Page 1 of Sugar Plum Serenade

CHAPTER 1

The gray-haired woman who’d been browsing for an hour held a bright green blouse up to her neck and studied her reflection in the full-length mirror outside the dressing room. “What do you think?”

Olive couldn’t say what she thought. That shade of green was hideous. It turned the woman’s skin a disturbing shade of yellow. “It’s very Christmasy,” she said in an easy, noncommittal tone of voice. “All that matters is what you think.”

The customer turned this way and that, humming “Jingle Bells” as she tried to make up her mind. She stopped humming and asked, not for the first time, “Where’s Dawn?”

Not herewasn’t enough of an answer for this woman. “My sister is pregnant.”

“I’m aware.”

“She’s due Christmas Eve, but the doctor has put her on bed rest.”

The plan had been to close the boutique a couple of days before Christmas and reopen mid-January, but Dawn had been frantic about losing almost an entire month of holiday sales. Little sister to the rescue. Dawn’s Radiance had been closed for a few days while Olive made plans to travel to Seawolf Beach earlier than originally planned. For the next two weeks she’d take care of Dawn’s business from ten until five Monday through Friday and ten till two on Saturday.

Retail was definitely not her calling. Sure, she dealt with her share of difficult clients in her event planning business, but they came at her one at a time, and rarely more than one a day. How did Dawn do it? Day after day, season after season. Her big sister never seemed to lose her temper, not even with the most difficult customer. Well, she didn’t admit to it, and on the occasions Olive had been in the boutique and seen her sister at work, Dawn had been amazingly calm. Olive had bitten her tongue more than once to hold back her instinctive responses, and it was just her first day.

The difficult customer for the moment handed the green blouse to Olive. “I can’t decide. Will you put this back for me?”

“I’ll be happy to hold it until the end of the day.”

A dropped shoulder; a sigh; a tsk. Then, “Dawn always holds pieces for me for several days, if I ask. Call her. Tell her Susan Merriweather…”

“I’ll hold the blouse until closing time Wednesday,” Olive interrupted. If she bothered her sister with every detail that came up, Dawn wouldn’t get any rest at all.

If her pregnant sister hadn’t been put on bed rest, Olive would’ve arrived in Seawolf Beach a couple of days before Christmas to see Dawn and her husband, Mike, and their two adorable but much too energetic daughters. By then their parents would be here, exhausted but happy from their cruise. If the baby came on time, Olive would be here to see the little boy delivered and home. Three kids! How on earth was Dawn going to handle three kids and a business? She already had her hands full. Four-year-old Ava was a redheaded ball of fire. Willow was seven, also redheaded but more subdued than her little sister. Sometimes it was the quiet ones you had to watch out for.

Taking care of the boutique for a couple of weeks was preferable to babysitting. Dawn had in-laws for that, thank goodness. Olive loved her nieces, she did, but they never stopped. They were always running, chattering, and jumping. Sometimes all at once.

The downtown Seawolf Beach boutique, Dawn’s Radiance, carried a variety of goods. Some were intended for tourists, but most were suitable for residents as well as visitors. Scented creams; fancy soaps; racks of pretty blouses; casual dresses as well as a few nicer ones; overpriced but very nice jeans; inexpensive jewelry and a colorful display of hats. South Mississippi in the summertime was sunny, and hats were required.

Not so much in December, when the majority of sales were Christmas presents. Jewelry, scarves, and knickknacks had made up the majority of sales today. Olive had only been tempted to kill three people. She hadn’t harmed anyone, at least not yet, but she had imagined braining one woman with a porcelain figurine, and she’d been tempted to trip another difficult customer as she walked by. One younger woman had been so annoying, it was a good thing Dawn didn’t keep a shotgun behind the counter. No, no, she didn’t really think that, she wouldn’t hurt a fly, but honestly, her sanity was hanging by a thread. People! Instead of buying what they wanted and leaving, they’d loitered. They’d complained. They’d argued about the prices over which, Olive informed them, she had no control.

In a perfect world she might strangle Susan Merriweather with the green blouse. If she were a violent person, which she was not. But she could imagine. There was no harm in that.

It might help matters if Olive loved Christmas the way other people seemed to. The season always put her on edge. It had been eight years since the accident that had ended her career as a dancer. She’d been performing in The Nutcracker. Not with a major company, just a local group in Birmingham, but at twenty-two she’d been ambitious, driven, and unfailingly optimistic. And good. Dammit, she’d been good. One devastating fall, and it was all gone.

Fallwasn’t exactly the right word. Stefan had dropped her. They’d performed that lift in the Sugar Plum pas de deux hundreds of times without so much as a wobble, but not that night. He’d dropped her; she’d landed in the worst possible way. Months of physical therapy had helped immensely, but hadn’t entirely restored the damage to her hip. She could walk, there was no need for a cane or painkillers, but she’d never dance professionally again.

It hadn’t helped matters at all that she and Stefan had been engaged at the time. After he’d dropped her, she couldn’t make herself trust him. Deep inside, she simply couldn’t allow trust. She’d tried, she really had. Even if she’d managed to forgive him, he’d looked at her differently after that night. If she couldn’t dance she was no longer the woman he’d fallen in love with. Whatever love they’d once shared had faded away.

Every time she heard music from The Nutcracker, which was everywhere this time of year, it was all she could do to keep from bolting.

These days she planned events in Birmingham and the surrounding areas. Weddings, reunions, company events, and lavish birthday parties. No Christmas parties. Not for her. Her business partner, Jessica, loved Christmas and was always happy to take on any holiday events. Olive worked very hard eleven months out of the year, but she took December off. Did she wallow? On occasion. She also visited her sister, their parents, or just rented a place at the beach or in the mountains. This year, she was on sister duty.

She could’ve stayed with Dawn and her family for the duration, but that house was already much too crowded. Dawn, Mike, the kids, in-laws who were there more often than not, two dogs… No. Just no. Olive had opted to rent a little house within walking distance of the boutique. She could even walk down to the beach on a pretty day, if she had the time. So far she had not, but then she’d spent the weekend settling into the new place.

She’d rented the two-bedroom, one-bath, blue house from Coltrane Hart, who owned a record shop and several rental houses in Seawolf Beach. He was an odd guy, but seemed nice enough. He talked to himself. Dawn had mentioned it, and Olive had seen for herself, for a short period of time. Everyone did that to some degree. She muttered to herself now and then, but with Colt it was different. Her time with Hart had been limited, she couldn’t say she knew him well at all, but he’d definitely been engaged in these conversations with himself.

His girlfriend was very sweet and perfectly normal. Anna didn’t seem at all concerned about Colt’s odd habit of talking to air. Anna had handled all the rental details, which suited Olive just fine.

Two weeks and she’d be done here. Just two weeks. Dawn would have a new baby or else she’d be about to pop. Both sets of grandparents would be around to help, and after a couple of days to pack up her belongings and celebrate Christmas, Olive could get back to Birmingham. Everything was in motion for a New Year’s Eve party in Chelsea, just south of Birmingham and not far from her condo. She’d made sure everything was in place before she left. There were a few more events on her calendar for early next year, but Jessica could handle any issues that came up.

Issues almost always came up.

With the boutique closed and locked up for the night, Olive walked. It was just a few blocks to her rental house on Jasmine Street, and she was bundled up in a new jacket she’d purchased at Dawn’s Radiance. Dawn had told her to take what she wanted, since she’d refused a salary for her time in Seawolf Beach, but she’d paid. Full price. Soon she was on the tree-lined street walking to the blue house, which stood out against the larger white and yellow homes. Her rental was the smallest on the block, but it wasn’t an eyesore by any means. It was quaint. Charming. And temporary.

Two weeks.