ChapterOne
Ava
“Ed, step away from the Christmas wreath. Those aren’t evenrealberries.” Ava Monroe didn’t have time to be detained by a decoration-eating moose. Especially not Sunset Ridge’s local celebrity.
She bit her lip and glanced at her watch. Anyone who’d lived in the Alaskan tourist town for any length of time had at least one Ed story to tell. The moose had a definite habit of getting in the way when it was the least convenient.
His timing was part of his charm.
The bull moose didn’t seem impressed by Ava’s demands and continued sniffing the wreath hanging off her duplex neighbor’s railing. She would leave the animal to his criminal mischief, if only her car wasn’t parked on the other side of him.
“Please move?” she asked nicely.
Ed didn’t budge.
With a groan, she shoved a hand into her overstuffed purse and wiggled her fingers through the contents. It was almost like one of the Halloween blind boxes Mrs. Baker used to make for her third-grade class, except without the peeled grapes filling in for eyeballs.
Ava froze, fingers now curled around a buzzing phone instead of the car keys she needed.Wait. Could I make Christmas-themed blind boxes that parents might be interested in buying?She’d have to think about it. Time might be against her.
Excited with her new idea, Ava pulled her still-buzzing phone out of her purse and glanced at the caller ID.Mom?Again!“Just great,” she mumbled, energy deflating. Ava sent her mother to voicemail for the second time that morning.
Ed, now pawing at the air as if he could knock the wreath down, shifted his wide hips a little farther in Ava’s direction. Dropping her useless phone back into the abyss, she glanced at Brayden’s bay window. Elsie, her neighbor’s golden retriever, watched the scene eagerly, pacing along the slightly jutted window.
Elsie’s anxious presence wasn’t doing anything to deter Ed. The moose hardly seemed affected by the whining dog.
“Come on, Brayden,” she muttered under her breath. “Maybe investigate why your dog is going nuts.” Even though she’d been avoiding him these past couple of weeks, she longed to see the blue of his eyes right about now. Maybe Ed would movethen.
Or maybe Brayden wasn’t even here and she was on her own.
Scanning the area for a secondary escape route, Ava spotted Brayden’s open garage door. His truck filled most of the narrow space, but there was no sign of him. Okay. So hewashere and just didn’t care if Elsie threw a fit.
Ed yanked a plastic berry from the wreath and spit it on the ground. Ava wanted to cheer.Yes! Yucky plastic. Now go away. But Ed, if nothing else, was a tenacious moose. One bite of plastic was never going to be enough. Ed widened his stance, settling in for the full demolition.
“I don’t have time for this,” Ava said to Ed, her words a plea. Her ridiculously long to-do list raced through her mind as she fumbled for her keys with thickly gloved hands.Pick up the ribbon order. Get sugar cookie lattes for Glenda and Becca. Review the schedule.
Her only hope was to skirt around Ed.Interview Rilee. Check the website for online orders.“Just need to make a run for it,” she told herself even as the list continued in the back of her mind.Assemble as many baskets as possible.
Ava glanced down at her short boots, contemplating how they’d stand up against the deep snow surrounding the plowed drive. Most days she loved this duplex for its privacy in the middle of town. Right now, however, the lack of close neighbors was downright annoying. “Thank goodness for auto start,” she mumbled, her breath frosting in the chilly air.
Her buzzing phone drew her attention to the purse again. “Mom, I swear . . .” Ava wanted to ignore it, but there was always a chance it was the store. Or her brother. Or her best friend, Kinley.
Nope, Mom again.
Freeing her fingertips from her mittens, she snapped a photo of Ed, since he didn’t seem in a hurry, and sent it to Mom with one word.Detained. If Ed had to make her late for everything else today, at least she could use the situation to her advantage.
Mom had been blowing up Ava’s phone for weeks now.
It was partially Ava’s fault. She’d been avoiding most of the calls, sending her mom straight to voicemail. But Mom had a way of drawing the truth out of her, and this was one time Ava couldn’t admit what wasreallywrong.
The family store, one passed down to generation after generation of women in her family, was nearing foreclosure. A business that shouldn’t evenhavea mortgage. She had ten days to come up with the delinquent balance or the bank was taking it. On Christmas Eve, no less.
“But I’ve got a plan,” Ava promised the phone in her hand. A huge, all-in gamble that had as great a chance of failing as it had of succeeding. Christmas gift baskets. The sudden idea caused Ava to max out her credit cards, empty her savings, and take her biggest risk yet. And she hadn’t shared it with Mom. Ava planned to brag about itaftershe sold a few dozen baskets.
With any luck, Mom would never know how close the Forget Me Not Boutique had come to closing its doors.
Mom:Call me later. Geraldine Franks’ grandson moved home. You should go out with him!
“Ugh!” If Mom’s inability to let the store go wasn’t overbearing enough, in pursuit of more grandkids, she was also on a mission to find Ava a husband. Ava entertained the urge to text back that her sister Jamie already had the Monroe siblings covered when it came to grandkids. It was the reason her parents retired to Minnesota three years ago.
