Kissmas Wishes (Love In All Seasons #3) - Frankie Love

Chapter One

Hot pink fleece gloves? Check.

Knee-high, fur lined boots? Check.

Hand knit, mint green, beanie? Check.

With my outfit complete, I step out of my Subaru, crunch across the snow, and open the trunk. Grabbing my loppers and a basket, I begin my trek into the woods.

The weather has been cold all month, but it hasn’t snowed in three days. I should be able to get in and out within an hour, and still be home before lunch. I just need to cut down several cedar branches boughs of holly and get home by dark.

Before locking the car, I pull out my phone and text my sister.

Me: I’m in Northstar Forest. Just in case I get lost.

Willa: What the eff are you doing there?

Me: Best cedar trees around.

Willa: All that effort to make a dozen wreaths? U R Cray Cray.

Me: It’s Christmas. #tradition.

Willa: Tommy is a terror today.

Me: He’s two. Hang in there sista.

Willa: Easier said than done Auntie.

I smile, she’s got a pretty good set-up from my vantage point. A man, a baby, and a house that is a home.

Me: I’ll come babysit.

Willa: Thx, but don’t you have your ugly Xmas sweater thing? Time to get drunk with your fifty closest friends.

I smirk. My sister loves to tease me about my social calendar. But what can I say? I’ve always been the sorta person who loves to stay busy.

Me: I’d cancel all of it to be with Tommy. You know that.

Willa: I know. I’m being a brat. Can’t help but be a teensy bit jealous of your life is all.

Me: I love you, sister. Nothing to be jelly of.

Willa: xoxo. Stay safe.

I pocket my phone and put on my gloves. Even though I told Willa that she has nothing to be jealous of... I know it’s not the truth.

There are a ton of things I love about my life. My home business has totally taken off. I have an adorable little one-bedroom house on the cutest street in town.

There’s always someone to hang out with -- I went to college here and have made a ton of connections in the four years since I graduated. I attend a book club and a knitting group -- weekly events where my girlfriends and I get drunk on boxed wine.

And I always have plans on Friday nights. And Saturday nights. The girls and I go out dancing, meet guys, and enjoying everything the city offers.

I figure living life in the fast lane won’t last forever… but so long as it does, I’m all in.

Body shots in Mexico instead of Valentine’s day at home? Check.

Renting a party bus for my friends’ birthdays? Check.

Hosting bridal showers and baby showers when said friends get hitched and knocked-up? Check.

I look out at the snow-covered mountain. Everything is so quiet. Still.

For a moment, I can’t help but wish my life were more like this. Like my sister’s, even.

Sure, Willa would love to have more girls’ nights out, but she has Tommy and Ethan. She has everything.

And I tell myself I have everything I need too.

Even if the truth is I’ll be alone on Christmas morning.

Which is why I am determined to deliver these handmade wreaths to my neighbors. I won’t feel the pang of loneliness quite so sharply if I’m walking around my neighborhood.

I start hiking into the trees, wanting to find the perfect branches to make wreaths. This has become my annual tradition—and on Christmas morning I deliver them to all my neighbors.

As I step over a fallen branch and inhale the pine and cedar scent, the air crisp and cold, I smile, watching tiny snowflakes cover my coat.

I start looking for usable branches to cut. Oddly, though, the good ones are all fairly high, out of my reach. Instead of attempting an impossible climb, I keep walking knowing that eventually, I’ll find what I’m looking for.

My mind’s on the blog post I’m planning to write this afternoon -- after all the cedar is laid out on my workbench to dry. I’ll photograph each step in the wreath making process, and use them in a how-to post.

My readers love those the most. Helpful, affordable -- and always cute. That’s the motto on my website, EASIER WITH EVIE.

As I am thinking through the steps to make the wreaths, I realize: 1) I’ve walked quite a way from the car and 2) the snow is coming down awfully thick.

Like too thick.

Like, it’s basically a blizzard.

Dangit.

I pull out my phone -- why I don’t know. Probably because I’m tethered to this thing