Christmas at Holiday House - RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,19
dragging her into this without giving her the full picture.
“Yes, but they’re all doing other things to make Christmas at Holiday House a success. I already told everyone I could handle getting the house ready.”
“That was likely before your accident. They can’t expect you to put up a Christmas tree in your condition.”
“Will you at least think about it? After dinner you can take a tour of the house and see what most needs to be done to spruce things up a little. It’s not really all that much. Maybe Christopher can even help you. What kid doesn’t like decorating a Christmas tree? I have a dozen of them.”
A dozen Christmas trees. Oh, mercy.
On the other hand, Abby had wanted to give her son a traditional Christmas. What was more traditional than decorating a beautiful old Victorian mansion for the holidays, especially when it was for a good cause?
Still, she was ridiculously underqualified for such a job. Winnie would be better off with someone else to help her. Anyone else.
The timer on her watch suddenly went off. “Oh. That’s the turkey. It’s time to take it out.”
“That means everyone will be here soon. I should probably freshen up a bit before my friends get here.”
“I think you’re lovely the way you are, but I can help you to your room after I take the turkey out. Just give me a moment.”
She hurried to lift the giant turkey roaster out of the oven. If she did say so herself, the bird looked beautiful, the skin crispy and golden. It also smelled heavenly. She set it on the counter and tented it with the foil she had already prepared, then returned to help Winnie up.
“I’ll try not to wake Christopher.”
“It doesn’t matter if you do,” Abby answered. “He needs to change his shirt and comb his hair, anyway.”
With Abby’s help, Winnie rose with the walker they had discovered worked better than crutches for her sprained ankle.
“I can spot you.”
“Not necessary,” Winnie said as she made her slow, painstaking way toward her bedroom. The walker caught on the edge of the throw rug, though, and she started to stumble.
Abby hurried to her side. “I’ve got you. It might be easier if I help you. Take my arm.”
Winnie slipped her arm through Abby’s and hobbled toward her bedroom.
“I hate growing old,” she muttered.
“You’re not old,” Christopher said sleepily, appearing at Winnie’s other side. Abby hadn’t even heard her son wake up. “I think you’re perfect.”
Winnie chuckled. “Oh, you are a charmer, young man. Do you want to know what I’m most thankful for this year? That you and your mama have come to visit me. I love having new life in my old house.”
After Abby and Christopher helped her into her room, the corgis close behind, Abby took her son into their own room so they could change and she could comb his hair.
She couldn’t stop thinking about what Winnie had asked her. Holiday House was huge and she had seen only a small portion of it. The task of decorating this massive space for holiday tours seemed so far beyond her abilities that it was almost laughable.
Winnie needed her help, though. It was for a good cause. She could at least give it a try.
She had been looking for new opportunities to stretch herself. She just never thought those opportunities would involve Christmas trees and a huge Victorian mansion.
Four
“Everything looks so delicious. I can’t
believe you did all this today.”
Winnie’s friend Sofia, a cheerful, stylishly dressed woman with salt-and-pepper hair and warm brown eyes, beamed at Abby from across the heavily laden dining table.
“Winnie called all the shots,” Abby assured her. “I only followed directions.”
“I’ve learned it’s best in all situations to just do what Winnie tells you,” another friend whose name she couldn’t remember piped up.
“True enough,” the woman’s husband said with a laugh. “If I hadn’t listened to Winnie, I never would have asked out Teresa. After my divorce, I was done with romance. Winnie kept trying to tell me she knew the perfect woman for me, but I wouldn’t listen to her. Guess what? Turned out she was right.”
He squeezed the woman’s hand with such tenderness Abby’s heart seemed to sigh.
She loved seeing people in happy relationships. It gave her hope for the world and hope that maybe she might be able to find that again someday.
Someday. Not yet. She wasn’t ready for love again. Sometimes she felt like she was still reeling from losing Kevin. She had thought they would