Taking a deep breath, she turned the handle, called out a hello, and pushed the door open –
To see a perfectly tidy,emptykitchen.
Deflating a little, she stood in the doorway for a moment, before wandering over to the fridge.
It was probably for the best, really. She was still feeling a little scrambled from all the excitement of yesterday. It would be best to see Max again on a full stomach and with a full set of clothes.
Laughing a little at herself, she started pulling food out of the fridge. There really was enough here to feed an army, or at least a regiment.
She definitely had to try one of the chicken drumsticks that Max had been making such orgasmic faces over, and she found herself, oddly, craving fresh vegetables – the arugula in her baguette last night had been amazing, which was a word that she would never have thought she would apply to salad greens.
She piled her plate up with chicken and salad and olives, popping a miniature croissant into the oven on a whim. It was hardly a conventional breakfast, but she was done with being conventional. This vacation was about doing whatshewanted. It was about rediscovering whatsheliked, after all those years ofslaving away for someone who just stabbed her in the back the moment it was convenient.
The thought of her employment status sent a twinge of irritation and betrayal through her, but then the oven pinged and her attention was quickly drawn elsewhere, the annoyance dispersing like smoke.
Pulling her steaming-hot croissant open, she slathered it in plum anise jam and then added the plate to her antique wooden serving tray, which was already laden down with food and coffee.
She was going to eat a leisurely breakfast on the chaise longue and watch the drifting snow, and then she was going to get out there and enjoy her winter vacation.
***
This is pretty much the antithesis of a beach vacation… but I’m surprisingly okay with that.
Poppy strolled happily along the sidewalk, which, though obviously recently cleared, was already quickly disappearing under a layer of soft, fluffy snow.
For such a small, out-of-the-way place, Girdwood Springs was surprisingly busy. The town fairly bustled with life, with everyone decked out in colorful winter clothes, and charming little shops lined the streets.
She’d made her way to the main drag by foot, given that she didn’t have a car. She was sure that someone would’ve driven her if she’d asked, but she’d been quite content to just tramp along the edge of the road back into town, her boots sinking down into the snow with every step, and simply enjoy the still, wintry silence. The crunching of the crisp, white snow beneath her feet and the occasional flutter of wings had been the only interruption to the tranquility, and she had simply felt serene,just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, feeling the warm exhalations of her breath against the cold tip of her nose.
When was the last time I simply went for a walk in nature?she thought now, as she peered in the window of an old-fashioned toy store, looking at the wooden trains and hand-sewn dolls.
She honestly couldn’t answer that. It had been a long,longtime. Even just going for a walk around her boring suburban area with no purpose other than to go for a walk was something that she hadn’t done for longer than she cared to admit.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out to see a message from her brother, Brett: a photo of Geri sitting on top of the toaster, nose held imperiously in the air, tail wrapped around the toaster’s base with impeccable neatness.
So everything’s absolutely normal, then,she thought with a smile, as she texted him back. Shedidmiss Geri, that was for sure, but it was nice to not have to worry about having any responsibilities for a few days. If she wanted to spend the whole day wandering around the town and not come home until late in the evening, she could do it without being haunted by images of Geri’s wide eyes imploring her:Why would you forsake me?!
She was sure that Geri was being spoiled absolutely rotten by Brett and Mateo… and, she thought, maybe she would have to bring her back some sort of treat to say thank you for booking her this trip to Girdwood Springs, no matter how frustrating it had been at first. Because she was really, really enjoying herself in a way that she had never expected.
I told you so,a smug little voice in her head said – the same one that had told her to go on the damn trip in the first place. Really, she couldn’t argue with it.
Her stomach gave a little twinge as she wandered along the street – it was hard to believe that she was hungry again already, but she supposed that shehadbeen hiking uphill in the snow.
I’ll go find something to eat soon,she thought.But first…
The little gift shop in front of her was just too cute to resist. It looked more like a gingerbread house than an actual building, with its big windows and lacy curtains, its deep red walls and white scrollwork, all framed by the most picturesque drifts of snow that Poppy had ever seen. If she’d licked one of the posts on the verandah and tasted candy cane instead, she wouldn’t have even been surprised.
Poppy could just imagine how excited she would’ve been to see the shop if she’d been a kid – even as an adult, it had a magical quality that practically pulled her inside.
Stomping the snow off her boots, she stepped through the door and looked around, inhaling the warm, comforting scent of cinnamon and vanilla.
Clearly everyone else in town had had the same idea as she had, if the line at the cash register was anything to go by. Presumably if the place was this popular, then they had to have some nice gifts.
Checking out the shelves, she quickly came to see that the things for sale were just as lovely as the shop itself. Everything appeared to be handmade and plastic-free, even the kitschy stuff that would normally be mass-produced elsewhere.
She had no idea who it was that made their living handcrafting snow globes featuring the various buildings and landscapes of Girdwood Springs, and it certainly wasn’t something that she had ever thought she would need in her life, but she found herself reaching for a snow globe containing a tiny replica of the B&B and surrounding forest before she’d even really thought about it.
Poppy happily whiled away her time just wandering about and browsing all the gorgeous gifts – she could’ve happily bought just about everything in the shop, but she had to showsomerestraint.
