Leaves Read Online Free

fifteen minutes were surprisingly quiet, and Corrina pulled out her notebook and started compiling lists. Since Tyler left the dinner last night before they got all the details down, she was going to have to call him. She wasn’t particularly fond of talking to him these days, and he also seemed so easily distracted that he could very well screw things up. She could of course get the decorations herself if she had to, but she didn’t want him to drop it on her at the last minute.
    When the door opened again, Corrina quickly closed the notebook, realizing it wasn’t necessary when she looked up to see Etta Hawkins. Etta had been living in Oldham since she was a toddler and was one of her mother’s closest friends.
    â€œHey, Etta.”
    â€œHello, dear. How’s the day treating you so far?”
    â€œJust fine, I think. We’ve had a bunch of people here already this morning.”
    Etta took her hand and patted it softly. “It’s good that they’re keeping you on your toes.”
    Corrina smiled. Corrina had called this woman “Aunt Etta” until she was a teenager, and she was still tempted to do so at times. “It’s nice to see you.”
    â€œAnd you too, dear, always. The reason I stopped by is that some of us were speculating yesterday and I figured I’d go straight to the source for the answer. Are you planning to hold the Halloween party again this year?”
    For the past thirty years, the Sugar Maple Inn took no reservations for lodging on Halloween, instead opening its doors to the entire town for a huge celebration of the day, a holiday both Bethany and Joseph Gold had taken special pleasure in. The party had become one of the town’s highlights of the season and was discussed with anticipation by the locals as early as August every year. With her mother’s death and the pending sale of the inn, the common assumption around town had been that the tradition had ended. But Corrina wasn’t ready for that, and in an increasingly rare showing of equanimity among her siblings, they’d all agreed to throw one more bash.
    â€œYes, we are. In fact, I was just drawing up a list of things to do for it when you came in.”
    â€œYou are ,” Etta said with almost childlike pleasure. “I’m so glad. We all wanted it to happen just one more time. To say goodbye properly, you know? I’m sure the new owners mean well, but a corporation? It just won’t be the same no matter what they do.”
    Corrina cast her eyes downward. “The party is important to all of us.”
    Etta reached for her hand, squeezing it tightly this time. “It’s still hard for me to believe that Bethie is gone. Such a cruel disease. She would have wanted you to do this.”
    â€œI think so, too.”
    Etta held her hand for several moments longer, neither saying a word. Then Etta brightened, gave Corrina’s hand one more tap, and turned toward the door.
    â€œI have to go call Joanne and Martha. They’re going to be so pleased.” Etta stopped and looked at Corrina, beaming. “I need to start thinking about my costume!”
    Corrina chuckled to herself as Etta left. Then she got back to her list. If she needed any further inspiration to make this party as special as her parents had always made it, her mother’s old friend had managed to provide precisely that.

**^^^**

    We’re not really going to have the parking conve r sation again, are we? Maxwell Gold thought as the meeting stretched into its second hour. In the eighteen months since he’d been elected president of the Oldham Chamber of Commerce – not to mention the six years he’d been an active member of the board before that – the subject had arisen at every single meeting. Surely others in the room understood the futility of it and even the irony. But that didn’t prevent the conversation from happening.
    â€œYou saw the results of