A Seagrove Christmas (South Carolina Sunsets #6) - Rachel Hanna Page 0,31
energetic, mature man. Maybe you need a little more excitement in your life?”
“I get plenty of excitement here.”
Dixie laughed so loudly that people turned around at the other tables. “I love Seagrove. You know that. But there ain’t a lot of excitement going on around here.”
“I think excitement is overrated anyway,” SuAnn said, picking up another cookie and angrily starting to slather icing on it. “Buddy and I did plenty of traveling, and it sure didn’t help us stay married.”
“Because you didn’t love him, and you know it. You were bored. Maybe you’re just scared to step out there and do something new?”
“You would’ve made a terrible psychologist,” SuAnn said, knowing full well that Dixie might have a point.
“Well, that’s a good thing because I was never planning on becoming a psychologist. But I am an old woman, so I have old woman wisdom. And I’m telling you, you don’t need to let this guy go. He’s pined for you his entire life, so you need to do your part to see if you can make it work out.”
“And if I can’t?”
Dixie shrugged her shoulders. “Then you know you tried. And you can go on with your life with no regrets.”
She had a point there. Maybe all she could do at this point was to have a heart to heart talk with Nick and just see if they were compatible anymore. A part of her was terrified that they weren’t.
* * *
“Okay, everybody, we have all of the cookies packaged up. We’re gonna need everybody to help carry some of them out to Dawson’s truck. Then we will just pile into as many vehicles as we need to and head on over to the fire station.”
“What are we doing when we get there?” Dylan asked.
Julie smiled at him, knowing full well that she had explained this at least five times over the previous few days. Sometimes she didn’t think he listened with his ears at all. “We’re going to drive over there and we’re going to thank the firefighters for serving the community all throughout the year. We will carry these cookies into their kitchen, along with the pound cake and fruit cakes. And, if they’re not busy, they may give us a really nice tour of the fire station.”
“Will, I get to sit in the fire truck?” Dylan asked, excitedly.
“Maybe so. One year, they even pulled the firetruck out and raised up the really tall ladder with a bucket on the end. My girls got to stand in it high up in the air with one of the firemen.”
“I hope they do that!” Dylan said, clapping his hands.
“Don’t count on it. Things were a lot different back then,” Dawson said. He leaned over and whispered into Julie’s ear. “Back before people would sue anybody for anything.”
She laughed. “All right, everybody out the door. Grab some cookies!”
For the next few minutes, there was a flurry of activity in the kitchen as each person grabbed what they could and walked out to Dawson’s truck. They carefully packed it all up so it wouldn’t fly around in the bed of the truck on the way to the fire station.
When they finally had everything packaged, Julie and Dylan climbed into Dawson’s truck along with SuAnn, who was catching a ride with them. She had been silent most of the afternoon, except when Julie saw her sitting at the table talking to Dixie. She could only hope that Dixie was setting her straight on whatever was going on.
“Are they following us?” Julie asked, looking out the side mirror.
Dawson reached over and squeezed her leg. “Stop stressing out, Julie. Everybody knows where the fire station is. I doubt they’re going to get lost on the way.”
She laughed because she knew he was right. She was stressing over every little detail today. Her perfectionistic tendencies were coming out, what with her involvement in the Christmas festival too. She wanted everything to go smoothly, but she knew she had a high likelihood of crashing as soon as the holidays were over.
“Can you turn some air on? I’m having a heat stroke back here,” SuAnn said.
“Mother, it’s December. Why on earth would you need air conditioning?”
“I don’t know, Julie. I guess it’s because I’m at a certain stage of life, and I’d like to have a little cold air blowing on me. Do you have to make everything such a big deal? Plus, we’re in the lowcountry, not Alaska! It’s still warm here.“
Yes, there was definitely something going