Page 10 of Matchmaking Under the Mistletoe

“Why don’t we start with the Christmas events since they’re coming up pretty soon. Then we can talk about how we’ve run the weddings over the last year, and you can make any suggestions you may have to help us make them run smoother.”

“Great. How many are there?”

“Two. Just so you know, the people of Springside don’t do anything halfway. We organize all of the events through the inn because it’s got the space, but the whole town usually comes out. Some of them are on committees to help organize too, but we’ll come back to that. So, since it’s the last week in November, we’ve got about a week and a half until the first event. It’s the Midnight Mistletoe Maze.”

“What?” she asks, and I fight the urge to laugh at her expression.

“The Midnight Mistletoe Maze,” I say, and her face morphs into a look of further confusion.

“I’m gonna need a little more explanation on that one, I’m afraid,” she says, and I finally can’t hold in my laughter anymore. “Wait, are you trying to be funny?”

“Nope, you’ll come to find out Springside’s chaos needs no embellishment,” I tell her, and she smiles. “No one really knows how it started, but it’s been a Springside favorite for decades. Everyone comes here first, and we light the big Christmas tree and serve cookies with hot chocolate for the kids and a holiday sangria for the adults. After that, everyone loads up into sleighs and trolleys to make the ride over to the Coopers’ Christmas Tree Farm for the maze.”

Millie is writing furiously in her notebook as I speak, and I try to ignore how freaking gorgeous she is. Her brown hair is tossed into a bun, but as she writes I notice a few strands have fallen down, and I have to grip the armrest of my chair to keep me from reaching out to tuck them behind her ear.

And the way she continues to nibble on her bottom lip makes me wonder what it would be like to be the one tasting her. I’m seconds away from losing the last threads of my self-control. I have to get control of myself before I do something that definitely wouldn’t be qualified as professional.

“Does it actually take place at midnight?” she asks skeptically.

“Nope. Seven p.m. It used to be later, but we moved it up years ago because giving sugar and cocoa to kids at midnight turns out not to be the best idea. But there’s two maze times—one for the kids and their parents, and another for just adults. The adults usually grab dinner from the restaurant here between the tree lighting and the second wave of trolleys while they wait.”

I pause while she continues to write and wait for her to finish before going on. “Anyway, all the houses between here and the tree farm decorate and put up lights for the ride. It’s usually pretty nice, and you don’t have to do anything for that.”

“Oh, that’s nice. I used to love looking at Christmas lights,” Millie says a bit wistfully.

“I bet D.C. had some really cool lights, huh?” I ask, trying to figure out if something I said is causing her to look so sad.

“Uhh, yeah, I guess. My ex-husband thought Christmas decorations were tacky, so we never put anything up. He said Christmas lights gave him a migraine. So, I guess after a while I just gave up on all the fun traditions…” she says, but her eyes look distant. Finally, as if just realizing she said that out loud, she gives herself a slight shake and says, “Gosh, I’m so sorry. Enough about that. Anyway, tell me more about these mazes.”

“Well, the Cooper family has run the tree farm for as long as I can remember, and they plant their trees in the shape of a maze. The farm is huge, and they just alternate fields depending on which areas have the most trees that year. We’ll go out and help them string lights through all of them so that people cansee. And when they make it out, there’s a station for the kids to write letters to Santa and some other fun activities. Oh, and throughout the maze there’s lots of mistletoe.”

“Obviously,” she mutters. “This is insane.”

Letting out another laugh at her expression, I tease. “You have no idea. We haven’t even gotten to the ballet classes or the live animals for the other events.”

“This place isn’t real, I swear. I’ve never seen anything like this,” she says, and I try not to chuckle again at her reaction.

“Oh, just buckle up, Miss Pouncey, because I promise, your first Christmas in Springside will be one you never forget,” I tell her. I don’t know where my words came from, but after the earlier sadness in her eyes when she talked about how much she used to love the season, I only hope I can make good on that promise.

CHAPTER 6

MILLIE

Oh my God.

When Brian mentioned planning some community Christmas events for him, I pictured some pictures with Santa and maybe a gingerbread decorating class. I figured in a town this small, that would be about all there was to it. But after taking notes for the last two hours while he talked about traditions, budgets, and volunteers, I’m feeling like I’m in way over my head.

“So, let’s review. Our first event is next week and it’s theeeeee…” he says, dragging out the word until I fill in the blank.

“Um, Midnight Mistletoe Maze,” I respond, thinking back to all the quirky details I’ve just frantically scrawled in my notebook.

“Great! And then to finish the festivities we have…”

“The Gingerbread Gala on Christmas Eve,” I say, already thinking about some fun ways to decorate for that one.

“Awesome. Listen, I know that I just threw a ton of information at you, but it’s really not as bad as it sounds. A bunch of people and organizations volunteer to help out, and they all end up being a lot of fun. Once I tell them we’ve broughtyou in, they’ll be busting down the door to meet you. I don’t know if Huey warned you or not, but we have some amazing people in this town who also happen to be some of the nosiest people I’ve ever met. So just prepare yourself,” Brian says as he stands from his desk.

“Let’s take a break,” he continues, stretching his arms out. “You want to grab some coffee from the lobby? With the snow, I figured we’d keep all the planning inside for today, but after this weather clears, we can walk the grounds for all the events, so you know what you’re working with.”

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