guys are in town through the weekend, you girls could make cookies together at the gingerbread event.”
“Gingerbread event?” Phil looked confused.
Cora explained, “Each year the town comes together and makes a big gingerbread house or village. It’s held in the town hall basement, where there’s a big industrial kitchen for various town events. But my sister Amelia who owns the café is technically in charge this year, and Maddie is helping.”
“I don’t remember that…” Phil said, and Cora looked at him sharply.
“So you’ve been to Blue Harbor for Christmas before?”
Phil looked away, evasive. “Just once. We mostly came in the summer.”
He didn’t elaborate, and Cora didn’t want to press. She was talking too much already. Out of practice. Not that she’d ever had much practice. A few boyfriends here and there, nothing that every really stuck.
Nothing like what her parents had. Or like her sisters had now found.
“It’s been going on for about twenty years now, maybe more.” Meaning by her rough calculation, Phil hadn’t been to Blue Harbor for Christmas since he was about Georgie’s age. Sure enough a sign for the event was tacked to one of several tree trunks and she motioned to it now.
“I want to decorate a gingerbread house! That sounds like fun!” Georgie said.
“Then I guess that means we’ll go,” Phil said, and Cora couldn’t resist the way her heart tugged with excitement.
“Great, I’ll be there, too,” Britt said. “We all will, right, Cora?” She gave her a meaningful look.
Obviously Cora had intended to go. She never missed a tradition!
“See you then,” Phil said pleasantly as they walked away.
Cora wondered how many yards they had to walk before Britt whipped out her phone and began texting their other two sisters across the town square. Two yards, she hedged. Three at most.
“This cider is the best! You were right!” Georgie said, smiling.
“I used to help make it when I was younger,” Cora confided. “The orchard has been around for generations, and now my sister Britt runs it.”
“And offering cider here at the tree lighting? Is that new?”
“Oh, no, that’s tradition,” Cora answered.
Phil seemed to peer at her. “You really like your traditions around here.”
“Who doesn’t? Isn’t that what makes the holidays so great?” Cora stared at him, only to come to realize that he didn’t seem to share her enthusiasm. Still, he was here, and he had agreed to the cookie baking. There was hope for him yet.
And maybe, hope for her too.
“We still haven’t decorated our tree,” Georgie complained, giving a meaningful look at her father.
“Well, you did just buy the ornaments today,” Cora pointed out.
Georgie’s face lit up. “Can you come over and help us decorate? Please? You do such a good job! You’re like…an expert.”
Cora laughed, but her cheeks had warmed and she didn’t dare look Phil in the eye. “I will admit that I am quite an expert when it comes to Christmas.”
“Cora might have to work,” Phil said gently, eliciting a groan of disappointment from Georgie.
“It is a very busy time of year for the shop,” Cora agreed. “But I find time to keep things balanced and still enjoy the season.” She could practically hear her sisters applauding her for that smooth line!
“It seems to do well,” Phil observed.
Cora didn’t want to admit just how slow her post-Christmas months could be, until the tourism picked up again in the spring. Or that she had ventured into Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays as a way to grow her revenue. Her sisters were probably right: she should stop buying new merchandise until she sold what she had. But she loved keeping things fresh and exciting. Could she help it if she was passionate?
“So you could come after work?” Georgie said hopefully. “I could wait another day. I’ve already waited all week.” She slid her father a rueful look, and Cora started to laugh.
“We really don’t want to put Cora out,” Phil insisted. “She probably has plans tomorrow night, honey.”
He glanced up at her, and Cora’s mind went blank. Plans? Not unless you called a date with her television and a Christmas movie plans. And she had been looking forward to that. It was part of her traditions, and all. But she wouldn’t mind changing things if she had the opportunity to spend a little more time with Georgie. And Phil.
“I wouldn’t want to impose,” she said politely. “Decorating a tree is a very personal experience, after all.” When both looked at her in confusion, she continued, “It’s usually something that each family has