Christmas Wishes: A Small Town Christmas Love Story Page 4

  “I don’t know,” Molly admitted, her eyes now meeting his. “But there has to be some other way, Nicholas. You can’t just sell the store. And it’s not about me. I don’t care if you wanted to fire me tomorrow. Christmas Wishes means so much to the town. To everybody.”

  “The store would still be here,” he assured her.

  Molly shook her head and then looked around the store. “I don’t think it’d be the same if you let someone else come in and change everything.”

  “What wouldn’t be the same? You’d still be here. My parents would still be here—”

  “Its heart. Its magic.” Molly’s tone was serious as she took a step towards Nicholas. “You can’t just change something in a recipe and expect it to taste like it did yesterday. It’s going to be different, whether you think so or not.”

  Nicholas sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t know if there’s another way—”

  “You. There’s you. Can’t you just run the store?” Molly asked.

  “Ms. Molly, do I really seem like the Christmas type to you?” Nicholas asked, motioning to himself. “It’s not really my kind of holiday.”

  She looked him over and then shook her head again. “But it has to be your kind of holiday! You’re a Kerstman. It’s in your blood,” she told him. He liked her passion. “And even if it isn’t in your blood, there still has to be some way to convince you that this store is worth keeping in your family. This store is worth so much more than you could sell it for.”

  Nicholas sighed. “Not to me.”

  She frowned and walked away from him, going to stand in front of a giant Christmas tree. She had her arms folded and tapped her toe. Suddenly she turned back to face him, her eyes bright with a new light.

  “Let me compete. With your investors,” she requested. “Whoever you have looking at the store.”

  “Compete?” he repeated, confused as to what she could possibly offer.

  “Yes. Compete,” she said, her voice growing steadier. “If you’re going to let them show you all the reasons why you should sell the store, give me a chance to show you all the reasons why you shouldn’t.”

  “Why?” Nicholas was bewildered by her insistence on the issue. “You’d really spend your Christmas trying to talk me out of making money?”

  “No, I’d really spend my Christmas trying to talk you into Christmas magic,” she said. She beamed at Nicholas, her tone now earnest and quiet. “Please, Nicholas. Just give me a chance? At least let me try to show you that Christmas isn’t all that bad, and that Christmas Wishes isn’t all that bad, either.”

  Nicholas sighed, bringing his hand to his temple. This was proving to be more difficult than he'd expected. He just wanted to see how the store was doing financially.

  “Okay, we have to do something about the store’s name. It's too generic, and it can’t be good for our SEO,” he mumbled to himself. She took a deep breath. “But fine, Ms. Molly. In the spirit of Christmas, I’ll give you the same chance I’m giving the investors. Why not? Maybe you’ll actually be able to convince me.”

  She crossed her arms and grinned at him.

  “You don’t believe that for a second, do you?” she asked.

  “No. I do not,” he said, grinning right back at her before heading toward the back of the shop. “Now, where do we keep the books? I’d like to get the numbers to my assistant by midnight. He mentioned a deal with a big store in Tokyo possibly being on the table.”

  Just then, the front door to Christmas Wishes flew open, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. “Ms. Carmichael! Ms. Carmichael!”

  He groaned as a kid ran through the store. She'd forgotten to lock the door and now there was a kid in the store. For a moment, Nicholas wondered if there were insurance ramifications for having an underage person inside the shop after hours.

  “Liam! What are you doing back here? I thought you already went home,” Molly said, looking concerned as she hurried over to the child. “Do your parents know where you are?”

  “Yeah! They’re the ones who sent me back,” Liam explained. “They said that you were supposed to take me to the Tree Lighting.”

  “The Tree Lighting?” Molly scrunched up her expression. “Is that today? I thought they'd delayed it.”

  “Yeah, they did, but they said it would happen today instead. Remember?” He took a step closer to her. “They had to change everything because of the emergency?”

  “Oh, right.”She nodded seriously. “The emergency. I forgot.”

  “There was a Tree Lighting emergency?” Nicholas chimed into the conversation, as he glanced between Liam and Molly. “Is everyone okay?”

  “Everyone’s perfectly fine,” Molly said. “The emergency was that we couldn’t get all the lights to light up the first time we plugged it in, so everyone freaked out about us not having a Christmas tree this year. The tree's kind of a big deal around here.”

  Nicholas tried not to roll his eyes. It seemed everything related to the holiday was a big deal around here.

  “It’s supposed to work today, Mom said,” Liam explained. He grabbed for Molly’s hand. “But we have to go right now so we’re not late!”

  “Uh, Ms. Molly, the books?” Nicholas nodded towards the back of the store. “Maybe we should take care of business first before—”

  “Sorry, Mr. Kerstman. Duty calls,” Molly said before she headed for the door. “You’re welcome to join us, if you’d like.”

  “You should come. It’s super fun,” Liam said. He beckoned for Nicholas to come stand beside him. The boy grinned up at him with such innocence that Nicholas felt guilt wash over him for wanting to say no.

  But, it was Molly's smile that made him say, “yes,” without realizing that he'd actually said it. Her grin lit up the whole room.

  Nicholas had to steady himself with a breath as he moved to stand beside Liam.

  There just wasn’t any escaping Christmas, was there?

  But maybe the Tree Lighting wouldn’t be so awful.

  It might even be what Molly Carmichael needed to see from Nicholas, an opportunity for him to prove just how wrong he’d be to run the family store.

  A chance to show her just how little Christmas spirit he had.

  Once he reached Liam’s side, the child grabbed for Nicholas’ hand. “Let’s go, guys! Come on!”

  “We’re going, we’re going,” Molly said, laughing as she pushed open the door, pulling both Liam and Nicholas along by default.

  * * *

  Nicholas stood off to the side of the action as he watched a crowd of children and adults gather around a towering Christmas tree in the center of the town square. He tried to keep to himself while offering the occasional polite wave or nod when parents would wave or nod at him first.

  As soon as they arrived, Liam had broken away from his own hold on both Nicholas and Molly’s hands, and chose to run off towards a chattering group of children.

  Molly had broken away from Nicholas, too, and it appeared that she was being bombarded with attention from both parents and kids alike. Everyone seemed to know her and want to say hello.

  And she was smiling the whole way through it.

  That smile.

  There was something about it.

  Working in the business world, Nicholas was accustomed to fake, phony smiles. The kind that he himself often had to put on after working fourteen hours straight so his clients would still find him agreeable. He wasn’t used to genuine smiles, the type that come from the heart, the type that come filled with authentic joy and laughter.

  Molly’s smile was real.

  Every time.

  Nicholas watched her, entranced, waiting for her smile to falter just once.

  But it never did. If anything, it grew brighter.

  He had no idea how she did it. How did the woman have such joy?

  He walked around the edges of the crowd, watching Molly. He didn't want to look like a creep, so he moved closer to the back of the tree.

  “Wait.
You're sure lights are already plugged in?” There was a whisper coming from a few feet away, and the voice sounded gruff. “Are you serious, Charlie? I thought you were working on this for weeks!”

  “Hey, I’m not a Christmas lights guy! I told you, Dave, I’m a mechanic. Henry knows more about this stuff than I do, but he already went to visit his girlfriend in Brooklyn. He’s out for the season,” another husky voice responded to the first.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it. Christmas in Brooklyn. Good for Henry,” the gruff voice whispered back. “So, what are we gonna tell the kids? ‘Sorry about the tree, but Henry’s on vacation’? Those parents will eat us alive. This is the second time. They won't give us a third.”

  “We're gonna ruin Christmas,” the second voice said softly. “I wish someone could fix this.”

  Nicholas didn't care about the tree. If anything, it not lighting would mean they could go back to the store and get some work done. He checked his watch, doing the mental math. If they left now, it wouldn't be too late to get the data to Luke.

  But, then he saw Molly smile again and laugh as a young girl ran to hug her. His own expression soured as he realized what the failed Christmas Tree lighting would do to her mood.

  He didn’t know the woman very well, but there was something irritating about the idea of her smile being erased. A genuine smile like that being taken away because of a rather ill-timed vacation and some stubborn lights bothered him more than he expected.

  Nicholas coughed to get the attention of the whisperers before he turned to face them. “Do you guys mind if I have a look at your tree?”

  “That depends. Are you a licensed electrician?” the gruff guy asked. “Are you licensed in anything?”

  “I know what I’m doing.” Nicholas offered them both a shrug. “Besides, what do you have to lose?”

  “Tall guy’s right. What do we have to lose?” the other guy replied. “Either it works, or it doesn’t.”

  “Fine.” The first whisperer nodded towards the back of the school building. “Everything’s set up back there. Electrical grids. Lights. Have at it. Good luck.”

  “Thanks, gentlemen,” Nicholas said before he made his way to the back of the school building.

  * * *

  Nicholas spotted the problem from a few feet away.

  There was a string of lights placed along the ground, leftovers that either wouldn’t or couldn’t fit around the tree.

  He assumed that the tree hadn’t been measured before the lights had been purchased, leading to this problematic situation. Lights shouldn't be on the ground.

  Always measure the tree.

  Nicholas smiled to himself as he could hear the repeated advice from his aunt playing in his head. A memory of his aunt came to mind, one of her holding an elongated ruler in front of their Christmas tree, insisting that the tree was seven-foot-one when Nicholas wouldn’t budge on it being seven-feet, exact.

  The memory faded away as Nicholas got closer to the lights, bending down towards the ground to get his hands on the problem. It only took him a few moments to readjust the bulbs that had been dragging along the concrete. Several bulbs were loose, and since these were cheap lights, the rest of the string wouldn't light up without them. There was nothing wrong with the electrical grid or the setup. Just a couple of loose bulbs.

  After Nicholas moved his hand away from the final bulb, the Christmas tree came to life.

  He could hear the crowd roar with excitement and applause, and they still seemed just as excited by the time he’d made his way back to the front of the school building.

  “Hey! Where were you? You missed the big moment,” Molly said, pouting as he came back to her. “Liam got so excited I thought he might burst.”

  “And what about you? Did you enjoy the lights, too?” he asked, looking over at Molly, whose attention had now shifted back to the Christmas tree.

  “100%,” she told him. Her eyes sparkled with lights and her smile lit up the night brighter than the tree.

  Nicholas’ heart skipped a beat in his chest. He felt lighter than he had in weeks. He chose to ignore the feeling as he steered the conversation elsewhere. “So, Ms. Molly, you’re Head Elf, and a part-time babysitter?”

  “Oh, no, I’m not a babysitter. I mean, I don’t get paid for it or anything. I just keep an eye out for Liam,” she said. “His parents get pretty busy around this time of year, so I just help them out by watching him, and letting him help out at the shop.”

  “And they don’t pay you at all?” he asked. “Have they ever offered to?”

  “Not everything is about money,” she said with a grin. “There are some things better than money, you know.”

  “That is unproven, untested and untrue,” he replied. He smiled at the end of it, though. “But I’ll let it stand.”

  “Thank you for letting me have my opinion.” Molly rolled her eyes at him, but kept smiling. “That’s very nice of you.”

  “You’re welcome.” Nicholas chuckled, feeling lighter as he looked back at the lights. He could see the two whisperers smiling and pointing to the tree. A small child hugged one of them. “And maybe we can finish going over those financials tomorrow.”

  Chapter 7

  Molly

  Molly stood in front of her dishes in the sink, wearing her pajamas and tapping her toes in time with a Christmas playlist blared over her headphones.

  She often found that she did some of her best thinking while not thinking at all. The more she used her mental energy on another task, the more her thoughts flowed right through her.

  And cleaning dishes seemed like a great way not to think about the Nicholas Kerstman problem.

  She didn't want to think about what would happen to the store. She could feel it in her bones that the store wouldn't be Christmas Wishes without the Kerstmans running it. The town definitely wouldn't be the same Christmas-loving town without it.

  She'd seen another store in town get sold the way Nicholas had explained. It had been a small hardware store that started doing well enough to attract attention from one of the big chains. Things had been fine for the first year or so, but then things changed. The employees weren't as well-trained. The quality of product went down. Local community events stopped happening. Before long, the local hardware store was just a front for the big-box store the town had tried to prevent.

  It went out of business two years later because no one in town would shop there.

  That was the last thing Molly wanted for Christmas Wishes. It wasn't even officially her store, or even her job there that motivated her. She didn't work there for the money. She worked there because she loved the place. The store was such an integral part of her traditions, as well as the traditions of the town. If the store changed, so would everything she loved about Christmas.

  She had to come up with a way to stop the sale.

  “Okay, so he hates Christmas...”

  Molly tapped her fingers on the edge of her kitchen sink, nodding in time with an upbeat rendition of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

  “Wait. Does he hate Christmas? Or does he just not understand Christmas?” Molly asked herself out loud while she finished drying off her final dish. The idea tickled her brain. “Wait, wait, wait. I’m getting something...”

  Molly suddenly dashed back towards her bedroom, scrambling for her phone. She scrolled through its screen until she pulled up an article she’d been reading last night before bed:

  How To Make Kids Love Math

  She laughed at the headline, imagining Nicholas Kerstman as a grumpy child in one of her classes.

  She then took a seat on the edge of her bed as she made her way through the article once more.

  “Make it seem fun... make it seem possible... make it seem worthwhile...” Molly read softly. “Fun. Possible. Worthwhile.”

  As she thought through the article, her phone began to ring in her hands. She answered it without hesitation once she saw “Mom” pop up on the caller ID. “Mom!”


  “Daughter!” Emma Carmichael shouted on the other end of the line. “Sorry. I know we were supposed to call you earlier, but—”

  “But you two were so wrapped up in Miami and I bet so wrapped up in each other,” Molly said, rolling her eyes even though her mom couldn’t see it.

  Molly had always admired the loving relationship between her mom and dad, envisioning their bond as the Gold Standard when it came to lifelong romance. Emma and Jim Carmichael hadn’t been apart from each other for more than a week since the day they met, their courtship being a whirlwind romance that ended with a potluck wedding attended by close family and friends.

  Growing up, Molly had become accustomed to her parents becoming distracted by each other. They never outgrew the initial stage of falling in love and she'd see their small moments of high school level flirtation in grocery store aisles, the passionate way her father kissed her mother in the kitchen, the sparkle in their eyes that neither one of them could hide when they spotted each other across a crowded room.

  Molly knew that she wanted something like that for herself.

  But that wasn't something she could worry about right now. Not today. Especially not with Nicholas Kerstman around, pulling all her focus onto saving Christmas Wishes.

  Maybe after Nicholas. Maybe after Christmas.

  Maybe then Molly could find something like that.

  “You’ve caught us red-handed,” Molly’s mom’s said, pulling Molly out of her thoughts and back to their conversation. “So, my darling daughter, what’s new with you? How’s the store?”

  Molly's eyes narrowed.

  “How’s the store?” she asked. “Did Mrs. Kerstman make you ask me that?”

  “Oh, Molly. You know she worries and worries and worries...” Emma sighed into the receiver. “But are you at least having fun with Liam? I know it's a lot of extra work without them there.”

  “It’s perfect, Mom. I think it’s something I could really see myself doing long-term,” Molly said. She smiled to herself. “I love getting to run the store without the bosses around.”