Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“What would you like it to say?”
“On the front, I want it to say Jesse. J-E-S-S-E.”
He makes some notes. “And anything on the back?”
“I don’t know…”
“Is it a gift?”
“It is. Let’s see…” I tap my fingers on the counter. “Engrave it to say With lots of love on the back.”
“Perfect. What’s your name?”
“Brianna.”
“All right, Brianna. I’ll have this ready in about an hour if you want to pick it up today.” He rings up my purchase.
I slide my credit card through the reader. “Good enough. I’ll be back in an hour. Thank you so much.”
I grab a light lunch and then peruse a few more shops. Most of my holiday shopping is already done, but I can’t resist grabbing a little something for Maddie—a guidebook for the UK and continental Europe. I purchase one for myself as well.
The clerk at Yesterday’s Treasures smiles when he sees me. “I’ve got it ready for you.”
“Thanks so much. Can I take a look?”
“I took the liberty of giftwrapping it for you, but I’m happy to unwrap it and then rewrap it.” He hands me a small box.
It’s beautifully wrapped in shiny red paper with gold dragons and holly. “This is so perfect. I don’t want to disturb it. Thanks for the wrapping.”
“You’re very welcome. Happy holidays to you.” He places the wrapped box into a black gift bag.
“You as well.” I take the bag and leave the mall to drive back to Snow Creek.
Once home, I print Jesse on the tag that’s tied to the gift.
Then I change my mind. I remove the tag from the gift. This way, if they find it, they won’t know who it’s for. When someone opens it, they’ll find out it’s for Jesse. That way, if someone catches me with a gift before I have a chance to slide it under the tree, no one will know who it’s for.
Good thinking, Bree.
Now…to figure out how to slide it under the Pikes’ Christmas tree without anyone knowing.
I’ll go over to the house under the pretense of visiting Maddie. I’ve even got the guidebook to give her as an early Christmas gift.
Perfect.
I slide the small gift into my purse, grab both guidebooks, and return to my car to drive to the Pikes’.
“Brianna,” Maureen Pike says when she opens the door. “How nice to see you.”
“Nice to see you too, Mrs. Pike. Is Maddie home?” I glance over Maureen’s shoulder to regard their tree.
“I think she’s up in her room. I’ll go see.”
The Pikes’ Christmas tree is in the living room, next to the foyer where I’m standing.
I look around, making sure there’s no one here. I hear some clanking in the kitchen, but if I act quickly…
A moment later, the gift is under the tree, hidden in the back.
Perfect.
Maddie comes out from the hallway. “Hey, Bree. What’s up?”
“I was out shopping, and I picked up European guidebooks for us. I wanted to drop yours by.” I hold up the books.
“Sure. That sounds like fun. Come up to my room.”
Maddie fires up her laptop, I grab one of the guidebooks, and we both sit on her bed, our backs against the headboard, the laptop sitting between us so we can both see.
“So we’ll be in London for the first six days,” Maddie says. “I want to see Buckingham Palace, of course. Westminster Abbey. And Rory says we have to go to Fleet Street and have a meat pie.”
I wrinkle my nose. “What?”
“It’s a reference to the urban legend of Sweeney Todd. You know, the demon barber of Fleet Street?”
“You mean the musical?”
“Yeah, Sweeney Todd by Sondheim. But it started as an urban legend. Rory says Brock took her to this amazing pie place on Fleet Street.”
“Meat pies?”
Maddie taps on her keyboard, and a photo of a giant pie emerges. “You know, like potpies. Don’t you like potpies?”
“Sure I do. I guess I just thought that we’d be eating something more…elaborate.”
Maddie laughs. “British food is anything but elaborate,” she says. “I’ve been doing some research. Lots of meat and potatoes. Sausages.”
I’m used to a lot of meat. But I was hoping to eat some gourmet cuisine. I guess we’ll save that for Paris. “Okay. If it’s important to you, Mads, we’ll have a meat pie. Let’s see a show too. In the West End.”
“Brianna…”
“My treat. We’ll get Brock to go with us. And Callie and Donny. And Rory.”
“Rory may not have a lot of time.”
“But it’s a West End show! Rory of all people will want to do that.”
“That’s a good point.” Maddie scratches her head. “Let’s see what’s playing.”
We narrow it down to a couple of shows that we think everyone will like, but we don’t know when Rory will have time off from the band.
“I guess we need the entire schedule before we can make these decisions,” I say.
“Yeah. I’ll text Rory and see if she has it.” Maddie grabs her phone, taps on it. “She’s not responding. She and Brock are probably doing the deed.”