Eggnog & Evergreen

40 • Santa's Helpers

I leave Preston at the market and thank goodness. I'm not sure how much longer I could sit across from him when my mind is just preoccupied with Nik.

I never thought I'd find myself in this situation. It is so not me. I don't get torn. Yet here I am, undecided, like my first three years of college. Ugh!

What would Deja do? I laugh to myself just thinking about her reaction when I tell her all this –about Preston showing up, materializing like some oversized snowflake.

On the one hand, I have Preston. I have stability, cologne, planning, big city apartment, cashmere. Then the other hand is also nice. It's new and musky and a bit exciting. It's all plaid and flannel.

I drive my dad's rusty pick-up out to the old Bristowe Family Farm. It's not much of a farm now, but the barn is still the largest one for miles. It's where our town hosts the Barn Benefit every Christmas Eve.

Nativity reenactment. Live music. Drinks and baked goods. That sort of thing.

I cannot believe it's Christmas Eve!

The truck whines as I put it into park and pull my phone off the charger.

1:02 PM.

I join the horde of volunteers already decorating the barn's interior. It's a vast space with weathered wooden beams and a vaulted ceiling almost 20 feet high. An elevated stage is pushed against the far wall, no doubt where the band will play.

Three women arrange the refreshment tables on the opposite side of the room. I walk over the straw-strewn ground to the spot where my Aunt Holly is hanging up wreaths. Well, Kit is hanging up the wreaths as Aunt Holly barks instructions.

"A little that way, not too high." She waves her hand a fraction of an inch. "That's it. Make it match the other side of the door, dear."

Kit wiggles the wreath a few unnoticeable centimeters. I look up at the perfectly framed door, outlined in white lights and garland, and the matching wreaths on either side.

"Hi guys," I announce my arrival.

"Hey, Yes." Kit smiles.

"Noelle, dear. Just in time," my aunt says.

Oh no. I hope I'm not about to put on wreath-making duty again.

"Noelle, hun, thank goodness." My mom appears at my side, holding a basket of her homemade candy canes. "Left these in the car. Can you drop them at the front entrance table? Stella is setting it up,"

"Sure." I take the basket and spin on my heels, frowning an apology at Kit.

Stella is in fact at the entrance table. She's already dressed up wearing a red sweater and black booties. A thicket of bulb and wire is attached to the end of her hands.

"What's all this?" I ask.

"Ugh, finally." Stella groans. "Here, help me untangle this shit."

"How'd you get stuck on this duty?" I joke.

"Must have been having an episode when I volunteered," she shrugs. "Logan was a terror all morning. I finally got him to settle down before I took him to his grandparents' house."

"Ah, the Christmas Eve hysteria. To be 10-years-old again." I take the free end of the light cord Stella hands me.

"Speaking of hysteria," Stella smirks.

"No," I say. "No! How could you possible know anything?"

"Word travels fast," Stella says, raising her eyebrows. "So are you going to tell me or are you going to make me ask?"

"Ugh, fine!" I grumble. "Should I start with my midnight dance with Nik or the doorstep surprise?"

I recant the whole night. Everything from the Christmas Lights walk to the romantic gazebo with Nik –to Preston's surprise arrival to the quaint room at Queenie's.

Stella soaks up every word like a starving sponge.

"I just can't, Noe." Stella shakes her head. "When you got here it was Preston this and Preston that and Hawaii everything."

"I'm aware, Stel." I roll my eyes.

"And then Nik," she says.

"Also, aware." I nod.

"So what are you going to do?" She asks.

"Does it look like I know?" I groan. "Worst part of all is somehow they're both coming tonight?"

"Girl," Stella says, shaking her head.

We walk in opposite directions until the strand of lights is completely unraveled. I help Stella outline the podium-desk at the entrance, and then we hang the welcome banner. We step back to admire our work and I see the whole barn has almost been transformed in the last 20 minutes of storytelling.

It is white lights galore. In fact, I think they stole all the white lights off every house in town. Wreaths on every wall. Two golden-painted pines stand on either side of the stage. My uncle spins the far tree so that the missing patch of branches is in the back. The wooden beams are strung with garland and holly, and mistletoe dangles at every interval. The whole barn smells like the inside of a candle.

"Look at you girls! Santa's little helpers." My mom appears at the front entrance.

"We tried." Stella says sarcastically.

"It looks fantastic. If you guys are about done, Holly and I could use some help with the pinecones." My mom looks at the pair of us.

"Pinecones?" I ask.

"Painted silver for the gold trees. We have a bag around back. Kit's just gone to get it."

Stella and I drudge our feet along in the dirt behind my mother. it's been trodden on so many times that it's almost like a stony hard floor. She stops us right beside the gilded trees. They must be 12 feet high!

"Where did Kit vanish to?" My uncle cranes his neck.

"Probably ditched," Stella says under her breath.

"He's got the right idea." I laugh.

My mother sighs heavily at both of us. Just then the side door creaks open once again. Snowflakes spiral inside on the cold wind. My Aunt Holly guides someone inside, their face obscured by a lumpy sack of what I hope are pinecones.

"Here?" They ask.

"Just a few more steps. Set it beside the stage. That's right," my aunt says.

Nik straightens up, brushing snow and silver mulch from his flannel. He catches my eye, but I quickly divert my attention to the pinecones.

Stella nudges my ribcage and I pray I don't look as red as I feel.

Is this some sort of sign, Santa?

———

[We are in the home stretch now! What does everyone think is going to happen? Will Preston whisk Noelle back to their fancy life in NYC? Or will Noe find new love with lumberjack Nik? Comment here!]