He set the clipboard with the inventory sheet on the pantry shelf and pulled out his phone, his hands shaking.
Chapter Sixty-Four
HOLLY
Holly was working on putting away decorations from the tulip festival when Ash burst into the storage room. She stood up quickly upon seeing the harried look on his face, her chest tightening.
“Ash, what’s wrong?”
“I’m heading out to my dad’s. Will you come with me?”
Holly’s eyes widened with surprise, but she stepped away from the boxes she’d been organizing, moving toward Ash, and said, “Of course.”
Lately, Holly had been doing all the driving, since she’d learned the new skill and fallen in love with it. But that day, when Ash jumped into the driver’s seat, she didn’t protest. A fire had been lit under him, and she wasn’t going to do anything to slow him down.
“I don’t know if I ever told you this, but last year, when you were gone and I called my dad, he mentioned something about a postcard he’d received when I was a kid.”
“A postcard?” Holly turned to look at him as they raced down the highway toward the outskirts of town, where she knew Ash’s dad lived. They’d been there once for dinner a few weeks earlier.
“He thought it was from my mom because of the handwriting but dismissed it as junk mail when he didn’t recognize the name or return address.”
Holly gasped. “So you think…?”
Ash shrugged, his face tight. “I don’t know. But it’s worth a shot.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting at the small round kitchen table in Michael’s cabin.
After some brief small talk and Michael’s telling Holly he was delighted to see her again, Ash got down to business.
“Dad, do you still have that postcard? The one you thought was from mom?”
Michael ran a hand through his thinning hair and quirked his lips, thinking. Ash had warned him why he was coming with a phone call. The man, who was in his sixties and still quite fit, walked to a china cabinet and began to search through drawers. “If I kept it, I probably would have tossed it in here.”
He continued to sort through the stacks of papers, and Holly slipped her hand into Ash’s under the table.
“Well, I’ll be darned. Here it is.” He held out the postcard to Ash, who released Holly’s hand and took it anxiously.
Holly watched as he studied the writing for a moment then flipped it over to see the image on the front.
“Greetings from…” He paused, and Holly thought he was barely breathing. He turned to her, his eyes wide. “This postcard is from Finland.”
Chapter Sixty-Five
ASH
Ash’s mind was whirling as he tore his eyes from Holly’s and looked back at the postcard.
“It says it’s from a woman named Helena. Her address is on here.” Ash’s hands trembled slightly, and he set the postcard on the table.
Holly quickly picked it up. “This can’t be a coincidence.”
“Is one of you going to tell me what’s going on here?” Michael asked.
Ash let out a breath. They had to tread lightly. Like everyone else in Emerald Hollow, his dad didn’t know who Holly really was or that North Pole magic ran through her. He turned to Holly, and they locked eyes for a moment, having a silent conversation.
After a few seconds, Holly spoke. “Michael, I don’t know if Ash ever told you this, but the reason I came to Emerald Hollow in the first place was because of something I saw in Finland. I was at a café in Helsinki, and there was a flyer for the Emerald Hollow harvest festival. I was going to be in this part of the world in October anyway, so I decided to drop in. Ash and I were both curious as to how a poster for a festival in Oregon ended up in Finland, since no one here seems to have any contacts there.”
She took a deep breath as Ash studied his father. For the moment, his face was calm, with just a slight pull of confusion in his lips.
