A Mountain Springs Christmas

Chapter 1

one

NOELLE

Noelle Allred held her cell phone to her ear, veering to the other edge of the sidewalk as she walked under a mechanical lift that held a man in its basket, draping Christmas lights from one side of Main Street in her hometown of Mountain Springs, Colorado, to the other. She could hear her sister, Hope, on the other end of the line, telling her four-year-old son that he couldn’t tie his two-year-old brother to the dog so he could ride him like a horse without falling off. And that they couldn’t do it, even if the brother and the dog both acted like they wanted to.

Snow was softly falling from the morning sky, promising to make the lights extra beautiful when they turned them on for the first time tonight. It was something that Noelle used to love, but not anymore. She adjusted her hood so the flakes wouldn’t land on her hair, melt, then dry weird on the way to work and make it look like she’d just woken up and hadn’t even glanced in the mirror before heading to work.

She shivered and pulled her coat a little tighter.

“I’m back,” Hope said, a little breathless. “I had to play the ‘Santa’s watching’ card, and I’m not proud of it. But I also think we avoided a possible concussion in Porter’s near future, so I’m working on being okay with it. Back to tonight—what time are you planning to be at Downtown Park for the tree lighting?”

Noelle adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder and braced herself for her sister’s response. “I’m not going.”

“What?! Why not? You’ve never skipped. Not even for those four years when you were in student housing. How can you not come tonight?”

She took a deep breath and glanced at the shops on Main Street, which all seemed to be trying to outdo each other with their Christmas decorations and window displays. Then she immediately dropped her eyes to the snow falling onto the sidewalk in front of her. “It just doesn’t feel right to go with Gran-gran gone.” The pain of her loss stabbed her in the heart again, like when the grief had been brand new. She stopped to lean against a building for a minute and just looked up at the snow falling.

Hope was quiet for a long moment, then whispered, “I miss her, too.”

Noelle’s family was big on Christmas. Actually, that was an understatement. If Christmas was a TV screen, it was the JumboTron at Ball Arena in Denver to her family. If it was a trickle of water spilling over rocks, it was her family’s Niagra Falls. If it was a figurine for most families, it was the Statue of Liberty to hers.

And Gran-gran had been the leader of it all.

Noelle didn’t say anything more, so Hope filled the silence. “I know it felt that way last year, but that was because she’d just barely passed away. I think it’ll be different this year.”

But Hope hadn’t been as close to Gran-gran as Noelle had been. None of them had been as close. This year felt like it’d be worse in part because she hadn’t just passed away. They weren’t busy planning a funeral this year, going through all Gran-gran’s things, and deciding what to do with them. This year would feel like a regular Christmas, but it’d be missing the most essential ingredient.

“I don’t think it will,” Noelle said, making herself keep walking toward the bus stop just in front of Downtown Park, a block further down the street. “So I’m just going to skip Christmas this year.”

“Skip it? I don’t understand.”

“You know...” Noelle said, waving her hand around, trying to encapsulate everything, but realized the motion was pointing out all the decorations on Main Street. “I’m just going to pretend like Christmas doesn’t exist.”

“You can’t just skip it.”

“Yep, that’s what I’m doing. I am officially done with Christmas. This is no longer the Christmas season; it’s simply the winter season. Look—I’ve got snow all around me just to remind me that’s all it is. I’m going to avert my eyes from anything remotely Christmassy.” She cupped her hand beside her eye to block out the view.

“Excuse me!” someone called out. Noelle jumped and took a step back as four guys—who had been blocked from her view by the hood of her coat even before she had blocked them even more with her hand—crossed just in front of her, carrying a workshop table for Santa’s village that was being set up in Downtown Park for the start of the Christmas festivities tonight.

So much for averting her eyes from all things Christmas.

“There’s no way that you, the biggest Christmas lover of all, is done with it.”

“No, I am.”

She reached the bus stop, which gave her a view of the park that was even worse than her view had been walking down Main Street. A couple of people were working to install the false sides to the big gazebo to make it look like a giant gingerbread house. They would be serving hot cocoa inside during the festivities tonight and at a few other events during the month.

A life-size manger scene was set up on its right, complete with the stable, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, a donkey, a handful of sheep, and a shepherd.

To the left of the gazebo, several volunteers were working on getting Santa’s village set up, which was a massive undertaking. The village had half a dozen elf houses, red and white-striped street signs, Santa’s sleigh, several reindeer, stacks of wrapped presents, and a big outdoor workshop where a dozen elves worked to make toys.

A few more volunteers worked to set up the train tracks and the small working train that would carry the little kids in a circle around the entire workshop. Lighted arches led the way to where the train could be boarded.

And a couple people were stringing thousands of lights on the massive pine tree that stood in the middle of it all. There was so much activity and movement in the park that it kept involuntarily pulling her attention to it. Looking the other direction only meant that she’d be watching people wrap the street lamps on Main Street in garlands.

And not only that, but the bus was late—probably because of the snow. Noelle couldn’t exactly keep her eyes closed and still watch out for the bus, so she caught loads of Christmas happenings. No amount of averting her eyes and using her hand as a blinder could keep it all out. And even though her hood was nice and fluffy, it didn’t keep out the Christmas music playing for the workers setting everything up.

“Do you really think that you’re going to be able to do that?” Hope asked. “While living in Mountain Springs and while being a member of our family?”

Hope was four and a half years older than Noelle, and she was married and had three kids. So they were at very different points in their lives, yet Hope was her best friend. Or, at least they had been as adults, even if they weren’t even close to best friends as kids. Now, though, Hope was the person she could share anything with.

Noelle sighed and rubbed her forehead. “It might take a lot more work than I was anticipating. Why did I have to slide on that ice and make my car inoperable right now, of all times?”

She’d bought her car three years ago for her birthday after falling instantly in love. She was the cutest car, not too big, and was the perfect Christmas red. She’d named her Elfie right on the spot.

The only bus stop that would take her from Mountain Springs through the canyon to Golden was right in the middle of everything. And to get to it from her house, she had to walk right down Main Street, so there was no avoiding it all. If she had her car, she could take a wide drive around downtown. She could find a path between her home and work where she could bypass it all.

“I might be skipping all the Christmas festivities, but I’m still going to buy presents for everyone. So there’s no way I can afford to fix Elfie anytime soon.” People were important, even if Christmas wasn’t for her anymore.

“So, what are you going to do?”

She shrugged and squinted through the snowflakes on her eyelashes and all the falling snow to see if the bus was close. “I’ve decided I need to get a side job so I can save up enough for the repairs. Lots of places are hiring temporary help at this time of year, right?”

“Yes,” Hope said, dragging out the word. “Lots of places. Like places where people do their Christmas shopping.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.” Noelle shivered and switched her phone to her other hand so she could put the one that had been holding it in her pocket. “What am I going to do? I can’t just wait until after Christmas to get a second job. I don’t want to wait that long to get it fixed, and that’s when businesses are least likely to hire.”

“I don’t know, but I’ll keep an ear out for you.”

She perked up when the bus lumbered around the corner, heading her direction. “Thanks, sis. My bus is here, so I’ve got to go.”

“We’ll miss you tonight!”

“I’ll miss you, too.”

But she wouldn’t miss the big reveal when they turned on all the lights and everyone ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the big tree and everything else they were setting up. Nope, not one bit. All of that excitement and anticipation for Christmas had left with Gran-gran. She turned her back on all of it—the decorations, the people setting it up, the Christmas music—and climbed into the bus.

She took a seat in the middle right as a Christmas song came on the radio. The six people seated in the back started singing along to it like they were carolers standing outside someone’s house, bringing joy and all that. Noelle pulled her hood a little tighter around her ears and tried to pretend like it was just winter. That’s all they were doing—singing winter songs.

She could do this. She could one hundred percent skip Christmas this year.