Page 5 of Love, Lies and Sleigh Rides
“Then that’s the place.” Kade locked eyes with her for the first time since they’d met. “Nice to meet you. Bart will get you up and running as fast as he can.”
Fallon watched him climb back into his truck. When he looked back at her in the side-view mirror, Fallon waved. She caught the silhouette of his raised hand through the back window as he pulled onto Highway 61 again.
Then he was gone.
With snowflakes dotting her red coat, Fallon pulled her phone from her pocket and called Agnes again. Surely she’d be able to help. Then again, Fallon was five minutes away from being late for the meeting.
All she got was Agnes’s voicemail. No surprise there.
She headed back into the warm waiting room. Behind the desk, Sara gave her a quick smile then went back to tapping on the computer.
Fallon drew closer to the counter to get Sara’s attention. “Sorry to interrupt again, but what are the names of places to stay in town?”
The corners of Sara’s mouth turned down. Not a good sign.
“I’m pretty sure the Flint Hills Motel is full. You’re not the first person to be stranded in town today, unfortunately.”
“Is that the only place?”
“Well, there’s Blueberry Point Lodge, but that’s almost always booked throughout December.” Sara shrugged.
It was only November 30. She’d give it a whirl.
And if the inn was full, she had one more person to try, the woman besides Agnes who she’d come to see.
ChapterTwo
The darned balloons had been causing problems since he picked them up in Duluth that morning. Now Kade fought the wind and the creaky screen door of his parents’ house, trying to get them and an overloaded paper bag of groceries inside. It was a task for someone with three hands, not two.
The scent of ginger drifted into the foyer when he finally made it inside. Maggie, the golden retriever, padded down the hall from the kitchen and nosed his outstretched hand.
“Hey there, girl. Where’s Mom?”
“Right here.”
Elaine Behar came around the corner, wiping her hands on a green paisley apron. She rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand and a smudge of flour appeared there before she came in for a quick hug.
“Thank you for picking them up,” she said, wrangling the balloons away from him. Elaine walked them into the study and shut the door. “Your nieces would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t supply balloons for tomorrow.”
“Sorry I’m late. I stopped to help someone who landed in a ditch. Drove her to Bart’s. Not that Bart will be much help today.”
“Are the roads still awful?”
“I haven’t seen any plows, but the roads have been cleared. It’s still coming down in spots.”
“I’m thankful no one is traveling in this for the party.” Elaine leaned in again to give him a heartier hug. “It’s so nice to see you walking in that door again after so long.”
Kade agreed. At thirty-nine, he’d spent most of his adult life away from home, away from Hendricks. All over the world actually, thanks to the Marines. He’d made a career of it, too, a good one as a geographic intelligence specialist. But as he drew closer to forty, Kade felt the pull of home. His parents were aging. One of his twin brothers had a family of his own, two nieces Kade barely knew. Maybe he wouldn’t stay in Hendricks permanently, but sticking close to his upper Midwestern roots had become a priority. His eighteen-year-old self would have found this notion hard to imagine. Funny actually, and maybe even a little horrifying.
“How was your visit to Duluth?” she asked. “Jared and his new wife—what’s her name?— are doing well?”
“Yes, they seem very happy together. Her name is Kelly. They’re expecting in early summer too.”
“Oh, good for them!”
His best friend from high school had settled into the bigger city shortly after Kade joined the Marines. He’d been working for a computer analytics firm where he’d met his wife.
Kade looked past Elaine. “Can I help with anything?”
