Page 68 of Baking it Merry

All the while, her mind raced at what kind of damage could have been done.Was anything destroyed?Was this the work of some teenagers who were just being menaces?Did anyone get hurt?

“I probably should have asked that first.”

Dressed, she put on her coat and grabbed her phone, purse, and keys and ran out to her car.It was positively freezing out, and she cranked the heat up as soon as she got in the car.Before she could pull out of the driveway, she called her mother.

“Merry Christmas Eve!”her mother said as her greeting.“Did you get a good night’s sleep last night?Are you calling to make sure your father and I cleaned up properly?”

“Oh, Mom…” She relayed the conversation she’d had just minutes ago.“I’m on my way there now to see what kind of damage was done.I can’t believe anyone would do such a thing right before Christmas!”

“This is terrible!Your father and I will head over too.And don’t worry, no matter what we’re dealing with, it will be okay.Promise me you’re okay to drive.We can come and get you.”

“Thanks, but I’m just pulling out of the driveway now.I’m fine, just a little shaken up.I wish I had asked more questions, but I don’t think it actually registered just what he was saying.”

“Just be careful and we’ll meet you there.”

“I will, and thanks, Mom.I don’t know what I’d do without you.”When she hung up, the first thought to cross her mind was how this was possibly the worst Christmas ever.Never in her life had so many things gone wrong or had she felt so hopeless.“Bring on the new year because I am ready to kick this year to the curb.”

When she arrived, there weren’t any police cars anywhere.However, there were about a dozen other cars in the lot, including Tristan’s.Her first thought was that he had vandalized her booth and everyone else’s—based on how vocal he’d been about hating all of them.

“No, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to do something like that, and he certainly wouldn’t be dumb enough to get caught.”Parking her car, she gripped the steering wheel hard and prayed she wasn’t walking into some kind of Christmas massacre.

Okay, dramatic much?

But when she stepped inside the lobby, everything looked fine.Confused, she slowly walked further into the space and spotted a small crowd of people—mostly from Tristan’s office—but her booth looked fine.Actually, it looked great—better than it’s ever looked.She was about to question what was going on when…

“Surprise!”

Wildly confused, Daphne looked around frantically.Facing her booth, it hit her that this wasn’t her gingerbread house—not the one she had originally built.This was entirely new and she still had no idea what was going on.

“Go ahead, Daphne!”Faye called out, smiling from ear to ear.“Step inside and check it out!”

“Okay, but…um…”

“Go!”Faye said with a laugh as she guided Daphne to the side door of the house.

The first thing she noticed was how sturdy it was.There was a lot more space than she typically had, and all the storage space was a dream!It was exactly like she’d dreamed it could be if she had been able to make it larger herself.Walking over to the counter, she was trembling and nearly overcome with emotion.“What is happening right now?”she said to the crowd of faces smiling back at her.

Just then, Tristan stepped forward wearing the loudest, ugliest Christmas sweater she had ever seen and a Santa hat.“We’re getting to it,” he said, but before he could do or say anything else, the landlord stepped forward.

“Ms.Noelle, I can’t apologize enough for the distress I caused you.I made a decision based on the obvious evidence I had.But thanks to Sara from Maxwell and Martin, and the IT team from Knight Architects, we realized Tristan wasn’t the one making the complaints.”

“Well, I did make the first one,” he said solemnly.

Darryl laughed softly, shaking his head.“After some thorough investigating, we found that a former employee of Knight Architects was posing as Tristan and lodging the complaints.I am sincerely sorry that you got put in the middle of this mess and that I excluded you from any future events here.Obviously, you can tell us you don’t forgive us and take your delicious baked goods to another location that will appreciate you.But I’m here to tell you, we are all incredibly hopeful that you’ll stay.”

There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but this time Tristan stepped forward.

“As you can see, this booth is not only larger than your original one, but it’s also semi-permanent.The plumbing and electric won’t be completed until after the new year.The overall design is all yours—with every festive option you can imagine—and has all the extra space you should ever need.”

“Why?Why would you do this?”

“Because you mean everything to me, Daphne.”He moved in closer until his hands covered hers on the counter.“You wouldn’t talk to me, so I figured I’d show you what was in my heart.”

“Tristan…”

“I know why you didn’t believe me,” he said, his voice low and tortured.“My track record has been pretty awful.But this is my way of proving to you how much you mean to me and how much I believe in you and support you and want you to stay.”

“You’re just saying that because you’ll miss your daily blueberry muffin,” she said shyly.

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