Unfortunately, deadlines were not the only thing Adrienne was failing at. She’d blinked and suddenly it was the holiday season. Thanksgiving had rudely appeared on her calendar one Thursday and she’d managed to find a last minute unfrozen turkey breast amidst the crazy throng of shoppers.
What that holiday weekend had proven to her though, was that her efforts at normalcy attacked her from all fronts. Her parents wouldn’t have wanted her to stop living, so she was determined she wouldn’t. She buttered that breast, woke up to the smell of delicious turkey, made the potatoes, homemade gravy, the veggie tray, all while playing Christmas music for the first time of the season.
It had been fun. It had been lovely. It had been delicious. Except for the fact she was alone and did much of it through blurred tears and memories. Putting the first Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving afternoon had been a lifelong tradition, but the second she saw their handwriting on the ornament boxes, she knew she would have to face it on a different day. So she’d browsed the streaming services for some classics and focused on making new traditions. Watching the first holiday movie of the year on Thanksgiving would be a fun new tradition, right? Right.
The changing of the clock, with the way the sun set later, set a mood that excited her. Now, driving in the late afternoon, Adrienne saw more and more decorated houses. She bubbled with joy at seeing them, and she wondered when the best time to set up the annual “grab a hot cocoa from Starbucks” and drive the neighborhoods at night would be. Then she remembered she’d be doing it alone, and she’d faltered.
So far, everything this season had played out thusly. Her lifelong love for all things holiday season hadn’t stopped. She had always been the holiday queen: multiple Christmas trees, cookie baking days, light peeping, movies, music,the works.This year started no differently: she would be excited as usual, until the ping of sadness and regret hit, starting the internal war. She couldn’t celebrate the same. But she couldn’t give up, either. She’d eventually wrangled upatree by sheer willpower, but absent was any of her former enthusiasm. Her hopes that some decorations would eventually get her in the mood, had onlyworked to a certain extent. Honestly, the tree sales section at the department stores had excited her more than the decorations in her own house. Maybe it was because the stores held a promise of new and exciting, with no stigma of what had beenbefore.
It was the first week of December, and Adrienne had watched something like twenty Hallmark Christmas movies when she saw one where a woman booked a random cabin in a random Christmas town, and enjoyed the holidays for once on her own terms. The concept appealed to Adrienne. Not that she had any hope or expectation to find herself some perfect man in a small town, but escaping everything she’d known? To create new traditions or at least knock her off her axis (in a good way, for once)? Yes. This appealed.
Which was how, a week before Christmas, Adrienne Croft found herself taking an Uber from the airport to a small inn with cabins in a small mountain town, still without a plot in her head, but full of all the intention to enjoy this season.
The main inn could have been used to film one of those movies she’d watched. A pointed roof with numerous windows, snow covering every surface it could, nestled in the mountain - it inspired her giddiness. She got out of the car and mentally scrolled through photos of the interior, that had Christmaseverywhere, her mind rekindled with excitement. If the outside was already this amazing, she couldn’t wait to see the inside.
Grabbing her bags, she crunched her way through the snow to the main lobby and entered, wondering how many beautiful trees would assail her senses.
The second she stepped inside, she realized the answer was, sadly,zero.Feeling a frown slowly form, she looked around at the decidedly undecorated room as she slowly ambled in.
Honestly, she wouldn’t have known it was even the Christmas season at all, looking around, if it wasn’t for the snow through the windows.
“Good afternoon!”
Adrienne turned towards the front desk to look at the young girl’s voice that had greeted her, and she felt her frown melt into a smile. The girl, probably just around ten years old, was grinning at her widely, showing off a few missing teeth. “Why hello there! And just who might you be?”
“I own this place!” The girl boasted, thrusting her chest out in pride.
“Oh you do, do you?”
The girl gave a small shrug. “Well, my Dad technically does, but I help run it! Do you have a reservation?”
“I do.” Adrienne pulled her wallet out of her purse and she knelt to the little girls’ height. “Are you going to check me in?”
A door banged open and both heads turned to see a rather disheveled looking man burst into the room carrying some fluffy looking towels. “Ava, can you take these…” The man suddenly stopped as he saw Adrienne, and she felt his chocolate brown eyes meet hers. Her mouth went dry as she took the lock of brown hair falling over his forehead and the flannel shirt that did nothing to hide the fact that the man was clearlybuilt.He swallowed and she noted his Adam's apple bob more than she had any right to. “Um... I’m sorry. Are you here to check in?”
She nodded as she slowly stood, craving a more even position with this man. He was still taller than her, but not by too much. “Yes. I’m Adrienne Croft.”
“Ethan. Ethan Sumner. I own the place.” The man tried to hold his hand out to her to shake hers, but he nearly dropped the towels in the process.
“Here Dad, I’ll take those. What cabin?”
“4, please.” He gratefully handed the towels to his daughter.
The girl gave her a small smile from behind the towels, and Adrienne was impressed that she could carry them, much less see. “See you around, Ms. Croft!”
Both adults watched as the girl left out the front door, before they were drawn back into each other's awareness.
“Right, um, let me get you checked in.” He bustled behind the counter. “Looks like you’ll be staying with us until Christmas day, is that right?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re checking out on Christmas Day?” He looked at her assessingly.
“Yes, is that a problem? I thought I’d travel while most people are celebrating.”
His eyes slowly met hers. “We’re doing it untraditionally as well. Ava and I are celebrating a few days after Christmas. She’s heading out to spend Christmas day with her grandparents this year. It’s going to be different for me.”
“Does she usually stay here?” Adrienne put her ID and credit card on the counter.
