“Nothing. Elijah and Jason are important to me, is all. I’d like you to make friends with them,” Noelle said, not quite nonchalantly.
“Because you think I might become important to you, too?” Miriam teased.
“Eat a latke, Miri.”
“Iwouldeat a latke, Noelle, but I am too horrified by the amount of applesauce you have put on yours, and I can’t go on,” Miriam said, right before putting an entire latke in her mouth.
“Excuse me, you have hot sauce on yours. You have no room to judge. Team applesauce for life.”
Miriam shrugged, splashing more Tapatío on her next latke. She would not apologize for her potato genius.
Everyone let the fried food and lights of the holiday smooth over the rough edges of grief and anxiety about the business, for a little while. Not even the presence of her mother, hovering at the perimeter of the room and trying to casually insert herself as if they could have a normal conversation, was enough to dim her glow.
The next morning, Miriam invited Hannah to go into Advent with her, both to shop for extra Hanukkah presents and to get out of the house. Hannah protested that they couldn’t leave during the Christmas Festival, and Miriam reminded her that Noelle, Ziva, the Matthewses, and their seasonal workers could handle Tuesday morning traffic. Hannah didn’t look convinced, but she acquiesced because Miriam reminded her that they hadn’t had any real time together, just the two of them, and that they needed to celebrate finalizing the plan for the Rosensteins.
The town had somehow grown even more festive since Thanksgiving weekend. Garland and twinkle lights wound up every light pole. Over the street, winking merrily, reindeer pulled Santa and his sleigh. In every window, there seemed to be a Carrigan’s Christmas tree, stuffed to bursting with decorations.
“I don’t say this lightly,” Miriam observed, “but this is a lot.”
“I like it,” Hannah said. “It feels like a sort of good-natured inside joke that all of Advent is in on together.” She stopped suddenly in front of a door. “Wait, let’s go in here.”
Hannah pulled her into a tiny diner selling cappuccinos and giant sandwiches on bread baked in-house. Framed photos of the townsfolk through the years hung on the wall, including Cass, and there were red and white checkered tablecloths.
“This place was not here ten years ago,” Miriam said. “I would have remembered fresh bread and good espresso. Does this town have an endless supply of adorable local shops?”
A man who resembled a grizzly bear walked up to their table, wiping his hands on his apron. He had brilliant orange hair that probably always needed a trim and a magnificent beard.
“Name’s Collin,” he said, voice coming from so deep in his chest that Miriam wondered the walls didn’t shake. “I’m the owner here. It’s good to see the prodigal daughter returning.”
“Oh, gosh, I hope you haven’t heard all bad things,” Miriam said, only sort of kidding.
Collin grinned, big. “Esther Matthews dated my college roommate,” he rumbled. “She told me a lot of stories about you all running amok up there on the farm. That’s how I found out about Advent. It sounded idyllic.”
“Is it?” Miriam asked, shrewdly.
He made a “so-so” movement with his hand. “You can tell I fell in love with the people,” he said, gesturing to the photos on the walls. “Cass did a lot for me.”
Miriam’s eyes welled up, involuntarily, and then his did, too. “Tell me.” She gestured to an empty chair, but he shook his head and leaned his hand the size of a pie tin against its back.
“I came here to visit one Christmas,” he started, his feet shuffling and cheeks going pink, like he was a little embarrassed. “I met a girl who owned a business here, and I kept finding reasons to come visit or to stay longer. And Cass, you know, she saw everything.”
“Collin had been pining over a certain boutique owner,” Hannah teased gently, winking at Collin. “What did Cass say, or do?”
Collin covered his face with his other hand. “That obvious, huh?” he asked, through his palm.
Hannah nodded, but her smile was kind.
“She told me, you can’t base your whole life around someone you might be in love with. That I needed an adventure I could take on, that would help me find out who I really was and would be mine whether the romance worked out or not. When this space came up for sale, I bought it. I’d always dreamed of a diner.”
Miriam’s eyes welled up. This felt like a gift Cass had left for her, like she was still speaking directly to Miriam. Her feelings for Noelle had helped Miriam decide to stay, but she’d begun to find something here that was just hers. If this were the great, life-changing adventure Miriam believed it could be, then she needed to anchor it in who she really was.
The problem was, she didn’t really know herself.
“But,” Miriam asked, “it never worked out with the girl? Do you still love her from afar?” She winced as Hannah kicked her shin under the table. “Sorry, I’m nosy.”
“It hasn’t worked out yet, but Christmas at Carrigan’s is magic, after all. You never know. I’ll bring you both coffees?” he asked, clearly changing the subject.
“I thought this place might be up your alley,” Hannah said from behind a cup the size of her head. “I’ve been meaning to get you over here. I keep thinking about Christmases when we were kids, when our parents put us together to play and by New Year’s, we never wanted to see each other again. Now we’re so busy we barely get a meal together!”