man was just looking for a little company. Or some insight about the holidays from the town’s expert.
Still, Maddie might be a little pushy, but she also had her best interest at heart. Cora pulled in a breath, wondering if she was being forward by what she wanted to say next, or just plain friendly. Friendly, she decided. After all, she would have said the same thing to any newcomer to town. It just so happened that this one fell under the dangerously attractive and single and likeable category.
“The same things we’ve always done! The annual tree lighting is this Friday night,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun. They light up the tree and sing carols. Pretty much the entire town comes out for it.”
Georgie gasped. “Can we go, Daddy?”
“I don’t see why not,” he said. He looked at Cora. “Thanks. And…I imagine I’ll be seeing you before then, too.”
Cora felt her cheeks heat as she questioned his implication. “At the shop,” she finally said, wanting to shake her other thoughts clear. Of course, they would be in for decorations like they’d said at the tree lot. Maybe there was nothing more to it than that.
But when they collected their hot drinks and waved good-bye, Cora felt some hesitation from Phil, like there was something more he wanted to say to her and then changed his mind. She lingered behind, not only because she didn’t want to look like she was following them out, but because it was fairly clear from the way Maddie was tossing looks her way that a post mortem was in order.
Maddie tipped her head toward the kitchen door as her assistant slipped behind the counter. Cora checked the time. She supposed she could spare a few minutes. And she couldn’t exactly contain this feeling that something magical was happening this Christmas, right here in this sleepy little town that she loved so much.
“Cora! That’s the guy that I was telling you about,” Maddie hissed as she closed the door behind them.
Cora hadn’t even considered the possibility and now she looked sheepishly at her sister. Damn. Would she be forced to admit that she was a little open to love, especially with Phil, who had clearly already won her younger sister’s stamp of approval?
She swept her eyes over the kitchen, where canisters of flour and sugar were clearly labeled, and the counter held a mixing bowl and several baking sheets. Maddie immediately began rolling out dough after washing her hands.
“How do you know him?”
“Oh, he came into the shop,” Cora said dismissively. Really, she realized with a sinking heart, there was nothing more to it than that. Only it felt like there was. Like something kept bringing Phil back to the store, or in her path.
But then, that was small-town living for you.
“And?” Maddie reached for a cookie cutter and began stamping the dough. “Where is he from? What’s his story?”
“I don’t know, really. I don’t even know his last name,” Cora replied with a sigh. “All I know is that he’s here through the holidays.”
“That’s weeks from now!” Maddie exclaimed. “A lot can happen in a few weeks, you know.”
Yes, Cora knew that it could. Maddie was proof of that. She’d fallen in love with her contractor right here in this very kitchen while he was building her dream bakery.
But could something like that happen to her?
She thought of what her mother always used to say about the magic of Christmas and decided that it was entirely possible. Especially at Christmas.
*
In between screening half a dozen voicemails and leaving twice as many in return for his staff back in the office, Phil listened as Georgie talked about how she planned to decorate the tree for the entire drive home. Home meaning his grandparents’ summer home. In all honesty, Phil didn’t really know what constituted as home anymore. It wasn’t his condo in the city; Georgie had drawn some light to that, made him realize that while it was functional and convenient, and even spacious, it was only a place to live.
And it wouldn’t be for long. He had already found someone to lease it for two years, the expected duration of his time in Europe. Visits back to the States would be infrequent, and there was a corporate apartment he could use for that.
He supposed that home base would revert to his childhood home now; neither of his parents spent much time there. His father was working, and his mother was always busy with