Time After Time (Sweetbriar Cove #14) - Melody Grace Page 0,65
handing out assignments as Griffin and Fraser hauled boxes over from the Town Hall. Even the newcomer, Noah, had been roped in to helping out, and was currently up a ladder, festooning the gazebo with sheaves of wheat.
“You missed a spot!” Mackenzie called up to her cousin, who responded by tossing a sheaf at her head. She ducked, laughing. “Let me guess, Debra volunteered you?”
“Yup,” Noah called down. “Figured I’d get my town duties over with, before she gets big ideas about Christmas, too.”
Mackenzie smirked, lowering her voice as she turned back to Stella. “Nobody tell him this is actually an audition. I bet you ten bucks he’ll be dressed up as the town Santa before it even starts to snow.”
Stella laughed. “Hank will be relieved. He’s been trying to retire his red suit for years!”
“My poor cousin has no idea what he’s in for, moving back here.” Mackenzie rubbed her hands together cheerfully. “I can’t wait.”
“You guys are on decorative gourd duty,” Franny informed them, pointing them over to the boxes of produce. “Remember, you can never have too much holiday cheer!”
“Yes ma’am.”
“I’ve always wondered, what’s the difference between a pumpkin and a gourd?” Stella mused, as they hauled their load over to the far side of the square.
“One won’t give you nightmares,” Jenny replied. “At least, not the way Mac carves them. She’s a terror.”
“Why, thank you!” Mackenzie did a little bow. She’d scooped up first place in the Halloween Horror contest with her ghoulish caricatures.
“So, how are things going with Aidan?” Jenny steered the conversation back as they began setting out the decorations beside benches and on the picnic tables. “You guys are keeping it very low-key.”
“She’s right.” Mackenzie agreed. “I ran into Aunt June the other day, and she had absolutely no new gossip to share about you two.”
“That’s the point.” Stella replied. “You know I don’t like the spotlight. But…”
“But…” her friends prompted, and Stella couldn’t hide the smile that spread across her face, just thinking about him.
“I’m… having a good time,” she said shyly.
“Good?” Jenny echoed. “C’mon, don’t be coy. That smile is worth a ‘great’, at the very least.”
“OK, OK!” Stella had to interrupt them, laughing. “Let’s just say… I’m perfectly satisfied. In every sense of the word.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Mackenzie cheered.
“He’s taking me to dinner tonight,” Stella added, smiling even wider. “We’re going to Sage,” she said, naming the restaurant Jenny managed.
“Why didn’t you say?” Jenny asked, brightening. “I’ll be sure to give the best table in the house. Something romantic.”
“What are you wearing? What are you ordering? What are you going to do after?” Mackenzie peppered her with questions.
“My little black dress, something with the steak, and none of your beeswax,” Stella answered, as Alice hurried over to join them with an armful of garlands.
“Franny says last year we were too thin on the lampposts,” she said, tossing a couple over the nearest wrought iron spike.
“Hasn’t she heard that less is more?” Jenny joked, and they all laughed at the idea. More was definitely more when it came to the holidays in Sweetbriar Cove, but Stella liked it that way. It could have been easy to feel left out, or melancholy this time of year, without family around for the celebrations, but she could always rely on the town to make it special for Matty, even during the years when her own budget had barely stretched to a spindly holiday tree.
She wondered, would Aidan be spending the holidays here… With them?
Stella tucked the thought aside as they each grabbed a handful of garlands, and adorned every lamppost as they passed.
“So, what did I miss?” Alice asked, looking around. “Has she been spilling the beans about Aidan?”
“If by ‘beans’, you mean a small, discreet smile, then yes.” Jenny replied.
“I’m so happy things are going well!” Alice beamed. “Will you be coming to Game Night tomorrow? You should bring Matty, too,” she added. “We could use his champion Monopoly skills to end Cassie’s winning streak.”
“Game Night?” Stella repeated. It was the first she was hearing about it.
Alice saw her confusion and quickly covered. “It’s just a casual, family thing. Aidan doesn’t usually come, but I thought that maybe now, with you two…” she trailed off.
Stella paused. She’d been happy keeping things discreet, but now she wondered, was everyone expecting Aidan to bring her to family events?
And what did it say that he wasn’t?
“It sounds like fun, but, I don’t know about family things just yet,” she