The Christmas season should be the time of year to feel most alive and Silver Bells usually sprinkled extra magic in the air, but as I walked into work the next morning I would’ve preferred to pitch myself face-first into the snow embankment outside the wooden front door. Last night, one bowl of ice cream had become two as I told Mom all about Adam and by the time I had finished crying into pistachio ice cream, it had been way past two o’clock in the morning.
I felt so exhausted, it was a wonder I could keep my eyes open.
Harmony wasn’t at her desk when I walked in, so I went into the coffee bar and made two coffees (mine with an extra shot of caffeine to wake me up) and then sat down at Harmony’s desk to wait for her. A cardboard box on the floor next to her chair caught my eye—the label read True Grit.
“You’re an angel, thank you,” sniffled Harmony, her eyes red and swollen as she returned to her desk and picked up the cup of coffee I’d brought her.
I nodded to the box. “What’s in there?”
Harmony rolled her eyes. “Viles brought it in first thing and asked me—strike that, told me—to put together some goodie bags for the spa’s grand opening.”
“Viles?” I laughed incredulously, able to see that Harmony was just as taken with Miles as I was. Not. I watched Harmony open the box and I pulled out a small bag. “True Grit, packed with moisturizers and a dash of exfoliants for a truly smooth finish?”
“Spare me.” Harmony rolled her eyes and took the sachet from me and held it up to her face. “True Grit, because we all enjoy a bit of rough.”
My gaze met hers and we both burst out laughing. Well, at least Harmony’s tears were coming from laughter this time. I opened a sachet and squeezed out the oozing brown gunk.
“What is this stuff? Mud with gravel?” I asked, rubbing the sample onto the back of my hand. “Ouch! That gunk took a layer of skin off.” I grabbed one of Harmony’s tissues and wiped it off. “So where is Miles?”
“Viles,” Harmony said, correcting me.
I smiled. “Where is Viles now? Still in with Adam, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s?”
“No, he’s gone, thank goodness. Their meeting ended soon after I arrived. Viles walked out of here without even acknowledging my presence. Taste of things to come, I reckon.” She opened another box and took out a tiny gold tube. “S-tanned out from the crowd with this self-tan lotion and claim your place on the beach.”
“What beach?” I asked, and then we both looked out the window at the falling snow and mountainous backdrop. The man didn’t seem to know his target audience. Whatever. Not like the success of his spa mattered to me. I thought about the envelope for Miles that was sitting inside my purse. “I’ve got something to tell you,” I said.
“What? Please tell me it’s something that will cheer me up.”
“Well . . .” I eyed the tissue box on the desk to make sure it was within Harmony’s reach. “Actually, I’ve accepted Bernice’s offer at It’s All Downhill From Here. She wants me to start as soon as possible, so I’m handing in my notice.”
“You’re leaving? Does mud gravel mean nothing to you?”
“I’m sorry,” I said, giving her a sympathetic frowny face. “I’m hoping that Miles . . . sorry, Viles, will let me off the hook today without serving two weeks notice since this is the last day Silver Bells will be open. I still can’t believe he wouldn’t keep it open until Christmas.”
“I can’t believe you’re leaving Silver Bells,” she said, starting to hiccup. Her eyes filled and I slid the box of tissues across to her.
“Silver Bells is leaving me,” I said, giving her a hug and then pulling back as she blew her nose so hard it sounded like a foghorn.
“Is this what you really want? I mean, I know you love it here the way it is, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad as a spa?” Harmony didn’t even look as if she believed her own words, let alone sound the slightest bit convincing.
I shook my head. “No, it’s not what I want at all. But what I want can’t happen, so this is the next best thing for me. Bernice’s business is lovely. I mean, it’s not Silver Bells but it is a great place. And I had so many ideas for it and she seemed to value my input, which made me excited. A spa just isn’t right for me.”
“This isn’t you?” she asked, sliding another box across the desk to me.
“Magnetize with Magnet-Eyez, the false eyelashes that use tiny magnets to stick to your natural ones,” I said, reading the instructions. Then I took out a small, clear box and opened it.
Harmony grimaced. “Ergh, they look like spiders.”
“Can you imagine someone wearing these and kissing someone who has a lip piercing?” I asked, as a ridiculous scenario went through my head. “The magnetic eyelashes might migrate from their eye to the other person’s lip, and they’d end up looking like Charlie Chaplin.”
Harmony held the strips of hair to her lip like a mustache, which made me burst out laughing.
“I’ll pass on the magnetic eyelashes.” I hugged Harmony again and then stood. “Since Miles isn’t here I’d better talk to Adam about my resignation.”
She nodded as I walked towards Adam’s office with a heavy heart. It would be hard enough saying goodbye to Harmony, but at least she and I would still keep in touch. Right now I had to say goodbye to Adam forever and I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage it.
****
I knocked on Adam’s office door and waited for him to reply. Normally I’d just walk in, but things had been so strained between us that I felt like I needed permission to enter.
“Come in,” he called.
When I opened the door, I found him sitting behind his desk, but instead of his normal tailored business suit, he was wearing a festive red sweater and jeans. For a moment, the lump in my throat stopped me from speaking.
He smiled at me. “Good morning, Faith.”
My feet remained rooted to their spot as I cleared my throat. “Good morning, Adam. Sorry, I’m just . . . your sweater threw me a little, that’s all.”
He looked down at his attire, the red wool dotted with snowflakes, the white hem knitted to look like a deep snowdrift. “Don’t you like it? I thought Christmas was your thing?”
I nodded. “Yes, I do, but you look so much like your dad sitting there, wearing that. It just threw me, that’s all.” I swallowed hard to clear the lump in my throat, which was threatening to manifest itself as tears. Now it was my turn to revisit my Christmas past.
Adam stood and walked around to the front of his desk, perching on his usual spot. “What can I do for you, Faith?”
His smile and easy manner confused me since he’d been so cold to me the last few times I’d seen him. I had the strong urge to apologize, throw myself into his arms and kiss him. But somehow I resisted.
“I was hoping Miles would be here,” I said.
Adam raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Oh, really? Well, from what I’ve heard, you must be the only one hoping to see Miles. He is something of an acquired taste.”
I wanted to smile, but I was afraid smiling would turn into crying, and there was no way I wanted Adam’s last image of me to resemble a water fountain. So, I took the letter from my purse and handed it to him. His hand brushed mine as he took the envelope, sending a delicious shiver up my spine, a spine I needed to remember I had if I was to go through with this plan.
“What’s this?” he asked, reading Miles’s name on the front.
“I was hoping Viles, er, I mean, Miles, would be here so I could give it to him.”
Adam’s mouth twitched. “And?”
This was harder than I’d expected, for all of the wrong reasons. Adam’s eyes were smiling even if his mouth wasn’t curved upward. Did that mean he was enjoying my discomfort?
I cleared my throat. “The letter is my resignation. I addressed it to Viles, ahem, Miles.” Adam’s mouth twitched again. “You know, since he’s now my boss. But Harmony said he left after your meeting so I figured I should turn it in to you. I was hoping he would allow me to leave without the usual notice since Silver Bells is closing after today.”
Adam set the letter on the desk beside him, and then turned his attention back to me.
I took a deep breath. “I loved Silver Bells, but the time has come for me to leave. It was never the same without your dad, and we did hope . . .” I broke off, not sure if I could carry on without crying. “We did hope that when you came here you were going to carry on where Mr. Kline left off. But I know that was naïve of us.”
He nodded, seeming to understand what I was saying.
“Anyway, that’s not how things panned out, and I tried so hard to make you fall in love with Silver Bells, but one thing I’ve learned is that you can’t hurry love.”
“No, you just have to wait.”
I frowned. “Pardon?”
He smiled. “Phil Collins, I thought you were into quoting the lyrics.”
I shook my head, annoyed at his flippancy when I was so obviously distraught. “Love can’t be forced and I’m sorry I put such pressure and expectation on you to keep the business. You’re not your dad, and it was unfair of me not to take what you wanted into consideration. You’ve become city-fied.”
“City-fied?”
“Yes, I don’t mean that in a bad way.” The last thing I wanted to do was offend Adam, today of all days. “I just mean that you’ve become used to the hustle and bustle of Manhattan life, so I guess coming back here was a shock to your system. Some people don’t like calm, quaint, and charming.”
Adam stood up and walked to the window, looking out on the snowy landscape. “Oh, it’s had its moments, believe me,” he said. “Anyway, you left and came back, so this town clearly has its merits.” He turned away from the window and sat against the sill, looking at me.
“Yes, but that was different, Adam. I had to get away from my parents’ divorce, I needed to escape, and coming back here was like putting on an old, favorite sweater that I forgot I had. It was comforting and safe, and warm.”
He grinned. “Warm? In Christmas Mountain?”
I rolled my eyes, wondering why he was so chipper when this was so hard. “I’m not talking about the weather, I’m talking about the people, the sense of community, the traditions.”
He nodded. “I know, I’m just teasing you.”
I looked at him and it hit me again how much I was going to miss his teasing. Miss him. “Anyway, first thing I wanted to do was give that letter.” I nodded towards the envelope on Adam’s desk. “I wanted to come and say goodbye to you. I know we’ve known each for a matter of weeks, but I feel like we became close.”
His gaze flicked to the doorway, where we had shared our first kiss.
“I grew to regard you as not just my boss, but also as my friend.” I blinked back tears.
Adam stared at my hand for a moment, before standing and walking towards me. As he got close I took a step backwards, knowing that if he said anything kind to me at all, I would break down and cry.
“Is that how you see me, Faith?”
I looked into his eyes. “Huh?”
He came closer, standing directly in front of me, and I had to tilt my head back to look up at him. “Do you only see me as your boss and your friend?”
I stared into his blue eyes in confusion. “Adam, yesterday you made it abundantly clear that I am your employee and nothing more. But to answer your question, no, that’s not how I see you. If I could take back everything I said and did to sabotage your prospective buyers, I would. That was wrong of me.”
“It was,” he said.
“But I want you to know it wasn’t out of malice. I loved Silver Bells so much it was hard to let go,” I said, taking in a big breath to say what I needed to next. “Somehow along the way, I fell in love with you, Adam. Knowing how much I hurt you kills me, and if I could take it all back I would. But I can’t, and I know that. So please, let me just say goodbye to you and to Silver Bells and leave things on good terms.”
He said nothing, so I put my arms around him for the final time and hugged him tight, before letting go and turning to the door. “Goodbye, Adam.”
He reached the open door before I did, and closed it.
“Um, you’re supposed to wait to do that until I’m on the other side of it.”
He gave me a half smile and walked back to the desk, where he sat down in his usual spot. He gestured to one of the chairs, so I sat, feeling even more confused.
“Yesterday was a bit of an eye opener for me, Faith. When I saw how upset Miles was about the ingratitude of the staff here,” he said, mimicking Miles’s voice and throwing his arms around in a flamboyant gesture, making me laugh despite myself, “I realized what a bad fit he would be here. I could imagine Dad in Santa’s-Grotto-in-the-sky looking down at me, shaking his head at what I let happen to his hard work.”
I sat quietly, waiting for him to continue.
“I went to bed last night, but something was keeping me awake. That flounce had really gotten under my skin, which was ridiculous because the business was, essentially, no longer mine, and as the new owner, Miles could flounce all he liked. And yet something wasn’t right.”
I bit my lip, wondering where he was going with this.
“I had everything I wanted.” He held his arms out and shrugged. “I’d sold the business for enough money to buy into the partnership and I could return to Manhattan with all of the loose ends tied up. It was perfect except, it wasn’t.”
“It wasn’t?”
“So, after tossing and turning for a few hours, I got up, got dressed, and walked up to The Sharing Tree.”
My eyes widened. “The last time you went to The Sharing Tree, you’d been very reluctant to go. Plus, it snowed so hard last night!” I said, thinking that was kind of a lame thing to point out.
He grinned. “Tell me about it. Anyway, I needed to talk to my dad.” He walked to the window again and looked out, before turning to me. “Can you remember what you said to me when the owl appeared, Faith?”
I nodded, tears filling my eyes. “I said that your dad had forgiven you.”
He returned to the edge of the desk again. “Exactly. And just now, when you came in, you told me I reminded you of him?”
I nodded again.
He took my hands in his, rubbing his thumbs absent-mindedly over my wrists. “Then, if I remind you of him so much, why is it hard to believe that I’m also a forgiving person?”
“Adam, I don’t—“
“Let me finish, Faith. There were a lot more ornaments on the tree this time, but the ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas ornament which you gave me to hang for my dad was there, right at the front, and as I looked at it, it hit me.”
“The ornament hit you?” I asked. Now I was really confused.
He shook his head. “No, Faith. The truth hit me. Dad hadn’t built Silver Bells for himself, he’d built it for me,” he said.
“But, you weren’t even here, Adam. You were in New York.”
“I know. I’d put Christmas Mountain behind me and out of my mind.” He nodded again. “It was something the Johnsons said which sowed the seed, although it was just an idea in the back of my mind. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something I was missing. They told me that they wanted Silver Bells so that one day, their children and grandchildren could run it.”
“But you turned them down. They didn’t have enough money for your purchase price.”
“Yes, I know. But there’s more. I was also upset with you, and hurt. No, don’t apologize again.”
I closed my mouth.
“Standing there looking at that ornament, the past few weeks played through my mind like a movie—the sleigh rides, finding Rudy, the day at Santa’s Grotto, and yes, even the goofiness of dressing like an elf, the parade for dogs, and all of them, all of the best times, the times that made me smile, had been spent with you, Faith. I had finally found the magic that my dad had left behind for me.”
My throat tightened. “Really?”
“So instead of going home, I came back here for this.” He picked up a box, which I’d brought in a few weeks ago when I decorated his office. The seal had been broken on it. He opened the lid and handed me a child’s drawing.
The drawing was of a snow scene drawn in chalk on black paper, the chalk smudged, lending it an almost misty quality. I looked at Adam. “It’s cute.”
He gestured to the paper. “Look again. What do you see?”
“It’s a house, with smoke coming out of the chimney, and a tray of cookies cooling on the window sill?”
He nodded, and handed me another picture.
“And this is what looks like a toyshop?”
He put another drawing in my hand.
“And this one is bigger, with what looks like . . .” I squinted. “An open fire? I can see it through the windows, oh, and Santa standing in the doorway.”
Adam took the drawings and laid them in a circle with the Santa picture in the middle.
I gasped. “Oh! That looks exactly like…”
“Santa’s Grotto, Cookie’s Kitchen, and the Elves’ Workshop.” He turned the pictures over one by one so I could read what was written on the back.
“Santa’s Village in the Forest, Adam Kline, age seven.”
I stared at Adam, my eyes going wide. “After you left for New York, your dad brought your drawings to life. That’s incredible.”
He handed me another drawing of an arrow nailed to a tree, and the words “Santa’s Grotto” were written on it. “That’s the sign I told you to get repainted that first day. And this?” He handed me another drawing. “This is Santa’s sleigh. And this was also in the box.”
I lifted the silver baby rattle, with Adam’s name, weight, and birthdate on it. “Silver Bells!” I exclaimed. “He built this entire business for you.”
“Yeah, it took me long enough to get it.” He shook his head, the corners of his mouth twitching. “I used to tell Mom and Dad stories every night in the run up to Christmas. As soon as December First arrived, bedtime stories would be replaced with my Christmas ones, where I’d describe all of the goings on at Santa’s Grotto. Dad would join in and we’d describe this magical world filled with elves and reindeer, and Santa, and then as I started to get sleepy, my parents would read me ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas until I fell asleep.”
Adam smiled tearfully, but I was suddenly furious.
“You realized this last night and you still came in here this morning with Viles, who is so very vile. I’m sorry but Harmony’s right that he’s vile and you signed the contract anyway? He put his heart and soul into Silver Bells for you, the part of you that you’d somehow forgotten. How can you let something that special go to a man who uses mud gravel to clean his face?”
“Faith . . .” He took my hands again and leaned close. “I didn’t sign. I decided last night to sell my Manhattan apartment instead. I’m moving back to Christmas Mountain.”
I blinked. “You are?”
“Yes, I’m going to keep Silver Bells exactly the way my dad intended.” He handed me back the letter that had been sitting on his desk. “Of course, Miles had a raging fit, ranting about how small town folk couldn’t be trusted to run a real business, anyway.” Adam grinned. “So I told him It’s. Just. A. Small. Change. Miles.”
My mouth opened. “You did?”
He nodded, looking at me hopefully. “Will you manage the place for me?”
It was so much to take in. “I’m thrilled Silver Bells isn’t going anywhere. Thank you so much for the offer, but I have to decline.”
He frowned. “What?”
“I’ve accepted Bernice’s job offer at It’s All Downhill From Here. I start as soon as I can leave here and I’m excited about it. Silver Bells has been my comfort blanket. It’s about time I stood on my own two feet. But,” I said, looking behind me down the hall in the direction of Harmony’s desk. “I know someone who would be great at running the place, although the tissue company will sure miss her bulk orders.”
“I understand and support you.”
Of course he did. That’s the kind of guy he was. “Everyone needs to do what’s right for them. I should’ve supported you from the beginning, too.”
He handed me a sheet of paper. “Read this, but before you do, you should know that the first time we kissed changed everything for me. I had come here to sell a business, not to fall in love, but I did. You’ve been all I can think about, Faith.”
My eyes watered again.
“When that thing happened with Connor, of course I was hurt, but it was more than that, I realize now. I think it was an excuse for me to be angry with you to make going back to Manhattan easier. Because walking away from you would be an impossible thing for me to do, Faith. That kiss changed my life.”
I opened out the sheet of paper, and began to read.
Twas the kiss before Christmas, when it all began,
Under old mistletoe, one woman, one man.
The tinsel was hung, the tree looking fine,
And all he had was her on his mind.
The couple was nestled in each other’s arms,
As Adam began falling for Faith’s lovely charms.
But little did he know that was only the start,
That mistletoe kiss that captured his heart.
The sleigh rides they shared, the reindeer they found,
Just brought the pair closer, how it made his heart pound.
She brought him along to The Sharing Tree one night,
She made him see how he’d completely lost sight.
But try as he might, he couldn’t help but fall,
Even when he was mad at the Silver Bells ball.
It was just an excuse, to stop his heart breaking,
Because he’d lose her for sure with the choice he was making.
So he made a decision, he’d live out the dream,
That he’d had as a child, which his father had seen.
Say it’s not too late, that there could be a way,
For you to be mine if I promise to stay.
I didn’t even try to stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks. I threw myself into his arms and he held me tight, so much tighter than I’d ever been held, as if everything we felt for each other was in that hug. Adam was staying in Christmas Mountain. I could hardly believe it as I buried my face in his chest, his red sweater tickling my skin. I laughed.
He cupped my cheeks. “I love you, Faith.”
“I love you, too, Adam,” I whispered.
And then we kissed beside the desk and from somewhere outside I heard a faint but familiar ho-ho-ho, which made me pull back from Adam. I looked up into his icy blue eyes that were lit in astonishment, making me wonder if he’d heard it, too. But we didn’t say anything, he just smiled and kissed me again, with silver bells jingling in the distance.