Christmas at Saltwater Cove: a Westcott Bay novella Read online

  On Saturday, he got up early to make sure that everything was in order for the party. He wasn’t used to working by himself, but he enjoyed it.

  Margie stressed to him that she only wanted light appetizers and that she didn’t expect a huge turnout. She also insisted that he find time to enjoy the party.

  “And maybe,” she said, “you’ll find some time to ask Sandy to dance?”

  He smiled. “I’ll always have time for that.”

  Margie smiled approvingly but said nothing else. Instead, she rushed off to hang some fake snow, adding to the charming copious garland and Christmas lights.

  Jack appreciated that she stopped even trying to hide what she was up to and was now openly advocating that he flirt with Sandy.

  Once everything was set up, Jack went home and changed into clean clothes. Though Margie encouraged him to wear something festive, he didn’t have much to work with. He hadn’t brought anything Christmasy with him, so a Santa hat from the local shop would have to do.

  He got back in the barn quickly and made sure that everything was in order – particularly that the soup was heated and ready to be served, along with all of the little garnishes for the snowmen faces.

  Now, even as guests started coming in and marveling at the splendor of the party, Sandy was nowhere to be seen. He wondered if she’d find a way to avoid him for the entire day. He checked in with Margie, who said that Sandy was busy dealing with some work issues – apparently, she’d gotten a call from one of her residents asking for help on a patient case. Sandy had been locked away in her room working on it for some time.

  Jack liked that about her – no, he loved that about her. There were no half measures with Sandy. She always gave whatever she was doing her full attention. It was something he’d always admired about her, even when they were growing up.

  An hour into the party, Sandy was still nowhere to be seen. Jack kept busy with the appetizers and helped direct people to the contest table – it was genuinely surprising how many people were prepared to enter the cookie contest. It seemed like everyone knew each other, and they were actually excited to be a part of it. It was sweet – very different from what he was used to living in the city.

  Margie had put together a number of different categories for winners, too – there was one for most creative, best decoration, best taste, and of course, best in show. Every category also had a junior category for kids who wanted to enter.

  On top of that, there was a station for younger kids where they could decorate cookies. These were lovingly baked by Margie herself, which Jack found quite impressive. The woman was a baking machine. He made a mental note to ask her if she had any puff pastry tricks.

  Jack was able to keep himself busy bouncing around between the tables and ensuring that there was enough hot cider and hot cocoa available at the two self-serve stations. The atmosphere was quite relaxed, and after a few rounds he realized that there was nothing else he could do.

  He was in a prime position to enjoy the party – the only issue being that Sandy was still missing. He casually checked around for her as he did some spot checks on the appetizer platters – and while the barn was big, it wasn’t that big. There was nowhere for her to hide, really. Was it possible she was skipping out? Or had to head back home for some emergency?

  Margie was busy chatting with people and laughing. Jade was occupied with the table of children, trying her best to guide icing-covered fingers and clean up spills of sprinkles.

  No – Sandy wouldn’t just leave without saying goodbye. Would she?

  Jack was about to send her a text message when he spotted her out of the corner of his eye. It was almost as if she’d read his mind.

  He stood up straight, straining to get a clearer view of her as she stepped into the barn. She was dressed from head to toe in a forest green elf costume – complete with a jingle bell tipped hat, merrily bouncing with her every move.

  They made eye contact from across the room and she smiled.

  It was like an arrow went through his heart.

  Chapter 7

  Sandy waved at Jack, then realized that a five year old girl spotted her from across the room and was furiously waving back. She walked over to her to ask her what she was up to.

  Suddenly the girl became shy.

  “It’s okay, say hello to Santa’s helper,” the girl’s mother said softly.

  “I will have to tell Santa how well behaved you’ve been this year,” Sandy said, squatting down.

  A smile spread across the girl’s face. “Thank you!” she yelled before running off.

  Sandy stood up and surveyed the scene in front of her. The barn looked marvelous – Margie had outdone herself with the decorations, even going as far as to set up a beautiful, fully decorated, twelve foot Christmas tree in the corner.

  The cookie contest table had a decent number of entrants, all laid out on individual plates and numbered with index cards. Sandy was glad that she skipped lunch – she would need to be hungry to judge the cookies fairly.

  Margie was busy fussing around and Jade seemed to be trying to herd a group of children. Sandy had seen Jack long before he spotted her – he was much less fussy than Margie, checking on things in an easy and calm manner.

  He looked nice – he didn’t have an elaborate costume like Sandy did, but he looked clean in his button up shirt and oversized red Santa hat. He looked…cute.

  She studied him for a moment – he didn’t seem to notice that she was watching. He was chatting in his easy way, going from table to table and making sure that everything was well stocked. There was a lot of him that was unchanged from when they were young – his humor, his ease with people. His hazel eyes…

  That was perhaps the most jarring. When Sandy looked into his eyes, it was like being transported back in time. And she’d spent a lot of time with him for the past few days, looking into his eyes, laughing to the point of tears. She didn’t intend for that to happen, but it just worked out that way.

  It was easy to spend time with him; the hours melted away. She didn’t have to try to be any certain way, or watch what she said or did – she felt relaxed. She didn’t have to think too hard. Even though he didn’t know all of the details of her life until now, he still knew her – the real her.

  She walked over to Jack and said her hellos.

  “I didn’t know that Santa was loaning us one of his helpers today,” he commented.

  Sandy made a small curtsy. “Yes, today I’m at Margie’s service. Santa said that it was of the utmost importance to increase the holiday cheer in this barn.”

  He smiled. “You’re doing a great job.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Where did you get this? Did I miss the Christmas shop in town?”

  She looked down at herself. She really liked this particular outfit – from the little hat, to the matching green tights, and even the loud bells on her shoes. “No. I got it a few years ago, actually. Every Christmas, Santa comes to visit the kids in our hospital. I got it so that I could tag along and pretend to be one of his helpers.”

  “That’s…incredibly sweet.”

  “Don’t start getting all mushy on me,” she said, hands on her hips. “Have you shown Margie the soup yet?”

  He shook his head. “No – I wanted to wait for you. Shall we?”

  “Please!”

  She followed him and watched as he carefully put together a melted snowman, first pouring the soup into a mug, then delicately placing the garnishes for the face. He flashed her a smile before walking over to Margie and tapping her on the shoulder.

  “Excuse me for interrupting, but I need your final approval on the appetizers today.”

  Margie turned around, a smile on her face. “Everything has just been wonderful Jack!”

  “There’s one more thing that you haven’t tried,” Sandy added.

  Margie gave her a puzzled look and accepted the mug from Jack. “What’s this? Mulled cider?”

  Sandy shook her h
ead and Margie took a look into the mug.

  “Oh my goodness – what is this!”

  “Melted snowman soup,” said Sandy. “Straight from the North Pole.”

  Margie threw her head back and laughed. “This is unbelievable! Jack, I had no idea you were so talented – thank you.”

  Sandy felt oddly proud – she sort of had a hand in it, but not really. It was all Jack.

  Within moments, he was bombarded with requests for soup. He dutifully went over to the kettle so that he could dole out mug after mug. Sandy helped him for a while before deciding that she couldn’t resist taking a break and getting a mug for herself.

  She stepped away to enjoy it for a moment; it was just as good as she remembered. She was savoring her last spoonful when Margie pulled her into a conversation and introduced her to two of her friends.

  One lady, Barb, was the president of the small business association on the island and Sandy got the impression that she was somewhat important to Margie’s success.

  “Hey, I’ll tell you what – I was happy to have Margie spruce this barn up,” said Barb. “She’s done a great job and it gives people more reason to come to the island.”

  The other woman, Linda, agreed. “Oh yes, it’s adorable! I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of big weddings coming through next year.”

  “Do you also run a business?” asked Sandy.

  Linda shook her head. “Oh goodness no – I actually just retired. I was a dental hygienist for thirty years.”

  “How interesting.” Sandy took a step closer to her. She’d initially thought they were probably about the same age, but now, she decided that Linda was perhaps a little older. “What’s it like being retired? I’ve heard so many different reports.”

  Linda sighed. “Oh you know – at first it’s wonderful. All that free time! No getting up early, no rushing around. But I firmly believe that if you don’t stay active, your mind will wither away.”

  “I’m never going to retire,” said Barb. “They’ll find me at my desk one day – dead!”

  They all laughed. Sandy was unsure about her own retirement. It wasn’t truly something she was interested in. Maybe she would cut back on her hours one day? Or do more teaching?

  But to leave medicine entirely…she would only do that if it was unsafe for her to continue practicing. There was nothing she wanted to retire to – she worked towards being a surgeon for almost sixteen years. It was all she’d ever really wanted.

  “So what do you do to stay busy?” asked Sandy. “Have you gotten a lot of new hobbies?”

  “Oh yes!” said Linda. “I’ve tried just about everything. The quilting didn’t work out – I think I’ve gone too far in my life without quilting to pick it up now. But I’ve been able to cook more, which is nice. I started a garden and ended up with an overabundance of green beans, so then I had to learn canning…you know, there’s been a real domino effect of hobbies.”

  “Sounds awful,” Barb said.

  Linda laughed and lightly tapped Barb on the shoulder. “No, it’s great! I’ve even started painting again. I hadn’t painted in years.”

  “Really?” Sandy said. “Do you have any pictures of your work?”

  “I do,” Linda said, pulling her phone from her purse. “Mostly it’s things like this…”

  She scrolled through some pictures on her phone – mainly there were paintings of animals, a few chickens and horses. There was a lot of color in the paintings, and they looked lively – happy, even. Sandy wasn’t well versed in art, but the paintings gave her a distinct feeling of joy.

  “Linda, these are really beautiful,” Sandy said.

  “Thank you! I guess I need to stick with painting. I think I picked up too many things all at once – my goal for this upcoming year is to focus a bit more.”

  Sandy smiled. “Well it sounds like you’ve been pretty adventurous.”

  “I’d like to travel more,” she continued. “But my husband still works. That’s probably for the better, though – I don’t think he would like being retired. But maybe we can take a nice trip somewhere together. Who knows, the world is our oyster!”

  Sandy was happy to keep chatting, but Margie reappeared and told her and Barb that all of the entries were in for the cookie contest and that they needed to start their rounds.

  “I’ve been waiting for this all day,” Barb said. “Let’s go Mrs. Claus.”

  Sandy waved her ahead. “After you.”

  Margie provided them each with a clipboard so that they could take notes and keep track of their favorites. At the end of their taste tests, they needed to give Margie their scorecards so she could tally up the votes.

  As they were sampling the first cookies, Jack stopped over with two mugs of milk. “I thought this might be an important tool in helping with your responsibilities.”

  Sandy accepted a mug from him. “Thank you Jack – this is exactly what I needed.”

  She took a sip of the milk just as she heard something fall to the ground. Sandy looked over to Barb and saw that her right arm hung limp at her side, the cup shattered on the floor in a puddle of milk.

  “Barb – are you okay?” asked Sandy.

  Barb didn’t respond – she didn’t even look at Sandy.

  Jack and Sandy locked eyes for a moment before Sandy took a step forward. “Barb? Barb, can you hear me?”

  Still no response. Sandy could see the distinct change in Barb’s face – one side of her mouth looked downturned.

  “Jack – I need you to call 911. Now.”

  “You got it.”

  Sandy took Barb by the arm and gently tried to guide her to a chair – she didn’t want her to fall and hit her head, adding to the chaos of the situation.

  She was able to get Barb to a table nearby and settled her into her seat. Barb still wasn’t able to say anything – it seemed like she was trying to, but she was speaking quietly and not making any sense.

  Sandy stayed with her, talking to her continuously and trying to get her to respond. After a few moments, Margie joined her.

  “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

  Sandy could hear the panic in her voice.

  “I’m not sure,” she said slowly. “One minute we were eating cookies and chatting, and the next minute she was like this. Does she have anyone here? Her husband?”

  “He didn’t come!” Margie said, her volume rising.

  “It’s okay, don’t panic. Jack called an ambulance, and I’ll go to the hospital with her.”

  “Sandy what’s happening? Is she going to be okay?”

  “Don’t worry, we’re going to get her to the hospital. Okay?”

  Margie nodded, her face pale.

  The paramedics arrived quickly and evaluated Barb. Within minutes, Sandy was in the back of the ambulance with her, continuing to provide as much information as she could.

  She managed to grab Barb’s purse on the way out and brought it with her. She tried calling Barb’s husband using her cell phone, but he didn’t answer. Luckily, she was able to find a medication list in Barb’s wallet and gave that to the paramedics.

  About five minutes into their ride to the hospital, Barb started to come to.

  “What’s going on? Why am I stuck in here?”

  Sandy backed off and allowed the paramedics to evaluate the now cantankerous Barb. She passed their questioning with flying colors and insisted that she needed to be dropped off at home.

  Sandy had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing. She was relieved to see that Barb recovered, but she also insisted on a trip to the hospital.

  “But I’m fine now!” said Barb. “Nothing is wrong with me.”

  Sandy kept her tone even. “But something was very wrong with you back at the party. Come on – it won’t take long. Let the doctor check you out and run some scans.”

  Barb let out a dramatic sigh. “This is ridiculous.”

  “I’m glad you feel better now, but we need to find out what happened.”

&
nbsp; “I changed my mind,” Barb said. “I don’t think you’re Mrs. Claus anymore. You’re one of the seven dwarves. Grumpy! You’re Grumpy!”

  Now Sandy couldn’t help but laugh. If anyone was Grumpy, it was Barb.

  She waited a moment until Barb stopped talking. “Are you ready to go in now?”

  “Fine – but tell Margie that I want my cookies sent here.”

  “I can have that arranged. Now let’s get inside.”

  Chapter 8

  Margie did what she could to keep the party running, but she was worried sick about Barb. Maybe there really was something wrong at the barn that was making people ill? Or maybe – heaven forbid – something was wrong with the food?

  But no, that didn’t make sense – food poisoning didn’t strike suddenly like that. What was going on?

  Margie didn’t have to wait too long for an answer; after about forty minutes, Sandy called her from the hospital.

  “It seems that Barb has recovered – but they’re running some tests.”

  “Oh thank goodness!” Margie said. “I’ve been so worried.”

  “Another thing – to get her to agree to come inside, I had to make a deal with her.”

  “Oh?”

  Sandy laughed. “She demanded that her cookies be brought here so she can continue sampling.”

  Margie closed her eyes. What a demand. “You’re kidding! Do you think that’s a good idea? What if the cookies made her sick?”

  “I think that’s very unlikely,” said Sandy. “It could have been a number of things, but probably not the food. Is anyone else suddenly falling ill?”

  Margie paused and looked around. The music was still playing, kids were running around – everyone seemed to be back to enjoying the festivities. “No. No one else is ill…yet.”

  “Don’t worry Margie – they’ll figure out what happened. And Barb is fine. All is well.”

  Margie wasn’t sure about that, but she was glad that Barb had at least recovered. “Should I pack up some cookies then and drive them over?”