Chapter 27

"Well! I'm so glad to see you, Caden!" Mrs. Mitchell chirped happily. Caden liked her. She had always been a pleasant woman. "I heard you were in town."
"Yes. I arrived a few days ago." He looked down at the colorful rolls of wrapping paper and tape and smiled. "We thought you might be able to use a little help."
"Volunteers!" Mrs. Mitchell exclaimed. "Hey, Alice! We have some new recruits! Could you set up a spot for them?"
"Sure!" a younger woman that Caden recognized waved to them. "Come on over here, Caden and Mallory! I didn't know you two were back together!"
"We're not," Caden corrected her flatly. He and Mallory had gone to high school with her. "Alice, it's good to see you." He pulled her in for a quick hug and looked down at her stomach. She was visibly pregnant. "So, it looks like there's been some changes since I've been away."
Alice rubbed her stomach happily. "Yes, the baby's due any day now. I married Jeff Carmen eight years ago."
"You and Jeff Carmen?" Caden's eyes widened. "But he was so wild."
Alice laughed. "When he first asked me out, I told him I wouldn't go out with him unless he stopped the foolishness. He stopped with no regrets, we got married, one thing led to another, and now we're expecting our third child."
"Third?" Caden asked in disbelief. "Congratulations!" Suddenly, he had the oddest sensation that time had stopped for him but had moved on for everyone else. He had been holding on to a broken dream of Mallory for far too long. And now that he saw her again, he felt blessed that she hadn't married him when he had asked years ago.
"So, do you want a boy or a girl?" Caden asked as he prepared his work station.
"A boy," Alice beamed. "We already have two girls and Jeff wants a boy in the worst way. When we found out that's what we were having, he's been on cloud nine ever since."
"Well, that's fabulous," Caden gushed, setting the tape dispenser between them. "I'm so happy for you." He looked over and Mallory was standing off to the side with her phone in hand, texting. From the look on her face, it was obvious that she was complaining to the person at the other end, probably about having to be there. He felt sorry for her.
Alice looked between him and Mallory. "You two will have to come over sometime for a cookout when the weather gets better. Jeff would love to see you."
"I'd love to. Tell Jeff I can't wait to catch up."
But he didn't tell her that Mallory wouldn't be with him. Somehow, he needed to find a way to break it off with her. But she was Jocelyn's sister. How could he do it without hurting either of them? But he knew that he would probably be the one who ended up getting hurt, not them. After the night before, he knew that he couldn't just be friends with Jocelyn anymore. He cared about her too much. And the way that Mallory was behaving, he doubted that they would ever be friends again. Looking back, he wondered if they really ever were, or if he had fabricated a lot of their relationship within his own mind.
As the day wore on, he and Alice had a great time, talking and wrapping gifts. His father had seen him in the booth and he waved as a grin spread across his face. But the grin turned into a scowl when he saw Mallory texting on her phone and put two and two together, figuring out that she was with Caden. He rolled his eyes and walked away, never approaching the table.
At noon, Caden looked over at Alice. "Are you hungry? My treat."
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Alice beamed.
"Nonsense!" Caden replied, taking off a half apron he had been wearing and laid it on the table. "Mallory?" Her eyes brightened and, for the first time since they arrived, she looked up from her cell phone. "Would you take my place while I go to the diner and get us something to eat?"
"I can go with you--"
"No. Stay here and I'll be right back." He leaned in conspiratorially. "They really need the help." Then he hurried across the street before she got the bright idea to follow. Although she hadn't said anything to anyone since they arrived, he needed a break away from her, if only just for a few minutes. Her continually thinking of herself was grating on his nerves.
"Well, hello!" Tammy greeted him as he walked in, looking him up and down, her eyes stopping at his muscled arms and chest. "I'm surprised to see you back so soon."
Not in the mood for another woman's foolishness, he saw Angela across the diner and motioned toward her. Then he looked over at Tammy. "That's okay. Angela will help me."
"But I--"
"Hello!" Angela greeted him with a smile, taking her notepad out of her pocket. "What can I get for you?"
"Humph!" Tammy grunted, walking away with her nose in the air.
Angela was clueless that anything was amiss.
"Give me four Rudolph Burgers with fries and Cokes for each of them." He wasn't sure what they all drank, but he knew that pregnant women weren't allowed to drink diet drinks. He remembered reading it somewhere.
Angela finished writing on her notepad, hitting it with the pen when she finished. "Anything for dessert? Mrs. Clause just made her scrumptious cookies, fresh out of the oven."
She was really taking her job to heart, but Caden was enjoying it. It was refreshing to see someone who actually liked their job.
"I was going to say no, but then again, who could resist cookies baked by Mrs. Clause? I'll have a dozen." Caden smiled, enjoying playing along.
"Well, alrighty then!" Angela beamed. "I'll have those right out to you." She walked over to a passthrough and handed the cook his order.
As he waited, he looked out the window and took in the town. After being in Afghanistan and different undesirable places around the world, it was nice to finally be home. Even though Christmas Cove was a bit of a fantasy land, it was nice to live that fantasy instead of enduring the hardness of reality that the world sometimes offered.