Page 12 of A Cozy Christmas Escape

At the time, Colette had recently inherited the large house and connected property of the woman she had been a caretaker to for years. When Zach had showed up looking for a place to rent, someone had sent him in Colette’s direction. Over the course of his stay, the two of them had ended up falling madly in love with one another, and he had made his “visit” permanent, even going as far as to open up an art gallery on Main Street. And just a few months ago, Colette had moved from the cottage house on the property that she had been living in for years, to the main house with Zach.

“What did they tell you?” Shelley prompted, looking eagerly at her friend.

“Valerie Bernard is in town!” Colette clapped her hands together and bounced on her feet, all but squealing in her excitement.

“Valerie Bernard the movie star?” Shelley asked, cocking her head in surprise.

Colette nodded her head eagerly, but somehow Shelley was still finding it a little hard to believe. It wasn’t like the sleepy town hadneverhad a celebrity come to visit before. But someone of Valerie Bernard’s status? Someone that Shelley herself was such a fan of. And Colette too, if the fact that she was practically vibrating with excitement was any indicator.

“Derek said he ran into her at Mitchell’s Hardware, of all places,” Colette gushed. “Can you believe that?”

“I wonder what she’s doing in town.” Shelley tilted her head to the side in contemplation.

“Who cares what brought her?” Colette pressed her hands together beneath her chin. “She’shere!In our little town! I think I’m going to go hang out at Sweet Thing Bakery today, just in case she stops by. I mean everyone needs coffee, right?”

She grinned at Shelley, who couldn’t help but laugh at her friend’s excitement.

“What’s all this squealing about?” demanded a gruff voice from behind Colette.

Colette whirled around, and as she turned, it opened up Shelley’s line of sight, allowing her to see the man who had just spoken. Rudolph Hutchins was standing a few feet away, eyeing the two women warily.

“Snowy Pine Ridge just got its very own movie star!” Colette announced, not noticing, or maybe not caring about, Rudolph’s sour expression as he slid into the booth across from Shelley.

Just then, Louise approached the table, carrying a tray filled with two large plates of biscuits and gravy.

“Just on time, I see,” the older woman mused as she approached, eyeing Rudolph, and then turning to Colette, who was still bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. “Can I get anything for you? Although, it looks like you’ve already had plenty of coffee today.”

“I haven’t had any, actually,” Colette quipped, blinking her large brown eyes at Louise as the diner owner adjusted the pencil that was stuck through her bun. “I’m just excited. Haven’t you heard the news about who’s staying in town?”

Louise shook her head, while Rudolph grumbled something along the lines of, “Gossips, all of you.”

“You won’t believe this, Louise. You really won’t.” Colette waved her hands in front of her face as she paused for dramatic effect. “None other than Valerie Bernard is staying in town for a while. Derek saw her at the hardware store yesterday. Turns out, she’s staying at the Warm and Bright Hotel.”

“The romance movie lady?” Louise asked, and when Colette nodded, the two of them launched into an enthusiastic conversation filled with conspiracy theories on why Valerie was in town. The theories ranged from her possibly filming a movie close by, to deciding that she wanted to move away from the West Coast and settle down into a quiet life, and she wanted to check out Snowy Pine Ridge to see if it was just the place.

But Shelley wasn’t fully paying attention to them. Instead, she watched Rudolph closely. When Colette had mentioned the actress's name, Shelley had just happened to glance at the older man across the table. So she hadn’t missed the way his lips tightened at the movie star’s name, or the way the light behind his eyes seemed to dim slightly.

She continued to watch him closely, wondering if he would let any other reaction slip, but he remained stone faced as he picked up a fork and began eating the food that Louise had brought out to him.

Maybe it was just my imagination,Shelley thought as she continued to keep an eye on Rudolph, and he didn’t show anything else but his usual, mild exasperation. She tore her gaze away from him, tucking what she may or may not have seen into the far recesses of her mind before glancing back at Colette and Louise.

The two women were still locked in conversation about the newest development in the town, and she had no doubt that by the end of the day every single one of the locals, and likely quite a few tourists, would be well aware of their newest, temporary resident.

Finally, the two women wrapped up their discussion of Valerie Bernard when Louise was called away to service another table.

“Well,” Colette said as she turned her attention back to Shelley and Rudolph. “What do you think about it?”

“I think the girl likely wants to be left alone,” Rudolph grumbled, not once looking up from his plate of food.

“Well, either way I’m gonna go down to Sweet Thing,” Colette answered with a slight, affectionate roll of her eyes. “And you are all more than welcome to join me at any time today.”

With that, Colette gave them a slight wave for a goodbye before turning and heading toward the exit. Shelley shook her head as she watched her friend leave, chuckling at the pep in Colette’s step as she walked out the door and disappeared out into the blustery, winter day.

“So,” Shelley said, turning back to Rudolph with a small smile. “What do you think…”

“Don’t you go getting all excitable on me too,” Rudolph grunted, cutting her sentence off. “I don’t want to gush or talk about that girl. I want to talk about the kids’ showcase, which was the whole point of us meeting.”

Shelley paused for a minute, taking note of Rudolph’s grumpiness. The man was usually less than pleasant, but it was typically in a quirky ‘can’t help but love him’ kind of way. Now, however, he seemed genuinely on edge about something. Shelley thought about probing further, thought about asking him if everything was all right or if he needed to get something off his chest. But the moment the thought occurred to her, she immediately dismissed it. Rudolph wasn’t someone that anyone in town would refer to as chatty. And Shelley didn’t want to risk pushing him too far and having him leave breakfast before they got the chance to talk about everything they needed to.

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