Matt walked through the glass door next to the big barber pole mounted to the building with the iconic red and white helical stripes. The antique pole had been there since Howie Perry’s great-great-granddaddy opened the shop here on Main Street back in the early 1900s.
One of the two old-fashioned reclining barber chairs was empty when he walked in.
“Take a seat,” Howie said. “You’re next.”
Matt took off his jacket and sat in the chair, helping himself and adjusting the lever to recline.
Howie finished the teenager’s trim and sent him on his way.
“Little off the top?” Howie asked as he walked over to Matt.
“Yeah, and a full shave.”
“Thank goodness. You were beginning to look like one of those mountain recluses.”
Matt rubbed his hand across his chin. “It’s not that bad. I didn’t miss having to shave every day.” But if getting rid of it meant being more appealing to Liz, it was time for it to go.
Howie went to work, giving Matt the full hot-towel treatment. There was nothing better than a straight-razor shave.
When Howie turned him back to the mirror, Matt looked like his old self again. He ran his hand over his chin. It felt smooth as silk. That beard itched like crazy when he was first growing it, but growing a mustache or beard in November to help raise awareness of men’s cancers was a small thing he could do after losing Dad. He was glad he’d done it, and he would every year. No matter what.
But if this bought him a few extra points with Liz, he wasn’t against it either.
He drove over to the Creekside Café for lunch.
“Aren’t you looking handsome,” Maizey said when he came through the door.
George Goodwin let out a hearty laugh. “Finally back to your old self, huh there, Wolfman?”
“Was it really that bad?” Matt sat on his stool.
“Yes,” Maizey said. “You having the special?”
“Of course.”
“How’s Angel’s Rest coming?” George asked. “Heard that little gal took a nasty fall.”
“She did. Broke her ankle, and she’s taking it as a sign that maybe she shouldn’t be working on this project.”
“Well, if that isn’t the craziest notion.”
“Same thing I thought.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m afraid she’s going to throw in the towel. I need to buy some time.”
Maizey stopped and leaned on the counter. “You two are good together. You and Liz.”
Matt could feel the color rise in his cheeks, but he couldn’t argue with Maizey on that.
“Flossie told me about you being at her cabin at the crack of dawn when they delivered the furniture. And all about your big bowling night. Met your match finally, didn’t you?” She grinned big.
“Might have.” Matt looked away, trying to not come across like a goofball with the big grin he knew was on his face. “I like her. She’s smart. Pretty. Good people.”
“So what are you going to do, boy?” George asked. “You better figure it out, because Buck took the first twelve-pointer I ever shot up there for her to use at the lodge. That thing needs a good home.”
Matt had wondered where that thing had come from. It darn near took over the whole corner of her dining area in the small cottage.
“If we could make some really fast good progress, she’d have to see that it would all come together.”
Maizey pushed two sweet teas in front of them.
“Y’all have already been working sunup to sundown, haven’t ya?” George asked.
“We have.” Matt took a sip of tea. “It’s coming along good too.”
“Would more people make it faster?” Maizey asked.
“Yeah. I could have a separate crew on each of the areas.”
Maizey tucked her towel into the waistband of her apron. “This might be a crazy waste of time, but you need to do something that will make it feel personal to her. What if you decorated Angel’s Rest for Christmas? She talks about those memories all the time. The town would love it too. I mean, if she abandons the project at least everyone gets one good last look.”
Matt sat taller in his seat.
“I don’t know how you could surprise her with that with her right under your nose,” Maizey said. “Just a thought.”
“That’s it, Maizey. And she’s not under my nose. Krissy’s in town. I got her to convince Liz to stay with her at my house. I think you’re on to something. Now we just have to figure out where I can find some cheap labor to help me.” He’d stumbled upon enough decorations in storage over there to do a pretty good replica of the old days.
George picked up his phone and poked at numbers on the screen. “Hey, Jeffrey. It’s your dad. Call me back.”
Matt knew George was calling in the reinforcements. George’s youngest son was at Appalachian State, and they should be getting off for Christmas break any day now.
Then George dialed another number. “Christopher. It’s your uncle George. What are you doing for Christmas break?” He nodded, listening and mm-hmm’ing. “Well, why don’t you pack up all four of you and come work on a very special project for a lady who broke her foot up here. Need some strong able bodies to string some lights and lend a hand. We’ll put you up, and feed you.” George let out a hearty laugh that almost sounded like Santa’s. “Yeah, turkey and ham both. No problem. Bring your sleeping bags. Yeah. See you then.”
Maizey was nodding like one of those dogs in the back of a car window. “I’ll feed everybody. I can do that much to pitch in.”
“That would be great, Maizey.” Matt got up from his chair. “I’ll check with Flossie to see if we can use the barn up on Mill Hill to house kids if we run out of room.”
“She won’t mind,” Maizey said, waving a hand in the air. “I’ll call and get it arranged for you.”
“Perfect.” Matt called Krissy as he was leaving to tell her the plan. Krissy was completely on board. “Maizey said that making Angel’s Rest feel more personal to Liz would help her feel more connected. The lights are a special memory for her.” He snapped his fingers. “You know what else is special? Her grandmother’s quilt.”
“What are you talking about, Matt?”
“She bought this quilt at the antique shop because it reminded her of the one she had as a kid. Blue and white. Counting Stars pattern, I think she said.”
“Yeah, it’s on her bed.”
“Do you still do those barn quilts?”
Krissy laughed. “I haven’t done a big one in a while, but I’m not that out of practice. I have my class make them for their families every year as a project.”
“Can you make one to fit on the left side of the house there when you come in the lower driveway? In that pattern?” Oh man, this would be perfect. Not just a memory, but also something personal and just for her.
“Get the measurements and the board. If you get your guys to sand it and set it up out in your garage I’ll work on it. Liz can’t get around, so she’ll never know.”
“You’re the best sister.”
“I know. You’re not so bad yourself, and I can do you one better. I still have my contacts from the North Carolina Barn Quilt Trail. I’ll drop them a line. They love my barn quilts.”
“Sis, if you can pull that off I’ll owe you big-time.”
THE NEXT DAY, Matt was keeping the original crew to task on the priorities Liz had set, but everyone else was pulling together to clean up the overgrowth and give the place a quick face-lift so that they had a decent canvas to decorate.
He went through the storage boxes and found all of the elves, then dropped off the ones that had the big “X” on the boxes over at Barney’s Small Appliance Repair Shop to see if he could work any magic, then stopped back over at the barbershop. One thing for sure, every woman in this town would be making her husband come get cleaned up before the holiday. This was a good place to get the word out.
“You’re back already?” Howie said, as he buzzed a razor over a young boy’s head.
“Need your help.” Matt filled him in, and now he had a drop-off point for all extra lights and decorations. “Thanks, man.”
“Happy to help.” Howie swept the hair on the floor into a pile. “I’ve got a ton of those old glass lights. Mandy insisted on going with the new LED ones last year. You can have them for keeps. They are just taking up precious space in my man cave right now.”
“Sounds good. Call me when you’ve got something for me to pick up.”
Matt stopped by Ginger’s house and asked her if she could talk to the girls about possibly helping out too. She was more than ready to tackle the job. “Plus we can make cookies and hot chocolate for the help. Happy workers make better progress.”
He had no doubt that was true.
MATT STOPPED AT the store and picked up a spiral notebook, then went back to the cabin and started sketching out designs and walking off spaces for them. He hadn’t felt this alive in a long time. With a cup of coffee in his hand, he walked back to the house. He flipped on the lights and walked through the empty house. It was coming together, and they could make some significant progress, but Liz had to believe in this place. If it had been his dream he couldn’t imagine letting go so easy. It was an accident.
He dragged a six-foot stepladder over in front of the window. He got two strands of Christmas lights out of his truck and plugged them in under the window. Then he ran them around the ladder from bottom to top. It had the right shape. He turned off the light and stepped outside. It looked like a Christmas tree—from outside no one would ever know it wasn’t.
“And now we can begin.”
Music. He remembered there being music. He called in a few favors with some buddies. An old boom box, CDs, and a ton of speaker wire should do the trick.
THE NEXT MORNING Howie showed up at Angel’s Rest.
“Hey, Howie. I could have picked those up.”
Howie carried two boxes stacked on top of each other. “Yeah, but I have a slow morning. I thought I could deliver them and give you a hand.”
“Awesome. Thanks.”
An hour later, George showed up with a van full of college guys. They piled out of that van like clowns from a VW bug. They were put on cleaning up the overgrown landscaping, and by the end of the day there was already a huge improvement.
“There’ll be real work to do on the landscaping come spring, but for now it’s cleaned up,” Matt said to George.
“Yeah, but it does look better. If it weren’t so darn wet we could burn all that mess. I’ll have someone come haul it off to the dump on my flatbed trailer for you.”
“That’d be great, George.” Matt hated to look a gift horse in the mouth, but he had to know. “I know my motivation for this, but George, what’s yours?”
“Probably not so different. That girl is stirring up memories from better days around here. She’s been like a breath of fresh air. I like that. I liked the Westmorelands. They did a lot for this town. For all of us.”
“They did.”
That night George and Matt carried all the workers down to the Creekside Café for a buffet that would smack your momma’s lips for her. After dinner, they took them all over to Flossie’s barn, where things had been set up for them to get a warm night’s sleep after some sledding and bowling.
Matt stopped by his house to check on Liz and Krissy and deliver two dishes of Maizey’s banana pudding. He was a bundle of nerves at his own house. Something is wrong with this picture. He wasn’t even sure if he should knock before he came in. He decided to knock and just announce as he entered. If Liz was asleep she’d be in the bedroom, and that was at the back of the house, so he wouldn’t disturb her anyway.
Krissy poked her head out from the living room as he walked in. “Do come on in. We’re breaking in the Hallmark Channel.”
“Uh-oh. I didn’t even know my TV got that station.”
“It does now.” Krissy moved to the side and let him in. “We’ve got company, Liz.”
Matt walked in, and Liz was dabbing at tears with a tissue, her foot propped up in the recliner on top of a pile of pillows.
“I thought these were happy movies,” he said.
She sniffled. “They are. They’re wonderful.” Liz tore her gaze from the television to him and almost choked. “Wow! You shaved? You look amazing.” Clearly embarrassed by her overenthusiastic reaction, she pulled her lips tightly together beneath a grin. “I mean you looked great before, but … I like it. I mean without the beard.”
Elvis walked over and lay at the foot of Liz’s chair with a loud sigh.
“Thank you,” Matt said. “It was just temporary.” He didn’t offer an explanation. That was personal. “Maizey asked me to bring this over. Banana pudding.” He handed one to each of them. “She makes the best around.”
“That sounds so good.” Liz clicked the pause button on the remote.
“You doing okay?” he asked.
“I am. I’m a little anxious about going to the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow. I don’t really know what to expect.”
“I can understand that, but there’s no need to worry. You can’t change it, and you’ve got lots of friends to help you out.”
“Thanks, Matt.”
“You girls getting settled in okay? Anything I can do?”
“Not a thing,” Krissy said.
“Thank you for the hospitality, Matt.” Liz looked good in this room.
“You’re welcome. So, chili tomorrow night?” He clapped his hands together. “I make a mean corn bread too.”
“He’s not kidding,” Liz said.
“Oh, I know. He’s an amazing cook,” Krissy said. “Her appointment is at eleven, so we’ll be gone most of the afternoon.”
“Good. I’ll have it ready for you when you get home.”
Liz pushed herself up in the chair. “Matt, do you think the two of us could go over estimates and the project plan again tomorrow? I just want to think through some of it again.”
“Sure. No problem.” They’d already prioritized the kitchen, mandatory for a bed-and-breakfast, and the two cabins. That way she could have an income stream as they worked on the other things. It was a good plan, but if she wanted to talk he’d go over it a hundred times, because as long as she was reviewing that plan she was still invested in it. “Anything you want, Liz.”
Elvis got up and walked out of the room, then came back with a pinecone in his mouth and dropped it in Liz’s lap.
Liz lit up.
Who knew Elvis could be a wingman.