Belle shrugged. "It's not that cold outside."
There was a Christmas tree lot a few blocks away inside an abandoned warehouse complex.
"Are you thinking about buying this property?" one of my younger brothers teased.
"Absolutely not," I replied. "Frost Tower is the last real estate deal I will ever do. In fact, when I die, don't even bury me in the ground, that’s how much I hate real estate. I am sticking with what I know—high-precision metal fabrication."
Belle smirked.
There was one nice-looking tree left, and we bought it. Jonathan and Owen carted it back to Frost Tower.
"What are we going to use to decorate it?" I asked as we watched Owen and Jonathan wrap strands of lights around the large, full blue spruce. Chloe was tucking more garland around the room that she had bought at the Christmas tree lot.
I hadn't seen the antique glass ornaments among the boxes Chloe brought from my parents, but Belle went into the duffle bag and pulled out several small boxes.
"I saved the ornaments," she explained. "I didn't want Mom and Dad to have them. I left them with a friend of mine."
We carefully unwrapped each glass ornament and hung it on the tree. Then Belle laid the presents she had bought for each of us under the tree. Chloe added the one she had bought for me.
"Beautiful," Belle said. I watched her, and she seemed a little sad as she contemplated the tree. I tentatively reached out and hugged her, and she patted my arm.
71
Chloe
"Idon’t think Belle is that happy to be here," I said, looking out over the guests in Jack’s living room.
Greg, Carl, Liam, and several of their other brothers had stopped by for the party, and they waved to me.
"It’s a lot for her, I bet," I told him.
"I know she resents us," Jack said.
I smoothed the frown lines on his forehead. "Maybe, but she's here, and that counts for something," I said. "She'll have to work out her own demons. She probably wants to just have a nice Christmas and make some good memories. At the very least you can give her that."
"You're right," he said, squaring his shoulders.
I hadn’t invited a lot of people to the party, but between the Svenssons and the Frosts, we had a good-sized gathering.
"I had to taste the famous Chloe's desserts and food since now she is the lynchpin of the Frost Tower development," Liam exclaimed.
I handed him some Christmas punch and made him a plate.
"This is amazing!" Liam said, his mouth stuffed with food.
"Mark says he's going to sign. Word is already out that he wants to move his company here. I've had several more inquiries," Carl said. "Not that that newspaper article about your Santa stalkers did you any favors." He pulled up the article on his phone. There was a picture of the Santa brawl.
"They just made it sound funny, not dangerous, at least," I said. "But Anastasia posted on her blog about the new restaurant, so there's some positive news floating around."
"Of course I did," Anastasia said, walking over and hugging me. "I told you I'd promote you!" She had a half-eaten cookie in her hand.
"Cheers," I said, tapping our cookies together and raining crumbs all over Greg's shoes.
Liam laughed as Greg cursed. "I'm going to be over here all the time eating at your restaurant," Liam said to me.
"We had several people ask about condos because of it," Carl added. "That show made Frost Tower really attractive."
"It just needed a little boost," Greg said. "I think it will prove to be a profitable investment. Depending on how much we can lease out, we might even think about doing another tower with a similar type of high-bay creative manufacturing space."
