Page 2 of A Winter Thaw

They reached the rose room a few moments later. Elaine felt a surge of pride as she pushed open the door, revealing a darling room decorated in elegant shades of pink and white. A welcome basket complete with goodies such as hand lotion, face cloths, and toothbrushes rested on the bed.

“This remote controls the lights on the Christmas tree,” Elaine said, still feeling surprised by the technical wizardry that Michelle had arranged for all of the trees in the guest rooms. She pressed the button and smiled when the tree, which was fake like the one in the kitchen but colored a natural green with a dusting of imitation snow, suddenly glowed with twinkling lights. “You can press this button here if you want them to flash, or this button here if you want them to fade in and out. And then of course there’s the regular setting where they just stay lit.” She laughed and set the remote back down on the writing desk, which was placed next to the fireplace. “And there are a couple of heaters on the balcony, which you can turn on so that you can stay outside longer and enjoy the view. We just ask that you turn them off as soon as you’re ready to come back inside.”

“Sounds wonderful,” said Mrs. Fowler. “I love this tree. It matches the room—all those white, red, pink, and silver ornaments.”

“Thank you.” Elaine’s blue eyes danced. “We had a wonderful time decorating the trees in every room. Michelle is dead set on a color theme for every guest room. You’ll notice all your towels are rose-colored as well once you step into the bathroom.” She laughed. “So we had a lot of fun dusting off the antique ornaments in the attic and buying new ones and sorting them all into various boxes for every room to stick with the color themes.”

“Decorating them must have taken a lot of time.” Mr. Fowler looked at the beautiful tree approvingly.

Elaine smiled. “It did, but we had a great time. We listened to an audiobook of A Christmas Carol or talked while we set them all up. I think it helps that we all really love Christmas.”

The Fowlers smiled back at her, and Elaine couldn’t help feeling a boost of energy at seeing the pleasure on their faces.

The joy of the season is in the air, she thought with a rush of enthusiasm in her core. I’m so happy we get to spread Christmas cheer through The Birchwood House. I’m absolutely loving running the hotel right now, more than ever before.

She parted ways with the Fowlers, satisfied that they had everything they needed to be comfortable. As she walked along the upstairs hallway, she looked around her at the beautiful mansion and smiled.

I’m so blessed, she thought. I remember when all these rooms were empty and dusty. I was happy enough, living with memories of my years with Thomas, but I was so lonely. Having the girls move in was wonderful enough, but turning the mansion into a hotel was the best idea we ever had.

People had been flocking to The Birchwood House ever since they’d first opened their doors. Their first guests had been attracted not only to its location in the popular tourist town of Coral Sands, Maine, but also the fact that the hotel was also a verified historical site. Soon after, the glowing reviews for The Birchwood House had brought in even more guests who were eager to stay in the comfortable, beautiful house.

It had been a great deal of work getting the hotel set up, but she and Audrey and Michelle had enjoyed every minute of it. They’d been close before starting the hotel together, but the work had served to strengthen their bond. They’d made decisions together, scrubbed out bedrooms together and rearranged countless pieces of furniture together. Elaine sometimes wondered if the reason why The Birchwood House felt like a home to so many guests was because she and Audrey and Michelle had put so much love into their work.

Once the hotel had opened, their lives seemed to move along at a nonstop pace. Although they were careful to take breaks and give themselves the rest they needed, there was always something to be done. Elaine liked to keep ahead of all of the tasks that had to be done to run the hotel—such as always having groceries purchased a few days ahead of when they would be needed, and always having extra sets of clean sheets stocked in the linen closet—but despite all the preparation that she and her girls did, there were always things going wrong and causing a sudden need for extra work. Despite the hustle and bustle, running the hotel was a life that Elaine wouldn’t trade for anything.

She reached the downstairs of the mansion just as the front door of the hotel was opening. She glanced at the front desk and saw that Michelle wasn’t there at the moment, which meant that she would need to assist whoever was arriving. Her face lit up a moment later when she saw Shep Townsend walk through the door, bearing an armload of fresh pastry boxes.

“Shep!” she said warmly, hurrying up to him and helping him out by opening the door wider for him.

“Hi, Elaine.” He huffed a little and set the boxes down on the hallway table. “How are you?”

“Good,” she said, shaking her head and laughing. “But unless I’ve got my head on backward today, you already made a delivery this morning. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve got the evidence in that wooden box there.”

She leaned toward him a little as she spoke, wanting to give him an enormous hug but holding herself back. Shep had historically been an extremely reclusive man, and although his affection for Elaine was bringing him out into the social world more and more often, she did her best to not overwhelm him emotionally. Most of the time, anyway—she still barged into his kitchen unannounced every now and again when she really needed to speak with him, but she could tell that he was starting to mind those intrusions less and less.

Shep let out another huffing sound, seeming to still be catching his breath. “You’re not mistaken.” He smiled at her. “Michelle stopped over earlier to get a cappuccino on her way to the library, and she told Iris that you have a bunch of evening check-ins scheduled today. And since I know the hotel has at least three families with kids staying in it right now, I figured you might be in need of more baked goods. I made some peppermint bark cookies for the shop and I doubled the batch so I could bring you some as well.”

“Shep.” Elaine was unable to hold back her affection that time, and she gave him a big kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. You’re so thoughtful.”

He blushed a little and gave her the bear hug that she’d been hoping for. “I’m glad it makes you happy.”

Elaine shut her eyes for a moment, treasuring their hug and thinking to herself that a year ago, if someone had told her she would have these kinds of feelings for Shep Townsend, she would have thought that they’d lost their marbles. She’d always been fond of him and thought well of him, but he’d always kept to himself. Shep had been a mystery to her, as he was to the rest of Coral Sands.

She’d asked him to become business partners with The Birchwood House because she knew it would benefit both Townsend’s Bakery and the hotel. She never would have guessed that a business partnership would lead them to so much more. Even though she’d barged into the forbidden realm of his private kitchen, Shep had become more and more fond of her, and Elaine had soon seen that behind the gruffness that he presented to most people, he was an absolute sweetheart with a heart of gold.

“What are you up to for the rest of the day?” she asked, wondering whether he might be able to stick around for a while. She had some cleaning she needed to do, but it could wait. Or perhaps he could even help her with the dishes by drying them while they talked.

“I have some Christmas shopping I need to do,” Shep said, almost regretfully, as if he knew she’d been hoping he could spend some time with her. “And I’d ask you if you wanted to come with me, but—” He cleared his throat, implying that Elaine was one of the people that he would be shopping for.

“Oh.” Elaine’s heart fluttered with two feelings at once. On the one hand, she felt delighted that Shep was going Christmas shopping for her, and she couldn’t wait to see what he picked out for her. On the other hand, she still hadn’t found a Christmas gift for him, and it was proving more and more difficult. She wanted to get him something that he would love, but she didn’t know what that was. The obvious choice would have been something for his kitchen at the bakery, but she knew that he liked to pick out all of his pans and appliances himself. All men seemed to care a great deal about their tools, and Shep was no exception—even though his tools looked like muffin pans and mixing bowls.

“Ah, yes, Christmas presents,” she said. “I need to finish up some shopping myself. I’m still looking for um, my cousin. He’s a man about your age. I was thinking about getting him a wine subscription. Does that—do you think he might like that?”

Shep shrugged. “Not much of a wine drinker myself, but if your cousin likes wine, sure. I bet he would like that a lot.”

“Ah.” Elaine forced a smile even though she wanted to sigh with frustration. “Good point—I didn’t know how he felt—I mean I don’t know how he feels about wine. What about golf clubs? Or a fishing rod? Do all men like fishing and golfing?”

“I don’t.” Shep shook his head. “I find both of them to be terribly boring. But your cousin might feel differently. Why don’t you drop some hints, and see what he might like?”