Free Christmas in Cupid Falls by Holly Jacobs

Vancy, if there’s more than you can do alone, you let me and Joan know. We can help. Maybe if Joan got a dog, she’d lay off buying the frogs.”
    May smiled. “I will. Maybe we can put up flyers an d . . . ”
    Kennedy copied Nana Vancy’s number down for May and watched in amazement as Clarence and May left, talking excitedly over plans for the event.
    “Nicely done, Mayor,” Malcolm said. “You handled them with the wisdom of Solomon. I remember May’s dog, June. I don’t think he liked those sweaters as much as she did, and I’m pretty sure being named June didn’t sit well with him, either.”
    Kennedy turned around and saw Malcolm leaning against the wall, looking for all the world as if he enjoyed the show.
    “You. I forgot about you.” Kennedy generally loved Mondays, but she was not loving this particular one. She remembered her resolution and forced another smile. “What can I do for you, Malcolm?”
    “I came for three reasons.” He held up three fingers.
    “Shoot.” She waited for him to tell her that he was suing her for custody of the baby and hand her a bunch of legal papers. She felt a sick feeling of dread spread over her.
    He bent down his ring finger. “First, I came to see if we could get together this week and go over the events? I’d like you to talk me through what I need to do for next weekend’s craft fair.”
    “Sure. I’d already decided to ask if you’d allow me to help with it and with the Everything But a Dog day, too. Secondly?”
    He bent down his middle finger. “Thursday’s Thanksgiving. Pap is coming home for the day. I thought we could have Thanksgiving dinner together and tell him he’s going to be a great-grandfather. He knows, but I’d like to make it official.”
    If he’d simply asked her to dinner, she wouldn’t have felt bad saying no. Normally, she took Thanksgiving to recover from the first week of the shop’s holiday craziness. She’d spend the day in pj’s, watch the parades, and make herself a turkey breast. That was before she’d been pregnant and exhaustion was pretty much her constant companion. She needed a day off. But if Malcolm was asking her for Pap, she had to go. “Fine.”
    “I’m cooking. You’re going to sit back and be waited on.”
    She should fight and assure him that she was capable of cooking, but to be honest, she knew she was going to be done in by Thursday.
    “Fine,” she said, and realized how ungracious she sounded, so she added, “thank you.”
    “Lastly.” All three fingers were down now. He didn’t say a word, but jerked his head in the direction of the delivery truck that pulled up outside. “I came to carry your order.”
    She remembered him yelling that first morning about her shoveling the dusting of snow, and she’d mentioned that she carried in orders and he’d had a cow. “How did you know it came now?”
    “I knew you got them about this time because I asked Pap.”
    “I don’t need you to—”
    He cut her off again. “You don’t need anyone. I know. You’ve made that clear. But I’m here anyway so you might as well let me help. I mean, if Clarence and May can work together, then certainly you can allow me to help a little. Think of it as me paying you back for all you do at the Center.”
    She sighed. “Fine. But only because I have about a dozen orders that need doing yesterday.”
    True to his word, Malcolm helped unload the shipment while she checked it. When everything was put away, she thought he’d stay and be underfoot, annoying her with talk and questions about the baby, but he simply said, “I’ll see you tonight.”
    “I’ll come over to the Center after I close up here.”
    “I can’t wait,” he said.
    She could, but she didn’t say so. Instead she said, “Great.” She knew that the word came out with very little enthusiasm. But frankly, very little was more enthusiasm than she actually felt.
    In her mind’s eye, she’d run through telling Malcolm about the baby