by: Katie Mettner
Series: Bells Pass
Genre: Contemporary Holiday Romance
Release Date: November 1, 2022
Indigo Dickson
Age: 27
Looks: Short, curvy, and jet-black hair with eyes to rival her name
Favorite Food: Gumdrops
Status: It’s complicated
Lance Garland
Age: 28
Looks: Tall, dark, and handsome, with the saddest brown eyes in Bells Pass
Favorite Food: The Lancenator
Status: It’s beyond complicated
Lance Garland and Indigo Dickson can’t be dating disasters if they refuse to date. They’ve caught on to the Legend of the Bells Pass Gazebo, and this Christmas, they’re steering clear of it. Until Lance suffers a devastating loss and looks to Indigo to help him through the holiday season. Complicated doesn’t begin to describe their relationship, but old misunderstandings and damaged pride stop them from admitting the truth—they’re perfect for each other. The townspeople of Bells Pass know they’ll need all of Santa’s magic to prove it to these childhood friends before the clock strikes twelve on December twenty-fifth.
Name: Lance Garland
Age: 28
Date of birth: March 23
Physical Description: I’m tall at over six-two with short brown hair that often has a swoop across my forehead when I don’t get it cut. I have brown eyes, my mother’s nose, and a scar that runs under my hairline at my temple from an accident when I was a kid. Now my hair grows all cattywampus there. Indigo says it’s proof that I fought and survived, and she often runs her finger along the length of it.
Occupation: I’m a cook at the local diner. Everyone says I should call myself a chef, but I’ve never had any formal training. I started cooking when I was about twelve as a way to recover from an accident. I’ve been doing it ever since with no complaints from anyone.
3 likes in no particular order: Cooking, Christmas, and Indigo Dickson, who I call Gumdrop because, well, she loves gumdrops!
3 dislikes in no particular order: Dishonest people, mean people, and Diet Coke Lime
Drink of choice: Rum and Coke
Favorite food: The Lancenator (my take on the Monte Cristo sandwich)
Favorite song: Silent Night
Choice of transportation: Walking or biking since I can’t drive.
Favorite way to spend an evening: Sharing walking tacos with Gumdrop while we walk to the Bells Pass Park.
Favorite holiday tradition: I always looked forward to October when my mom, Michelle, and I would put together a Christmas light display in our yard. She came up with a new design every year, and we both took a weekend off and spent it together getting the yard ready for the November first reveal.
Best memory to date: I don’t have a lot of memories from my childhood. I can’t remember a lot that happened before my traumatic brain injury, but that’s another story in itself. Now, after just losing my mom, it’s so hard to pick one memory. I’m going to say our Thursday breakfast date the day before she died. It wasn’t special in any particular way other than it was our last moments together, even if we didn’t know that. She spilled her coffee and used my sweatshirt to sop it up before it hit her pants. We laughed ourselves silly, ate good food, and then we parted ways for the last time. After she died, I was upset that she didn’t tell me she was sick that day, but then Indigo pointed out that if she had, I wouldn’t have those wonderful memories from our last Thursday morning breakfast date.
If you could have a do-over, what would you do differently? I would not go sledding the day of my accident. If I had stayed home and not been hit by that car, I may not have missed out on all those years with Gumdrop. Then again, there’s no way to know that for sure either. Our lives still could have gone in different directions. When I really stop to think about it, I think my life has turned out exactly as it was meant to.
What’s something you’ve said you would never do, but in fact have done? Fallen in love with Indigo Dickson. But if you knew Gumdrop, you’d understand why I fell for her hook, line, and sinker.
Most romantic gesture (done or received): I’m a firm believer that romance should happen every day. No, really, hear me out. I don’t want Gumdrop to be able to pick out one specific gesture instantly without thinking about it. I want her to think about all the little things we do for each other. Like me being there with a can of Diet Coke Lime the moment she needs it or bringing home a bag of her favorite gumdrops. Or her taking the extra time to record a recipe for me or bring home soup and bread from the bakery when I’ve been cooking all day at the diner. Grand romantic gestures are all well and good, but it’s the little moments in between them that hold a relationship together.
Words to live by: Never assume someone knows how much you mean to them. Tell them in great detail as often as you can, as you never know when it will be the last time.
I glanced around the room and nodded with satisfaction. The craft corner no longer existed thanks to a few hours of hard work. I was glad Lance was happy with where I wanted to donate the supplies. I knew Michelle would love the idea, but sometimes it’s harder for the living to accept that and part with their loved one’s things. Lance seemed to be doing well, though. He had slowly come back to life the last few weeks and hearing his laughter earlier when he ran from my room had filled my eyes with tears. His laughter was what always filled the diner when he was on shift, and it had been missing for too long. Relief had washed over me as I hugged his mother’s Christmas book to my chest.
Speaking of that, I had it tucked in my back pocket and I hoped to find the right time to talk to him about what I had in mind. Right now, I was due for dinner, so I turned the light off and headed down the stairs to the kitchen. I could smell the spicy meat already and didn’t have to wonder what he was making.
“Son, are you making tacos in here?” I asked, stepping into the room.
“You know I am, girl. There’s nothing Indigo Dickson likes more than a spicy taco.”
“Ha!”
“Except maybe gumdrops,” he said, spinning and dropping a bag of the goodies on the table.
“Oh, my Lord, I think I love you, Lance Garland,” I sighed, grabbing a handful of the treats and popping one in my mouth.
I noticed his shoulders stiffen but he didn’t say anything, which had me playing my words back in my head. Good gosh darn, what is wrong with you? Rather than try to fix my faux pas, I moved on.
“I have to say, tacos and gumdrops in the same night is going to put a few more pounds on these thighs.”
“There’s nothing wrong with your thighs,” he said, flipping the stove knob off. “You’re perfect just the way you are. How would you stand on your feet for hours in the bakery on little chicken legs?”
I snorted and almost choked on a gumdrop. “Good point. On that note, I’ll have a few more of these little babies.”
He pointed at the fridge. “Would you grab a couple bottles of pop? I’ll have a root beer.”
“Sure.” I brushed off my hands and dug out the pop. Root beer for the win. When I turned back to put them on the table, he had a pan sitting there, with bags inside. “Walking tacos!” I exclaimed with excitement. “I love walking tacos. Oh, tell me you added pico de gallo.”
“Do I look dumb?” he asked, laughter on his lips. “I know how you take your tacos.”
“Why walking tacos, though?”
He shifted from one foot to the other before he answered. “I thought you might like to go for a walk through the park. It’s a nice night out and we won’t have many more where we can walk and eat at the same time.”
“I love that idea. Let me grab my coat and shoes.”
We both bundled up appropriately for the forty-degree temps, grabbed our tacos and drinks, and headed out. With the pop in my pocket, I had two hands for eating and I moaned with every bite. “Damn, Lance. I don’t know what your secret is with tacos, but yours are always twice as good as Mason’s. What do you do to them?”
“Not telling,” he said, screwing the cap back on his bottle. “I don’t want it getting back to Mason.”
I shoulder bumped him as we reached the entrance to the park. “I promise not to tell him.”
“Come to think of it, it wouldn’t matter if you did. There’s no way he can replicate my recipe. I have a special mix of pickled peppers and green chiles that I use. It’s worth the extra time every time.”
I pointed at the almost empty bag with my fork. “Without question.”
We finished our dinner and tossed the empty bags in the trash can as we walked on towards the gazebo in the middle of the park. “Do you believe in the legend?” I asked out of the blue.
“What legend?”
“The legend of the Bells Pass Gazebo.”
“Ahh,” he said with laughter. “I mean, technically, a legend implies a story or myth that’s not true. I think the gazebo has proven itself over the years. We’ve had five couples fall under its spell just in our circle. Imagine how many we don’t know about that found love under its roof. It has to have some secret power to bring two people together.”
“Strange, isn’t it?” I asked. “Even Becca and Cam fell victim to it last year and Becca tried hard not to fall in love!”
We both chuckled as the building came into view and a smile worked its way to my face immediately. “Regardless, I love the little building. It makes me smile every time I see it. I can’t wait to see it all decorated for Christmas and the tree lit up in its blue holiday wonder.”
“Oddly enough, I can’t either.”
“Why is that odd?” I asked, climbing the stairs with him.
His shrug told me a lot, but his words filled in the blanks. “I thought the holidays were going to be impossible for me to cope with this year, but the closer we get to Thanksgiving, the more I’m looking forward to it. Again, maybe it’s my brain that doesn’t always connect things right, but my mom loved Christmas. Our last name is Garland after all,” he said with laughter. “And I think celebrating the holiday is a better way to honor her than with sadness and depression through the whole season.”
I rested my hand on his chest and smiled. “I love that idea. It has nothing to do with the way your brain connects things and everything to do with the fact that you knew your mom the best. You know that she wants you to be happy and the holidays always make you happy.” I saw my chance to bring up the book, so I took a deep breath and went for it. “Speaking of your mom’s love for Christmas, I wanted to run something by you.”
He walked to the railing by the big tree and propped his bottom up on it, motioning for me to go ahead. “Well, you know I found the book, right?” I asked and he nodded. “When I got to the last few pages, I realized that she’d already put her thoughts down about the display she wanted this year. I suspect it was shortly after she found out about her diagnosis.”
I pulled it from my back pocket and opened the book, handing it over to him and pointing at the images and descriptions. He handed it back to me and swallowed before he spoke. “Could you read it? I don’t see well in low light like this.”
“Oh, sure,” I said, standing next to him so I could point at the pictures. “She planned on keeping it simple this year with lights on the house and front bushes, but the main display in the yard being just baby Jesus,” I said pointing at her crudely drawn image, “in Mary’s arms. She wanted a spotlight on them and then on Christmas Eve, at the edge of the yard, the three wisemen.”
“That’s all she had planned or that was all the further she got?” he asked quietly, his hands in his pockets now as he stared at the floor.
“She signed it at the bottom the same way she did all the other displays, so I think that’s what she had planned.”
He lifted his head and sighed, his gaze focusing on the gazebo ceiling. “It’s November fourteenth. We missed her deadline already.”
I tucked the book back in my pocket and turned to him, resting my hands on his forearms. “Maybe we missed her deadline, but there’s plenty of time before the Christmas season officially begins to get a simple display like this one finished.”
He nodded a couple times but avoided my gaze as he thought about it. “I don’t think we have a Mary holding baby Jesus. We have the wisemen, but not Mary.”
“We can find one. I’ll look online, and if we’re lucky, I can locate one in Saginaw we can pick up tomorrow.”
His laughter was a relief to hear when his gaze finally met mine. “How do you think we’re going to get something that size in Coop?”
“Hey!” I exclaimed with feigned hurt. “Don’t insult Coop! You’d be surprised what he can hold. You’re probably right, though. We could always take the bakery van. If I’m lucky, Ivy will give me the go ahead on the gumdrop cake I want to make for the season. When she does, I’ll need to stop at the candy shop in the mall for more gumdrops.”
“Gumdrop cake? Okay, things have gotten out of control with you!”
I punched him lightly in the arm. “Watch it, buster! Besides, Mel loved my gumdrop cake, and the kids will go crazy for it this holiday season. Just wait until I give a slice to Ivy tomorrow at the meeting. It will be all over but the crying then.”
He held up his hands. “Okay, if you can convince Ivy that your gumdrop cake is the baked good no one knew they needed this Christmas, I’ll go with you to Saginaw after work. What if they don’t have a Mary, though?”
“I’ll order one. Shipping won’t take long, and we can work on all the other stuff in the meantime.”
His nod was swift but sad. “Sounds like a plan. It won’t win the neighborhood display this year, but—”
“But your neighbors will be happy to see you carrying on the tradition that your mom loved so much.”
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Katie Mettner writes small-town romantic tales filled with epic love stories and happily-ever-afters. She proudly wears the title of, ‘the only person to lose her leg after falling down the bunny hill,’ and loves decorating her prosthetic with the latest fashion trends. She lives in Northern Wisconsin with her own happily-ever-after and three mini-mes. Katie has a massive addiction to coffee and Twitter, and a lessening aversion to Pinterest — now that she’s quit trying to make the things she pins.
Places to find Katie Mettner:
Thank you so much for sharing Lance with your readers! He has been a special character in the series and it was finally time to share his story. Thank you for the lovely post!
ReplyDeleteThank you for doing the post for me. I have never heard of Lance before, but I'm already in love with him.
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