The Christmas Quandary: Sweet Historical Holiday Romance (Hardman Holidays Book 5) by Shanna Hatfield

Author:Shanna Hatfield [Hatfield, Shanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shanna Hatfield
Published: 2016-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“You can’t enter.”

“I can, too!”

“I’ll tell Ma if you do.” Alice Bruner glared at her brother as they approached the school. Tom just happened to be walking over from the teacher’s house and overhead their conversation.

“What are you not entering, Percy?” he asked, clapping a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“A contest at the store. Ma and Pop are giving away a camera as a prize. Everyone who spends a dollar at the store is entered in the drawing. I really want a camera, so I don’t see why I can’t enter.” Percy frowned at his younger sister.

The little girl fisted her hands on her hips and got a look on her face that put Tom in mind of the child’s mother. “You can’t enter the contest, you big dummy, because it’s our store! Maybe if you weren’t so ornery, Saint Nicholas would bring you one for Christmas.”

Percy smirked. “If I have to wait for Saint Nicholas to deliver what I want, I’ll never get anything, little miss bossy britches.”

Alice huffed. “Call me all the names you want, but you still can’t enter the contest. Ma and Pop both said so.”

Percy looked to Tom. “What do you think, teacher?”

“I think you should listen to your parents, Percy. It wouldn’t be right for you to win one of their drawings. Have you expressed your interest in photography to them?”

“Nah.” The boy scuffed his toe in the snow. “I figured they’d think it was silly.”

“I don’t think it’s silly in the least,” Tom said. “In fact, some very famous people are photographers like Matthew Brady and Edward S. Curtis. There’s even a man in New York who started a service of sharing photographs with newspapers to accompany news articles.”

Percy’s eyes widened. “So you don’t think it’s stupid to like photographs?”

Tom shook his head and started up the school steps. “Not at all, Percy. In fact, I think it is quite an interesting career. If you’d like to know more about it, I could make a few contacts for you.”

The boy grinned. “Thanks, Tom, er… I mean, Mr. Grove. That’s swell.”

Tom smiled. “Just behave yourself.”

“Yes, sir.” Percy took his sister’s things and carried them inside before returning outside to play.

Tom stoked the fire he’d built in the stove then opened the book containing his lesson plans. He picked up a piece of chalk and began writing the morning’s lessons on the blackboard behind his desk.

As he worked, his mind drifted to Lila. Since Emerson arrived on Saturday, he’d made a point to stay away from her. He sat behind her at church Sunday, watching Emerson attentively glued to her side.

Despite how much he wanted to hate the man, Emerson Lylan seemed like a perfectly respectable, entirely likeable person. Rather than put on airs, he had greeted everyone with genuine interest and friendly consideration.

In the past few days, Filly or Luke had escorted Maura to school and walked her home afterward. Tom assumed Lila spent every moment she could with Emerson.

He wondered when the announcement would come that they were returning to New York.

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