The man nodded slowly, his eyes going from Tom back to me. “Yeah, I reckon I can do that. Won’t be tonight, though. Storm’s picking up, and I won’t be able to see much out here in the darkness in this weather.” Reaching out a hand, he waited until I clasped it with mine before saying, “Noah Chase.”
“I’m Alex Scott,” I said, giving him my real name instead of my stage name. “This is Tom.”
Tom cocked an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side as he got a closer look at the stranger. “You a mechanic?”
“Sir,” the man said, his eyes twinkling with suppressed laughter, “I amthemechanic.”
I burst out laughing, shaking my head as I glanced over at Tom. “He got ya there, buddy.” Slapping the bus driver on the back, I turned to head to the bus to grab my overnight bag and guitar. Looking back, I asked curiously, “Tell me, why do they call the town Santa Claus?”
He grinned. “You’ll see.”
Ten minutes later, we were driving through the small town lit with more Christmas lights than I’d ever seen in my life.
“I feel like we’re at the North Pole,” Tom grumbled from the back seat. “Is this how the town got its name?”
Noah chuckled, pulling up in front of a large, white house that was lit up like a Christmas tree. “Naw, but we do like to play off the name.” Nodding toward the house, he said, “I know Mrs. Roop has a couple of rooms open right now. Why don’t you check in and get some rest? I’ll meet you at my shop in the morning. Chase Automotive, just two blocks down that way.”
I looked where he was pointing and nodded. I could see his sign from here. After thanking the man, I got out of the truck and faced the bed-and-breakfast in front of me. This wasn’t exactly how I had planned on spending the next couple of weeks, but maybe a few days here wouldn’t be so bad. It was a Friday night, so whatever was wrong with the bus, I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to get parts for it until Monday at the earliest. Gripping the handle of my guitar case tightly, I walked up the sidewalk behind Tom. Three days wouldn’t be so bad.
I hoped.
2
Everly
“Ican’t believe you’re still up.” I looked up to see my sister, Madeline, coming down the stairs in flannel Christmas pajamas that matched the ones I was wearing. This year’s were green and white with candy canes everywhere; last year was reindeer.
Ever since we were kids, Mom would get us a matching set of pajamas on December first. We groaned as kids, but as we got older, it was a funny gift that we always enjoyed. A few years back, we didn’t get our December first present, and Maddie and I ended up going out and buying our own. It had become a tradition to us by then, and it didn’t feel like Christmas without them.
“What are you doing up?” I reached for my coffee, needing another hit of caffeine because it was getting obscenely late and I had a full day tomorrow. There were two different weddings happening, and I’d planned everything out for both. The brides both loved this time of year and thought Santa Claus, Indiana was perfect for their getaway Christmas wedding, and holiday themed weddings happened to be my specialty.
“I’m thirsty. You do realize it’s two in the morning, right?” She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and took a seat at the table across from me.
“I know.” I flinched as I looked at the clock again. “It’s my busy season, though. I have two weddings here in town tomorrow. Then, there’s a staff Christmas party in Owensboro on Monday night that Gia asked me to organize for her brother’s company. I was thinking I might stay down there Monday night and drive back Tuesday morning.”
“Drew, Gretchen, and the kids are coming in on Monday night,” Maddie pointed out. Our oldest brother went to college in the big city after high school and never came back. He liked living in the city, but he made it a point to come home every Christmas to be with the family. Living in Santa Claus meant that not only were you obligated to enjoy the holiday season, but you were required to go overboard with it. Drew wanted to give his kids a taste of what we had growing up, so every year during the holidays, they came down for the week to enjoy being with the whole family.
“I know. I hate to miss it, but the party probably won’t be over until nine, and I have to help with clean-up afterward. If I get out of there before eleven, I’ll be surprised. I’m not going to drive back that late, especially since we are supposed to be getting heavy snow next week.”
“Okay,” Maddie yawned, and picked up one of my other spiral notebooks for the Carter wedding tomorrow night. “What can I help with so you can get to bed? You look exhausted.”
“Thanks, Maddie.” I rolled my eyes. “Do I really look that bad?”
“Nope, for a raccoon, you look great.”
I grabbed a Cheez-It from the box and threw it at her. She snatched it out of the air and popped it into her mouth, laughing.
“Brat,” I mumbled affectionately. “If you want, you can make sure there are receipts in this folder,” I handed her a red file folder that was bulging with receipts, “that match up with this list.” I flipped open the spiral to the correct list, with lots of items already checked off.
“Okay.” She sighed. “I think I’m going to need something stronger than water for this.” Swiping my coffee mug, she took a sip and winced. “Just not that. Blech. You don’t put enough sugar in it.”
Maddie got up and went to the coffeepot to pour herself some coffee. After she sat back down across from me, we both worked in silence as I accounted for everything on the Ridgeway wedding while she worked on the Carter wedding.
“Hey, this isn’t checked off, and I don’t see a receipt for it,” Maddie said, handing me her list and pointing at line number thirty-eight.
I looked at the spiral and saw what it was, relaxing a little because that was one of the few things that wasn’t on me. I should have confirmed that the bride and groom had gotten the wedding license as I’d instructed them to, but ultimately, that task fell to them. Even still, I wasn’t going to relax until I knew they had carried out the task of getting the license from the courthouse.
“That’s because the marriage license is something I neededthemto do. I will have to wait until the morning to verify they actually went to the courthouse and got it.” Blowing out a breath, I went back to working on my list for the Ridgeway wedding.