Chapter 13

The ambience at the Candy Cane Lane Inn was different than Dak had been expecting when he booked his reservations months ago. From the pictures online, he’d been imagining an overly cliché family run B and B where everyone was corny and sappy, flinging Christmas in his face like it was a handful of that fake silver tinsel he used to hang on the tree as a kid—the Muzak version of a holiday classic. What he’d gotten was actually a quaint, cozy inn where the innkeepers were kind and offered plenty of activities to those who wanted to participate but didn’t hound their guests to make an appearance at every single event. Even the décor in his room was understated. While the bed linens were Christmas themed—plaids in red and white with a handmade quilt in a poinsettia pattern, the rest of the room wasn’t packed with kitsch. A small Christmas tree with tasteful, red and gold bulbs sat on the dresser, the white lights creating a s