Page 59 of Maybe This Christmas
Emma followed Lainey up the stairs at the rear of the store.They were sturdy, having recently been replaced.
“Now this space is a little rougher,” Lainey warned.“The shoe store just used it for extra storage space, so they covered up the windows.So, use your imagination.”
She pushed open the door and flicked on the overhead light.Dust motes floated in the weak glow emanating from several bare bulbs hanging throughout the space.
Only two walls of the space were usable.There was a strange angle to the roof, and the windows jutted out beautifully.But that didn’t leave a lot of workable wall space.The back wall was also slanted, with a sink and counter taking up most of the room.
But she could see the space transformed in her mind’s eye.Tables for crafting along the window wall.Perhaps some cozy chairs for reading or fiber crafts.
It would work.
“I’ll tell you that the biddies have been looking for a space to gossip and work on our knitting projects.We could be your first customers.”
“Oh, I couldn’t charge you,” Emma said.
Lainey gave Emma’s shoulder a squeeze.“Friends and family rate, of course.Besides, we’re all business owners around here.We’ve learned that true friends are the ones who support you with their friendship and occasionally their pocketbooks.”
Emma let out a small groan.“Pocketbooks, yeah.I don’t want to let my dreams get too far ahead of me.I am unemployed, after all.”
“Well, not to get too much in your business, but Caleb did say that this wasn’t exactly a pipe dream for you.That you were smart with your money and had some savings.”
“I do.I just honestly have…no idea how much this would cost.I’ve never run a business before.”
“Well, like I said, there are several of us who can help.How about the first step is to see what the rent will be?Then we can figure out the rest.”
There was something oddly reassuring about her use ofwe.As much as she didn’t want to get attached to Caleb and Falling Leaves, she worried it was far too late for that.
Chapter Twenty
Caleb was surprised to find Emma in Falling Leaves with his mother.Even more so to find out that she was looking at the vacant space next to Ellis & Daughter with his mother of all people.He didn’t have much time to ruminate over it, as his mother had requested his presence at an impromptu Ellis family dinner at his parents’ house.
Apparently, after they’d stopped at the space, they’d gone to the grocery store and now Emma was making dessert.
A trifle of some sort, judging by the blurry photo she’d texted him.
He’d felt oddly on edge during the drive.Maybe it was memories of when his family had first met Olivia.His mother hadn’t been overwhelmingly thrilled with her—being from Boston, with close-cropped hair, multiple earrings, and a nose piercing, she was about the furthest thing Lainey would’ve picked for a future daughter-in-law.
They’d always been cordial to each other, but some of the testiness remained.Especially after they’d had the girls.Olivia had told him more than once that she was glad they only saw his family a few times a year.She couldn’t stand Lainey’s parenting advice.
Of course, since the divorce, it had all changed.Now they were buddy-buddy.They had a common goal—the kids.His mother even went to Olivia and Ashley’s place in Blacksburg a couple of times a month to help with babysitting when Caleb was busy with work.
As much as he loved his mother, he hoped that Emma hadn’t been tormented by her business advice or that, god forbid, she’d inferred something about his relationship with her.
Whatever that was.
He’d about worked himself up by the time he rolled his truck in front of his parents’ house.He parked on the street behind Sabrina and Brandon’s SUV.
Lainey had requested he pick up a couple of bottles of wine from Sky House, so he pulled those out of the passenger side and made his way inside.
He made it about as far as the end of the driveway, where he was greeted by his dad and Uncle Gordon, and the alluring aroma of fried turkey.They’d set up the deep fryers adjacent to one of the streetlights.
Even at their big age, they were dressed alike, in tacky Christmas sweaters.To hear them tell it, they never did it on purpose.It was just ‘twintuition’.
“I thought Mom banned you from ever deep-frying a turkey again after the incident of 2015,” Caleb said.
His father chuckled.“What incident?A little bit of the siding on the back of the house melted off, that’s all.Easy enough to replace for guys like us.”
“Lainey insisted that if we were going to try again, we do it at the very end of the driveway.But I’m a little worried about the bushes.She’ll kill us if we melt her Christmas lights,” Uncle Gordon said.
