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Hopefully her determination would pay off and be the perfect legacy to her darling aunt whom she missed so much.

“Jean should have told you to sell the place for every penny you could get and travel the world,” said Claudia while dusting a completed snowflake with snowy glitter. Though she’d stayed in Pine Hill all her life, she was known for wishing she’d spent her life dashing from one exotic locale to another, or at least gone on a vacation or two with her husband.

Maybelle rolled her eyes. “As if you could pry our Sarah out of Pine Hill.”

Sarah laughed. “Are y’all trying to get rid of me?”

“Pine Hill would be lost without you,” Claudia assured her, the others nodding their agreement.

“We’d be lost without you,” Ruby clarified. “My Charlie is always marveling at how much joy you add to our lives.”

Smiling at the love she had for and received from these ladies, Sarah tied off a knot at the end of the plastic canvas piece she was working on. “Good thing you think so, because I’m not leaving. Pine Hill is home.”

It had been for four generations of Sarah’s family. Even if she and her dad were the only ones left, the small Kentucky town was a part of who she was.

“I can’t imagine living anywhere but here.”

Clicking the completed piece of canvas into another she’d already done, she surveyed her work. It would be even better once decorated with the sparkly glitter, tiny pearls, and sequins. The snowflakes had been a big hit last year at their church booth at the Christmas festival. In fact, they’d sold out—which was why they planned to double how many they made this year. The proceeds helped fund backpacks filled with school supplies for needy kids each fall, goodie baskets for hospitalized patients’ family members, and so many other charitable projects that came up throughout the year.

Sarah loved the warmth within this community and the care people showed for each other. She truly wouldn’t want to live anywhere other than where her parents met, fell in love, and had planned to grow old together.

“Me, either,” Ruby sighed, a bit nostalgically. “Pine Hill is the perfect backdrop for my love story with Charlie.”

A noise that was somewhere between a gag and a snort harrumphed from Rosie’s throat.

“Don’t listen to her,” Claudia warned, cutting plastic canvas pieces to be used to make more snowflakes. “You sell that place and go see the world. London, Paris, Rome…the world is calling for you.”

“That’s not the world calling for her,” Maybelle advised drily, gluing down a row of faux pearls. “That’s your hearing aid squeaking and squawking.”

More good-natured laughter sounded around the table as their assembly line of snowflakes continued.

“I’ll remind you, I don’t

wear hearing aids. Even though I am the world’s greatest grandma, I’m still younger than you old biddies.” Chin held high, Claudia gave each of them a pert “so there” look, then tilted her head toward Sarah. “Except that one, and she seems destined to toss her life away fixing up Jean’s crumbling old mansion, rather than expanding her horizons.”

“Aunt Jean’s house isn’t crumbling.” Not anymore, thanks to her loan and her having spent every spare moment over the past year working on restoring the outside and the downstairs to their former glory. She’d worry about the upstairs once she got the bed and breakfast up and going. “It just needed some TLC.”

And a repair guy to stick around to finish up the job. She’d had a few good contractors for the bigger jobs, thank goodness. But none of them were currently available, and the independent handymen weren’t working out. Didn’t anyone take pride in their work? If so, she’d yet to find that elusive handyman who paid attention to details.

Hopefully God would answer her prayers and the right person would reply to her help-wanted ad. Otherwise, she’d have to delay her planned Grand Opening of Hamilton House.

The thought of that made her heart hurt a little. She wanted to do this for Aunt Jean.

Please, Lord, let them respond.

The door to the community room opened, and all heads turned to see who’d shown up to join their ornament-making festivities.

Sarah’s eyes widened at the unfamiliar six-foot-plus man wearing jeans and a sherpa-lined blue jean jacket. He rubbed his hands, warming his bare fingers from the chill outdoors as he surveyed the Christmas chaos Sarah adored.

Ask and the Lord shall deliver.

Literally.

Okay, so she didn’t really believe the stranger was there to answer her prayers, but still, his timing was impeccable. Who was he?

Apparently, she wasn’t the only one wondering. It wasn’t that one could hear a pin drop—not with the holiday music playing—but there was a collective curiosity pervading the now-muted room that had been loud with chatter prior to his arrival.

“I’ve been extra-good this year and Santa’s delivering early,” Rosie whispered under her breath, elbowing Claudia. Her lively eyes sparkled with mischief. “That’s exactly what I asked for.”