“What’s so important about this overnight?”

Maybelle peaked her head into the back room. “Gabe, I’m heading out. Can you watch the front of the shop?”

“Yeah,” Gabe called, then gestured to Andrew. “Let’s finish this conversation with a snack. I have some leftover bear claws from the bakery.”

“I guess,” came the downtrodden reply from Andrew. The kid must be really bad off if Sunnyside pastries didn’t put a spark in his eye. Gabe knew they were his favorite, which might have been why he’d started stocking them. Not that he was going to come right out and say it.

They walked to the front of the shop, which was empty of customers at the moment. Gabe didn’t worry about that. He’d had more foot traffic since putting up the decorations than he’d had in the previous couple of months. Add that to the online orders and his new association with a national florist registry, and the store was going to be in the black for the month of December.

He was both proud and conflicted, as he didn’t want to do anything that would please his mother. But Gran was so happy with the changes he’d made that he couldn’t regret them.

Andrew climbed up on his normal stool behind the counter, and Gabe put out a plate of pastries and a juice box. The boy looked at them with a longing sigh, but didn’t reach for one.

Tough times, indeed.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

GABE’S HEART MELTED for the kid, and he decided in that moment, no matter what it took or how hard he had to work to convince Angi to let him help, he’d do it. At least to get Andrew through this rough patch. There had been so many times Gabe could have used someone to guide him. His grandma had done her best, but he’d only come to Magnolia for the summers. School years had often felt like a field of land mines with one wrong step sending his world into chaos.

“You were about to tell me why this activity is such a big deal.”

“The scouts in my troop need hours to get the community service badge each year. Everybody goes to the forest thing because it’s the best way to get them. We do trail cleanup and cut down Christmas trees to donate to families who don’t got money to buy ’em.”

“Can’t you just do something else? Volunteer at Furever Friends scooping poop or feeding kittens or something?”

“I guess,” Andrew said after a long pause. “But the woods are the most fun. We have lunch at a cool cabin with a big moose head on the wall, and we get to use axes.”

“Very smart on the part of your troop leaders, by the way. Sending a bunch of boys into the woods with sharp tools. Wait until you read Lord of the Flies in school and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.”

“We also get extra points toward awards at the end of the troop year,” Andrew explained. “Each boy gets credit for his hours and his dad’s. My grandpa used to go with me, although he usually just brought lunch and didn’t do much chopping. That counted though, and it was fun. And now I can’t go because I don’t have anybody.”