Page 31 of Hope and Hot Chocolate on Mistletoe Lane

I thought about Holly saying her business was in trouble. I had imagined she’d been living a dream life in the city. I had felt envious of that and like I was stuck in Birchbrook in comparison. But that feeling had changed. Holly wasn’t living a perfect life in the city. There was no such thing.

Birchbrook was a place that a lot of people would love to live in. I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself and make the best of what I had. Holly would be leaving soon and I didn’t want to feel miserable when she left. I wanted to be happy, whether she was here or not.

* * *

I went home after my parents and I had made a plan as to how we could reopen the café next Monday. It would be hard work but we couldn’t afford to lose any more business than that. I suggested when we reopened, we did so with our festive menu and decorations for Christmas up to make a big thing of it. They thought that was a great idea. For the first time in a long time, I felt energised work wise.

But I knew I needed to do the same in my personal life. I had kept previous partners at arm’s-length and that hadn’t been fair on them. Or myself. Maybe I had always wondered what if when it came to Holly. Maybe because I hadn’t felt good enough for her, I hadn’t felt good enough for anyone. But I couldn’t live like that. I didn’t want to be alone forever. I wanted what my parents had. I needed to change.

I got back to my apartment and went into my bathroom. I knew I couldn’t change Holly’s mind about our kiss being a mistake. She just wanted to be friends. That would be hard. I was attracted to her and felt a connection with her that I hadn’t felt with any other woman but I also knew I’d only get hurt if anything more did happen between us. Things in the city might be complicated for her but that was her home now. Mine was Birchbrook. Two different worlds. We were different people. Not those same teenage best friends. So, I needed to be friendly to her while she was here but have no expectations or hope. I needed to stop thinking about her and work on myself instead.

Looking into the mirror, I realised I looked tired and scruffy and older than my twenty-eight years. Maybe Willow, Sabrina and Daisy had had a point when they teased me about my appearance. I knew my ex, Rach, had hated my messy beard. I thought about Dylan with his light stubble or his friend Blake with his perfectly shaped beard. My hair was also looking too long and out of control and in need of a cut.

Each morning, I rolled out of bed and had a shower then pulled on the same old clothes. I really didn’t do much to myself. No wonder I didn’t feel great most of the time. And I’d been single for two years.

I yanked open the cabinet above the sink and pulled out the electric razor my parents had got me for Christmas a few years ago. I expected it had been a hint back then that I’d ignored. But now I’d promised them a new attitude and I wanted a new appearance to match.

23

HOLLY

My second week in Birchbrook was hectic, to put it mildly.

Willow and I worked on creating a Santa’s grotto. We managed to move their old shed into one of the polytunnels. After painting it, we added a wreath to the door and inside, I’d found an old red postbox online that we spruced up so children could post their letters to Santa. Then Willow started to build a sleigh to put outside the shed, so I carried on working on everything else.

I set up more lights and decorations and hired a snow machine for the tunnel we wanted to feel like the North Pole. Daisy, Willow’s cousin, came along with Mary who she ran the florist and her flower event business with. They created archways between each tunnel which they draped with holly and Christmas foliage and fairy lights. They added mistletoe to the final archway and I tried not to look at it and think about Paul. It was impossible not to, though. I hadn’t seen him since Sunday when Birchbrook Café flooded, although I kept hearing from Willow and Dylan how they were working on fixing it all.

As the café was shut, I couldn’t go in for a coffee or a sweet treat and with so much to do on the farm, it meant I had no idea how Paul was. I could text or phone him but I didn’t know if he would even want to hear from me. So, I threw myself into work. But in bed each night, I did think about the look on his face when I told him I had liked him as more than a friend when we were younger.

It made me think maybe he had too. He’d kissed me with so much passion, it was clear he had wanted it as much as me. But even though I’d told him we could only be friends, I kept wondering if he wanted us to be more than that.

The Christmas trees from Willow’s family friend arrived at the end of the week. I carried the ones we were going to use inside the tunnels and set about decorating each one with a different colour scheme. The others we positioned along the sides of one of the tunnels for people to buy and take home.

Willow had a white bench that I wrapped in velvet fabric and piled with cushions for a photo set-up with a Christmas tree on either side. I organised a Christmas colouring station for kids to sit down at in one of the tunnels. Then I suggested we reserved one tunnel to offer to local businesses to sell their wares from, instead of building an alpine village, which had been Willow’s first idea. That would have been too costly and time-consuming so it felt like a great compromise. Meanwhile, Dylan, when he was done with his other work, reached out to suppliers for us as well as posting online content for the winter wonderland website and on social media.

‘I think we need a name for the winter wonderland that will help publicity,’ I said when Willow and I walked through the North Pole tunnel to look at the progress we’d made so far. The lights twinkled and I’d draped fake snow everywhere. The snow machine was switched on and there was a photo opportunity with a snowman couple statue that I’d found on a second-hand website. ‘It’s a winter wonderland but we want yours to become a destination people must visit in December so having a name for it will help spread the word. And you did so well with Pumpkin Hollow and the Strawberry Fields Trail,’ I said as we walked into the Santa’s grotto tunnel. I looked at the archway at the end with the mistletoe. This would lead people outside to the ice rink and the café van: the finale of the winter wonderland.

Willow nodded. She looked tired after working in the barn all day on building the sleigh that would go next to Santa’s post office. We were going to attach light-up reindeer to it and fill it with fake presents. She still hoped she could find someone to play Santa at some point but I thought it would still look good either way. I just hoped she wasn’t overdoing things, determined for this to be a success.

‘I agree,’ she said. ‘It’s really coming together now – thanks, Holly. It’s got a magic to it. I love the rustic woodland feel and how things get more festive and magical when you get to the snow tunnel and then this Santa’s grotto. Sabrina is working on the signs so we do need to decide if we’re going with a name…’

I looked up at the mistletoe above our heads. ‘How about The Mistletoe Trail? No, something more festive… Mistletoe Corner?’

‘Lane!’ she cried, excitement taking over her tiredness. ‘That’s cute and feels like something you’d have to walk down to reach Santa. Let’s go with Mistletoe Lane.’

I smiled, relieved she had her spark back. ‘I love it.’

‘I’ll message Sabrina and get Dylan to update everything online. Oh, and he’s added your company name to everything so you’ll get publicity too. And the local paper is coming to look at things early next week.’ She saw my look of panic. ‘Karl, the reporter, understands it might not all be ready but they want to get a piece up before we open to help with publicity. They’ve been really good to us before. It should help sell the remaining tickets. I’m going to have some available each day on the door too.’ She sighed. ‘The first of December is so close now, isn’t it? Dylan’s family will be arriving soon too. I hope that will work out.’

I nodded. ‘His family will love it. The farm is so lovely. I haven’t slept as well as I’ve done here for years. And they’ll be excited about the baby.’

‘Fingers crossed. You’ve been a lifesaver for us. I’d be so stressed without you here! Oh, I heard the café is having a grand reopening on Monday,’ Willow added as we walked out of the polytunnels. The November weather was chilly outside but we were both wrapped up against the elements. ‘We should go along; they will need everyone in town’s support.’

I was instantly nervous about seeing Paul again. Would he want me there? ‘I could do with one of their hot chocolates again,’ I said, forcing out a smile. ‘I was thinking about having a Christmas tree out here by the rink? That really large one Brian sent. It would make the ice rink look even more festive.’

‘I love that idea,’ Willow said. She pointed to a fenced area. ‘The ice rink could go there then we could decorate the fence with holly and mistletoe and lights and I thought I could mark out a walkaway to get to it from the tunnels. Put stones down. Have some more signs. Make it look cute.’

‘Perfect.’