Making the Holidays Happy Again Read online

  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  Dedication

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  About the Author

  By Pat Henshaw

  Visit Dreamspinner Press

  Copyright

  Making the Holidays Happy Again

  By Pat Henshaw

  Blacksmith Butch has secretly loved his best friend, science nerd Jimmy, since grade school. Now their shops in Old Town Seven Winds, California, are only doors from each other.

  They’re about to turn thirty, and Butch refuses to wait another day to make a decision: propose to Jimmy and start the family he’s always wanted or forget his dream to avoid risking their friendship. Why can’t the choice be as easy as creating decorative ironwork in his forge?

  To my wonderful husband, Jake, and daughters, Becca and Sarah. Thank you, J. Scott Coatsworth, Liz Faraim, Tricia Kristufek, and my family for the much-needed advice on how to make the story better.

  To make your own braided leather cuff, look online for directions. Enjoy!

  1

  “OKAY, WHAT’S up?” I sat on the bench with my back against the bricks at Joe’s Pub. “You’ve been pissed since last week.”

  My best friend and secret love of my life, Jimmy, glared but didn’t answer. We’d known each other for so long that I waited him out like usual. I crossed my pumped arms and sat back, smelling my sweat-soaked T-shirt in the AC blowing around us.

  The past summer in Seven Winds, once a gold rush town in California’s northern Sierra Nevada mountains and now a tourist trap, had been brutal. A record number of days over one hundred degrees had turned a lot of the shop owners into snarling dogs.

  As the resident blacksmith, I took the heat as business as usual. So I was hot and sweaty? I was always hot and sweaty. The day I ain’t I’m either sick or dead.

  I figured Jimmy’s problem was more than the heat, though. He’d been acting funny lately. Like he had something caught in his craw but he couldn’t spit it out.

  Jimmy wasn’t looking at me, but down at his hands. They was long and thin, completely different from mine. I had a collection of burns and scratches, scars from the forge and the tools and all.

  His hands was pale white with a bunch of freckles that went with the freckles all over the rest of his body. When we was kids, the tiny red hairs on his arms stood out almost more than his carroty hair. The bright red had changed as he got older and was now more muted. Me? I’d stayed hairy brown all over.

  I tapped his hand with my blunt fingers.

  “Whatever it is, you know you can just spit it out. I’ll listen.”

  He stared at me, and I swear his green eyes got darker. He was making me uneasy. What the hell was wrong?

  “You ever look at your life, Butch, and ask yourself, ‘Is this all there is?’” He sighed. What the fuck? What had gotten into him? “Don’t give me that look. You’ve got to know what I’m talking about.”

  “Sure. But you know me. Something’s wrong, I make it right.” Takes me time but I figure out what to do eventually. “So, uh, what’s wrong with your life?” I wanted to make it a joke and laugh, but he was too damned serious. And Jimmy’s never this serious.

  “I mean, look at us. We work all day in our shops. We make good money. We got nothing to spend it on but ourselves. We go out drinking with the guys on the weekends. Or we go into the city to a game. Or we go fishing, camping, riding around.” He shook his head. “But in the end, what have we got?”

  “Fun. Friendship. I don’t know.” It wasn’t much of an answer. I knew where he was coming from. I figured it was because we was about to turn thirty after Christmas and it was time for us to grow up. I’d been thinking on it a lot lately.

  “Don’t you want something else, Butch? Something more? Something better?” He sounded desperate, like he was drowning and I wasn’t saving him.

  “Yeah, sure. I guess. I mean, I want a husband, a house, a dog, you know, stuff like we talked about when we was kids.” I’d had it mostly planned out. For one thing, I’d been saving my money.

  I was surprised Jimmy hadn’t already figured it out. He was usually two steps ahead of me in everything. “Okay, I gotta ask. What brought all of this on? What happened?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve been sitting around thinking lately. And Mom’s been on me.”

  His mother, Hazel, is a character. She’s an old hippie with graying auburn hair and grass-green eyes. Her face is a road map of lines cuz she spends so much time outdoors. And she worries. She thinks we need her to run our lives. We mostly let her think that even though it’s not true.

  “She says she wants me to move out of the farmhouse.” Jimmy said it like it was a death sentence.

  “So? Isn’t that what you always wanted?”

  He shrugged, then nodded, reluctant-like. “I guess.”

  When we was little, we was next-door neighbors when Mom, me, Jimmy, and Hazel lived in town. After my mom died when I was a junior in high school, I sold the house, bought my uncle’s business, and moved into the cottage in back of the forge in Old Town. I’d been working part-time for my uncle, the blacksmith, since I was twelve. After I moved into his house, he retired and moved to Washington State. A few years later, Jimmy and Hazel moved from the old neighborhood into a farmhouse one of her relatives left her. Jimmy graduated high school and went to college.

  “Jimmy, you’ve always talked about living in your own place.”

  Once I thought me and him would get together, and, you know, live happily ever after. But then he became a doctor of chemistry and natural medicine. I never finished high school.

  “Yes, I know. You’re right. I’ve wanted to move out for a while now.” Jimmy sighed. “But this feels like her trying to push me out. I don’t like to be pushed.”

  Well, that was the truth. He was as stubborn and ass-headed as they came.

  The solution seemed pretty simple to me. He’s usually a straight line from A to B kinda guy. Jimmy’s real smart, and once he focuses, he’s like a bird dog on point. Not me. I get an idea for a design and like to run through all the side letters first before I connect A and B. Hazel calls it my artistic side. I don’t know. All’s I know is Jimmy usually gets from “What needs to be done?” to “Let’s do it this way” without breaking a sweat.

  “I don’t get the problem. You know what you want already.”

  He laughed. “I don’t want to be pushed by my mother.”

  I woulda sighed, but what was the point? He was Jimmy, and I’m Butch. We are what we are. I still didn’t get it, but he’d have to figure it out for himself.

  “So the Apple Festival is coming up, and I’m making some changes,” I said, moving on to another subject.

  “Yeah? What’s up? What’re you doing?”

  I told him I’d already put an ad in the state blacksmith association newsletter for another smith and now was looking to hire somebody to run the shop, set up a better website, and run a kids’ do-it-yourself craft table at the upcoming festivals.

  “I wanna make the shop more family friendly.”

  He looked at me weird.

  “I don’t get it, Butch. This isn’t like you.” He ran a hand through his shaggy hair. “You’re making me nervous. First my mother, now you. Why is everybody so hot to change suddenly?”

  “It’s like you said.” I hunkered down, putting my elbows on the table and spreading out my hands. “I took a look at my life. I figure if I don’t do something to get settled, it ain’t gonna just fall in my lap. The Big Three Oh is the first step to the rest of my life. If I don’t get my shit
together, nobody’s gonna hand my life to me. I may not know a lot, but I know it’s up to me to do it myself.” I shot him a frown. “And you know it too.”

  He nodded and looked like dog meat.

  I may not have solved his problem of moving out or nothing, but maybe we was finally on the same page. Maybe.

  I was making my changes. He had to decide on his own life.

  2

  THE NEXT day around midmorning, a guy who could have been my blond twin walked into the forge, looked around, smiled, and lumbered up to me, holding out a ham-sized hand.

  “Hey, you must be Butch. I’m Jax.”

  I took his hand, and we had a short, friendly, grip-strength match. I won. Which was sure good since I figured he musta been looking for a job. He had that aiming-to-please swagger.

  “I saw your ad.”

  Bingo.

  “Nice to meet ya, Jax.” I gestured toward my office. “How about we go in there to talk? I need to keep an eye on the door. In case of people.”

  On a Tuesday after a dead weekend, the only walk-ins I get want to stroll around the shop touching stuff or gawk at me in my leather apron. If I was covered in sweat, they’d want a picture and shove their girlfriends or wives up next to me. They usually didn’t buy shit.

  Jax nodded and followed me into the tiny office, where I pointed to a chair and offered him some coffee.

  He sat and shook his head.

  “No, thanks. I’m an iced tea man myself.”

  I shrugged. Whatever.

  We talked over his experience. The more he talked, the more I wanted to hire him.

  With him here, I’d be able to have some time off. Time when I could get a life. Like maybe not a love life, but at least more of a sex life. Not that I told him any of why it’d be good to have him or somebody like him and a store manager around.

  “Only other thing you need to know is that some blowout holidays are about to happen the rest of this year. I’m changing stuff up in the shop. I wanna come up with something kids can do. Like a craft while their parents shop. So if you got any ideas, I’m open.”

  “What? You’re really hiring me?”

  “Maybe. Probably. First, I gotta see you make a couple a things. Why don’t you start with something small, like a metal cuff or some other piece of jewelry that you think we could sell here in the shop.”

  “Now?” He sounded surprised.

  He thought I’d hire somebody without seeing what he could do? Not a chance.

  “Yeah, now. You got somewhere you gotta be?”

  He looked down at his jeans and Vans, then back up to me.

  “Nope. Show me which tools I can use.”

  We walked back into the forge area. I outfitted him with my biggest apron and longest gloves since he wasn’t dressed to work but to interview. I wasn’t going to let him get burnt just cuz he hadn’t come ready to work.

  As I watched him get set up, I could tell he was thinking hard about what I wanted him to make. Okay, point to him.

  Then he got going. I turned an eagle eye on him.

  As I watched, I thought about how if I hired him, I could sell more stuff. There’d be more kinds of jewelry for both men and women and a lot more trivets and stuff.

  Jax was finishing up a little after noon when Jimmy walked in. “Okay, I have something I want you to try….” Jimmy stopped a couple of steps inside the door and stared at Jax. “Well, who do we have here?”

  I barked out a laugh as Jimmy walked toward us all excited. He was staring at Jax, which meant he probably was falling into another crush, which meant another heartbreak, which meant I’d have to talk him down from gloom and doom. Sometimes I wanted to shake him.

  “Uh, Jimmy, this is Jax. He wants to work here. Jax, Jimmy.”

  Hot and sweaty, Jax stood up straight like he’d gotten a sudden shot of life. He pulled off a glove and left the jewelry he’d been making on the anvil.

  “Hello there. Jim? May I call you Jim?” He reached out a hand, and Jimmy smiled his ball-busting grin.

  Jax’s eyes lit up as Jimmy shook his hand. No grip-strength competition this time. More of slow reeling in on Jax’s part. A couple a steps closer to Jax, Jimmy took a deep breath.

  I sniffed too but could only smell the stench of Jax’s sweat mixed with the wood fire and metal. Jax was ripe. I wrinkled my nose. Jimmy should be backing away from us.

  Instead, he sighed as he exhaled. I stepped up to them, glanced down at their clasped hands, and cleared my throat.

  “Jax here was about to show me what he made.” I looked at the bottle Jimmy was carrying. “Whatcha got?”

  Jimmy peered down at the bottle and seemed to come out of his haze.

  “Oh, uh, I made this for you. For your hands.” He shoved the bottle toward me. I took it before he dropped it and there’d be broken glass all over.

  I didn’t know what this new stuff of his was or what it was for. I watched him and Jax finally end the handshake. Jimmy didn’t seem like he was going to tell me nothing about what was in the bottle. I put it down and watched the train wreck happen.

  “So,” Jimmy purred, “you’ll be working with Butch?”

  He wasn’t asking me. I didn’t say nothing. I did want to punch him in the arm and yell, “Don’t you never learn?” but I didn’t. It made me a little sick seeing him set himself up for another fall. But what the hell could I do?

  While I was away in my head, they’d started getting to know each other. Jimmy was explaining about the boutique apothecary shop Myrrh & More him and his mom owned and ran, and Jax bragged about stuff on his resume.

  How he’d been to farrier’s school and got his certificate. How he’d worked on a ranch for a while. And how he wanted to settle down now that his folks was getting old and they’d bought a place outside town here.

  Blah, blah, blah. Did Jimmy think this kind of bullshit was charming? Probably, but I couldn’t tell. Why didn’t he like everyday old conversation like me and him had better? Maybe I wasn’t cut out for getting somebody to like me.

  Suddenly they stopped chatting and were looking at me like I was supposed to say something.

  “What?”

  Jax smirked and coughed to hide his laugh.

  Jimmy touched my forearm, something he don’t do often enough, far as I’m concerned.

  “We were talking about going to get some lunch and a beer. You’re coming with us.” His eyes lit up like every other time I watched him fall for some big ape of a guy.

  “Yeah. Sure. We’ll meet you at the pub after Jax shows me what he made and we finish up some paperwork.” I laid my hand over Jimmy’s. He felt warm and comfortable. I sighed. We was still friends. At least I had that.

  “So you really are hiring me?” Jax sounded way too excited considering the job was going to be pretty easy after his other ones. Not to mention a total waste of his certificate.

  “We’ll see. Probably. What’d you make?”

  Jimmy’s hand slipped away. He waved at us from the doorway. He hadn’t explained what I was supposed to do with the stuff he’d brought me, so I put it away in my office for later.

  JAX HAD turned an old piece of chain and a scrap of copper into a guy’s cuff. He’d taken some leftover wrought iron and a few keys and made ’em into a lady’s bracelet. Both of them looked good. I was pretty sure they’d sell fast.

  When we was finishing up, I didn’t think I could take watching Jimmy and Jax having lunch together. So I decided to close the shop and head into my kitchen and fix some soup. Maybe make a sandwich.

  “You go on ahead. It’s the pub on the corner. I’ll see you after lunch.”

  Jax looked at me weird but left.

  My phone rang before I could get the Be Back Later sign up in the window.

  “Butch? Where are you?” Jimmy sounded pissed. He musta seen Jax walking toward the pub without me.

  “Uh….”

  “Get yourself down here right now, big guy.”

  Before I could a
nswer, Jimmy hung up.

  Okay, so I knew he’d come get me if I didn’t follow his orders. I sighed, put the sign in the window, locked up, and trudged to meet them.

  When me and Jimmy was growing up, Joe’s Bar was the local watering hole. After the old, run-down part of town was changed into a tourist trap, the Old Town Committee made Joe change the name from bar to pub to make it classier, so now it had a new sign and napkins, but all the same old furniture, pool tables, and dartboards. It was still a bar, no matter what the committee called it.

  Here at the end of summer, Joe’s was filled with regulars who worked in Old Town and only a few tourists. In a month and a half during apple season in the orchards near here, the tourists would be back.

  Old Town would have scarecrows and hay bales on every corner. The horse and carriage rides would be clopping down the street. And the smell of apple pie spice, mostly cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, would fill the air.

  By then Jax and me should have a bunch of jewelry and household things like trivets and stuff to sell. I’d let him work the shop with whoever else I hired and have his picture took with the ladies. The idea made me smile. Would he be as uneasy as me when they snuggled up against him? It’d be fun to see.

  I spotted Jimmy and Jax at our regular table in the back corner of the bar. The way they was leaned in together having what looked like a heart-to-heart turned my grin sour.

  When I got halfway across the room, Jimmy glanced up and spotted me. He shot up straight and stood like he wanted to run over to me.

  “Jax’s been telling me you hired him.” His excitement stopped me in my tracks. “That’s so great. Good for you, Butch. Now you can take some time off and have fun.”

  Like he cared.

  “Yeah. Great.” I didn’t sound as excited as him. “Maybe after apple season and before Thanksgiving, I’ll get away.”

  “Speaking of which, Mother and I are hosting an Old Town feast again out at the farm. You’re coming and staying afterward for the family dinner, right? Like you do every year. Mother says it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without you.” He’d taken my arm and was almost dragging me toward the table where Jax sat.