seven children all so close in age all by herself. “They’re going to love Snow Valley. Jeremy has done an amazing job with the snow. It’s like the real thing.”
The woman Angela was helping piped in. “My grandchildren will be here in two weeks. I’ll have to bring them.”
“It’s a winter wonderland out there.” Angela was proud of the end result.
“This is wonderful too.” The woman handed the Santa back to Angela. “I’ll take it.”
“Excellent choice. I’ll get the box for him.” She walked her customer to the register. “I’ll be right back with the box. Stephanie will ring you up. Thank you for shopping with us today. We look forward to seeing you and your grandchildren soon.”
“Thank you, dear.” The woman already had her credit card out.
Jean came over to Angela, half o
ut of breath. “They wear me out.”
Angela laughed. “Well, maybe they’ll tire themselves out. By the way, I have a surprise for you.”
“Really?”
Angela led Jean over to the cherry cabinet that her grandfather had built for the Christmas village display. Each shelf was terraced, giving the illusion of a town against the backdrop of a mountainside. Buildings, people, pets, even tiny wrapped presents under Christmas trees and ice skaters filled the levels, each one hand carved and painted. These figures were truly the type of craftsmanship that you handed down generation to generation.
Just this morning she’d put out several new pieces. It had been so hard to keep them in the back until today, but Angela had to have something special for Black Friday.
She watched as Jean ogled the detail of all the new pieces. But they weren’t what she’d wanted to show her.
“The carousel is on sale. Your favorite piece.” She turned the tag so Jean could see the marked-down price.
Jean’s smiling face fell. She’d almost bought the intricate piece last week, and now it was discounted 40 percent. She was probably relieved that she’d waited to make the purchase now.
The woman shook her head, and then wrapped her hand around Angela’s forearm. “You’re not going to believe this. I just bought one. Not nearly as pretty. Or nice. But cute. I was over at Christmas Galore and they had one for just nineteen ninety-nine. I mean, it’s plastic or resin or something, but it’s just for a few weeks anyway, right?”
“Nineteen?” Angela’s heart fell. “Um, yeah. Gosh, too bad.”
“I’m sick about it.”
So was Angela. She waited for Jean to gather her senses. For twenty bucks she could stick that bargain bin item in one of the kids’ rooms. This one was a real piece of art. Not some disposable trinket.
Jean had practically drooled over the artistry of the hand-carved wooden piece. The painted details made it uniquely different.
“Carved right here in the U.S.A,” Angela reminded her. But Jean seemed happy with her $19.99 Christmas Galore purchase.
“More money to spend on other things, right?” Jean looked embarrassed. “Christmas is really for the kids anyway.”
A little girl tugged on Jean’s purse. “Mom, can we have cookies?”
Angela turned to get cookies for the kids, more to hide the feeling in her gut than to be helpful.
“Thanks! These are so good, Mom.”
“They’ll be on a sugar high all day. They just had sno-cones over at Christmas Galore. That place is so much fun.”
The thought of that made Angela’s eye twitch.
The whole warehouse concept, stock to the ceiling and gaudy sale stickers, was everything Christmas was not supposed to be.
“Come see Snow Valley, Mom!” Jean let her children drag her toward the back, leaving a trail of their half-eaten cookies on the display tables along the way. Their high-pitched squeals could be heard all the way at the front of the store. No way did they have that much fun at Christmas Galore.
When Jean led her whole tribe out of Heart of Christmas an hour later without spending a dime, Angela’s knees threatened to buckle. Jean hadn’t even bought the ornaments that she’d mentioned getting.
Emma rushed over. “Was that Jean? I bet she was so excited about the carousel being on sale.”
“No.”
“What?”
Angela’s mouth went dry. “No. She didn’t buy a thing.”
“Nothing?” Emma looked totally perplexed.
“I know. I’m as surprised as you are. That carousel is a steal at a hundred and fifty.”
“Of course it is. Those are made one by one,” Emma agreed. “So why? I don’t get it. She almost bought it at twice that price last week.”
“She bought one for twenty bucks at—”
“At Christmas Galore. Oh no.” Emma grabbed Angela’s hand. “I was afraid of that. I saw their ad, but those are nothing like what we sell.”
“Apparently, that’s not the point.”
“What if people come in to play in our snow, but don’t buy anything?” Emma bit her lower lip.
Angela stroked the pricey hand-carved carousel. It was her favorite piece in the Christmas village too. She thought for sure Jean would be walking out with it today. She’d pretty much mentally deposited the check for it.
Christmas Galore was gobbling up her Christmas spirit, right along with her customers.
Angela tried to look at the bright side. “Christmas Galore is new and that will wear off. Things will soon be back to normal.”
“Do you really think so?” Emma asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “I really don’t.” She suddenly felt light-headed. “I need to sit down for a second.”
“Are you okay? Do you want me to get Marie?”
“No. Definitely don’t get Marie.” She blew out a loud breath. “I just need a minute.”
Emma laid her hand on Angela’s shoulder. “With all the online shopping and warehouse-type stores, there are so many choices. But with Christmas Galore right up the street? How do we compete with that?”
“That’s just it. I never wanted to compete. I wanted to carry on tradition. Quality products. Fair prices. Family values. Hard work. I guess it’s just not enough anymore.”
Emma spoke slowly. “You know what else is not enough?”
“What?”
“You. In this store. All the time. Angela, you need to get out and do some things for you. When was the last time you went on a date, or did something fun?”
“It’s been a while.”
“A while? I don’t think you’ve been on a date in the two years we’ve worked together. How do you do that? Do you even notice men anymore?”
“I noticed a handsome man yesterday. At the Crabby Coffee Pot.” She didn’t bother to tell Emma the rest of the story. It was too embarrassing.
“Wait a second. You were at Crabby’s? You never get coffee out.”
“I know. I was being adventurous. See. You don’t know everything.”
“Well, I do know that you worrying about this place isn’t going to save it. We’ve done everything we can do.”
Emma’s words weren’t comforting.
Angela had a hunch that the sales were not going to be up to par tonight. “Thanks for being my right hand around here.”
“It’s like getting paid to hang out with my bestie.” Emma hugged her. “Things will be okay no matter what happens with the store. You’ll see. Hey, we should have a snowball fight after we close tonight.”
“I call Jeremy on my team.” Angela knew Jeremy had pre-made snowballs stockpiled out there for the kids.
Emma laughed. “Fine by me. Guess you didn’t know that Stephanie is the pitcher on her softball team.”
“Just my luck,” Angela said. “Snowball fight at closing. Be there!”
“I’ll tell them.”
Angela walked over and relieved Stephanie at the register. “I’ve got this for a while. Why don’t you take a break?”
Things were so busy that when Stephanie came back it seemed like she’d just left.
When Brad walked in Angela couldn’t believe it was already four o’clock.
“I’m here to see if my girls can get away for some pizza,” Brad said.
“Yes!” Chrissy screamed. “I love pizza!”
“Come with us, sis,” Marie said.
Angela shook her head. “No. Y’all go and have some family time. Thanks for your help today. It’s been so fun having you here.”
Brad held up a finger. “But before we go, we need to visit the famous Snow Valley! I even brought jackets. They’re in the truck.” He swung Chrissy up onto his hip. “Come on! You ready?”
“Yee-ees!” Chrissy sang out as he swung her around and made a dash for the truck.
Marie laughed and nudged Angela. “If that man thinks I’m having a snowball fight, he’s got another think coming.”
“Oh, I’m pretty su
re you’re going to be in a snowball fight. There’s no stopping him. So you’d better just make your mind up to it.” Angela had to laugh. She knew Marie was not going to be a good sport about this. She had half a mind to join them just so she could see her reaction.
Brad came inside with Chrissy already wrapped up in her winter coat with fur-edged hood, and gloves. He’d tied a blue and black scarf around his neck, and had Marie’s winter coat over his arm.
Marie let Brad help her slip into her heavy wool pea coat, then drag her toward the door to Snow Valley.
“Help!” Marie waved her arms, pretending to resist.
Almost an hour later, Angela realized she hadn’t seen Marie, Brad and Chrissy come back through so she went out to Snow Valley to check on them. They were all three huddled around what looked like a two-foot Santa’s sleigh made out of snow. In the back of it were individual boxes and toys.
Marie’s back was to her and there was a big snowball splat right in the middle of her coat. It was good to know that Brad had lived through that.
She backed out without bothering them. If her sister and her family enjoyed Snow Valley, that was reason enough to have brought the project to life.
Seeing them had lifted Angela’s spirits like those man-made snowflakes drifting around in the blower as she walked back into the store.
“I was just looking for you,” Emma said. “Someone is asking about the music box. They want to know if it’s for sale.”
“Oh. Well. It’s always been just for display, but I can talk to them.”
“It’s that older couple over there. They just spent Thanksgiving with their daughter down the coast. She told them about the store,” Emma explained.
“Got it. Thanks.” Angela greeted the couple with a smile. “Hi. I’m Angela Carson. What can I help you with?”
The woman jumped right in. “Our daughter told us about this place. We’re on our way home, and she said we had to stop.”
“I’m so glad you did,” Angela said.
The music box was the size of an old record player, but made of a unique wood with beautiful grain. It had been in the store for as long as Angela could remember, just as decoration and a conversation starter.
She remembered Momma Grace being asked lots of times over the years if it were for sale, but she’d always declined. But this time … Angela knew she should let it go if the price was right.