Christmas With Tiffany (6 page)

Although he wasn’t ready
to let Tiffany go, he now had no choice. She stepped out of his arms and called
to the elderly woman who stood just inside the front door. “Good morning, Mrs.
Mace. Can I help you find something?”

“Oh no, child. You
finish with the customer you already have. I’ll just browse for a while. I’m in
no hurry.”

The expression in
Tiffany’s eyes, which had appeared a bit dazed, cleared. She smiled and gave a
tiny shrug. “So, Bain, I guess that’s my cue to ask if there is something you
need this morning.”

There was a great deal
he needed from Tiffany but he couldn’t say so at the moment. He returned her
smile. “Actually, I was hoping you could spare some more of those pretty white ornaments.
We have two trees that we need decorated for tonight and my people have asked
for ornaments just like the ones I bought from you yesterday.”

“Certainly. How many
would you like?”

“Like I said before, I
don’t want to run you short for your open house. Could you spare a hundred?”

“I can spare two hundred
if you want that many.”

“Make it two hundred
then. Do I need to help you count them out?”

“Not if you’re willing
to take unopened boxes. There are fifty to a box, and if you run into any that
are broken, you can exchange them or ask me for credit.”

Ten minutes later, Bain
had loaded eight boxes of ornaments into his car and was back on the road. Now
he just had to think of another excuse to see Tiffany in the near future.

Chapter
Five

Tiffany floated through
the next two hours. Not only had she learned that Bain hadn’t deserted her, but
Mrs. Mace broke with precedent and bought half a dozen of the ornaments from
one of Tiffany’s new display trees. Now she could begin unloading another of
the boxes in the storeroom.

She was still worried
half out of her mind about what she’d do if the ornament company demanded
payment for the shipment. She’d argue with them, of course, asking for
additional time to pay, but based on her experience with the company thus far,
she wasn’t sure how successful she’d be.

At ten o’clock, the
phone rang. Hoping it might be Bain saying he’d like to get together again,
Tiffany answered without bothering to check caller ID. She knew instantly she
didn’t recognize the voice that asked, in a deep Southern drawl, “Could I speak
to
Miz
Tiffany Elwood please?”

A sudden surge of tension
had Tiffany gripping the receiver tightly. The ornament company was situated in
Mississippi. “This is Tiffany Elwood speaking.”

“
Miz
Elwood, this is Pete
Massingill
, president of the
Holidays Ornament Company. I just got back from an out-of-town trip and
discovered some irregularities in our shipping department. Correct me if I’m
wrong, but I believe you ordered two hundred ornaments from our White Christmas
line and were shipped two thousand ornaments in addition to the two hundred you
ordered.”

Tiffany felt her stomach
dropping toward her knees. “That’s correct, Mr.
Massingill
.”

“Well now, isn’t that
the
damnest
thing, excuse my language. I see where
you’ve called trying to straighten things out and got no redress on this end.
All I can do is apologize and ask most humbly if you’ll keep those ornaments as
a gift from Holidays Ornament Company. I could have them picked up, but the
freight to bring them back here would cost me more than the ornaments will be
worth on discount after Christmas. Can you see your way clear to keeping them,
Miz
Elwood?”

“At no charge?” Tiffany
was having trouble believing that she’d heard correctly.

“Absolutely,
Miz
Elwood. I’d not consider charging you for something you
didn’t order. Now if you want to pay for the second shipment of two hundred,
I’d consider that a personal favor, but you don’t have to pay for them, seeing
as we’ve caused you a bunch of trouble already.”

“Oh, I’ll certainly pay
for those, Mr.
Massingill
.” Tiffany’s stomach was now
settling back into its proper place. She’d already sold more than the two
hundred ornaments she’d ordered and would be more than happy to pay for those.

“In that case, I’ll be
in your debt,
Miz
Elwood. You just send a check at
your convenience. Now, unfortunately I’ve got other calls to make to straighten
out this mess, but I appreciate your cooperation and wish you a very merry
holiday season.”

When she hung up,
Tiffany did a quick tap dance behind the counter. Not only were her worries
about the ornaments behind her but more importantly, she could now think about
Bain without feeling that sharp pain in her abdomen. There was still a world of
difference between them, but her feelings of betrayal were a thing of the past.

With a relieved smile on
her face, she headed to the storeroom to open another box of ornaments.

*
* *

“Guess what, boss?”
Chloe met Bain when he stepped into the outer office. “The president of that
ornament company has been trying to reach you. Do you want me to get him on the
phone?”

“Absolutely,” Bain said.
He’d stopped at the loading dock and unloaded the boxes of ornaments he’d
brought from Tiffany’s Gift Shop. The decorators were happy but kept saying
that they wished they had more. Bain wished they had more too. This silly
problem was eating up way too much of his time.

Three minutes later he
was seated behind his desk listening to Pete
Massingill
attempt to smooth things over. “I can’t tell you, Mr. Lyndhurst, how sorry I am
about all this. Unfortunately, all of our white ornaments—the ones you
ordered—were shipped by mistake to a little lady in Rushville who has a
gift shop. I’ve already told her she could keep the ornaments at no expense to
her. Now what I’m going to do for you is to ship you two thousand of our silver
ornaments at a twenty-five percent discount. Silver is the closest to white
we’ve got left, but they’re mighty pretty, I promise you. And I can arrange for
two-day shipping and have them to you by day after tomorrow.”

Bain grumbled but he
knew he had to accept Mr.
Massingill’s
offer. If he
ordered from a different company now, he’d never get the ornaments in before
Christmas.

So he hung up, sent word
to the decorators to plan on silver ornaments, and leaned back in his desk
chair.

So Tiffany’s beautiful
white ornaments were the ones that were supposed to have been delivered to Home
for the Holidays Hotel. And Mr.
Massingill
had
indicated that he didn’t plan to charge Tiffany for them.

Was there any way that
he could make that work to Tiffany’s advantage? He knew without a doubt that
the
Elwoods
would be strapped for money since Tiffany
was apparently the sole breadwinner in the household now. On the other hand,
he’d have to be careful not to be obvious about throwing business her way. The
Elwoods
might not have a lot of money but they possessed an
abundance of pride.

“
Mmmm
,”
he mused out loud. “Maybe I can help just a bit.”

He stood and walked into
the outer office. “Hey Chloe, what’s the extension for our sign shop?”

*
* *

Tiffany took one last
look around her shop and then sighed with relief. The Sunday afternoon of her annual
open house had arrived, and everything looked beautiful. The refreshment table
was loaded with her mother’s specialties—lemon bars, decorated sugar
cookies, pecan
tassies
, and thumbprint cookies—and
the air was heavy with the blended fragrances of spiced cider, vanilla-scented
candles and the fresh evergreens Holly had gathered in the woods and used to
decorate the various tables.

Muted Christmas music
played in the background, while Tiffany’s mom stood behind the refreshment
table waiting to pass out cups of cider or punch and answer questions about her
recipes for all the goodies. Holly had posted herself near the door and was
watching the clock. The two o’clock hour was almost upon them, and as soon as the
minute hand moved to twelve, she would unlock the door and welcome their first
customers inside.

The really wonderful
thing about this year was that none of the three of them had to worry about
whether Tiffany would sell enough to cover their expenses for a few weeks.
She’d already made so much profit from the sale of Christmas ornaments that the
family was in good shape financially for the entire next year. And, of course,
Holly would be getting a cell phone for Christmas.

Tiffany didn’t really
understand how the word about her ornaments had spread so quickly, but every
day for the past ten days there’d been a constant stream of customers, many of
them from out of state, who came in to buy the beautiful white ornaments that
Mr.
Massingill
had given her.

Even now she could
barely believe her luck. Every day she’d had to unpack another box or two until
now, with the open house in progress, she was down to a mere seven boxes in the
storeroom and she was prepared to open one of them today if need be.

Her only disappointment
over the past two weeks was that Bain had not been back to see her, although
he’d called almost every day to see how she was doing. Somehow, they’d
reconnected just as though the last eight years had never come between them.
And despite the differences in their backgrounds and experiences, they still
managed to talk for hours without running out of anything to say.

Bain had promised to
attend today’s open house, and Tiffany looked toward the front door every time
the little bell above it jingled, but at four thirty, he still hadn’t showed
up. She was beginning to worry that he might not be able to attend. She knew
things were hectic at the hotel, and to make matters worse, his parents had
decided at the last minute that they wanted to surprise Bain by making
arrangements to have Christmas with him in New York. Without consulting him,
they’d made hotel reservations and arranged for him to fly up to join them only
a couple of days from now. That meant she and Bain would not be able to see
each other for Christmas, but she understood that he couldn’t disappoint his
parents.

She was beginning to
feel a little disappointed herself, however, when the open house began to wind
down and Bain still hadn’t shown up. Finally, at a quarter to five as the crowd
was really thinning out, he pushed the front door open and stepped inside. He
instantly caught Tiffany’s eye and hurried toward her.

“Sorry I’m so late. The
day has been crazy at the hotel. But it looks as though everything has gone
smoothly here.” He glanced around. “And the ornaments must have sold well. I
see your trees are almost bare.”

Tiffany grinned. “I’ve
got six boxes left in the storeroom, but those should do until Christmas. I’m
sorry things were crazy for you at work. Was everything going wrong?”

“No, fortunately. I was
just busy. We’re in the middle of planning our huge New Year’s Eve party. As a
matter of fact…” He paused to reach inside his jacket and retrieve an envelope,
which he held out to her. “Here’s your invitation. I’m hoping you’ll come as my
date but if you don’t want to do that, come anyway. It’s going to be a blast.”

Because tears of
happiness threatened to build in her eyes, Tiffany gazed down at the heavy
vellum envelope. Her name was written on the outside in lovely script. Her
hands trembling just a bit, she lifted the envelope flap and pulled the
invitation out.

The front was emblazoned
with colorful streamers and bursts of fireworks behind the words “You’re
invited…”

Inside were the words
“…to the HHH’s celebration of the New Year,” followed by the date and time.
Underneath, in Bain’s handwriting, were the words, “Let’s celebrate the new
year and new beginnings together. All my love, Bain.”

Tiffany blinked rapidly
for a few seconds before smiling and looking up into Bain’s eyes. “I’d love to
come as your date. Thank you.”

A huge grin lit his
face. “Wonderful. I’ll send a car for you if you don’t mind. I’d pick you up
myself but it would be irresponsible of me to leave the hotel with an event
that big going on.”

“A car will be fine,”
Tiffany said, smiling. She could have driven herself but she had a feeling that
New Year’s Eve was going to be magical this year, and she wanted to enjoy every
minute of it.

*
* *