Page 179

“Sure.”

“Great.” He stepped toward her, then bent down and kissed her cheek. “I’ll be in touch. Have a good night, Shaye.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, but she only nodded. “Have a good night.”

He walked out without looking back—which was about the hardest thing he’d done in a very long time.

“I’m a teacher at the local elementary school,” Dena Somerville, a pretty brunette, said. “I had second grade last year, and I’m teaching third grade this fall. It’s kind of nice because I’ll have some of the same kids. I like that. There’s continuity.”

“How do you have the patience?” Shaye asked with a smile, grateful for the company during a rare slow moment on her shift. “I really like children, but twenty of them every day? I don’t think I could do it.”

“It’s a skill,” Paisley told her. “One I don’t have, either.”

“I love it,” Dena told them. “Plus, we keep our classrooms small here. I only have fifteen students. So how are you settling into life in our little town?”

“I like it,” Shaye said. “Everyone’s very friendly. I’m getting to know the locals, and the tourists are always interesting.” She grinned. “I was yelled at yesterday by a lady complaining there weren’t enough vegan eating choices in town. I told her I could offer vegetarian pies, but not vegan.”

Paisley waved her mushroom stroganoff pie. “There’s no dairy in the filling.”

“There’s butter in the crust,” Shaye pointed out. “To have it vegan, you’d have to use something else for the shortening.”

“Would coconut oil work?” Dena asked. “I have no idea.”

Paisley had become a regular at the food cart. She stayed to chat with Shaye when there wasn’t a big line of customers. Today she’d brought another local, her friend Dena, who was a couple of years older.

“Most of the tourists have been very nice,” Shaye added. “I don’t want to give them a bad name.”

Dena laughed. “You’re not. I agree most of them are lovely. I own the Wishing Tree B and B, so sometimes I get to know them too well.”

“But I thought you were a teacher.”

“She’s very busy,” Paisley said, her voice teasing. “Dena puts us all to shame with her work ethic.”

“That’s not true,” Dena protested. She turned to Shaye. “I inherited the B and B from my grandmother when she passed away. It’s fully staffed, so there’s not much for me to do. I work there in the summer, but during the school year, I don’t get that involved in the day-to-day stuff.”

“Her B and B, like the resort, is busy all year round,” Paisley said. “We are a tourist destination, regardless of the season.”

“I would guess Christmas is the busiest time.”

“It is,” Dena told her. “All the events draw a crowd.”

“First snow is the worst,” Paisley added. “The first snowfall is a huge deal here in town. There’s a big celebration, and the tourists love it. The problem is no one knows when the first snow is going to happen, and when a couple books the wrong weekend, they get mad.”

“But it’s not your fault,” Shaye said.

“You know that, and I know that, but they don’t want to hear it’s not going to snow.”

Dena nodded. “Yeah, they can get really upset. But we deal.”

“I’m sorry it’s a problem for you,” Shaye said with a smile. “But I do love the little idiosyncrasies of this town.”

“We have many.” Paisley laughed. “Okay, so next for you will be the tree-lighting. You have to go to that. It’s really special.” She paused, then sighed. “It’s actually nicer to go with a date, but that’s not happening for me these days. Stupid small-town demographics.”

Dena nudged her. “You love the town.”

“I don’t like the lack of age-appropriate men. I know them all, and I’ve either dated them, or together we have the chemistry of a paper bag. I want some great sexy guy to walk up and kiss me.”

“I don’t know,” Dena said, sounding doubtful. “I’m not sure how I’d react to a total stranger kissing me. I might accidentally use some of the moves my dad taught me when I first started dating.”