The Holiday Shoppe by Susan Hatler

Author:Susan Hatler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hatco Publishing

Chapter Seven

Two days later, I stood in the back office at the Main Street Mini-Mart, glaring at my brother while my mom stared at her hands, which were neatly folded on the table. We’d had many conversations at this table over the years and many breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, but that was all coming to an end. I didn’t want to hear that, either. Part of me knew I was in denial, but the other part of me preferred to stay that way.

“I just don’t see that we have a choice anymore,” Chuck said, pinching the bridge of his nose and wincing. My brother sounded exhausted and defeated. But that didn’t stop the denial part of me from freaking out on him.

“Of course we have a choice!” I exclaimed, thrusting my arms out in both directions. “We don’t have to sign those papers. We never have to. There’s nothing that says—”

“There’s plenty that says, Anna.” Mom reached over and squeezed my arm, the weariness in her voice reminding me how hard we’d fought to keep the mini-mart. Deep down, I knew my brother was doing his best under the devastating circumstances we’d been dealt. “The bill collectors are going to take the business from us if we don’t sell. We have no other choice. If we sell, we’ll at least walk away debt free and with some retirement money,” she said.

“I just need a little more time,” I pleaded.

“What for?” she asked, her eyes wide as she looked over at me from her seat at the table where she had papers spread out before her, including bills. Lots of bills. Oh, so many bills.

I hesitated for a moment. Should I tell her about my plan to convince Peter not to make a single change to the store in the name of tradition? Neither of them had a clue about my plan since I figured it was better not to involve them in such a “scheme” as Michelle had put it. Maybe I should come clean, but it felt wrong that I’d been spending time with Peter for any reason other than that he was a wonderful guy. I felt so confused.

“Ugh.” I slumped down into the chair next to my mom, rubbed my hands over my face, and then stared at the contract laid out on the table. I couldn’t believe it had come to this. I couldn’t believe we were really selling the mini-mart.

“Are you sure there’s nothing else we can do?” I asked, gazing into her eyes and searching for any semblance of hope. But she just looked tired, as though she wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and not come out for a month. I could relate to how she felt.

Trying to hold on to the store and keep the creditors at bay for the last month had taken its toll on me, too. This was supposed to be the season of joy, and yet we’d been dealing with so much grief. We couldn’t even

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