Though Eliza was torn about leaving her daughter, she didn’t feel like she could deprive her of this fun. “Thank you,” she said to Sue. “I know you have plenty to do without babysitting, too.”
“Are you kidding? I’m not babysitting her, she’s helping me. Anyway, I love the company. Take all the time you need. There are a few nice shops in town you should check out while you’re there, especially if you need anything else on your Christmas list.”
Christmas. It always seemed like such an abstract concept until it started getting this close. The holiday was just around the corner, only five more days—this was Friday and Aidan’s family would be arriving the following Tuesday, the day before Christmas Eve.
She still had so much to do but as she walked through the house on her way to the garage, she couldn’t help admiring what she had accomplished so far.
She was far from an interior decorator but she did know the little touches that warmed up a room and made a guest feel welcome. A beautiful home wasn’t necessarily a gracious one and she wanted his family to remember how comfortable they felt at Snow Angel Cove.
To that end, she had made sure every bedroom had extra blankets, house slippers and fuzzy socks in various sizes, water carafes for the bedside tables, little baskets full of designer toiletries she had ordered rush delivery from the same supplier she had used at the hotel. She had carefully selected books and magazines for each room according to what she knew about his family and had worked late into the night making basic instruction manuals that explained in simple terms how to work the electronics, the wi-fi passwords and the gas fireplaces.
To make each room more festive, she and Maddie had spent a wonderful afternoon cutting boughs and glossy red winterberries from the abundant forested areas around the house and then arranging them on mantels and in containers on side tables. They had used extra to make wreaths to hang on some of the doors. Each room also contained a small four-foot Christmas tree, decorated with the individual guests in mind.
Would he like the little touches or would he think she had overstepped?
She supposed she would find out when he returned. If he had been here, she could have asked his opinion and at least had a little direction. Sue had approved of everything she had done, so Eliza had to hope she was on the right track.
If he hated everything, she could strip the house back to the cool, impersonal shell it had been four days ago.
A few moments later, she was pulling her SUV out of the garage and driving toward the town of Haven Point, some two miles away, feeling strange to be without Maddie.
The setting was spectacularly beautiful, with those commanding snow-covered mountains rising almost directly up from the other side of the brilliant blue lake.
With all this splendor to distract the eye, she didn’t know how people kept from driving off the road. Somehow she managed to make it to Haven Point without incident and drove down the appealing main street that curved around the lake.
She felt a pang as she passed the burned-out remains of the inn. How was Megan doing? she wondered. And what was she planning to do with the inn? She made a mental note to check in with her before she left Lake Haven.
She could have made a good life here with Maddie. Maybe they would have attended that charming little church on the lakeshore, with its Gothic stained glass windows and honey-gold brick. Maddie might have gone to the elementary school that rested on a hill overlooking the town and the lake. Eliza might have been on a first-name basis with the old-timers she saw talking to each other with elbows propped on the hood of a pickup truck in front of the feed store.
Maybe here she could have found the sense of belonging she and Maddie both needed.
In a perfect world, she would have been able to find another job here but she had scoured the online classified section of the community’s weekly newspaper and had come up with nothing but a few part-time, minimum wage retail jobs and a live-in companion to an elderly woman that specified Absolutely No Children, with several exclamation points.
She would figure something out. She had a couple of promising leads back in Boise already from some email inquiries she had sent out.
It only took a moment to pick up the two extra bedside lamps she had ordered for one of the guest suites that somehow didn’t have any, then she drove back to the small commercial center of Haven Point.
From what she could tell, McKenzie Shaw’s shop would be her best option for a few last-minute Christmas gifts.
She parked down the street and walked toward Point Made Flowers and Gifts, which was housed in a historic-looking redbrick building.
Chimes rang out like jingle bells as she pushed the door open. She was immediately greeted by a welcoming warmth and the cozy smell of cinnamon and apples, scents that conjured up home and hearth and old-fashioned Christmases.
Oh, this looked like just her kind of place, packed to the brim with clever little hard-to-find items. Oddly, the store appeared to be empty—except for a ginger-colored dog who rose to greet her.
The dog—a standard poodle wearing a bandana printed with gleaming green-and-gold Christmas ornaments—walked gracefully over to her, planted its haunches a few feet away and held up a hand just like a department store greeter.
“Hello. Are you in charge today?” she asked the dog, who seemed to give her an uncanny sort of grin.
Okay, strange. Where was McKenzie?
“Hello?” she called.
A moment later, a door in the back of the store popped open and McKenzie peeked her head around the frame. “Oh. I thought I heard the bell. Hi, Eliza! Great to see you! Welcome to Point Made.”
“Thanks. I’m in love with your shop.”
“Oh, thanks! I’m pretty crazy about it, too.”
“I finally found a minute to get away from Snow Angel Cove for a bit and take care of a little of my Christmas shopping.”
“This is the place for it. No Maddie today?”
Eliza shook her head. “I left her making sugar cookies with Sue.”
“Lucky girl. A sugar cookie would be fabulous right about now.”
“I’ll have her save you a few and we’ll drop them off next time we come to town.”
“That sounds like an excellent plan.” McKenzie gestured to the big poodle. “I see you’ve met Rika. Short for Paprika.”
“Yes. She was very polite and greeted me with a handshake.”
“She runs the place with an iron paw, don’t let all that charm fool you.”
Rika grinned at her owner then plopped down in a multicolored patch of sunlight coming through a display of stained glass sun catchers in the window.
Feminine laughter spilled out from the open doorway and what sounded like a good-natured argument. The mayor glanced back at the room and then at Eliza. “I’m so glad you stopped by today! What luck. You’re just in time for lunch!”
“I am?”
“Yes. Take off your coat and come grab a bowl of soup. Some of us in town get together regularly for a potluck lunch. It’s sort of an informal service club where we work on projects like crocheting afghans for the children’s hospital in Boise or sending care packages to members of the armed forces from the area. We call ourselves the Haven Helping Hands. I know, really lame name. I wanted to call it the Pointer Sisters but I was vetoed. Apparently that’s already taken.”
“I like the Pointer Sisters. The musical group and the name, for what it’s worth.”
The incoming mayor beamed. “Thank you! I knew I liked you for a reason. Come on back.