Silver Hills’ Christmas Miracle: A Small-Town Military Romance by Ava Gray

Author:Ava Gray [Gray, Ava]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

17

KITTY

On paper, inviting the entire town to the Yuletide Ball was an easy and simple task. In reality, it was painfully different and with time rapidly ticking by, I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get it all done in time.

My mother moved the party from the small ballroom to the gigantic one at the back of the manor which hadn’t been used in years. The cleanup alone took a couple of days, and we definitely didn’t have them to spare. Moving all the tables and decorations from one room to the other also highlighted just how different the guest list was. What had once been maybe eighty people with more money than sense had turned into a couple of hundred, and we were severely underprepared this late in the game.

I spent an entire afternoon hunting down extra tables and chairs since having extras brought from my parents’ penthouse in the city felt like a disservice to everything I was trying to do. In the end, I was able to gather all the spare seating from the community center, and the last few tables were purchased from the town’s furniture store. Rather fitting, I decided.

Through all the rapid planning and changes, Rook was by my side, and his presence was the only thing stopping me from going insane when we got a delivery of three hundred forks and spoons but no knives. Tracking those down had been a laugh. His presence was calming, and whenever I felt like I was getting overwhelmed, a glance in his direction and a few minutes cuddling it out in a cupboard did wonders for my mental state.

Then, my favorite day arrived. It was time to decorate the Christmas trees, and while my mother had hired a team to do it for her, they hadn’t been prepared for the extra trees needed to fill the new ballroom. That was where she and I came in.

Decorating the tree had always been my favorite pastime as a child, but when my mother stood in front of me with a handful of baubles and asked me to help her, I suddenly felt five years old again and struggled to say yes without crying.

It was the first time I’d spent prolonged time with my mom just doing something fun, and I loved it. Christmas music played softly through the air, and the only noise was the soft hum of conversation on the opposite side of the room as Mom’s team set about decorating the trees lining the wall over that side. Mom and I took the side where each tree stood proudly between the windows. We worked in a line.

First went the spray snow. Then came the lights, and due to the size of the trees, we needed help putting on the lights. So, putting on the lights turned into sitting in the corner eating sandwiches for lunch with Rook while the hired professionals did that for us. The same for the tinsel. Decorating multiple eight-foot trees by hand was undoubtedly a challenge.

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