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during the day she runs little ‘How to Deck the Halls’ videos she’s done so she still gets hits. I had this idea that we could do a few short pieces that are actually advertisements for Goodwin’s where Mrs. Goodlife has a dream that she is transported to the future and sees that even fifty years from now a Goodwin’s life is still the good life!”
    â€œThat’s great. Way to use your head, Mrs. Goodlife.” He tapped her black velveteen headband, making her cherished snowflake pin, which she had attached to the band to keep from making a hole in her vintage sweater, bobble. “Did I knock your snowflake loose?”
    She reached up to test it. “No, it’s fine. I always make sure it’s pretty secure. I wouldn’t want to lose it for the world. It was a gift from my father that last Christmas.”
    â€œAh. I knew there was a story behind it.”
    â€œWhen he gave it to me, my dad said that since he couldn’t always be with me, it was his way to remind me that I was a special and unique individual, that there was nobody out there just like me.”
    â€œLike a snowflake.”
    â€œExactly. But he also wanted me to remember that even though every snowflake is beautiful on its own, many of them working together can totally change the way people see their whole world.”
    â€œI like that.”
    She met his warm, sincere gaze. “Of course, my mom really played up the ‘beauty of the individual’ angle.”
    â€œAnd you liked the ‘everyone working together’ bit?”
    â€œYeah. That is, I did, but now…” She looked toward Mrs. Goodwin, who had finally gotten the production team sent off to prepare for their commercial and was now talking to Doc in the living-room setting, probably going over last-minute details of her big announcement.
    â€œTo everything there is a season,” Nate said quietly, clearly reading a pending shift of her feelings in her wistful hesitation. “And a time to every purpose under the heavens.”
    Addie skimmed her fingers over the snowflake again. Even with all the chaos around them she had a sense of the whole world being no bigger than the space where she and Nate now stood. “I love that part of Ecclesiastes.”
    He adjusted his vintage harvest-gold V-neck sweaterover his broad shoulders. “Just a little something to think about.”
    â€œAt one point in your life it’s good to work together with others, and at other times you just have to work up your nerve and…” She gestured with both hands as she tried to find the right way to put it.
    â€œBe a flake?” he quipped.
    She smiled. “I was going to say to go out there and stand out.”
    â€œEven better.” He put his hands on her shoulders, fixed his eyes on hers and then, just before he let go, leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Go. Let Maimie know that Mrs. Goodlife isn’t the only one with her sights on the future.”
    She didn’t think her feet touched the ground after that kiss and Nate’s show of faith in her. She floated along to the living-room set, imagined herself practically hovering as she shared her proposal for the webisodes and drifted even higher emotionally when the older woman told her she thought they were brilliant.
    When Nate came to her side to hear the big announcement, she wondered if, in the still photos being snapped by the photographer of the Star City Satellite , it would show she was over the moon. Or if, minutes later, when Mrs. Goodwin took the floor to command the attention of the group, everyone standing there noticed that before the older woman finished her exciting proclamation, Addie wished she could crawl in a hole and hide.

Chapter Nine
    N ate had to remind himself to keep smiling as Maimie launched into a spiel welcoming the curious and the customers and singing the praises of Goodwin’s Department Store.