The Gift of a Charm by Melissa Hill

Author:Melissa Hill
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466888999
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter 18

The following evening, as promised, Holly and Danny went on the hunt for their first proper Christmas tree.

After work, she picked him up from school and they scanned the nearby streets for Christmas-tree vendors close to home.

‘There’s one,’ Danny called out, pulling Holly in the direction of one of the bodegas renting out their sidewalk space to a tree vendor.

‘They look like they have plenty, honey – slow down.’

Holly released his hand and let him spin away from her. She smiled as he raced ahead.

He was literally jumping up and down in front of a huge spruce tree when she finally made it up the block after him.

‘This is it, Mom. This is the one!’ he said excitedly, pointing at it.

She shook her head. ‘Danny, it must be seven feet tall. How big do you think the apartment is, let alone how wide…?’

Suddenly, a young man appeared from the depth of the trees. He was bundled up from head to toe in warm clothes so that only his frosted-up glasses showed.

‘Do you want me to pull it out for you, ma’am?’ he asked.

‘Yes!’ said Danny. ‘Yes, yes, yes!’

Before Holly could protest, the man had pulled the tree off the wooden bar it was leaning on and was shaking it out for them to inspect.

‘Perfect,’ Danny proclaimed.

‘Too tall,’ she insisted.

‘I can cut her down a bit for you and trim the top?’ the man asked hopefully.

Danny turned to her with pleading eyes. Holly looked from the tree to her son then back to the tree again.

‘Fine,’ she sighed, unable to resist that look. ‘Can you whittle it down at least a foot?’ she asked the vendor. He nodded and disappeared with the tree; they heard the saw start as he went to work.

Danny was so excited he was fit to burst. ‘Ornaments, Mom, what about ornaments?’ he asked.

Holly hadn’t even thought of that; they really didn’t have any. Well, they had a few, to hang on a garland, ones that Danny made at school.

‘I guess we could stop in on Frank and see if he has any?’ she suggested. Encore really was more of a thrift store than a clothing store anyway, despite the spin Frank tried to put on it.

Danny nodded enthusiastically and Holly waited for the young man to reappear with the shortened-down tree. When he did so, the spruce did indeed look much more manageable and Holly was relieved. She paid for it and he agreed to hold it while they went round the corner to find ornaments.

She and Danny made the short walk over to Encore. Frank was rearranging some clothing racks and glaring at a pair of teenage girls who seemed more interested in trying on old clothes and laughing at each other than actually buying them.

‘Paying customers, I hope?’ he announced pointedly as Holly and Danny approached him. The girls ignored him and continued to pull things off the rack.

Holly realised she would have to rescue him. She went up to one of the girls and studied the leather jacket she was trying on.

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