DID YOU KNOW?
Though occupied for several centuries, Pleasant Sands became an official town in 1953 when it received its municipal charter, after being purchased by Roger and Dolly Pleasant for $240,000 several years prior.
Angela watched Geoff walk down the beach toward the pier, where he’d left his car.
How many times had she run that very same track of sand?
He didn’t seem to care that the bottom of his pants were dragging in the water. She’d always loved that feeling too. Lots of people rolled up their pant legs or avoided the wet surf line, but that was where she always felt most connected. Where the sea met the sand.
The crushing churn of the water continually changed the coastline by moving rock particles, sea life and skeletal remains onshore, offshore and along the shore, and unearthing delicate shells and colorful sea glass that visitors would collect and cherish along with their memories here in Pleasant Sands.
An unmistakable feeling of glory filled her.
She walked up to the house, kicking her shoes off at the back deck, but standing there watching him.
Was it Geoff making her feel this way, or just relief to be feeling better?
Now that she was saying goodbye to Heart of Christmas, was she so desperate to connect to something that she was imagining Geoff as perfectly wonderful?
Not long ago she thought of him as her mortal enemy.
Now she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
Her phone rang, pulling her from the trance.
She rushed from the deck to her kitchen to answer the phone where it sat on its charger.
It was Geoff. Her heart instantly beat out a samba as she lunged for the green button. “Hi! Geoff?”
“I had fun today.”
She walked over to the doors that led outside. She could see him. “Me too.”
“I’m looking forward to tonight.”
“Me too.” He waved from down the beach. “See you shortly.”
Her heart sang.
* * *
Angela felt better, but now that Geoff was coming over she was running through her house tidying up. A heap of tissues were on the floor next to the couch where she’d been parked last night, too tired and snotty to get up and go to bed.
She didn’t even know what time he was coming. So, she went ahead and showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a three-quarter-sleeve baseball shirt that said, I’M IN TRAINING FOR A CHRISTMAS MOVIE MARATHON.
Too casual?
She took that T-shirt off and put it back in the drawer, then changed into a white T-shirt with a waist-length red cardigan with pearl buttons. Christmassy. Nice. But not too anything.
She checked the fridge to see what she even had in the house to eat or drink. He said he’d bring dinner, but she needed to at least offer something else to drink. A person could only drink so much eggnog.
Sweet tea would have to do. She put a pot of water on the stove and made the tea, then poured it into a clear glass pitcher with a cranberry handle and brightly colored holly berries painted around the belly of it.
She placed it in the refrigerator to chill.
Excited now to get started, she retrieved all of the Christmas boxes and red plastic holiday storage containers from the storage closet and laid them out in the living room. She opened the box labeled CHRISTMAS-Colored Lights in crisp black marker. Each strand of lights was neatly wrapped around a plastic cord handler. She scooted the whole box near the electrical outlet and began plugging them in one by one to test them. To her delight, every single strand lit up perfectly. Was that a first?
She sat on the floor next to the other boxes and started looking through the ornaments. There were so many pretty ones. Some were very fancy. Others one of a kind. But she knew where her very favorite ones were. She spotted the box, ratty and scuffed, but she’d never had the heart to transfer the contents to one of the new storage bins. The box had once been solid red with green wreaths printed on it. Now it was faded to almost pink. The box had probably originally held a wreath. It was square and nearly two feet wide, but only about six inches deep. She lifted the worn lid. Two layers, protected with tissue paper in between, of handmade ornaments.
These weren’t the ones she and her sister had made with Momma Grace over the years. There were plenty of those, and they were special too. But these were from generations ago.
A loud rap at the door startled her. She leapt to her feet and ran to the door.
When she pulled it open, Geoff was standing there wearing a Santa hat and carrying a large paper sack in one arm, and another Santa hat with stuff in it in his other.
“Come on in. You’ve got your hands full!” She motioned him in and followed behind him.
He put the paper sack on the island in the kitchen. “I hope you like Chinese food. I got a little of everything.”
“I love it. Perfect.”
“Great. I’m not sure how it will go with eggnog, but a promise is a promise.” He held the Santa hat by its white furry trim and pushed it toward her. “This is for you.”
Tiny silver bells along the white fur jingled as she pulled it close to her, then dumped the contents on the island.
“This is crazy! What have you done?” There was a bag of mini–candy canes, and four boxes of swirly decorative ornament hooks. Half in silver, the other gold. Which made her start humming the old Girl Scout song in her head.
Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver and the other, gold.
If anyone had told her that she’d feel this kind of friendship toward Geoff Paisley a couple of weeks ago she’d have thought they were nuts.
She pulled the Santa hat onto her head. “I think we’re ready!”
He picked up his phone and pulled her closer, extending his arm to take a selfie of them in their matching Santa hats. “The obligatory selfie.”
They both grinned, then made a goofy face.
“Good one,” she said. “Send that to me.
“Will do.” He lifted a carton of eggnog out of the bag. “Right after we get this into the refrigerator?”
“Sure. Should we eat while we decorate, or did you want to eat first?”
“I’m good with eating while we work, if you are,” Geoff said.
“Me too.” They gathered up the Chinese takeout cartons and carried them into the living room to the coffee table.
Geoff looked around. “I’d have helped you get all these boxes out.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “I was excited.”
He cocked his head. “Good. I am too.”
She opened one of the boxes of Chinese food to see what was inside. “Beef and broccoli?”
“Yes. Here.” He pulled a menu out of his pocket. “The numbers on the box are from the menu here.”
“Yum. I’ll have the General Tso’s chicken if that’s okay.”
“Whatever you want. I like it all.”
“Ahh. Hedging your bets.”
“Well, I’m pretty smart like that.” He picked up the box with the number 6 on it and dug in. “So, I’m going to admit. I’m feeling a little anxious about this whole tree-decorating thing after seeing your store. I mean … I hope I’m up to the task. The trees in your store are like those in magazines.”
“Thank you,” Angela said. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“As you should. So where do we start?”
“Lights. No matter what. Lights first,” she said. “I already tested all the strands.” She picked up the box full of lights and carried it closer to the tree.
“Let me h—” he began, but she was already at the tree.
“I’m quite capable.”
“I can see that.” He took one of the strands out of the box. “Start at the top, right?”
“Yes. I’ll go get us some iced tea, if you want to get started.”
He stretched his arms to the top of the tree and began walking around it, letting the cord lay along the branches.
When she walked back into the living room she noticed he was just wrapping the lights around the tree.
“What’s that look for?” he asked.
She hadn’t realized her expression was painted on her face. “Umm. Well.” She sat the glasses down on the table. “You need to kind of tuck them in along each branch so you get a nice three-dimensional shimmer of light and twinkle.” To soften the criticism she added, “You know, like they do on the pre-lit ones.”
“Light and twinkle.” Geoff laughed. “Educate me.”
He didn’t seem offended. Thank goodness. She pulled the lights back to where he’d started and began tucking them from tip to trunk and then out again. “See? You can open the wires a little and anchor them along the ends too.”
“Nice. Very nice,” he said. “I think I’ve got it.”
They spent the next hour taking turns eating and placing the lights along the tree branches, coaching each other along the way. Geoff had plugged the lights in midway so they could catch any empty spots, and there’d been a few. Each blaming the other for them, of course. “This is going to take a ton of lights,” he said.
“Did you know the average Christmas tree takes one hundred lights for every foot and a half of tree? I’ll admit, I use probably three times as many as that.”
“There are some advantages to a pre-lit tree,” Geoff said.
“That just takes all the fun out of getting it right.”
“Clearly one of us is better at it.”
“Me!”
“I’m going to have to use the squint method,” Geoff said. “Stand back here and squint and we’ll see where the gaps are.”
“Well, aren’t you just clever,” Angela teased. “Hope our eyes don’t stick like this.”
“Yeah, not your best look.” He squinched his eyes back at her.
“You realize it’s going to take you a day to take all these lights back off this tree,” he said.
“You’re going to come and help me take them down, aren’t you? I mean, you can’t just do half the job.”
She regretted being so forward as soon as she’d said it.
“Oh, I’ll be here.” He stopped, looked at the tree and then her again. “I’d like that very much.”
It was eight o’clock and all they’d done was get the lights right. That and eat.
“Are you sure you’re up for decorating the tree too?” Angela was pretty sure Geoff had no idea what he’d gotten himself into.
“Absolutely. All the way to the point we put the tree topper on. Oh, wait. Star or angel?”
“Oh gosh. Is there a wrong answer?”
“I don’t know. You don’t have a Surfing Santa or a Billy the Bass or something crazy like that, do you?”
She laughed so hard she had to put her glass of tea down before she dropped it. “We’ve never sold anything like that in my store.”
He got caught up in her laughing. “We have.”
“Please tell me that’s not true.”
He raised his hand. “True story. Okay, it wasn’t the real Billy the Bass, which was kind of cool, but it was a singing fish wearing a Santa hat with a candy cane hook in its mouth.”
“No way.”
“Way.”
“I have a couple of Christmas tree toppers. All tasteful. I lean more toward the star or the angel.”
“Great. Let’s get this tree decorated.”
She pointed to a red plastic container labeled GERMAN GLASS CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS. “Do you want to start with those?”
“Sure.” He walked over and slid it near the tree.
As soon as he lifted the lid, she knew which ornaments they were.
“Those are glass ornaments that have to be every bit of eighty years old.” She opened the lid on the box in front of her. “These are some of the last original ornaments my great-great-grandmother made. They are what started Heart of Christmas.” She lifted a star made from an oil lamp wick, and another in a nautical knot. “They aren’t fancy, but they’re special. I’ve never seen anything like them.”
“I like them.” He carried a bright red glass ornament in the shape of a pointy egg with a silver indention on one side and ribbed in a starry pattern. “I think what makes it special is the story.”
“You’re right.” She hung a wick star on the tree. Then another.
The two of them worked their way up and down and around the tree, spreading out the balls and handmade ornaments to create a perfect collision of textures and colors amid the lights.
“Time for the topper?” she asked.
“I think so. Which will it be?”
She took two wads of taped bubble wrap out of a box. Gently she unwrapped them, uncovering an exquisite Christmas angel tree topper first. Her beautiful dress was made of white peacock feathers, with tiny crystals in a circle for the halo. Going to work on the other one, Angela uncovered a porcelain star that had a place for a light to shine through it, to give it a heavenly glow.
“Which one do you like best?”
“The angel.”
“Would you like to do the honors?” She lifted the pretty angel and handed her to him.
“I would.” He put the topper on the tree, then pushed the angel with his finger until she was straight.
“We’re done.”
Angela was a little sad to call it a night.
He took out his phone and took a picture of the tree. “That was fun.”
“It was. Thank you for the tree. You’re right. I would’ve regretted not having one.” She’d have regretted missing out on this night even more.
“You’re welcome. I guess I’d better get going, but I was thinking. Maybe, if you’re not too busy tomorrow, you could show me around Pleasant Sands.”
“Sure!” She’d answered so quickly. She pressed her lips together, catching her breath. “I know everything to do, and just about everyone in this town. I haven’t done much of it in years, myself. I’ve been heads-down with my store, but I can be your tour guide.”
“I’d like that.”
“What’s interesting to you?”
“It doesn’t matter. I haven’t seen anything except what’s out the window of my store or my condo.”
“We’ve got lots of history. How the town got started, pirates and all that stuff. Or, there’s always the restaurants, or wait, we could go down to the marina and eat. They cook what’s brought in live right from the boats. You won’t get fresher seafood. What else? Oh, there’s—”
“Whoa. Slow down, Miss Pleasant Sands. Let’s start with the marina. But we can’t just eat the whole afternoon. Let’s do something after we eat too.”
“I’ve got an idea. Can I surprise you?”
“I have no doubt that you can,” he said with a laugh.
“What I meant by that was … do you like surprises?”
“Hmm. You know, I can’t say that I’ve ever been surprised. I don’t know if I like being surprised or not, but I’m up for giving it a try.”
“Great!” She rubbed her hands together. She loved surprises. At least when she was the one doing the surprising. “I’ll take care of everything. Where should we meet?”
“I can pick you up, or you could come to my condo if we’re going to eat at the marina. Your choice.”
She hesitated. At least if she met him at his condo she’d have her car with her. Plus, she was a little curious to see where he lived. What he surrounded himself with.
“I’ll come to you.”
“Great. How about noon? I’m at 123 Sailfish. Eighth floor.”
“I’ll be there,” she said, as they walked to the door.
“You’ve got a date.”
The word “date” made her gasp. “I—”
“Don’t overthink it. I just meant it’s on my calendar.”
“Oh. Yeah. Of course. Yes, it will be fun.”