Elliott guided Hannah as she spun the glass on the end of the stick. From behind her, his muscles gave her a steady place to rest as they moved the pipe and formed the shape.
Katie wasn’t sure what Hannah was feeling at the moment, but to Katie it looked like a very physical process. “I’ve never seen this before. It’s absolutely mesmerizing,” she said to Megan.
“Yeah. It is.” Megan walked over to help Elliott and Hannah.
Both wearing protective glasses, they looked like two love bugs. Elliott helped Hannah take over, him guiding her diligent attempt to roll the pipe shaping the form.
She leaned against him, and Elliott snuck a glance from over her shoulder. “Oh. You’re a natural at this.” Hannah concentrated on the work as he helped smooth her move by placing his hands on her elbows. “Great job.”
She giggled nervously, never taking her eyes off the glass. “Well, I want it to be special, just like the snow globe always was.”
Katie could see how important it was to Hannah. Not just a prop, but tradition. She felt bad for making light of the snow globe now. She hadn’t been fair to Ben.
It was telling that since the snow globe broke there had been no less than a dozen people trying to help put all the pieces back together, be it by consoling Hannah for breaking it or the crafters trying to do the repairs. Actual magic or not, that snow globe meant something to this town, and really, wasn’t that what all magic started with, anyway? Believing?
She regretted her snarky remarks to Ben. Sometimes sarcasm got her into trouble. She hadn’t meant to be mean, but she hadn’t been understanding of his ties to his hometown, either.
Elliott blew the glass, and Hannah spun the pipe to keep it moving at a nice, steady pace to keep the fiery mass round.
Elliott and Hannah both glanced up as Megan measured the clear glass bubble that had formed at the end and then said, “We’re right where we need to be.”
“Ready?” Hannah looked up expectantly.
“Yes.” Megan suited up in big, heavy gloves to help them through the last steps. Then with one well-placed tap, the new globe dropped into Megan’s gloved hands. “Now, we just let it cool, and then sand down the bottom.” Megan put the globe on the cooling rack, then walked over to the finishing area and lifted two boxes of completed Christmas ornaments into the air. “Word around town is Daisy’s Country Store could use some help with their tree this morning. Who else wants to help?”
“We’ll help,” Elliott answered for himself and Hannah.
Katie slapped her notebook closed. “Yeah, let’s go!”
As the sun set, others who’d joined in to help decorate the balsam fir in front of Daisy’s Country Store had left, leaving Katie with Lisa to finish the job. It was a delightful surprise for Katie when six o’clock rolled around and all at once the white lights came on, outlining every single building in town for as far as she could see.
Lisa raised her hand in the air. “And this is just one more reason I love this town so much.”
“It is…” She stopped short of saying “magical.” What was the right word?
“Surprising. Right?”
“Yes,” Katie agreed. At every turn, Evergreen was most surely surprising. She felt like a kid again, excited and anticipating something special. “You’re so good at this,” she remarked.
Lisa laughed, then realized Katie wasn’t joking. “You didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Before I bought the store, I used to stage stores for a living. Christmas was our specialty. Our business was based in Boston, but we traveled all over.”
“Well, no wonder. It’s like you know exactly where to put everything to make it go from good to amazing.”
Lisa moved one of the big poinsettias. “Ah, well, I’ll share a little secret with you. You see, the trick is to place things just a bit off-kilter. It attracts attention that way. If you ask me, symmetry is just lazy design.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good to know. I’ve been doing it all wrong.”
“Now you know.”
“How about I stick to putting the hangers on the ornaments and let you do the magic?”
“Works for me.” Lisa moved a couple of ornaments, then tucked a red one in the open spot before stepping back and giving the placement an appreciative glance.
“So you lived in Boston. We’re kindred spirits. A couple of city girls.”
Lisa nodded. “Yep. I lived here for a while, but then we moved away, and I always had such