Stephanie Neufeld had a love-hate relationship with Christmas. Mostly hate.

It wasn’t the season’s fault, exactly. This time of year was simply haunted by too many ghosts of Christmases past. But if Steph could, she would cancel the whole thing.

Which left her wondering what, exactly, she was doing in the cozy confines of Cool Beans coffee shop on the night of the Peace Crossing Santa Claus Parade, wrestling with candy canes and juggling glitter balls. And why she’d agreed to attend the parade itself afterwards.

Oh, right . . . Sisterly duty and a guilt trip from her childhood chum. How festive.

Stephanie kept her annoyance to herself while she scanned the fake twelve-foot spruce tree for a good spot to hang the candy cane she held. Seeing a space near the top of the tree with no candy canes close by, she hung the treat, then bent to the sad-looking cardboard box near her feet for another ornament.

“Look!” came Autumn’s voice at her elbow, “It’s snowing!”

Steph straightened and glanced through the large glass window beside her with chagrin, a sparkling silver globe ornament hanging from her fingers. Her sister was right. Fat, fluffy snowflakes floated gently from the sky above, which was already pitch black at four-thirty in the afternoon. The snow dusted the hats, hair, and coats of the people gathering on the shovelled sidewalk beyond and glinted in the orange glow of the street lamps.

Steph cringed and wrinkled her nose. Bad enough I have to go to the Santa Claus Parade. Now I’ll be standing in the cold, wet snow too?

“Huh.” Autumn put her hands on her slender hips, one hand grasping the end of a fake evergreen garland she’d been tacking along the top of the window. “I guess the forecast was wrong. Glad I told Mom to have Julien wear his snowsuit.”

“Can she bring an extra for me?” Steph thought of her energetic three-year-old nephew’s toothy grin framed by a fur-lined hood, smiling to herself at the image of the two of them in matching poofy one-piece snowsuits. “I wasn’t planning on snow when I came down here this afternoon.”

Autumn let out a disbelieving puff of air and smirked, crossing her arms and cocking her head at a saucy angle that made it look like she were looking down at Steph, though she was a good six inches shorter. The garland trailing around her body made it look like she was decorating herself, not the shop.

“What?” Steph demanded.

Autumn dropped the garland, letting it hang from the last tack she’d placed, and moved her stepladder down to the far end of the row of picture windows.

“I’m not sure what’s more unbelievable—that I finally convinced you to come to the Santa Claus Parade, or that you aren’t prepared for something. Haven’t you lived in Peace Crossing your whole life? She asks, rhetorically.” Autumn shook her head, her wavy brown bob swaying next to her chin. She retrieved the end of the garland swag with an amused grin. “And you haven’t learned yet that it almost always snows on the Santa Claus Parade? It either snows, or it’s twenty-five below. Seriously, I don’t know why they don’t change the date.”

She climbed the stepladder, eyeballed the garland swag to match the rest of the row, held it to the top corner of the window, and lined up the staple gun she’d left on the top tray of the ladder to place the final tack. She squeezed the gun, grunting with the effort, and a loud whap echoed through the shop.

“I’m prepared,” Steph said, trying not to sound defensive. “I brought my winter coat and boots, obviously. But the weatherman made snow seem highly unlikely.” She glared out the window and muttered, “I should have bought myself some snow pants anyway.”

“You should call him up and give him a piece of your mind,” Autumn said. “That’ll teach ’im.”

Steph made a face at her sister, then turned back toward the tree and surveyed it for another empty branch. It wasn’t tough to find a vacancy. The hard part of this job would be making the coffee shop’s slim stash of decorations look like they were filling out the entire tree. She found a gaping hole and hung the ornament with grim satisfaction, then glanced at the milling crowds outside the window.

“I bet it’s going to be a busy night, though.”

Autumn grinned. “See? Even you gotta admit that snow isn’t all bad.”

Stephanie chuckled. “The only good thing about snow is getting to wear cute hats and having a guilt-free excuse to drink hot chocolate. And Cool Beans is the best source of hot chocolate around. Especially tonight.”

Every year, the Santa Claus parade signalled the kickoff of Peace Crossing’s seasonal Christmas events. The parade was followed by the annual Midnight Madness event, when all the shops around town would stay open late and offer special deals and bonuses to encourage residents to shop local. While Cool Beans closed by mid-afternoon most of the time, catering only to the morning and lunch crowd, it always hosted a hot chocolate-and-cookies night as part of the event. Given the shop’s location near the beginning of the downtown parade route, their winter warmers were always in high demand. The Cool Beans baker, Ellie, had been elbow deep in cookie dough since three, pumping out batches of fresh ginger snaps, chocolate chip cookies, and peppermint sugar cookie twists for tonight. Heavenly sweetness permeated the entire shop.

“Besides, you know I haven’t gone to the parade in years,” Steph added.

“No,” Autumn said, “you usually work. Which is why I thought you would know about the snow, what with all the fender-benders that usually keep you so busy in Emergency.”

She had a point. At this time of year, what with icy roads and nothing much for folks to do on the weekend except ski, snowmobile, or get into trouble at the bar, the hospital always had a higher number of patients in the ER. Snowstorms meant busy nights at the hospital. But Steph had never taken particular note of the Santa Claus Parade date—unless it was to avoid downtown that night. Just like she typically avoided all reminders of this so-called festive season.

Autumn paused, catching her eye. “Hey. You know I’m teasing, right? I’m really glad you agreed to do this.”

At the look in her sister’s eyes, Steph’s annoyance softened. “Of course. You know I’m always here for you.”

Autumn gave her a grateful smile, then went over to a box against the wall and rummaged through it for the end of another evergreen garland.

Earlier in the week, several of Autumn’s staff had come down with a cold that had been making the rounds. Between covering for the absent staff and missing a day of work to take Julien to a medical appointment in the city—a full-day event when Autumn had to travel two hours to the nearest major medical centre—she hadn’t had time to decorate the shop. Since it was Steph’s day off, she’d agreed to help. After the morning staff had gone home at the regular closing time that afternoon, Steph and Autumn had set to work decorating the place. Other than Ellie, they were the only ones there.

Steph stepped back to survey her work while smoothing her long mahogany curls off her warm forehead, bunching it into a hand-held ponytail at the nape of her neck. The results weren’t half bad, especially considering she and Autumn had discovered that a leak in the storage room had ruined at least a third of the decorations when they’d dug out the boxes that afternoon. Still, the sparkling white lights glinting off silver stars, pointed swirly baubles, enormous glitter-encrusted blue balls, and the wrappers of the candy canes they’d used to fill some gaps, all with a red plaid ribbon winding throughout was . . . pretty. If you ignored how much space remained between each ornament.

The last time she’d decorated a Christmas tree, there had been even bigger gaps—mostly in the top third, which had been out of her and her sisters’ reach. Had that been nearly fourteen years ago? Steph blinked at the realization. As the oldest, she’d always been the tallest of her sisters, but at twelve, she’d still been shorter than Autumn’s current five-foot-three-inch frame. The top of the tree hadn’t been completely bare, though—eight-year-old Melody had made sure of it. Steph and Autumn’s littlest sister had handed their dad ornaments and then pointed to where she’d wanted them hung. When it came time to put up the angel tree topper, Eddie had swung a giggling Melody onto his shoulders so she could reach. He’d zoomed her around the room, making her fly like an angel to reach the top of the tree, while Steph, Autumn, and their mom had looked on and laughed. Later, Eddie had pulled out his guitar and they’d sung “Jingle Bells”, his strong baritone carrying the sweet voices of Steph and her sisters, with their mom adding a sweet contralto harmony.

That had been a good Christmas.

Unlike so many others since.

Stephanie crossed her arms, her stomach roiling and her shoulders tight. Ever since she’d received the unexpected voice mail from Eddie a few days ago, old memories had been coming back unbidden. Most of them weren’t nearly as pleasant as that one.

“What’s wrong?” Autumn asked softly. She stepped away from the antique upright piano near the hearth, which now sported an evergreen garland swag accented with white twinkle lights along the top edge.

Blinking, Steph snapped out of her reverie, deliberately relaxing her frown. “This tree. It’s half naked. I know I’m no expert, but aren’t Christmas trees usually a bit more . . . dressed?”

Autumn’s worried face relaxed. She surveyed the tree and its red, silver, and blue decorations from top to bottom, then sighed. “I suppose I’m going to need to replace the decorations we lost. Hopefully with something that has more personality. This stuff came with the place, and I’ve never bothered to replace any of it. Do you think I could find coffee-related decorations online?”

Steph shrugged. “You can find pretty much anything online. Or check at Pearl’s Petals. She might be able to order something in for you.”

“Great idea. I’ll have to get her to put a rush on it.” Autumn tapped her lip in thought, spinning to take in the room. “Well, that’s all the decorations. Just in time, too. Thanks again for helping me out with this. It turned out amazing.”

Steph glanced around the inviting coffee shop, now be-garlanded with strings of white lights and fake pine boughs and glittery garlands to within an inch of its life. Small snowmen and reindeer statuettes peeked from between the plants and antique coffee grinders tucked in the cubbies between rustic square wooden tables. A miniature nativity perched on the mantle above the gas fireplace. A few fuzzy red-and-white stockings labelled with staff members’ names in puffy gold fabric paint added a homey touch to the hearth. And the tree that had replaced two of the tables near the front door still drew the eye, even if the decorations were a bit sparse and generic.

“Any time,” Steph said.

And, despite her distaste for this particular holiday, she meant it. Ever since Autumn’s husband, Denis, had died in a quadding accident two years ago, Steph had been helping her sister out more than ever, filling in behind the coffee shop counter or babysitting Julien almost every day she had off from the hospital. No, that didn’t leave much room for a personal life—but her relationship with romance was almost as complicated as her relationship with Christmas. It was hard to miss something that had never been that exciting in the first place.

“Besides,” she added, “Delanie’s been bugging me to get together, and I didn’t have a good reason to say no again.”

Autumn quirked her brow. “Why would you want to? I thought you and Delanie were good friends.”

Steph sighed and shrugged. Ten years ago, she and Delanie Fletcher had been more than good friends. They’d been inseparable. But times changed. And Steph was tired of being ghosted by people she thought cared about her.

“We used to be, back in high school. But then she went off to film school in Vancouver and kind of faded away. I don’t know how I feel about her trying to pick up where we left off when she didn’t want to be friends while she was gone.”

Autumn gave her an askance look. “You don’t know she didn’t want to be friends anymore. She probably just got busy. Relationships often change when circumstances do.”

“I was busy, too, going to nursing school and interning, but I still reached out.”

“True. I get it. Still, you never know unless you try, right? She’s probably different than she was when she left.”

Steph twisted her lips. “Maybe. But I’m not sure how invested I want to get to find out.”

Autumn pursed her lips as if she wanted to say more, but she didn’t. Steph was glad she dropped it.

Since Delanie had returned to Peace Crossing only a few months before, she’d managed to produce the local kids community musical and reignite her romance with her high school boyfriend, single dad Caleb Toews. Even though it seemed that Delanie was putting down roots in the community, Steph couldn’t help feel the actress might disappear again as soon as the right opportunity came along. Which was why she’d already declined several of Delanie’s previous attempts to reconnect. But when Delanie had asked Steph to meet her, Caleb, and Caleb’s daughter, Emma, at the parade, Steph had felt obligated to say yes this time. Besides, Autumn and Julien would be there, too, and Julien had been over the moon when she’d told him she would be coming tonight.

So here she was. Regretting her life choices.

It’s been fourteen years. Maybe it’ll be okay.

And maybe reindeer actually could fly.

She huffed in dry amusement.

“You know,” Autumn added slowly, “I thought maybe you were thinking about Dad earlier. Eddie, I mean.”

Steph tensed. She understood why Autumn had specified—they rarely talked about Eddie. Not that she would have been confused about who Autumn meant when she’d said it like that.

“Why would I be thinking about him?” Even though she had been. Autumn had a sixth sense about these things.

Autumn glanced away, busying herself with packing up the ornament boxes as she spoke. Swallowing, Stephanie bent to help, nesting empty boxes inside larger ones with jerky movements.

“He asked me for your phone number. He says he has something he wants to talk about.”

Stephanie froze with a box in midair. “And you gave it to him?” She’d wondered how he’d been able to reach her.

“I did.” Autumn met her gaze. “He’s different, Steph. I think you should hear him out.”

“Hear him out?” Stephanie had been reaching for a stack of empty boxes, but she missed, accidentally knocking the top several off the stack. She bent to pick them up, keeping her face averted from her sister. “There’s not a thing that man can say to make up for what he did. Melody’s dead, Tum.”

“Yes, she is.” Autumn laid a hand on Steph’s arm, halting her frenetic movements so Steph met her gaze. “But we aren’t. Which means there’s still a chance for us to repair what’s broken between us and those we love.”

“I don’t love Eddie.”

Autumn’s expression grew sorrowful. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do. Why wouldn’t I?”

Autumn studied her for a moment. “Please call him back. Give him a chance.”

“No. He’s dangerous. I can’t believe you’re willing to talk to him, especially with Julien to be concerned about.” The thought of the unpredictable alcoholic who had kept her and her sisters’ lives in a constant state of turmoil until she was thirteen being in proximity to her darling, innocent nephew made Stephanie’s shoulders tense. That couldn’t be allowed to happen. She wouldn’t let it.

Autumn sighed. “Eddie’s not dangerous.”

Stephanie gritted her teeth, drawing a deep breath. Her sister always saw the best in people, even to her own detriment. It was one of her best and most irritating qualities, and why Stephanie had so often had to protect Autumn from herself. And now Julien, too.

“Just be careful, okay?”

“I will. But, Steph, have you considered that holding on to the past isn’t hurting anyone but you?”

Stephanie’s annoyance sprang back to life, defensive words rushing to her lips.

Her protest was cut short by the chiming of the bell above the front door.