Madelyn "Lyn" Creeke and her grandmother were the last of their family. At least, that's what Lyn's grandmother always led her to believe.
Lyn had never heard of or seen pictures of Georgina Creeke, a great aunt that had been living a few hours awa...
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With my resolve fortified, I was ready to charge into battle.
Except I couldn't.
We spent what little time we had before the ornament workshop attending to the trees. Then three sets of guests returned to make their ornaments and spent much of the afternoon sitting around the dining room table constructing their decorations and chatting the day away. Once they had all moved on, we cleaned up, grabbed a quick bite to eat for dinner, and then returned to the trees. Jordan had to run back to the shed to grab a work light before we began, since the sun had long since set behind the mountains. When that became a frustrating endeavor, we packed the boxes back up and placed them on the porch to get to another day. We had to stop anyway. Cookies needed to go in the oven for our nightly hot cocoa treat.
Once everyone headed to their rooms, I considered pulling Jordan aside and talking to him about my intentions, but he suggested we both get some much needed rest and I couldn't really find it in me to fight him on it. So up to bed I went, and I passed out before my head hit the pillow.
The following morning, I woke up on time since I had retrieved my phone from its drawer and turned it back on so that my alarm was once again functional. There were still messages waiting for my attention. In fact, there were several more than when I first chucked my phone into the desk the previous night. I had no interest in answering them. Mr. Myers and his company had a closing date. Anything else he needed from me, he could get through Saundra.
Jordan and I worked like a well-oiled machine that morning. I whipped up a batch of homemade cranberry scones shaped liked Christmas trees with a side of eggs made to order and a thick link of sausage. Jordan ran the food out to the guests, mingling and asking them about their plans for the week. Somewhere along the line, he grabbed a bite for himself and pestered me about only nibbling through half a scone. But there wasn't time, and I had much to do and a lot to think about. Putting my scone aside, I headed out to the sitting room to prepare the bills for the guests and help them move their luggage out to the drive.
Like with the previous week, all our guests checked out that morning and granted us one more night of freedom. A night that Jordan said would be the last until the new year, since people's Christmas vacations would start the coming week and Sundays would no longer be the definitive end for people's trips. I wanted to make the most of this precious quiet time and went straight to work on the rooms. With Jordan's help, we zipped through them with impressive efficiency and then we went out to the drive to finish the trees. At some point Jordan brought me a sandwich, but I let it sit on its paper plate untouched while I busied myself with completing our display.
By mid afternoon, Jordan and I were basking in the completion of our ode to Gina. It, however, wasn't enough to keep the glint of worry out of his eyes as he looked over at my sandwich, still sitting on the steps of the porch.
"It looks great Lyn," he said with a smile caught between joy and concern. "It really honors Georgina and the town will love seeing this previously undiscovered side of her."
