We Need a Little Christmas (7 page)

Chapter 7

Liv followed the two men as they set the Christmas tree boxes on top of the check-in counter in the hotel lobby.

Lobby
didn't really describe the front area of The Snowed Inn.

With everything that had happened this week, Christmas had only peripherally entered Liv's mind. That changed when she walked through the door. The scents of pine, cinnamon, and crackling logs embraced her. Pine garland, red berries, and white lights served as accents on every available surface, from the mantel of the fireplace on the left wall to the banister of the curved staircase in the center of the room. A big Christmas tree stood next to the stairs, tinsel shimmering from every branch. Strung popcorn wrapped around the tree from top to bottom. Without thinking, Liv reached out and fingered one of the puffs of popcorn. Sure enough, it was real. She couldn't help but smile.

“I think she likes it.” Scotty's voice pulled her attention past the tree, where he and Jake still stood by the gleaming dark wood check-in counter.

Liv stepped forward to join them, but she had trouble keeping her eyes still. A six-foot nutcracker figure stood guard on the other side of the stairs, and the half of the lobby to the soldier's right was filled with cozy-looking chairs and sofas, as well as a second fireplace. Reluctantly, Liv dragged her eyes away from the unexplored half of the inviting room, joining Scotty and Jake by the counter.

“Thanks for the trees,” Jake was saying. “How did we luck into two?”

She tried to think of the simplest way to condense the story. “We were going through my grandmother's things. Scotty said this would be a good home for them.”

“This is Liv Tomblyn,” Scott said belatedly. “She's—”

“Olivia Neuenschwander's granddaughter. Of course,” Jake said, as if he should have known all along.

“You knew Nammy, too?” She was just about positive she'd never seen him before. And somehow, as friendly as he seemed, he didn't quite feel like a Tall Pine native.

“Mandy did. Mrs. Neuenschwander was one of her best customers at the Christmas store.”

The Christmas store. Mandy Claus. Memories started to take shape in Liv's mind.

“I'm sorry about your grandma,” Jake was saying. “I know she was over eighty, but things like this are never easy.”

Yesterday so many people at the memorial had told her how nice it was that Nammy had stayed active up to the end, that she hadn't been sick. Other than her family, Jake and Scotty were the only people who hadn't tried to gloss over her grandmother's death with a well-meaning platitude.

“Thanks,” Liv said, and meant it.

“So,” Scott said. “About that nickel tour.”

A door behind the counter opened, and a pretty dark-haired woman came in through it.

“Mandy,” Jake called across the counter. “Two more trees.”

The woman's face lit up in a ready smile, and Liv recognized her. Yes, it was
that
Mandy. They'd been in the same grade all through school. Somewhere around third or fourth grade, Mandy had made the local news when she told everyone she'd seen Santa Claus in her living room. Years of teasing had followed, and Liv remembered her as sweet but shy.

Mandy still looked sweet, and she might still be shy, but her smile was warm and easy as she came around the counter to join Jake. “Are these from you?” She looked from Liv to the boxes. Then back to Liv as recognition filled her eyes.

Liv said, “Hi, Mandy.”

“Liv.” Mandy abandoned the boxes and headed straight for Liv. “I'm so sorry about your grandma. I would have been there yesterday, but Mrs. Swanson asked me to fill in for her at the Christmas store. She didn't want to miss the memorial.”

Mandy reached Liv, and they had that awkward moment of
Do-we-hug-or-don't-we?

“Thanks,” Liv said, and then took the hug.

“I worked at The North Pole shop until last year,” Mandy said as she stepped back. “Olivia could never resist anything with a little red-haired girl. She talked about you and Rachel all the time. You've got—what is it, an interior design business?”

Apparently Nammy had a
lot
of trouble getting Liv's line of work across to people. “Home organizing. It's a little hard to explain.”

Mandy looked puzzled, but beside her, Jake was nodding. So, at least one person in Tall Pine had heard of such a thing. Definitely not from around here, Liv decided.

“She specializes in closets,” Scotty put in, although Liv was pretty sure he was still unclear on the concept. At least this time he wasn't making fun.

“I think she said you were opening a chain of them?” Mandy asked.

“We just opened a storefront about two years ago, that's all.” It seemed Nammy had gone around telling people she could fly.

“Everybody always knew you'd do well,” Mandy said.

Liv felt her face warm. She'd heard a lot of
that
yesterday, too. Voted most likely to succeed in the yearbook, alongside Mark Knopp. He'd been accepted at UC Berkeley and, as far as she knew, he hadn't been heard from since. Maybe he'd invented some kind of new computer superconductor that people relied on every day without ever realizing it was there. Or maybe Mark had just figured that it was easier to meet expectations when you weren't around.

“About that grand tour,” Scott said again.

“About the Christmas trees,” Liv began, at the same time.

Scott nodded at her, as if yielding the right-of-way. “Go ahead.”

“What kind of trees are they?” Mandy asked. “Why did she have two?”

Liv stepped forward and fingered the brittle old blue-and-white box. If anyone could appreciate this tree, it was probably Mandy. “It's one of those old silver aluminum trees—”

“With the wheel that makes it change colors?” Mandy looked fascinated.

Liv caught a glimpse of Jake's face behind Mandy, his brow furrowing dubiously.

* * *

The nickel tour of The Snowed Inn turned out to be well worth the trip.

Jake and Mandy led them through each of the guest rooms upstairs, all currently vacant following the weekend crowd. Each room had a different decorating theme. The “Reindeer Room” featured reindeer figures and fabric patterns. “White Christmas” had a snowflake motif, with pine cones and gold accents to add color. “Heart of Christmas” was accented with red hearts on blankets, throw pillows, and a lovely quilted bedspread. At the far end of the hallway, a honeymoon suite was decorated in white lights and antique lace.

“Most of the rooms have Christmas trees,” Mandy said. “But we're still short a few, and I really wanted to have one for every room in time for Christmas, so you're a lifesaver.”

“After Christmas, will you take down the trees?”

Mandy and Jake exchanged glances.

“We're still talking about that,” Jake said. “Obviously, Christmas never ends here. But having trees up just in December might keep the Christmas season a little more special.”

“But since the guests aren't here year-round, the trees would be special year-round,” Mandy said.

Jake smiled; it was obviously an ongoing discussion. “We'll talk about it in January.”

Through most of the tour, Scotty hung back. Of course, he'd seen it before. And, as Jake and Mandy frequently pointed out, he'd installed a lot of the inner workings: wood-burning stoves, old-fashioned pedestal sinks, and all of the bathroom flooring, using brick or stone instead of the usual tile.

Another Mandy touch: decorative air fresheners gave off holiday scents like cinnamon, cider, pine, cookies, or apple pie.

“I can't handle the cookie or pie scents for too long,” Jake said.

“They make him hungry,” Mandy said.

They didn't quite finish each other's sentences, but the connection between them was obvious. Coming back down the stairs, Mandy led them to a set of double doors leading off the lobby. “This room is Jake's baby. We call it the Man Cave.”

“I got to thinking some people—husbands, especially—might like a place they could go that's a little less Christmas-centric. So we did this.”

The doors opened onto a large room where red and green gave way to earthier tones: a brown leather sofa, two easy chairs to match, and a bookcase on one wall loaded with volumes that didn't look like the usual
Reader's Digest
condensed books some people used as decorating props. A cabinet in the center of the bookcase wall held a flat-screen television. Another cabinet door opened to reveal a movie collection that filled several shelves.

In one corner stood a single concession to Christmas: a tall, skinny artificial pine tree decorated only with pine cones.

“Another handy feature,” Jake said, “is it's really easy to get a conference table in here to use it for a meeting room.”

“And do
you
hang out here a lot?”

“I thought I might, back when we were planning it. But in point of fact, no. For one thing, I'm usually too busy. For another”—he shrugged, casting a look Mandy's way—“the hotel's a home away from home. We wanted to give it that Christmas warmth, and I think we succeeded. I like it here and—no, I really don't burn out.”

Jake led the way out to the unexplored section of the lobby, with all the tables and cushiony chairs. “Now, in here, we have Mandy's pride and joy. We just started this up last week.”

A counter ran along the back of the room with several tall stools and a window for taking orders. “A hot drink bar,” Mandy explained. “For coffee and hot chocolate. Jake didn't start off to go into the restaurant business, but I thought it would be a cozy touch.”

“And Mandy makes the world's best hot chocolate,” Jake added, standing next to his wife. “We just got this part going last week. We learned a lot about food service regulations.” They exchanged a visible shudder.

“Care for a cup?” Mandy offered. “On the house?”

And Liv remembered, reluctantly, to check the time on her cell phone. No reception bars in here either. But the time made her cringe with guilt. She'd left Mom and Rachel for too long, and surely Scotty had work to do, too.

“We'd better get going,” she said reluctantly.

She directed a look up at Scott, who nodded. He'd been so gregarious in high school, always joking. It surprised her how quiet he could be. Had he changed, or had she known him that little?

On their way out, Liv took one more look back at the blue-and-white box on the counter, next to the other tree's much-newer box. It looked like a cast-off.

If there was a right place to leave the silver tree, it was here. It was just hard to leave it at all. Liv reminded herself of what she told her clients:
You can't keep everything.

But for the first time in an hour, she felt melancholy grip her again. The little side trip to the Christmas inn had been a refreshing break, but she didn't know if it would make getting back to work any easier. A lot of tough decisions lay ahead at Nammy's house. Tough not just on her, but on Mom and Rachel, too.

She turned away resolutely and walked out through the door Scott held open for her.

She tried to concentrate on the present. “Thanks for bringing me,” she said. “It sounds like you're responsible for half the innards of the hotel.”

“Thanks.” He tipped up a crooked grin at her. “Nobody notices the insides. Except when they're out of order.”

They started back toward the truck. “How long have Mandy and Jake been married?” Liv asked.

“About a year and a half, I think.”

“Is Mandy pregnant?” Something about the way she looked reminded Liv of Rachel, and that clichéd glow that pregnant women were supposed to have.

“Not that I know of,” Scott said. “Although people around town are always taking bets on how soon that's going to happen.”

He pulled the passenger door open for her, and she tried not to look back at the rough wooden door of the hotel. It didn't help. In her mind's eye, she could still see the abandoned box on the counter.

Hopefully The Snowed Inn and its clientele would get some enjoyment out of it. But they wouldn't have the memories. She could still see the way the tree had looked from her vantage point on Nammy's living room floor, the changing colors washing over the fake silver needles, the mysterious boxes of presents underneath. And Rachel beside her, always goading her to peek . . .

She didn't need the tree.

Where would she put it?

Staring straight ahead, she bit her lip.

“Liv?” She heard Scotty's voice beside her and realized he hadn't started the truck. “Are you okay?”

It must be the thirtieth time she'd heard that question in two days. It was the second time she'd heard it from Scotty.

It must have been one time too many.

All at once, the snow-frosted roof of the hotel outside Scotty's windshield blurred, and a sob rushed out of her. Liv's hands flew up to cover her face. But once the first sob escaped, she couldn't hold the others back. She bent forward, as if she could hide. She couldn't make herself stop. But she hated to have people see her cry.

“Hey.” She felt Scotty's arms fold around her, pulling her against the soft down of his vest, and she buried her face there, surrounded by her own muffled sobs. Every time she tried to stop, they came back harder. It was like trying to hold your breath when you'd just run ten miles.

Eventually, that was what slowed her down: exhaustion.

She finally reached a point where she stopped to catch her breath, still pressing her face to Scotty's vest, mortified. How long had he sat there while she blubbered all over him? All without squirming or, heaven forbid, making some trademark Scotty Leroux joke.