Page 29 of The Inn at Evergreen Hollow

So long as everyone else remained happy with what she was doing, she reassured herself, it would be fine. Sabrina was one cranky voice. She shouldn’t let it get to her.

Speaking of voices—Nora craned her neck, looking out toward the living room. She could hear the crackle of the fireplace from there, but not much else. “It’s so quiet,” she observed, reaching for a second cookie. “Reallyquiet.”

Rhonda sighed. For a moment, Nora got the distinct impression that she’d touched on something that her mother really didn’t want to talk about—had been avoiding talking about, maybe. “There’s only one guest,” she said finally, and Nora’s brows rose.

Concern pricked at her instantly. She thought of the tense look on Caroline’s face, and her mother’s attempts to do more holiday events, and the pieces started to come together. “How long have things been this slow?”

That hesitant look passed over Rhonda’s face again. “A while,” she admitted. “But I’m sure it’s really nothing to worry over. Caroline gets stressed about it, but I’m hopeful that things will pick back up if we just give it a little time. There’s always ups and downs, rough patches.”

It wasn’t dissimilar to what Aiden had said that morning. Nora’s mind was already ticking away, thinking of what could be done to give the business a boost. She didn’t say anything—she knew her mother had already been reticent to talk about it. She didn’t want to make her feel worse.

But she could think of some things to do. Packages—maybe ones appealing to couples away on a romantic Vermont holidayor friends having a girls’ weekend. Add-ons—a guided fishing trip, or a maple syrup tour. The inn offered rustic, charming rooms and delicious breakfasts and a cozy place to relax, with a few small in-house events here and there like the mulled wine tasting—but Nora saw places to expand.

She was sure that Caroline would have an aneurysm if she heard Nora thinking about changing anything around the inn.

“How was the dance class?” Rhonda asked, abruptly changing the subject. “Did you enjoy it?”

Nora gave her a pointed look. “I know what you and Melanie did. You could have warned me, at least, that Aiden would be teaching the class.”

“Would you have gone?” her mother countered, and Nora sighed.

“Probably not.”

“So? How was it?” Rhonda’s eyes twinkled, and she reached for her cocoa. Nora knew her mother had been waiting for the moment to get her to spill the details. She wondered how long Rhonda and Melanie had conspired over this. She doubted it had been a spur of the moment thought.

“I was caught completely off guard. I stepped on his toes and elbowed him in the face when we ended up dancing together.” Nora let out a dramatic sigh. “But we ended up talking today at the Mug, actually. He was there while I was working. Obviously, I had to apologize again for almost taking him out.”

“Obviously,” Rhonda murmured.

“And then offer toactuallytake him out to dinner.” Nora bit her lips nervously. “Sort of… kind of a date. Tomorrow night.”

“Oh?” Her mother’s eyebrows rose. “A date? With Aiden? Your vacation home is getting interesting. Maybe I should send some mistletoe with you.”

“Easy there.” Nora laughed. “I can’t exactly classify it as a date. We didn’t say it was that.” She felt the flutter of nervesagain, wondering if she was being ridiculous by even thinking of it in the same terms as a date. He’d said he liked her—but he could have meant that he just liked talking to her. Chatting companionably. He hadn’t said he wanted todateher, and she hadn’t been specific about it. In fact, even when referencing the old days of high school, she’d said she had thought he might have wanted to hang out againorask her out.

He could have been referencing either, really.

“Do you want it to be a date?” Her mother looked thoroughly intrigued. It made Nora wonder what she’d thought of Rob. Clearly, Rhonda had no compunctions about Nora getting over him. But then again, for all the years that she’d been with him, he’d barely met her family. She was sure her mother had thoughts about that, that she’d kept to herself.

“Maybe.” Nora reached for her cocoa, taking solace in the rich chocolate. “He really did grow up to be impressively good-looking. And he’s charming, and funny when he wants to be. He’s hard to ignore. Even if I wanted to.”And I’m not sure I want to.

“He had a thing for you back in high school,” Rhonda observed, and Nora laughed softly.

“I thought the opposite. I thought he wasn’t interested. But maybe I was wrong about that. And… I don’t know. I don’t know what to think. It’s not going to go anywhere, but I get a little bit of butterflies thinking about it being a date.”

Nora was surprised to hear herself admit it out loud, and to her mother. They’d never really talked about boys. Nora had been too focused in high school to date much, not seeing the purpose when she intended to flee Evergreen Hollow as soon as possible, and they’d never talked about who she was seeing in college.

She’d told her mother about Rob, and they’d met briefly, and of course she would have sent an invite to the wedding. Butit had never been likethis, mother and daughter sitting in the kitchen with cookies and cocoa, talking about Nora’s love life.

It felt nice. Like home, if she was being honest. And she didn’t really know what to do with that feeling either.

Rhonda gave her a gentle look, reaching over to pat her daughter’s hand. “Have fun, Nora. You deserve it.”

It still felt like an alien concept to her, just havingfun. Not worrying about where it might go, or if it was silly to go on a date with a man who was never leaving Evergreen Hollow when she had every intention of leaving again. Normally, she would have said it was pointless. That all of these thoughts and feelings were foolish, when they couldn’tbecomesomething.

But maybe her mother had a point, just like Aiden had a point earlier when he talked about just having a hobby.

Maybe a date could just be that. A date because it gave her butterflies and sounded fun, and she wanted to go. Maybe some things could just be because she wanted to, and not because they had a purpose, or would help her career, or would lead to an eventual marriage.

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