Christmas With Tiffany by Carolynn Carey Read Free Book Online

pay
for those, Mr. Massingill .” Tiffany’s stomach was now
settling back into its proper place. She’d already sold more than the two
hundred ornaments she’d ordered and would be more than happy to pay for those.
    “In that case, I’ll be
in your debt, Miz Elwood. You just send a check at
your convenience. Now, unfortunately I’ve got other calls to make to straighten
out this mess, but I appreciate your cooperation and wish you a very merry
holiday season.”
    When she hung up,
Tiffany did a quick tap dance behind the counter. Not only were her worries
about the ornaments behind her but more importantly, she could now think about
Bain without feeling that sharp pain in her abdomen. There was still a world of
difference between them, but her feelings of betrayal were a thing of the past.
    With a relieved smile on
her face, she headed to the storeroom to open another box of ornaments.
    *
* *
    “Guess what, boss?”
Chloe met Bain when he stepped into the outer office. “The president of that
ornament company has been trying to reach you. Do you want me to get him on the
phone?”
    “Absolutely,” Bain said.
He’d stopped at the loading dock and unloaded the boxes of ornaments he’d
brought from Tiffany’s Gift Shop. The decorators were happy but kept saying
that they wished they had more. Bain wished they had more too. This silly
problem was eating up way too much of his time.
    Three minutes later he
was seated behind his desk listening to Pete Massingill attempt to smooth things over. “I can’t tell you, Mr. Lyndhurst, how sorry I am
about all this. Unfortunately, all of our white ornaments—the ones you
ordered—were shipped by mistake to a little lady in Rushville who has a
gift shop. I’ve already told her she could keep the ornaments at no expense to
her. Now what I’m going to do for you is to ship you two thousand of our silver
ornaments at a twenty-five percent discount. Silver is the closest to white
we’ve got left, but they’re mighty pretty, I promise you. And I can arrange for
two-day shipping and have them to you by day after tomorrow.”
    Bain grumbled but he
knew he had to accept Mr. Massingill’s offer. If he
ordered from a different company now, he’d never get the ornaments in before
Christmas.
    So he hung up, sent word
to the decorators to plan on silver ornaments, and leaned back in his desk
chair.
    So Tiffany’s beautiful
white ornaments were the ones that were supposed to have been delivered to Home
for the Holidays Hotel. And Mr. Massingill had
indicated that he didn’t plan to charge Tiffany for them.
    Was there any way that
he could make that work to Tiffany’s advantage? He knew without a doubt that
the Elwoods would be strapped for money since Tiffany
was apparently the sole breadwinner in the household now. On the other hand,
he’d have to be careful not to be obvious about throwing business her way. The Elwoods might not have a lot of money but they possessed an
abundance of pride.
    “ Mmmm ,”
he mused out loud. “Maybe I can help just a bit.”
    He stood and walked into
the outer office. “Hey Chloe, what’s the extension for our sign shop?”
    *
* *
    Tiffany took one last
look around her shop and then sighed with relief. The Sunday afternoon of her annual
open house had arrived, and everything looked beautiful. The refreshment table
was loaded with her mother’s specialties—lemon bars, decorated sugar
cookies, pecan tassies , and thumbprint cookies—and
the air was heavy with the blended fragrances of spiced cider, vanilla-scented
candles and the fresh evergreens Holly had gathered in the woods and used to
decorate the various tables.
    Muted Christmas music
played in the background, while Tiffany’s mom stood behind the refreshment
table waiting to pass out cups of cider or punch and answer questions about her
recipes for all the goodies. Holly had posted herself near the door and was
watching the clock. The two o’clock hour was almost upon them, and