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Melody Bancroft was Claire’s friend from college who worked as the event coordinator for the design company. Melody had been using Peonies & Burlap to decorate for Florence Bradshaw Design for the last four Christmases. Since Claire was the one to land the gig all those years ago, Mia had bumped her up from sweeping floors and helping with customers to taking charge of designs and parties herself.

Claire loved whenever she got to work with Melody, but sometimes, her friend’s lack of organization stressed Claire out of her mind. Somehow, though, Melody always seemed to bring it together by the end, pulling off incredible events for the company she worked for.

Still, if Melody didn’t arrive on time, Claire’s job would be made that much more difficult.

Shuffling the flowers over to one arm, she pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to her friend, the cold biting at her fingertips.

Claire: You coming?

She tucked the phone into her back pocket, then rearranged the flowers in her arms.

“Yes, I’m coming.”

Claire jumped, twirling around as Melody came up behind her. Her friend peered up from her phone with a triumphant look. “And you thought I’d be late.”

Claire grinned. “No, I didn’t. I just wanted to be sure you were awake.”

Melody scoffed. “This is to keep my boss happy, too, you know.” She moved forward, helping Claire with the flowers still in the van.

“Are you ready for tonight?” Claire asked.

“Yep. Well, not really. But you know me. I’ll pull it together somehow.”

With their arms full of calla lilies, holly, peonies, and more, they filed into the shop three more times before finishing their unloading of the van. Once they finished, Claire led Melody to the cold storage room at the back of the shop, showing her the final displays she’d put together for the party—the table centerpieces, main centerpieces, and the selfie archway Melody had added that year to help the company “keep up with the times.”

“These look amazing, Claire,” Melody said, touching one of the berries on the display. “Really. You’ve outdone yourself.”

“You say that every year,” Claire returned.

This year, however, she actually felt like the praise was deserved. She often had images in her mind of what her floral displays would look like—something akin to the gardens Mr. Tumnus would have created in Narnia—but very rarely did they turn out better than she had envisioned. Fortunately, now was one of those occasions.

Each woodland-centered arrangement burgeoned with soft red roses, white hydrangeas, and small hypericum berries, with bare branches and flocked pinecones as accents. The smaller bouquets were set within vases covered in bark and reindeer moss, all with fake English robins dotting the surrounding areas.

“No, really. These are perfect,” Melody insisted. “So Christmassy and magical.”

Claire beamed. “We’ll bring them by just after five, if that works.”

“Yep, absolutely.”

“Set-up should only take an hour or two, then we’ll be back to take it down around midnight. Providing you’re not all still partying hard.”

Melody raised her eyebrows, her chocolate eyes dancing with excitement. “These office parties do get a little crazy.” She leaned in close. “Especially when the event planner hires a cute, young Santa Claus.”

“You’re the event planner, Melody.”

“Ho, ho, ho, don’t I know it.”

Claire smiled, shaking her head as she led the way out of the cold room. “Just how young of a Santa did you get?”

“Let’s just say he’s old enough to be legal but too young to be anyone’s grandfather. Or father.”

“Sounds like just your kind of guy.”

Melody grinned. “You should stay for it. The party, I mean. Oh, come as my plus one! It’s going to be amazing.”

Claire didn’t doubt that it was. Melody always knew how to pull the best parties at college. Also the wildest parties at college. The girls would often catch up with each other the following morning to find out if Melody had kissed more guys than hours Claire had spent studying for tests. Fortunately, Claire usually won, but Melody always gave her a run for her money.

It was a wonder they’d remained friends over the years. Then again, Melody had always been there for Claire when it counted most.