Imogen turned toward the window, her eyes widening in surprise. “What in the world… ?”
Katie scrambled to her feet, abandoning her chocolate molds as she pressed her face against the glass. “Mom! Mom, look! It’s a real sleigh! With real horses! Just like in the movies!”
The sleigh came to a stop directly in front of Artisan Chocolates, and Lincoln climbed down, looking around with obvious confusion. Even from inside the shop, Vanessa could see him shaking his head and running a hand over his chin—clearly he was just as bewildered by this turn of events as they’d thought he probably would be.
“I don’t understand,” Imogen said, still staring out the window. “What’s a sleigh doing here? And is that Lincoln driving it?”
Vanessa took a deep breath and turned to Imogen with the biggest, most convincing smile she could muster.
“Congratulations!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “You won Fir Tree Grove’s Surprise Sleigh Ride!”
Imogen blinked at her, clearly confused. “I won what now?”
“The Surprise Sleigh Ride!” Vanessa repeated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s a Fir Tree Grove tradition. And you won!”
“I…” Imogen looked from Vanessa to the sleigh and back again. “Since when does Fir Tree Grove have a Surprise Sleigh Ride drawing? I’ve lived here my entire life, and I’ve never heard of any such thing.”
“I, well—” Vanessa stumbled a little. “Maybe you just forgot about it? Or you hadn’t heard of it?”
Imogen narrowed her eyes, clearly suspicious. “I think I’d know about a tradition we’dalwayshad.”
Katie was practically bouncing with excitement, her face still pressed against the window. “Mom, can we go? Please, please, please? I’ve never been in a real sleigh before!”
Lincoln had approached the front door of the shop and was now peering inside, looking just as confused as Imogen. Vanessa waved at him enthusiastically, gesturing for him to come in. The bell above the door chimed as Lincoln came in, bringing a gust of cold air with him. His cheeks were pink from the cold, and snowflakes clung to his dark hair and coat.
He looked at Imogen and then at Vanessa with a bewildered expression. “I have to say, I’m a little confused about this whole situation. Mabel told me I won some kind of sleigh ride surprise, but I’ve never heard of Fir Tree Grove having anything like that before.”
Vanessa’s heart sank slightly. She’d hoped Lincoln would play along a bit more smoothly, but she supposed she couldn’t blame him for being confused. After all, she and Mabel had sprung this on him at the last minute.
“Oh, you’re both just being silly,” she said with a laugh that sounded forced even to her own ears. “How do you not know Fir Tree Grove has a Surprise Sleigh Ride tradition? It’s been going on for… well, for years! Mabel filled me in on all the details.”
Imogen and Lincoln exchanged a look, and Vanessa could see them communicating silently. They both clearly knew something was up, but neither seemed quite sure what to make of the situation.
“Vanessa,” Imogen said slowly, “are you feeling all right? Because this really doesn’t sound like something the town would organize without more publicity. And I definitely would have remembered entering a contest.”
Lincoln made a noise in his throat. “Apparently everyone just gets… entered?” The skepticism in his voice told Vanessa that he definitely wasn’t buying it.
“Mom!” Katie interrupted, tugging on Imogen’s sleeve. “Who cares about contests? There’s a sleigh outside with real horses! Can we please go for a ride?”
Vanessa seized on Katie’s enthusiasm. “See? Katie understands! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. How often do you get to ride in an authentic horse-drawn sleigh through the streets of Fir Tree Grove?”
“But I don’t understand how this works,” Imogen said, still looking confused. “Am I supposed to go alone? With Katie? I mean, what are the rules of this… contest? And why is Lincoln here?”
“Oh, well,” Vanessa said, thinking quickly and hoping that Mabel had stuck to the same story, “the winner gets to bring onefriend. And since Lincoln here also won—what are the odds of that?—you two are paired up for the evening!”
Lincoln raised an eyebrow. “That seems like quite a coincidence.”
“It really is!” Vanessa agreed, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. “It’s like fate or something!”
Imogen was looking more skeptical by the minute. “Vanessa, this is all very strange. Are you sure you’re not?—”
“Mom, please!” Katie interrupted again, her voice taking on a pleading tone. “I really, really want to see the horses up close. Can we at least go outside and look at them?”
Vanessa saw her opportunity and jumped on it. “Yes! Let’s go look at it. You’re going to be blown away. I saw it earlier and I couldn’t believe how neat it is?—”
She ushered everyone toward the door, feeling more than a little foolish, but determined to see this through. If she could just get Imogen outside and into that sleigh, the rest would take care of itself. Surely the romance of a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the snowy streets would work its magic on both of them.
The cold air hit them as they stepped outside, and Katie immediately ran toward the horses, her eyes wide with wonder. “Careful,” Imogen called out, but the horses were both very calm as Katie approached. They towered over her, their breath visible in the cold air, but they were standing patiently in their harnesses, waiting for whatever came next. They shifted a little, the bells jingling as a few flakes of snow floated down.
