“I happen to love my work,” Sarah reminded, smiling at Maybelle as she added, “Besides, who says I want to meet a man? The last man—and I use that term loosely—in my life sure wasn’t worth taking time away from work or you ladies.”

Richard and his big-city dreams were, thankfully, long gone from her beloved Pine Hill. Although memories snuck in from time to time reminding of how her heart had broken when he’d left her, these days, mostly she just bid him good riddance.

Any man who didn’t want a calm, normal, white picket fence, church-going, Christmas-loving life in Pine Hill wasn’t the right man for her. Plain and simple.

Sarah added, “With trying to get the bed and breakfast open by Christmas, I don’t have time for a man.” Renovating the old Victorian ate up all her time and then some. “Fulfilling Aunt Jean’s dream of turning Hamilton House into a B & B is my number one priority outside of church and work.”

Her aunt had belonged with these women—had grown up with them and been a part of everything in Pine Hill. Sarah’s mother had died giving birth to her, but her father’s older sister had stepped up to give her niece a woman’s guidance.

“How’s that going?” Ruby asked. Sarah was especially glad that Ruby seemed to have accepted the subject shift away from Sarah’s love life. Ruby was happily married to the man of her dreams for going on fifty years and would gladly tell anyone who’d listen about her wonderful Charles. It made her a very determined matchmaker, since she wanted everyone to be as happy as she was. Ruby and Charles were a sweet couple, but the Butterflies often teased Ruby about her longtime love affair with her husband.

“Yeah, about that.” Sarah’s shoulders sank. “I placed another handyman ad, if that tells you anything.”

Four concerned faces winced in unison.

“Did you fire another one?” Ruby asked.

Maybelle’s eyes narrowed. “Or did this one quit, too?”

Sarah shrugged. What did it matter? This time, the sloppy handyman had splattered paint on the hardwood floor. When she’d gotten upset, he’d only picked at his teeth with his dirty fingernail, saying it would clean. He hadn’t been the right handyman for Hamilton House, any more than Richard had been the right man for her.

“Girl, your aunt didn’t mean for that house to take over your life,” Rosie Matthews reminded her as she attached ribbons and hooks to Maybelle’s decorated snowflakes. Rosie was a mover and shaker and sometimes made Sarah’s head spin with her crowded social life. Flaunting her energetic, youthful spirit with her bright blue hair, Rosie liked men and they liked her. No doubt the woman had broken more than a few hearts over her sixty-plus years. Although she’d been married three times and had gotten a few proposals since, she’d remained single after her last husband had passed a few years back.

“I listened to Aunt Jean talk about restoring Hamilton House to its former glory those last few weeks before her death,” Sarah said. “She knew what I’d do when she left the house to me, that I’d find a way to bring it back to life even if I can only do so a few rooms at a time.”