"She is," Grace said, looking at the name tag the woman wore. "Cassie."
"It's so nice that you're visiting her. Are you from around here?" Cassie's brows wrinkled. "I have to admit I haven't lived here that long. Just a couple of years, although I feel like I know everyone."
"This is probably a good place to work if you're thinking you're going to meet everyone in town."
"Exactly. Everyone stops by at some point."
Grace considered leaving the conversation at that, but she answered Cassie's question. "No. I visited here a good bit when I was younger, but I live up north."
"You're just visiting?" Cassie asked, not like she was interrogating her, but like it was a friendly question, and she was just making conversation.
"Yes. Just visiting. I'm not sure how long. I just needed a little break, and this is such a fun town. So many Christmas activities going on." She added that last bit to try to take Cassie's attention away from herself. It was refreshing for her to be able to walk around and have no one recognize her. Oddly, even though New York was a much bigger town, she was recognized almost everywhere she went and was used to people coming up to her and asking for lessons or pointers on their playing. She'd even had people ask her forreferences or to listen to them play so that she could recommend them to her agent.
She really wouldn't mind avoiding that kind of notoriety here.
Cassie chatted a bit, and then a young teen appeared at the back door to the little office area.
"Oh," Cassie said. "Mason will be bringing your medicine out, and he'll give you a little rundown on what your aunt can expect when she takes it." The boy disappeared from the back, and then just a few seconds later, he came out a door just to Grace's right.
"Hey there. I'm Mason," he said in greeting. He seemed very comfortable with talking to people, like it was something he did a lot. He also seemed very serious and into his job, more so than Grace would have guessed for a kid his age.
He went over the medicine very carefully, instructed her to tell her aunt to call if she had any questions, and then pointed to the number that was circled on the tag that had been stapled to the bag.
"Thank you very much, Mason," Grace said, impressed despite herself. The kid had a natural way about him, but she was sure, even now that she had seen him close up, that he couldn't be a day over seventeen.
Maybe that's what kids were like in a small town. She tucked that idea away. Having children was something she hadn't thought about much, since she had been so focused on her career. But, she supposed she wouldn't want to have them by herself. She would want her children to grow up in a stable, two-parent home.
She shook her head. When had she started thinking about children? And being in a stable, two-parent home?
Thanking Mason and smiling when he wished her a good day, she walked out, humming "Jingle Bells" under her breath.
It was almost impossible not to get into the Christmas spirit while walking through the town.
On an impulse, she crossed the street and ducked into Henderson's Candy Cane Shop that had been there forever as well. It was so festive and Christmasy, and so unique. She didn't recallseeing a single candy cane shop in the city, and she was curious since she couldn’t recall - was the shop really all candy canes? The display in the window would seem to indicate that it was.
"Good afternoon," a cheerful woman said, looking up from arranging a display of raspberry-flavored candy canes. They were blue and pretty, and just one of the many candy cane displays in the store. It seemed like the store truly lived up to its name.
"Good morning. I had to come in and see a shop that was all about candy canes," she said.
"It's a little amazing, isn't it? Normally, my husband, Jack, is standing behind the counter making them. He happens to be off picking up his daughter right now, but if you want to see them created from start to finish, come back this evening." The woman smiled, genuine and friendly. "I'm Kate," she said, holding her hand out and tilting her head.
"I'm Grace. Vivian is my aunt. I'm here for a visit."
"I love Vivian. And her house is just amazing. That old Victorian, it's like eye candy. I look at it the way some people look at sunsets."
Grace laughed and felt a genuine bond with this woman, although they hadn't even been talking for five minutes.
"That's the way I feel. Living in it brings back all the great memories that I had growing up, and being inside of it is just as easy on the eyes as outside. Aunt Vivian has done an amazing job of decorating it."
"She usually has an open house during the Christmas parade, where people can stop in and grab some hot chocolate and look around. If I'm not mistaken, she spends several months making the gingerbread houses she has on display that night. I bet she's working on one right now."
"You would be correct. It's on the dining room table, and I have to say, it's coming together very nicely. She told me that I could try my hand at helping her, but I'm afraid of messing something up."
"I don't think that would bother Vivian. Everything seems like it's perfect, but she's told me several timesabout flaws in her workmanship. She just turns the flaws into beauty and makes it look like that's what she meant to do all along. I thought it was really clever," Kate said, laughing again with that infectious, cheerful, contagious laugh that made Grace smile.
"You are absolutely right. She taught that in life too. I remember her saying that when I was taking piano lessons from her years ago. If you make a mistake, just keep going. If you're practicing, you need to go back and correct it, but if you're performing, you just keep going and pretend like you meant to do it all along."
"It takes good acting I would imagine," Kate said, "although I don't play, so I wouldn't know."
