Christmas at Cozy Holly Inn by Meredith Summers

Author:Meredith Summers [Summers, Meredith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Leighann Dobbs

Chapter 20

Nolan considered himself lucky that he’d even managed to find some vestige of the family’s old Christmas decorations, let alone that he hadn’t had his dad or Gramps breathing down his neck while he did it. Maybe he should have been more suspicious. The only box of Christmas decorations he’d been able to find had been the ones his mom had loved the best.

Most of these were ornaments for the tree. Crafts that he’d made during elementary school, small little gingerbread figures, the angel tree topper she’d loved so much. Handling each of the carefully wrapped ornaments made his chest ache. He missed his mom on and off during the year, but seeing these ornaments made it particularly hit home that she was gone. When he searched deeper into the box, he found more of her favorite decorations. Little figurines of Santa and reindeer, elves and snowmen, and especially more gingerbread men. These, he pulled out of the box and carried downstairs, arranging them in the public areas.

Gramps came into the room as Nolan was placing the second-to-last one on the mantel alongside a snow globe. His expression, already pinched with anger, darkened. He picked the porcelain gingerbread man up off the end table. “What is this doing out?”

“I put it there.”

The words resonated between them. Gramps must have heard the urgency in Nolan’s voice because his expression was less angry when he turned to look at Nolan.

Quieter, Nolan said, “They were Mom’s.”

Gramps didn’t look any happier. He didn’t put the decoration down, but he gentled his hold on it, almost cradling it to his chest.

Nolan looked at the snowman in his hand and set it down carefully. “The guests have been asking why the house isn’t decorated.”

“It isn’t decorated because we don’t want to decorate. It’s our inn, our choice.”

Nolan wanted to tell his grandfather that he wanted to decorate. That it would help business but also their mental health. But the pinched look of grief on his grandfather’s face stopped him.

Snowball, who had been lounging on the ground by the fireplace, sensed Nolan’s mood and shot to her feet. She trotted to him and leaned against his leg. Her support meant something, even if it wouldn’t give his argument weight.

Gramps looked around, his expression changing from grief to anger and back again as he looked at the decorations Nolan had put out. “Put them back in the attic.” He turned to the next-nearest decoration, a sleigh pulled by reindeer, and grabbed that one too.

“Don’t.” Nolan swallowed and added, “Please don’t.”

It didn’t seem to help. Gramps pretended not to hear.

Nolan raised his voice. “The guests heard about the Christmas Eve party at the Cozy Holly Inn. They want to know whether we’re throwing one too.”

“We’re not.” The two words might as well have been carved from stone, they were as friendly and as immovable.

“I know that, but we have to give them something. A few decorations here and there in the public areas will appease them. It’ll bring them back another time.

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