Page 4 of Holiday Reunion

Sarah spun to face James the second they were out of the mayor’s earshot. “What was that?”

“What was what?”

“You just agreed to doing the festival.”

“Yeah, so?”

“I don’t know if I have time to commit to something like that. I’m barely keeping my head above water as it is.”

He patted his briefcase. “That’s why I’m making my offer. It’s still on the table, you know. All you have to do is sign on the dotted line and by the end of the workday, I’ll have all the bills paid off.”

She let out a growl. “Will you just drop it? I’m not going to agree to anything.”

“Not even the Christmas festival?”

Sara groaned and dragged a hand down her face. “Clearly I can’t back out of that.”

“I don’t see why not.”

Her sharp stare would have pierced the heart of a lesser man. She spoke through gritted teeth. “I can’t let you do it by yourself or you’re just going to mess he whole thing up. What don’t you understand about the fact that you can’t just come dancing into town expecting everyone to fall at your feet and praise you for tearing down our traditions? Our history?”

James snorted. “I’m not trying to destroy this town’s history.”

“You could have fooled me.” She folded her arms and glowered at him. “I’m not going to sit by while you try to pretendto be a hero when you so clearly are the furthest thing from it. We need to preserve what this harbor was when we were children.”

He made a face. “There are so many better ways of doing things?—”

“Andthat’sthe reason why I’m not letting you do this alone.” She spun around and stormed inside her bakery, leaving him out in the cold winter morning.

THREE

The following morning, Sarah marched into her bakery with her hands balled into fists and bags beneath her eyes. She hadn’t slept at all last night and all because she couldn’t get James and their stupid conversation out of her head.

He was going to ruin everything. When it was just a few shops on Lake Harbor Avenue, she’d managed to let herself ignore him. But then Brie had given her the full rundown for what the other businesses who were currently open were doing.

Much like James had alluded to, those businesses were now sharing part ownership with James’s development company. If they wanted to make any changes to their shop, they had to get approval from the board that oversaw everything.

How could they do that to themselves? The whole point in running a business was to have the freedom to make one’s vision a reality. She stomped around the kitchen, fuming, only to be interrupted by Brie’s arrival.

“That bad, huh?”

Sarah didn’t know how long Brie had watched her storm through the shop, but it didn’t matter. Her friend had seen worse.

“He called me after work yesterday.”

“James?”

“Who else.” Sarah growled again. “He’s going to ruin everything.”

“Maybe he won’t.”

Sarah glowered at Brie. “I know you don't understand because you didn’t grow up here, but this place… it doesn’t need to be changed. It doesn’t need some traitor to come in and turn it into some circus.”

Brie bit back a smile.

“I’m serious,” Sarah insisted. “What’s the point in living in a small town where everyone knows your name if you start turning it into something unrecognizable?”

Her friend shrugged as she pulled away from the door. “You know, something I’ve learned is you can’t judge something until you’ve had a chance to let it speak for itself first. Maybe James will do something unexpected.”

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