Holly shrugged out of her jacket, hanging it on a chair, and then hit the thermostat up a couple of degrees. She couldn’t afford to go too high, but it was too cold to be comfortable even with a sweater on.
Her phone rang, and for one hopeful moment, Holly thought it might be Nathan.
Instead it was her father.
“Holly! Are you back home? How was your trip?” Her father’s voice crackled over the phone and she smiled.
“Hi, Dad. The trip was awesome,” she told him. “I got to go skiing, and the hot-springs at Blue Aspen are just as amazing as everyone says they are.”
“Oh honey, I’m so glad.” She could hear him smiling. “And the award? How was that?”
Holly thought about the small statue tucked into her bag, but that wasn’t really what she remembered about that night. She wasn’t about to tell her father about Nathan, though.
“It was great. The food was amazing and there was an open bar,” she said instead. “Oh, and remember that band, The Tones? They were the music for the night.”
“I saw them in concert once. They were pretty good.”
“How are you doing, Dad? You survive the weekend without me?” Holly put the phone on speaker mode and picked up her bag to start putting things away. She carried everything into the bedroom and plopped it on her bed.
“It was quiet. I was hoping for better, but...” He sighed. “I’m sure I’ll sell everything off after Christmas.”
Holly hated the defeat in his voice. The bookstore was her father’s dream. He and her mother had opened it before Holly was born. Holly had grown up walking among the shelves of stories. She’d spent more of her life in that store than she had at home.
And it was closing. Her father had thought that e-books would be a passing trend and that he shouldn’t change because of it. That had been a rough time, too. He’d nearly closed then, but he opened up a coffee shop and reading area. He expanded into business books. When he did that, things started looking up again. But, then the news of ECT leaving Devonsville hit. The majority of his money came from supplying technical books for ECT offices.
The loss of ECT was the store’s death knell. She’d spent the last three months desperately trying to change that, but nothing she did seemed to matter. Without ECT’s purchases, and their large customer base, the store was no longer viable.
It was the end of an era.
Holly’s father hadn’t announced the closure yet. Holly secretly thought he was hoping for a Christmas miracle. The plan was to announce it at the end of the Christmas party. He would give out his last books and presents. Then everything would go on sale and the business would close at the end of the year.
“It’ll work out,” Holly told her dad.
“Yeah.” He had enough money that losing the store wouldn’t bankrupt him. “I was actually thinking I might travel.”
The idea of her father traveling made Holly laugh. The man hated being in the car longer than ten minutes. He couldn’t stand airplanes, boats, or trains. He traveled by reading books.
“That sounds like a great idea,” Holly told him. They both knew it wasn’t true. But, it was better to sound optimistic about the future than worrying and being sad.
It’s what Holly’s mother would have done.
“Well, I’ll let you go and unpack. I’m sure you’re tired from skiing all weekend.”
Holly was tired, but it wasn’t from skiing.
“Thanks for the call, Dad,” Holly said, pushing thoughts of Nathan from her mind.
“I love you, kiddo.”
“I love you too,” she replied, a smile on her face.
They both hung up and Holly stood in her room. It was still cold.
Holly grimaced and put on fluffy pajamas and curled up in bed. The blankets slowly warmed as she grabbed a book. She held the book in her hands, looking like she was reading, but the words just kept sliding past without absorbing. Her thoughts were on Nathan.
She missed him. She wasn’t sure how it was possible to miss someone she barely knew, but she did. She ached to have him in bed with her, reading his own book.