Page 2 of Mistletoe Dreams
"From what I hear, whether you organize last minute or not, the festival is a hit throughout the state."
"That's part of the reason we're beginning to organize earlier. We're expecting a record turnout this year. We've had some unexpected publicity and a lot of interest, despite the fact the calendar says it's still early."
"Well, good for you then. It's always good to be prepared."
"I agree. Anyway, you're welcome to attend, and if you feel better going with someone, you're welcome to come with me."
"I appreciate that. I might feel a little bit weird walking in by myself, so it'd be nice to walk in with someone who knows what they're doing."
"I wouldn't go that far. It might be more like the blind leading the blind, but it's always nice to have someone beside you when you don't know what you're doing."
"I couldn't agree more."
They talked about the date and the time and made arrangements for Hannah to go to Dr. Terry's house to meet, and then they'd arrive at the meeting together.
Hannah left feeling like not only did she get a good job, but she made a friend. Terry Landis seemed like a very down-to-earth, friendly, and sweet woman. And if the busyness of the clinic was any indication, the townspeople loved her.
Hopefully, Hannah could learn from her and be just as beloved by the town.
Chapter Two
Hannah walked into her grandmother's house. No,herhouse. It was hard to think of it as anything but her gram's.
She breathed deeply of the air that still seemed to be dusted with cinnamon, although there was definitely a musty smell as well.
She'd just arrived that morning, unloaded a few things from her car, and went straight to the clinic.
Now, looking around, it was obvious she had a lot of work to do.
The U-Haul with most of her things would be arriving the next day, although she had no furniture. The antiques her grandmother had used were still scattered around the house and had conveyed when she had inherited the structure.
She smiled at the worn, old-fashioned couch where her grandmother had sat with books on her lap, a cup of tea steaming on the coffee table, while they spent Saturday afternoons reading together.
Although the kitchen was where most of her memories had been made. The Formica countertops, the old-fashioned linoleum floor, and the cupboards that looked like they hadbeen made out of plywood during the Second World War were gently worn and serviceable, but would never win any fashion awards.
It could definitely use a remodel, but Hannah wasn't sure if she was interested in that. After all, the things as they were held a lot of memories and made her happy. What did she care whether it looked modern or not, as long as it was functional?
A little scratching sound alerted her to the fact that she might not be living in the house by herself. Her skin crawled a bit as she thought about what a person needed to do in order to get rid of a rodent population.
Suddenly, the idea of sleeping upstairs held less appeal.
She pushed her shoulders back. Most likely those were descendants of the same mice that lived there when her grandmother was alive. Not that she held any fondness for the family line. Still, it reminded her she needed to finish doing the laundry so she had clean sheets to sleep in.
After she switched the laundry, throwing her sheets in the dryer, her stomach growled, and she realized that she hadn't done any grocery shopping at all.
She had been in such a big rush to get to the clinic to... revive her career? She wasn't sure exactly what she would say, because that wasn't the reason. There was no reviving the career trajectory that she had been on in this small town. That had hit a sudden and very harsh dead end.
Grabbing her keys from where she'd left them, she focused her thoughts on the here and now. Get enough food to survive the weekend and fuel her body while she unpacked and settled into her new home so that she would be ready on Monday morning to tackle this next challenge in her life. She was no stranger to doing hard things, having survived medical school and residency and landed a job at a prestigious hospital in the city, and she supposed this was no different.
Still, she hadn't anticipated what had happened and figured that there was probably no waythat anyone could.
She turned her car onto the main street of Mistletoe Meadows and drove down the familiar, nostalgic road, passing the park where she and her grandma had played when she was younger and then entered the downtown area with streets lined with small shops, including Henderson's candy store, as well as the candle shop which had always smelled so good, and the other cute stores.
As she headed toward the new grocery store on the other side of town, she noted a policeman standing along the road, talking to two rather scruffy-looking teens.
The policeman looked stern but kind. And there was something familiar about him. Or at least there seemed to be. Hannah had known a good number of kids from town, although she'd never gone to school with them because her parents had lived just outside of Charlottesville, and she'd only visited her gram in the summer, over school holidays, and the occasional long weekend.
She would've moved in with her if she could have, but... maybe her life would've taken a different turn. She really didn't know, and speculation along those lines was a waste of time.
