Christmas at Fireside Cabins - Jenny Hale Page 0,2

one day, and when the relationship hadn’t worked out, her three friends had convinced her to stay in the city. That same year, the four women, all single, formed a group to support each other, and that’s exactly what they’d done.

For the last three years, during the holidays—when being single was the hardest—they spent a week together in December, filling their time with laughter, and strengthening their friendship by traveling to new places and visiting other towns and cities. Christmas was their favorite time of year. But for Lila, it was a bit more than that. Every day that went by was one day further away from the last time she’d given her dad a hug, and if she let herself think about it, she’d crumble. Just once, she would’ve loved to sit in a circle with her family, cherishing their time together and making the most of every moment, but she hadn’t gotten to do that. So instead she valued the trips she made with her girlfriends. Having never really settled anywhere, those trips felt like home.

But this year, she was starting to worry about how many more trips they would get to take together. As luck would have it, Lila’s lease was up right before the Christmas holiday and she had just weeks to decide if she wanted to stay or not. And with her friends also moving on with their lives, it was only a matter of time before they all went their separate ways and her little family, as she liked to think of them, would disappear.

“Okay,” Lila said. “Now, Edie, I know you’ve started dating someone, and Piper, you’ve got so much going on right now with house hunting in Colorado… and Charlotte, I’m sure your schedule is going to be full with your new network deal—”

“Just show us already!” Piper said, sending her little air kisses.

Lila had been feeling down because it seemed as though an era was coming to an end—no more traveling, no more constant support from her close friends. Everyone else seemed to be progressing in life, but she was treading water, stuck in her current situation with no plans for anything else. Her heart ached with loneliness at the thought. So she’d called them all to the coffee shop today for an emergency meeting. She had an idea—one last celebration.

“We can take a trip in early December instead of right at Christmas like we usually do, since everyone’s going to be so busy during the holiday. I say we pack up a tree and our gifts, and get rooms in cabins in the country about a two-hour drive from here. It’s a sort of ‘staycation.’” She brought her iPad screen to life and turned it around. “Look at this gorgeous retreat tucked away in the Tennessee hills.”

She began scrolling through the photos of the main cabin, with double stone chimneys and a wide front porch framed by log railings and rocking chairs. The smaller cabins for rent sat nestled in the snowy hills, and the local market looked like it had been snapped right out of a movie set.

“It’s called Fireside Cabins. It’s family owned and the whole place is filled with the history of local battles and early settlers. There are hiking trails and farms down the road offering horse rides, loads of shops on Main Street, a Christmas fair… and there’s even a coffee shop in town,” Lila said, biting her lip through an enormous smile while the other ladies looked on in interest.

“I knew you’d find us something!” Charlotte said, bending down to reach into a small shopping bag she’d kept beside her chair. “I was so confident that I made these. I’m in!” She tossed each of them a T-shirt with Girls’ Week emblazoned on the front in sparkly red-and-green script.

“Count me in.” Edie ran her fingers over the lettering of the T-shirt.

“Definitely,” Piper said.

“I’m glad you all approve—I knew you’d like it! I already booked it, putting it in all of our names—since the site said we could cancel at anytime. You should get a text with the confirmation in a few days.” Lila picked up her coffee and took a sip. Then from behind her mug, she said, “Let’s make this the best Christmas vacation ever.” And she knew they would. She could feel the Christmas spirit already.

One

The purple line of hills on the horizon framed the rolling landscape of fields, an endless expanse of green, dotted with spots of white from the falling