Jingle Bell Blessings

Gordon passed the pitcher of warm syrup. “Thelma dusts the toast in powdered sugar, but I still like my maple syrup. How ’bout you, Jimmy?”

“I like syrup,” he replied in a tiny voice.

Knowing Jimmy was nervous, she patted his leg. “Me, too.”

Evan continued to stare at his father.

Gordon met his son’s gaze, his voice deceptively casual. “I was just about to invite Chloe and Jimmy to stay for a while. Won’t be long ’til Thanksgiving. Holidays are always better with children, more family.”

A vein in Evan’s muscular neck bulged, while his lips thinned into an angry line. He pushed back his chair, scraping it loudly over the wide planked floor as he rose. “I have to get to work.”

His boots rang loudly as he left, and the sound of the door slamming echoed through the house. Bailey whined, then laid down next to the front door, apparently waiting for his master.

“Did I make him mad?” Jimmy asked in an even smaller voice.

“Of course not!” Chloe rushed to reassure him. “He probably has problems at work that are on his mind, that’s all.” She glanced at Gordon. “It’s a family business, isn’t it?”

Gordon nodded. “Mitchell Stone. My great-grandfather started the quarry with not much more than a land claim and a box of dynamite. A few men agreed to work with him in exchange for shares in the company. A lot of their descendants are fourth-generation employees now.”

Chloe glanced upward at the elegant chandelier, just one of the impressive fixtures in the obviously expensive home. “So your family built all this up themselves?”

He chuckled softly. “First house wasn’t much more than a tar shack. The way I heard it, my great-grandmother threatened to dig enough stone out of the quarry herself to build a decent house. But in time, they built a small wood cottage—it’s the carriage house we use for a garage now.”

“I think Thelma mentioned that you’re retired?”

“Yep. Evan’s in charge now.”

Chloe swallowed, hating to pry, but needing to know as much as possible about Evan. “Is that a good thing?”

“He lives and breathes work. Since the recession, Evan’s done everything he can to keep the place together so no one loses their jobs. It’s a Mitchell trait, I suppose.” Gordon absently tapped his fingers against the tabletop. “Feeling responsible. Can’t let go when…”

Chloe waited quietly.

But Gordon glanced up, reined in his memories and lifted a mug of coffee. “So, it’s settled. You and Jimmy will stay here. I’d like to show you around town. See the school, the church. People are friendly in Rosewood. Not much like a big city.”

“Milwaukee’s not small, but it is down to earth,” Chloe replied. “Kind of the best between a small town and a big city.”

“You have family there?”

Chloe nodded, thinking of her mother, worrying about her.

“My father passed away when I was in junior high school. My younger brother, Chip, is in the army—he and his family are stationed in Germany. And my mother lives in an extended care facility. She has COPD—it’s a chronic pulmonary condition. Because of it, she can’t live on her own. If she had a bad episode and no one was around, it could be…” she glanced down at Jimmy, then up to meet the understanding in Gordon’s eyes. “Since I work full-time, it’s safest where she is.”

“Much extended family?”

“They all live pretty far away in the rural part of the state. But Milwaukee still clings to its ethnic roots. We have areas that are primarily German, Romanian, Hungarian. Makes neighborhoods friendly.”

“Sounds familiar.”

“Rosewood has neighborhoods like that?”

He smiled. “Pretty much the whole town. We’re a dying breed, but we don’t cotton to superstores, tourist traps. So far, we’ve been able to keep them out. The news always says mom-and-pop businesses can’t survive, but they do here.” Gordon chuckled. “Sounds like I’m about a century old with my reminiscing.”

Chloe was liking him more and more. “I noticed the town was pretty when we were driving through.” She lowered her lashes, trying to hide some of her anxiety from Jimmy. “But I was too nervous…driving in an unfamiliar rental car to pay very much attention.”

“Then we need to take care of that.” He turned to Jimmy, who was adding even more syrup to his plate. “What do you say? After breakfast, we check things out?”

Jimmy appeared shy but pleased.

While she was looking forward to their tour, Chloe didn’t know how it was going to help matters. The look in Evan’s eyes that morning had said it all. He wasn’t about to change his mind.

Evan studied the latest financial report. Mitchell Stone was sinking as though pummeled by its own boulders.

Perry Perkin, their chief financial officer, shoved both hands in his pockets. “Numbers won’t get any better by staring at them.”

“Yeah.” But he had to turn around the profits. The employees depended on him, most were like family. “Construction business is picking up. Got two new orders this week.”

“Small ones. Evan, you know they aren’t going to carry the payroll.”

“Recession hit everyone, Perry. It’ll take time for bigger deals to roll in.” Mitchell Stone had operations all over the hill country and in other parts of the state. Even though most of Texas hadn’t been hit as hard by the recession as the rest of the country, new construction was still down. And many of their orders had been national as well as international, customers that still remained on shaky ground. “We’ll make the payroll.”

“If you keep putting your personal money in the business, you’ll tank when it does.”

“If, not when.” Evan plowed his fingers through his hair, then looked out the window at Main Street. “You know we’ve had our offices in this building more than a century. My great-grandfather didn’t want to confine himself to one quarry, so he insisted on having an office right in the middle of town. That’s why he kept looking for more sources, staking more claims all his life. Then my grandfather and my father. And there was a little thing called the Great Depression that happened along the way. But Mitchell Stone never closed its doors. I don’t intend to let it happen on my watch.”

Perry was empathetic but realistic. “You know as well as I do, that the first decade of this millennium wasn’t hit by just a recession. It was a depression.”

“Plattville is accepting bids next month on their new courthouse. If we can get a lock on who wins the job…” Speculating, Evan knew Mitchell Stone would be one of dozens interested in supplying the limestone.

Perry sighed. “Look, I’ve got some savings. More than my shares in the company. I’ll cut my salary down to just enough to cover my health insurance.”

“You can’t do that.”

“I’m in charge of payroll. Be pretty hard to stop me. And, I can just about guarantee that everybody else would understand a cut in pay. In fact, they would support the idea, so we don’t have to close.”

“No. Let’s take it slow. Holidays are just about here. I’m not taking Christmas dinner out of any mouths.”

“You’re a good man, Evan.” Perry sighed. “I’m just not sure you know when to say no.”

Chapter Three

“No!” Evan looked exasperated as he spoke to his father.

Gordon put his hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “If you don’t have time now to show Jimmy the quarry, we’ll do it another day.”

Chloe held her breath, hoping the men wouldn’t argue.

“Course I could do it myself…” Gordon continued. “Not sure I still have my keys to the outer gates, though.”