Page 16 of Merry Mended Hearts

Grace lifted her hands, looking quickly at me and then away just as fast.

“I’m so sorry,” she said again. “I can just go sleep out on the couch in the lobby.”

“No,” Junie and I both said.

Because not only would that be tacky, but it wasn’t her fault my cousin made the mistake of not asking me first.

What would I have said if she had?

No, probably. But still.

Grunting, I made my way to the dresser and dug out a dry shirt and pants. Wordlessly, I stalked past the two women toward the open door.

“Thanks, Boone,” Junie said with that cheeky grin as though she knew just how much she’d overstepped and was rubbing it in my face.

Grace, however, wasn’t quite as smug about this. I slipped the shirt on over my chest just as she told me to wait.

Reluctantly, I turned and faced her. She twined her dark hair over one shoulder. Her eyes were blue pools of worry, and she tucked her lips into her teeth.

“Where will you go?” she asked.

There was always Aunt Meg’s room. I inhaled and turned to Junie. “Your mom is gone?”

She nodded.

“I’ll sleep there.”

Grace fanned her hands toward me. “Let me,” she said. “I can move. Please. You have your space.”

She bent for her suitcase, pulling it upright and jerking its handle until it clicked up.

I glanced toward the bed. Its blankets were mussed, her laptop still sat where she’d left it, and I didn’t want to be anywhere her fruity smell had been. It was tantalizing enough from a distance, but smelling her in my pillow? Knowing her body had warmed the sheets just before mine did?

That took my thoughts down too many roads they didn’t need to travel.

“You stay right where you are,” I told her, tipping my chin toward both women and stalking down the hall.

After showering and changing into dry clothes, I didn’t bother with dinner. I scrolled through the contacts on my phone, wondering who could help drive the sleigh on Christmas Eve. We had to find someone else.

I couldn’t do it.

My resolve to stay away from Grace only heightened that much more. I had one more day before Christmas Eve. One more day of work. And then I was hiding myself away to let Christmas come and go just like it did every year.

Without anyone meddling in my life in the meantime.

If only I’d known Santa’s magic radio had other ideas, I would have braved the darkness and left that very night.

JUNIE

I wasn’t cutout for this hotel thing.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the inn. Ever since my grandparents renovated everything—added rooms, added the spa, basically sequestered my childhood home to something hidden behind closed doors—it had been an adventure.

But two of my people had recently quit. Mom went snowbirding in southern Utah. (I couldn’t blame her for that one. She had health issues, and she needed the warmer climate.)

Boone refused to exist during the holiday and hid himself away doing who knew what, so I had a backup sleigh driver in place—only to have him get injured? One guest showed up and I couldn’t find her reservation, so I basically snuck her into Boone’s old room.

And now this? If one more thing went wrong, I was going to lose it.

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