The Christmas Cookie Wars

Chapter Ten

Ten

The library had always been Melody’s favorite room at the boys’ school. It was the one space in the whole building that didn’t have such an institutional vibe. The librarian, Mr. Ponder, had won grant money to turn the space into a whimsical storybook land where the kids could not only check out books but also immerse themselves in make-believe worlds.

Finn and Tate had spent a lot of hours in the reading corners with vibrantly colored beanbags and chairs, and the vast displays of some of the more popular series had fueled their love for the adventure and science fiction genres.

Most of her recommended parent volunteer hours had been spent right here, reading to children, shelving books, consulting on the displays. Now, though, she had a sense of foreboding as she walked through the doors.

A circle of hard plastic chairs had already been positioned in the group reading area, replacing the colorful chairs and beanbags, which were now stacked gloomily in the corner.

“Melody.” Aunt Bernice met her by the circulation desk with outstretched arms. “How’re you doing?” She hugged her tight, obstructing Melody’s ability to answer. “How’re Finny and Tate? The poor boys. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen them so upset.”

“They’ll be okay.” Finn and Tate were resilient. They’d been through far more than most kids their age, and she liked to think they’d developed some wisdom and perspective along the way. Melody extracted herself from the embrace. “Papa was going to take them sledding this afternoon.” A distraction until she could get this situation cleared up.

“Practically everyone is talking about the whole fiasco.” Aunt Bernice cast a suspicious glance around them, but only Joan hovered nearby, listening in.

“Don’t worry.” Her mom’s friend huddled in with them. “We have your back.”

Thankfully, the other committee members—Tracey, Deb, and Nancy—seemed to be too engrossed in their own hushed conversation at the center of the chair circle to notice she’d walked in. It appeared Jonathan hadn’t arrived yet.

“Do you know who did this?”

Bernice had a habit of asking questions she already knew the answer to.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know.” As acting president, she might be making a suggestion to install surveillance cameras in the gym before next year’s contest.

“We’ve got our money on Mrs. Altman,” Mom whispered. She’d snuck in behind them.

“Oh yes.” Aunt Bernice’s head bobbed in a confident nod. “That would make the most sense.”

“She’s a real grump,” Joan agreed.

“She couldn’t have physically pulled it off,” Melody reminded them. With two arthritic hips she wouldn’t have been able to move fast enough.

“What about Charlene?” her mother suggested. “She’s given you nothing but trouble.”

“I thought about her too, but she wasn’t around.” Which was strange in and of itself. Melody couldn’t believe Charlene hadn’t come to watch her fail.

“She could’ve hired someone else to do it,” Aunt Bernice mused.

“Well, we can’t publicly name any suspects without proof.” Kels completed their little band of misfits. “But I’m going over there right now to start planting seeds for your innocence.” She swept past them and greeted the others.

“We can do that too.” Bernice pulled on her mom’s and Joan’s hands and dragged them to the circle too.

Melody hung back, drawing in a breath and holding on to it. This was probably how the Survivor contestants felt going into Tribal Council. She fully anticipated that those three members would try to make a case for her dismissal, and now she was contemplating letting them. This whole gig had been way more trouble than she’d bargained for—

“Melody.”

A shiver ran through her at the depth of Jonathan’s voice. Did he say her name differently than everyone else’s, or did she only hear him differently? She turned, her footing shaky, and fought to stand strong beneath the wave of panic or anticipation or hope or whatever it was that crashed over her. “Hey.” No one else might have heard the tremor in her voice, but she felt it rock through her.

“Hey.” True concern creased his forehead. “Are Finn and Tate feeling any better?”

Based on the worry evident in his expression, he already knew the answer. “No. They’re really not.” And she wasn’t either. “Excuse me. I should find a seat.” His gaze followed her; she could feel the weight of it, but she didn’t look back at him.

Melody opted for the spot between her mother’s and Aunt Bernice’s purses. She sat watching her family members carry on heated discussions with the other committee members until Kels whistled. “Why don’t we all sit down and get started?”

Jonathan made it to the circle last and ended up sitting directly across from her. The only way for her to avoid his gaze was to stay hyperfocused on her sister.

“Okay, so apparently since I’m the deputy director and our director is involved in the dispute, I’ll be running the meeting.” Kels seemed to direct the words at Tracey, Deb, and Nancy. “But for the record, I think this whole thing is ridiculous. For one thing, Jonathan still won the contest, even though he got sabotaged. And, for another, there is absolutely no proof that Melody and her boys were involved in the alleged switching of the ingredients.”

“Someone compromised the integrity of the contest,” Deb said. “I mean, Melody only just took over and we’re already having issues. I, for one, am not convinced this is a good leadership change.”

“Agreed. Let’s not forget too that Mr. Braxton spent his hard-earned money on those ingredients.” As Jonathan’s assistant, Nancy was always protective of him. “Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the cookie committee.”

Tracey also glared at Melody like she was a pariah. “Is it true you and Mr. Braxton made a bet?”

“That was a joke.” Anger steeled her spine. “Come on. We all know that no cookie the boys and I make could ever beat his cookies.” She slashed a hand in Jonathan’s direction. “I was planning to volunteer in the cafeteria anyway.” Exaggerating had never hurt anyone.

“Exactly.” Nancy had been scolding children in that tone for at least twenty years. “You knew you couldn’t beat him. The boys knew that. So maybe they decided to give themselves the best chance.”

Deb nodded. “You have to admit, it doesn’t look good.”

“At this point there may be no alternative but for you to step down.” Tracey looked to the other two for support.

“If she steps down, then we’re stepping down too.” Kels gestured to their mom and Aunt Bernice and Joan. “And then there is no way you’ll have the numbers to pull off the Cookie and Cocktail Crawl and Cookie Daze.”

“We’ll have to disband the committee for good,” Nancy said. “Maybe Charlene was right in the first place. That might be the best option.”

“No.” Melody stood. “We are not disbanding. I haven’t done anything wrong, but I’m happy to step down if—”

“Can I say something?” Jonathan interrupted.

Oh, now he had something to say? Melody spread out her hands in a silent invitation and took her seat. She could resign when he was done talking.

“The whole thing was my mistake. I grabbed the wrong container before I left my house.” Somehow he uttered the most perfect self-deprecating chuckle. “I thought I had packed the sugar container, but I switched them.” His innocent shrug didn’t fool her. “So Melody and Finn and Tate had nothing to do with it. I made the mistake.”

He was totally lying.

“Oh. Well, that explains it, then.” Kels smiled brightly, clearly seizing the opportunity to wrap this up. “The whole thing was simply a big misunderstanding.”

“Exactly,” Jonathan continued with a dimple-less smile. “I was embarrassed to admit my mistake at the contest, but there you have it. No one sabotaged me. I sabotaged myself. And I promise to set the record straight in the school newsletter this week.”

Silence fell while Nancy, Deb, and Tracey all exchanged skeptical glances.

“I don’t understand,” Tracey said politely. “You keep a whole container of salt in your house? That looks like your sugar container?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I do.”

Melody watched his face intently, picking up on a flicker of amusement.

“The salt container looks a lot like my sugar container. Everything in my kitchen matches.”

Now that part she could believe. He likely had all of his ingredients and spices alphabetized too.

“You’re sure?” Deb didn’t seem to believe him either, but no one would question Jonathan too much.

“I’m positive. Sorry for the confusion. I’ll make it up to everyone with some gingersnaps that have sugar instead of salt.” His good-natured tone had every woman in that room smiling, including Melody.

Unbelievable. She evened out her expression before he saw.

“Great! Don’t worry about it, Jonathan. No harm done.” Her sister’s jovial tone brushed the whole thing off. “Since we now know the truth, I expect you all to set the record straight when you’re discussing the situation with your neighbors and friends,” Kels said to Deb, Nancy, and Tracey. “Now, Mel, why don’t you take the floor so we can discuss the Cookie and Cocktail Crawl?”

She waited for another argument, but everyone seemed to have accepted Jonathan’s tale. Even if no one believed it. Now they were all staring at her, waiting. So that was it? One sentence from Jonathan and this whole inquest was over? Without an apology from anyone?

“Melody?” her mom prompted.

Oh, for crying out loud. “Everything’s on track for the crawl.” Her grumpy tone couldn’t be helped. “We have commitments from all the shops on Main Street. Each establishment is planning to offer a specialty cocktail and cookie while people browse around.” She’d spent the last week making the rounds to get all of her neighbors at the boutique excited about the event. Because she was actually good at this director stuff. “This year, I also asked everyone to offer mocktails and hot chocolate for the under-twenty-one crowd.”

“What a great idea.” Judging from Nancy’s overly enthusiastic praise, she was back in the woman’s good graces.

All because Jonathan had lied for her.

“Perfect!” her sister chirped. “Now we just need to get the word out.”

“I’m working on that part.” Deb waved a hand. “I brought flyers to hand out after the meeting.”

“Alrighty, then.” Kels stood up. “I believe we’ve taken care of the business. So I’m officially ending the meeting. Let’s go home, people.”

Everyone stood up and started to put away their chairs, but Melody went right for Jonathan, cornering him near the reference section. “You didn’t have to make up a story to protect us,” she half whispered.

He peeked around the shelf as though making sure no one would see them. “I couldn’t let them force you into resigning. Especially when I know you and the boys weren’t responsible.”

Uh-oh. The magnetic force field of his eyes had drawn her in. She couldn’t look away. “You didn’t seem sure at the contest.” That was what had hurt the most. He’d hesitated. She’d seen him hesitate…kind of like he was now—gaze darting around, mouth twisted in the slightest indecision.

“You misread the situation.” He shuffled a half step closer. Close enough that she could detect the scent of his fresh, clean laundry soap.

“But you didn’t say anything.” Her mouth seemed to be moving in slow motion, which was weird given the erratic state of her heart.

“I never know what to say to you.” He gave a frustrated shake of his head. “I mean, I never feel like I say the right thing to you. The things I want to say.”

The world seemed to come to a screeching halt. All she could see was Jonathan looking at her—looking into her eyes—with a sort of desperate longing.

Melody ached to find a breath. He wanted to say something to her? Something important? “Wh…what about your girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend?” Jonathan shook his head slowly.

“She was at your house this morning—”

“That was my ex-wife,” he murmured. “She brought Ainsley up, and we were all having breakfast together.” His face drew even closer to Melody’s, and those eyes. She couldn’t look away. They were luring her in, head over heels, and she was losing herself in the midst of the pull. He didn’t look like Principal Braxton right now. He looked like a man. A man who had every pulse point in her body throbbing. Oh mama, she was in so much trouble.

Jonathan’s lips quirked. “There’s only one person I’m interested in right—”

“There you are!” Deb broke the spell, barreling up the narrow aisle between the shelves. “Melody, what do you think about this for the Cookie and Cocktail Crawl flyer design?” She moved between them and held up a paper in front of her face.

The images blurred together in blobs of color. “Uh.” She blinked but couldn’t straighten out her vision. Jonathan was only interested in one person? “Looks great.”

“Good.” Deb shoved a whole stack of papers into her hands. “Now, I’m going to need you to distribute at least twenty copies to each of the businesses on Main Street so they can hang them in the windows.”

“Sure. I can do that.” She looked down at the flyers, trying to see past the pure wonderment working through her and, when she lifted her head again, she realized Jonathan had disappeared.

Wait. She sidestepped Deb and bypassed her mother and Aunt Bernice, and Joan, finally locating Kels by the door. “Have you seen Jonathan?”

“He left. Said something about having to go pick up his daughter.” Her sister’s eyes narrowed, going on high alert. “Why? What’s wrong? What happened?”

Melody shook her head. She couldn’t talk about this now. Deb, Tracey, and Nancy were on their way out.

“Bye, girls.” Nancy scooted past them, her posture the slightest bit repentant. “Be sure to turn off the lights when you leave.”

“Will do.” Kelsey’s stare bored into Melody’s forehead.

“I’m glad that unfortunate business is settled.” Bernice put one arm around each of them. “Why don’t we all go out for a celebratory cocktail? I’m buying.”

“We can’t.” Kels seemed to grasp that Melody couldn’t exactly speak for herself right then. She was too busy trying to figure out if Jonathan meant her. He had said he was interested in someone, right? She hadn’t imagined that?

“We have to, uh, go Christmas shopping.” Kels linked their arms together. “For you three. So clearly we can’t be with you right now.” She flicked off the lights and half dragged Melody down the hall and out the front doors to her car. “Get in.” Her sister clicked the unlock button.

Melody’s hand fumbled with the door handle and she slid into the passenger seat, completely oblivious to the freezing temperatures.

Kels turned on the car and blasted the heat. “What happened in there?”

She relayed the scene as best she could, leaving out the part about her heart going ballistic.

A smile took shape on Kelsey’s face, growing bigger with each word Melody spoke.

“I mean, he didn’t come out and say he was interested in me.” Could he be? Could regal, organized, put-together Jonathan be interested in her ? She didn’t know what to do with the hopes that were rising inside her.

“He didn’t have to come out and say it.” Kels clapped and squealed, throwing her own little party right there in the front seat. “Honey, Jonathan Braxton is totally in love with you.”