Merry’s mother must have seen it too because she whispered, “I can see why he’s so captivated.” She said, louder, “Let’s pull out the boxes, my dear.”
“Can we help, Grammy?” Alex rose to his feet expectantly.
“Your mother and I need to have everything out first and decide where we want all the decorations to go. Then, we could use some help with the decorations on the lower branches.”
Each year the trees at the festival fundraiser got more elaborate and sold for a lot more money. Merry and her mother—mostly her mom—had already invested $500 in decorations for the tree over the course of the year. In the last three years, no tree had sold for less than $3,000, so it should make a nice tidy sum for the children’s hospital.
It took longer than expected to sort through everything because Alex and Grace needed occasional help with Lego pieces. After an hour, Merry and her mother had assembled the tree and laid out the decorations. The children had just abandoned the Lego city to help with the tree, when a knock sounded on the front door.
Merry opened it to find a weary looking Carlisle.
“No, Papa,” Grace cried. “Not yet.”
A flash of surprised hurt crossed his face, but a quick glance at the Christmas tree and all the decorations surrounding it must have been explanation enough.
“Perhaps you wouldn’t mind having another helper?” he asked.
“Come inside, and stay awhile, Carlisle. Of course, you’re welcome to help,” her mother said. “Merry, take his coat. Carlisle, I need you to see what Grace and Alex have done with the Legos and help them pick the stray pieces. Then you all can work on the tree with us.”
He wore a bemused smile at her mother’s bossiness.
“Mom’s used to running things,” Merry said when she went to help him remove his coat. When her fingers touched him, a spark of electricity snapped between them.
“Sorry,” she said. “I need to stop dragging my feet, or I’ll keep popping people with static electricity all night.”
His expression had turned unreadable. She turned and took his coat to the closet, hoping her cheeks hadn’t flamed red to match the increase of her pulse. She needed to stop this. Sure, he was a handsome man, but she didn’t need to find him more attractive than he already was. Carlisle Wyndham ran in very different circles than Merry Hurst did. And he wasn’t staying in Huckleberry Falls.
When she returned to stand by her mother, Carlisle had moved to a chair by the Lego table where the children were explaining what they’d done with the skyline. He glanced over at Merry and her mother with an amused smile.
Whenever she’d glimpsed him in passing around town, he’d always looked so serious, focused, like he had a lot on his mind. Which he probably did, knowing now what she did about his desire to develop this wider-ranging transceiver. But she’d seen him act like that with Grace until he would actively pull himself out of it. If his young daughter was the only thing keeping him real, she might be the saving of him. Merry doubted he’d have made an effort otherwise.
“Carlisle, I’ll need you and Merry to carry the table with the Legos into another room later,” her mother said, picking up one of the long scarfs that would function as the garland. “For now, we have a tree to decorate.”
* * *
Carlisle followedthe children to where Linda stood near the tree, and he took in the myriad of decorations spread around it. At first glance, it appeared to be a chaotic mess, but on closer scrutiny, he recognized the logic to how they’d laid out the decorations. One would have to take care in stepping between the items. He picked up what looked like a glass bulb with a tiny figure of the half-giant Hagrid inside.
“Ah, a Harry Potter themed tree.” Carlisle gave it a light flick with a finger and was glad to see it was plastic. He remembered too well Grace’s first Christmases when she’d begun walking. “You have quite an assortment here. Have you been collecting these for many years?”
“Oh, this isn’t my mom’s tree.” Merry handed him two packages filled with knitted material in Gryffindor house colors. As he set down the bulb to take them, she added, “We’re donating this to the Huckleberry Falls Festival of Trees. We’ve contributed a tree every year since I started high school. The town has a lot of wealthy visitors—” She broke off and glanced at him quickly, her cheeks flushing a pretty pink. “Anyway, many of our visitors can afford gourmet trees, and all the proceeds from the sale of the donated trees go to the regional children’s hospital.”
“Gretchen mentioned a festival in passing, and two of my team members have said they plan to attend.” Carlisle removed the Gryffindor scarf from the package, finding it much longer than he’d expected.
Linda took it from him and went back to the tree where the children were “helping” wrap a similar scarf around it. The woman was quite good with children, her comments praising and encouraging. Grace’s face glowed, such as it hadn’t since losing her mother. He scanned the room, struck by the comfortable sense ofhomein the place. It differed greatly from his own experience of growing up.
“Are you planning to take Alex to the festival?” The words popped out of Carlisle’s mouth before he could think.
Did he hope to receive another invitation, as with the scarecrow-making activity? He found he rather liked the idea of attending another event with Merry and her son.
“Oh, we’ll be there, but I’ll be working. My boss has decided to advertise the salon at the Festival of Trees, and I got volunteered to paint fingernails.” It was clear from the way Merry held herself that she wasn’t pleased to have been volunteered.
“Would you not have offered to help on your own?”
“I probably would have,” she said with a sigh, “but it would’ve been nice if Alice had given me the opportunity.”
“Do you do nails all day?” he asked, wondering for the first time what she did for a living.
“I do hair, mostly, but Alice found out I have a knack for nail design and keeps saying she’d like to offer it as a service. Once again, without asking me.”
