Trapped Under the Christmas Tree (Christmas Tree, PA Sweet Romcom #1)

Chapter 2

Tessa

I have both hands wrapped around the cup of warm hot chocolate as I breathe deeply of its scent. Rich and thick, the smell of chocolate wraps around my nose and flows to my heart and brain and makes me feel warm and good inside, and I haven’t even tasted it yet.

Aside from being the town librarian, my special superpower is my secret family recipe for hot chocolate.

This superpower comes in handy in a town named Christmas Tree, but it’s not exactly financially profitable. People don’t pay me for my hot chocolate, they just expect me to show up when the town is having anything Christmas related, which is pretty much at least once a month, since, because of the town’s name, we capitalize on it as much as we can. After all, we’re in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania, and it’s not exactly a huge tourist pathway.

A thunderous crash interrupts me as I’m just about to take the first sip.

It sounds like it came from the town square. My apartment over the Christmas shop overlooks the town square. It’s not as beautiful as a mountain view might be, and it’s not overlooking a stream of any kind, which would be my ideal, but they do have a beautiful fountain going in the town square once all danger of a freeze has passed in the spring, and they shut it down about October in the fall.

They do that so that they can put up the massive Christmas tree that our town has every year.

It’s kind of a wonder they don’t take the town fountain out and replace it with a year-round Christmas tree. But our tree is always live, always grown on our local Christmas tree farm, and always huge.

I know tonight was the night that they were supposed to be decorating it, but after our entire fire company, first responders, and crews were called out for an accident down on I80, I figured that was all canceled.

But as I mosey to the window, I see that the tree has fallen over. It’s a good thing it was canceled. Somebody might have gotten hurt or trapped under that heavy thing. It’s huge, although if they said how much it weighs, I can’t remember. A lot of times, they’ll have all the details of the tree on an information sheet I hang up in the library. It’ll say how old it was, when it was planted, where it was grown in as a seedling, and how much it weighs, among other things.

This year, it is a giant Douglas fir. But I haven’t gotten the information sheet yet, so that’s all I know about it. When you live in a town named Christmas Tree, you have a tendency to be able to look at evergreen trees and know exactly what kind you’re looking at.

I’m about to turn away from the window, since there’s nothing I can do. That tree is way too heavy for me to lift, something I know from past information sheets talking about how heavy the trees are. It will have to be lifted up by a crane. Probably Bob Turner will be there in the town square tomorrow with his truck that is most likely helping with the accident right now.

But just as I turn away from the sparkling lights and cozy scene of our town square, I think I see something red wiggle under the tree.

It can’t be. No one was out there. Everyone had headed to the emergency, or else they were staying home because of the storm coming. But as I look closer, leaning over my hot chocolate and pressing my face to the glass, I think that I do indeed see something moving.

And then, I see the overturned ladder. Was someone trying to decorate the tree by themselves? I scan the area but only see one ladder. Unless the second one was caught under the tree when it fell. But no, I think that’s a person.

I’m already in my cozy, warm flannel jammies, wearing big goofy socks. The kind of outfit that will keep me warm so I can turn my thermostat down low and not use too much heat. I love being a librarian, but in a small town like Christmas Tree, it doesn’t pay much. I’m guessing that it probably doesn’t pay much no matter where you work, but I don’t know that for sure. I just know I didn’t become a librarian because I love money. I became a librarian because I love books.

Regardless, money or no money, I can’t just stay up here in my nice, cozy apartment while someone could possibly be trapped underneath the tree down in the town square. There’s no way I could sleep.

After another look around to confirm that there really isn’t anyone else in the vicinity, I sigh, set my hot chocolate down, stuff my big fluffy socks into my winter boots, grab my coat from the rack by the door, and shove a hat down over top of my head.

Hopefully, I’m dead wrong about this, and I’ll be back drinking my hot chocolate before it gets cold.