Snowflakes & Sawdust by Harper Pugh & Heather C. Myers

Author:Harper Pugh & Heather C. Myers [Pugh, Harper & Myers, Heather C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grey Star Publishing, LLC

Chapter 12

Boyd

The sketch lay in front of me on the workbench, a rough blueprint for Lucy’s cocoa stand. Nothing fancy—just some clean lines, a decent counter, a roof pitched enough to keep snow from piling too heavy. My tools sat ready, lined up like soldiers, the wood stacked neat against the wall. Everything I needed was here. Everything except the one thing I couldn’t cut or hammer into place: permission.

I stared at the drawing, jaw tight. The town had gotten picky since the new zoning rules. Too picky. Paperwork, permits, hoops to jump through. Lucy hadn’t said it outright, but I knew—if she wanted this stand to last, it had to be legit. Otherwise, Joyce or some other clipboard-wielding Christmas buzzkill would shut her down again.

I set the pencil aside, rubbed a hand over my face, and muttered, “Hell.”

This was stupid. She didn’t need me marching down to city hall like some damn bodyguard. She didn’t need me at all. She’d been making cocoa and stringing lights since before I even set foot back in this town. She had sunshine and grit enough to outlast all of them.

But damned if I was gonna let her jump through those hoops alone.

The thought of her standing there—bright smile dimming under some official’s cold glare, just like when Joyce made her pack up in the square—made my gut twist. I’d seen her try to hide that sting, laugh it off, keep pouring cocoa like her heart wasn’t breaking. And I couldn’t get the image out of my head.

I shoved the sketch aside and grabbed my keys off the peg by the door. Didn’t tell her where I was going. Didn’t give myself the chance to think twice. Just headed out, boots heavy on the porch steps, the cold biting at my face.

Maybe I was crazy, maybe I was crossing some line, but the truth was simple: she deserved better than brick walls and red tape. If I had to glare down every clerk in city hall to make sure her stand had a place, then so be it.

I slid behind the wheel of the truck, engine rumbling to life. “Don’t need me, huh?” I muttered to the windshield. “Then why the hell can’t I stay out of it?”

The truck rumbled steady under me as I headed into town, tires crunching over half-plowed roads. Everything looked the same as it always had. The same storefronts, same cracked sidewalks, same church steeple poking at the winter sky. But it all felt heavier somehow, like the snow pressing down on every roof had settled on my shoulders too.

I passed the diner, its windows fogged with breakfast steam. Folks inside hunched over coffee cups, laughing easy. The bell tower of the church stood tall just beyond, white paint peeling the way it always had. And then the war memorial came into view, squatting in the square like a shadow that never left. My gut tightened.

A kid on a bike slowed as I drove past, his scarf trailing behind him.

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