Page 31 of The Christmas Tree Farm
‘Okay. Love you, Kiki.’
‘Love you, too, Chlo’
She hung up before she could get emotional. She had a Christmas-tree farm to open today, hopefully one with actual customers, and she didn’t want puffy eyes for her big day.
* * *
‘Opening day!’ Iris chirped beside her, clapping her hands. ‘This is exciting.’ Her strawberry- blonde hair was done up in a braided wreath around her head today and she looked like she belonged in some sort of Nordic Christmas advertisement. It was the exact vibe Kira wanted, but vibes didn’t matter if she didn’t have customers.
‘Very exciting. As long as people actually show up.’
‘Of course they’ll show up,’ Iris said. ‘I know you’re new here, but trust me, Dream Harbor shows up for anything resembling a festival, grand opening, carnival, or fundraiser. You should see the turnout for town meetings.’
Kira huffed. ‘I have. And it’s weird.’ She’d attended one back in the fall to convince the mayor and the residents that she had no intention of reopening. And one failing boiler later, here she was.
Iris laughed, leaning back in her rocking chair. They were sitting on the little porch in front of the customer-service cabin, waiting for their first customers to arrive. Or praying they would arrive, in Kira’s case. She’d put all her eggs in this one very precarious basket, and she really needed it to work.
The panic of not having money was real, and she’d been so undeservedly lucky to never have felt it before.
‘I found these,’ Kira said, changing the subject to ease her anxiety about the day. She held out the two old letters and the list of possessions Bennett had found. ‘What do you think they’re all about?’
Iris took the papers and laid them on her lap. Kira had finally read the letters hoping they’d help make sense of the strange list of items. One had been a letter from what seemed a distant relative of his to Edwin, the last owner of the farm, requesting to come visit the farm so he could ‘get the lay of the land’. And the other was a copy of Edwin’s revised will from his lawyer.
‘Looks like old Edwin was getting his estate in order before he died.’ Iris shrugged.
‘Don’t you think the list of stuff is kind of odd?’
‘Hewas kind of odd.’
‘The house had a lot of old furniture in it when I moved in, but I certainly didn’t find any Tiffany lamps. And what do you think happened to Ellie’s baubles?’
‘They were probably buried with her,’ Iris mumbled.
‘What?’
Iris smiled innocently. ‘I imagine his wife was buried wearing her best jewelry, right? Or they gave them to a family member.’
‘Hmm. Yeah, I guess. I haven’t checked the attic yet, though. Too creepy.’
Iris laughed. ‘I don’t blame you. When we were cleaning out my great-aunt’s attic we found an entire family of raccoons living in her luggage collection.’ Iris shivered at the memory.
‘Aww … cute.’
‘Not cute. The little garbage monsters had made a huge mess.’
‘Maybe you’re right. I’ll steer clear of the attic for now.’
They sat in companionable silence rocking in their chairs and sipping their tea while Kira thought about Edwin and his wife and what else he might have left behind in his old house.
‘I’ve never worked on a farm,’ Iris said, after a while. ‘I like it.’
Kira knew this little fact about her employee, and she’d hired the woman anyway, based almost entirely on the positive energy Iris emanated. She figured it was as good a reason as any to hire someone.
‘You’ve had a lot of jobs?’ she asked now, needing a distraction from staring down the empty parking lot.
Iris nodded. ‘Bank teller, library clerk, waitress, of course, who hasn’t done that to make some extra cash?’
Kira decided not to say she’d never needed extra cash until this very moment.
