Mistletoe and Memories (Evergreen Hollow Christmas #4)

Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

Since Wednesday proved to be a surprisingly mild day, Nora decided to take Madison out for a walk when she inevitably wouldn’t fall asleep for her nap. She’d been extra cranky, since she hadn’t slept well the night before either, and Nora felt like she might tip over where she stood. Walking, she decided, was probably best for them both. It was the only way she was probably going to stay awake.

She bundled Madison up and put her in her stroller, wrapping herself up in a heavy coat and her snow boots, the navy infinity scarf that she’d bought years ago now tucked into the neckline of her coat. They started out in the direction of Main Street, heading down the sidewalk as small snowflakes swirled in the air with every breeze that blew snow off of the trees.

It was a beautiful day; warm and bright, sunshiny with a blue sky. There were no signs of bad weather, and it was above freezing for once, so the snow was beginning to melt the tiniest bit, birds chirping. Nora sucked in a breath of the bracing cold air as they walked, feeling it liven her up a bit.

Unfortunately, even though walks or car rides usually seemed to put Madison to sleep, it seemed that the weather was having a similar effect on her. An hour into the walk, she still showed no signs of going to sleep. Nora wasn’t sure what to do. If they went home, Madison likely wasn’t going to go to sleep either, and it was going to take everything in her to not pass out on the couch in front of the warm fireplace.

She saw the shape of the cream-stone building that housed the Evergreen Hollow Gazette coming up, and decided to stop in. Margo would be at work, so she could say hi to her sister. Maybe Madison would nod off for a little while in the stroller while they were there.

The interior of the building was pleasantly warm and smelled of cinnamon and pine when she walked in.

She saw the reason for it immediately: there was a bright, twinkling Christmas tree in one corner of the lobby, and a large bowl of cinnamon-scented pine cones in the center of the round coffee table that was surrounded by three wing chairs. Christmas music was playing softly, and Nora hummed along as she rolled the stroller down the hall to Margo’s office.

Sabrina Burns, the owner of The Gazette , had her office door open.

“Hey there!” she called out to Nora, as Nora walked by and paused, turning the stroller to step into the office. “Out for a walk?”

“Exactly.” Nora brushed a bit of snow out of her hair that was beginning to melt against her cheek. “Trying to get this one to sleep.”

“Aww. She does look awfully bright-eyed for someone who is supposed to be napping.” Sabrina pushed her office chair back, getting up to come around the desk and wiggle her fingers at Madison. Madison’s gaze instantly landed on the cat-eye glasses hanging from a chain around Sabrina’s neck, and as Sabrina leaned down to tweak Madison’s little hand, the little girl made a swipe for them.

“Nice try,” Sabrina laughed. “No wonder you keep your hair up all the time now,” she added, glancing up at Nora. “It suits you though. I bet a nice shoulder-length bob would too.”

“I’ve considered it,” Nora admitted with a laugh.

It didn’t escape her how different, and nice, it was to be friends with Sabrina now. When she’d first come back to Evergreen Hollow, she and Sabrina had butted heads terribly.

She’d thought Sabrina was a stuck-in-her-ways nosy busybody, and Sabrina had thought Nora was out of touch with what was important to Evergreen Hollow, a big-city girl who didn’t understand what was important to the locals and had forgotten her roots. There had been some truth to both opinions, Nora thought—and she could think that now, with some amusement. They’d buried their issues a long time ago, beginning with Nora’s agreement, back during that first Christmas she’d come home, to focus on a more local angle for the festival she’d helped rejuvenate.

That clash had been one of the things that had made her wonder if she’d have trouble fitting back in, when she’d decided to stay in Evergreen Hollow after the festival and move back home for good. But in the time since, she’d found her place there, and Sabrina and she had become, if not fast friends, good ones.

They definitely didn’t clash any longer like they had that first Christmas. And Sabrina had learned to not be quite so nosy, although her interest in Margo and Spencer’s romance last year had reminded everyone that trait hadn’t entirely faded away.

“How are things going?” Sabrina asked, and Nora gave her a tired smile. Back when she’d first come home, she would have thought that question was an angle to get more gossip, or an underhanded jab, but she knew better now. It was one of genuine concern, and she appreciated it.

“She never wants to sleep,” Nora admitted. “There are so many things that have been wonderful, and being a mother is great, but Aiden and I are honestly exhausted. I don’t know what she has against sleep, but I would love some,” she said with a laugh. “I wish I could telepathically make her feel how I do about sleep right now.”

Sabrina laughed. “Well,” she said, leaning down to sweep Madison out of the stroller and into her arms, deftly bumping the cat-eye glasses out of the way of Madison’s searching fingers. “I’ll give getting her to take a nap a try. I have some ideas. Just let us two work it out, while you go see Margo.”

“It can’t hurt,” Nora said with a small laugh. “Good luck.”

She left the stroller and Madison’s diaper bag with Sabrina, heading down the hall to where she knew Margo’s office was. The door was cracked, and Nora walked in, seeing her sister looking at something intently on her computer screen.

“Your new article must be pretty exciting,” Nora remarked, dropping into one of the chairs in front of Margo’s desk. A wave of sleepiness instantly washed over her, and she wondered if she should grab a coffee from the office’s espresso machine. She wasn’t even sure that would help at this point.

Margo sat back, glancing over at her sister. “I’m reading the news from the magazine I used to work for,” she said. “The stories they’ve put out for this issue are fascinating. There’s one about some ocean archaeology in the Caribbean…” She trailed off. “I always enjoyed being somewhere warm this time of year.”

Immediately, what Spencer had said to her that evening at the inn popped back into Nora’s mind. She couldn’t resist the urge to do a little digging. She hadn’t been concerned when Spencer had brought it up, thinking that it was just normal worries, his understandable fears about how Margo would adjust to such a dramatic change in her lifestyle after a so many years traveling the world.

He was in love with her; of course he would be worried that she would get restless and want to move on. But after some of the comments Nora had heard Margo make recently, and especially after what her sister had just said, Nora was starting to have some concerns of her own.

“Do you miss the excitement of working for the magazine?” she asked, looking at Margo curiously. “I know how much you loved it. You pretty much went straight there from college and stayed.”

Margo let out a breath.

“Sometimes,” she admitted finally, and Nora felt an anxious jolt in her chest. “I’ve always been adventurous. I always felt like it was hard to sit still. Even when I worked there, I would come back from one assignment, and immediately be ready to go out on another one. I would be fidgety even during that short period of time when I needed to be in the office to finish writing my articles and turn everything in. My apartment always looked like a hotel room. Just basic furniture, a few appliances.” She laughed.

“So, you miss traveling?” Nora ventured, and Margo bit her lip. “Does it feel hard being home instead?”

Margo’s mouth twisted slightly. “I stayed away before because of Chris,” she said slowly. “I didn’t want to deal with running into him after what he did.”

Nora could understand that. What Chris had done to Margo had been awful. None of the Stoker family even spoke to him if they could help it, if they saw him out and about in town. They avoided him if possible. He’d been engaged to Margo right out of high school, and she’d planned to stay in the little town and marry him, instead of going off to college somewhere else.

But then he’d cheated on her the summer after graduation, and Margo had promptly left. She hadn’t come back home once until last Christmas, when she’d gotten laid off right before the holidays from her magazine job. And Nora couldn’t blame her, after all of that.

“That’s not an issue anymore,” Margo continued quietly. “Spencer told him to leave me alone, and he has. And I’ve dealt with it. I’m happy now with Spencer, and that’s all that matters. What Chris did hurt, but if that hadn’t happened, I would have ended up married to him. I would have figured out what kind of person he was eventually. And I might not be with Spencer if things had gone differently. So I don’t regret it.”

“But…” Nora prodded, and Margo gave her a small smile.

“I still love traveling. It feels weird to me that after spending so many years constantly going from place to place, visiting eight or ten countries in a year, I haven’t set foot on a plane again since I came back here last Christmas. I’ve barely left Evergreen Hollow. The farthest I’ve been since last year is Rhode Island. So it all feels a bit… foreign. I never pictured myself staying in one place permanently.”

“But you do now, right?” Nora asked, tilting her head to one side. She was prying a bit, but she couldn’t help herself. “You and Spencer seem so happy together.”

Margo’s expression softened. “Oh, we are. I love him so much! And I love being back in Evergreen Hollow, and being closer to you and Caroline, and Mom and Dad. But sometimes I still get a bit of an itch for excitement. A bit of wanderlust, I guess you could say. I just need to find some way to scratch that itch while staying in one place.”

Margo glanced back at her computer, and Nora nodded, biting her lip thoughtfully as she considered her sister’s words. She understood what Margo was feeling, and she hoped her sister would be able to find the balance between seeking out thrills and adventure and embracing the simple joy of building a family and community in their small town.

There was a light rap at the door, before Nora could say anything else. Sabrina walked in. She held Madison in her arms, and Nora realized with surprise that the baby was asleep. Sound asleep, her lips parted, soft breaths bubbling out. The kind of sleep Nora hadn’t managed to coax her into in what felt like days.

“What on earth did you do?” Nora whispered, her eyes wide, feeling something like awe. “I need to know.”

Sabrina smiled. “I rocked her in my office,” she whispered, equally quietly. “I have a lavender aroma infuser in there. It put her right to sleep.”

Nora felt a wave of relief at the thought that there might actually be a solution. She held her arms out for Sabrina to hand the baby over, and Madison cuddled into her embrace, still fully asleep. Nora stared down at her daughter for a moment, still stunned, and then glanced back up at Sabrina.

“I’m picking up some lavender from the general store on the way home.”