Their First Noel Read Free Page B

ago.” The water had gone cloudy. An air bubble had formed at the top and exposed the galloping horse weather vane on the high ridge of the peaked roof of the small plastic replica of the charming Swiss chalet-style inn. She brushed her thumb over the raised words: Snowy Eaves Inn, Mt. Piney, Vermont. The movement jostled it just enough to cause the first few notes of a Christmas song to chime out from the tiny music box inside the stand. “It plays ‘The First Noel.’ He gave it to her as a promise that he’d come for her in South Carolina and they’d spend their first Christmas together.”
    â€œYou want me to build another inn?” Andy held his hands out to his side to indicate the building where they now stood. “I’d like to help you, Ms. Bennington, but I can’t even seem to get this one finished. Sorry, but you came all this way for nothing.”
    â€œDon’t say that,” Corrie whispered, fighting back the tears.
    Even though she knew he didn’t mean she wouldn’t find her father, the very words tapped into her biggest fear. She had come so far, worked so hard. She just couldn’t let it all fall apart now.
    She set the globe down on the countertop and turned back to the hot chocolate fixings. She dumped in the cocoa and sugar then realized she needed something to stir it up with. She opened a drawer and on the first try found a wooden spoon. She gripped it tightly and finally turned back to him, refocused on her first task, getting the man’s help. “But you don’t have the whole picture. I’ve been working for almost a year to be accepted into the Hadleyville Holiday Gingerbread House Showcase with an entry titled Christmas at Snowy Eaves Inn. I’ve got the aesthetics down, but it’s the steep eaves, the way the second floor hangs over the first. It has those balconies on three sides, which don’t balance well. It may work with wood and stone but… I can’t keep the roof from sliding off, or the top from being, well, top heavy and tumbling over. I think your expertise could—”
    â€œWhoa, wait. You want to hire me to build a gingerbread house?” He held his hands up, his expression caught between a scowl and a smile. “Are you kidding me? I’m up to my eyeballs in real renovations and you want me to just up and—”
    â€œYeah!” Greer went on tiptoe then sprang upward, clapping. “Do it, Andy! That would be so—”
    The girl flung her arms wide midjump. Her hand hit the handle of the enamel pan. She gasped. The pan flipped. Milk and clumps of cocoa went sailing in a high arch upward.
    Corrie dove for the pan, not sure if the milk mighthave gotten hot enough to scald the child. “Be careful, Greer.”
    â€œDon’t worry, I’ll save the snow globe!” Greer’s small fingers stretched for the object but instead of grabbing it, bumped it and sent the treasured keepsake skidding to the edge of the counter.
    Corrie gasped.
    The globe seemed to teeter for a split second before it flipped over the edge, somersaulting downward.
    Corrie’s heart plummeted with it. She took a hurried step forward to try to save it. Her boot hit a puddle of milk and she lost her footing.
    Andy lunged forward to catch her.
    She’d have rather he’d tried to catch the snow globe. She pushed off Andy’s attempt at a rescue and thrust both hands forward to make a sort of safety net to catch the keepsake.
    The glass of the globe went slipping through her fingertips. It hit the hard tile floor, base first, did a sort of hop then came down hard with a sickening crash.
    Greer squealed and leapt backward, her hands on her flushed cheeks. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to do it, honest.”
    Just before Corrie’s knees would have hit the unforgiving glass-cluttered tile, Andy bent down and caught her. She fell nose first against his muscular shoulder.
    The