Page 78 of The Merry Matchmaker

“But you care about the Santa Walk, and you care about Carol.”

“You’re right,” she said. She took a big bite of cookie, hoping it would sweeten up her attitude.

She called Barbara after Mitch left and asked if Barbara had any ideas for what to do with the gingerbread houses after the pageant.

“The contestants can take them home.”

“I’m just wondering if there’s a way we can put them to use,” Frankie suggested.

“How?”

“What about some sort of fundraising angle?”

“Selling them?”

“Or auctioning them?”

“Hmm. Auctioning them could be fun.”

“So many good causes in town. Animal rescue, the food bank, the Help Santa fund...” Frankie let the last suggestion dangle, a verbal bauble waiting to be grabbed.

Barbara snatched it. “We could auction them off and donate the proceeds to the Help Santa fund. That seems appropriate.”

“Yes, it does. Good idea,” Frankie added, and almost choked on the words.

“I think we’ll do that. I can mention it when I go on the radio tomorrow.”

“A very good idea.”

“Yes, I’m glad we decided to do the gingerbread houses.”

Which you were so not in favor of.

Oh well. Everything they were doing was to benefit the community. As long as the end result was good, who cared how they got to it?

That took care of the pageant. Now, what was going on with Stef? She should have checked in. Frankie picked up her phone and called her sister.

“I’m dying,” Stef answered. “Someone drove an ax into my head, and it’s splitting open.”

“Oh no. When did that hit?”

“This morning.”

“So I guess you didn’t make it to the coffee shop.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

And that encounter had sounded so hopeful. “Don’t give up,” Frankie said.

Stef just groaned.

“And feel better.” Because life was bound to get better for Stef, and Frankie was determined to do her part to make sure it happened.

Frankie ground her teeth as she listened to Barbara’s interview on her phone the next morning. She was sitting in the back room of Holiday Happiness, doing paperwork.

“The gingerbread houses sound like a fun addition to the pageant,” said Carly Rae, radio personality and host of the morning show,Carol’s Life. “That pageant is something new this year, isn’t it? In the past, Frankie Lane from Holiday Happiness has been Mrs. Claus.”

“Frankie felt it was time to step down,” Barbara said.

---