Page 109 of The Merry Matchmaker

Don’t be bitchy, she lectured herself as she toasted her English muffin. She’d brought this on herself by remaking Elinor and then pushing her into being Mrs. Claus.

She and Mitch often met for lunch on Mondays, so inviting him out wouldn’t look suspicious. She’d find a way to extend lunch into spending the afternoon together and use that time to explain to him why Elinor wasn’t right for him. Brock could manage the hardware store just fine in his absence.

Lunch?she texted.

No reply.

Hellooo.

It was eight in the morning. He practically lived at the store. He should be up and at work. Why wasn’t he replying?

Okay, maybe he was meeting with his staff. She’d give him some time to answer. She gave him an hour. More than enough time. She abandoned texting and called.

It took several rings before he answered with a sleepy, “Hello.”

“Were you still asleep?” Frankie asked in surprise.

“Yeah, I’m in bed. I feel like shit. I think I picked up some kind of stomach bug. Was up half the night.”

Probably the result of eating Elinor’s brownies, Frankie decided. Served him right.

“Can I bring you anything? Chicken soup?”

“No food,” he said firmly. “I’ll sleep this off and be fine. Did you need something?”

Other than to have a serious talk with him. “No, no, that’s okay. I’ll catch you when you’re better.”

“Okay,” he said, and ended the call before she could even say goodbye.

At least he hadn’t been ignoring her texts because he was with a certain someone. Tomorrow Frankie would get this all sorted out.

Meanwhile, she had a post-event meeting with the Santa Walk committee. She made sure she got an eggnog latte on her way to the chamber of commerce office. She knew she’d need a stiff shot of caffeine to face a gloating Barbara. The woman would, of course, be basking in the glow of success, hogging all the credit in spite of having a hardworking committee doing all the heavy lifting.

Frankie entered along with Theresia, who was happy with the volume of business the bakery had done on Saturday. “We sold out of everything,” she told Frankie. “There wasn’t so much as a crumb left behind. And, of course, our gingerbread Mrs. Clauses were the first to go. That was such a great suggestion. Thank you.”

“I’m glad, and you’re welcome,” Frankie said.

“You come up with so many cool ideas. I swear, you’re a regular idea factory.”

“Always thinking of ways to make the Santa Walk better,” Frankie said.

Theresia stopped before they entered the meeting room. “So, what did you think of the pageant? Really? Are you okay with someone else being Mrs. Claus?”

“It was hard to give up,” Frankie admitted. But it looked like a new tradition had begun and she suspected her reign as Mrs. Claus was over. “But that’s okay. It was someone else’s turn.”

Theresia lowered her voice. “I feel like Barbara sort of took over. How would you feel about chairing the committee again?”

Like I’d be back where I’m supposed to be.“I’d love to take on that responsibility,” Frankie said.

Theresia nodded decisively. “I’m going to nominate you. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t burned out.”

“I was never burned out,” Frankie said, and Theresia gave a knowing nod.

The others were already in the meeting room, and just as Frankie had predicted, Barbara was all smiles and pontificating on how well the event had gone. “I’ve heard lots of good feedback on our Dickens Carolers,” she said, “and I think the pageant was a huge success.”

“The gingerbread houses made a great fundraiser. We should definitely do that again,” said Autumn.

Barbara doled out a triumphant smile to Frankie as she seated herself. “Frankie, I hope you’re happy with how well your Mrs. Claus replacement did.”

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