Page 16 of A Christmas For Holly

“Yep?”

“When youdofind him, can you be careful?”

I was startled, “Huh?”

Bailey’s coughing fit interrupted my question—probably a good thing. Bailey hesitated, and I could hear the uncertainty in his voice when he spoke again. “Lucas… he’s been getting… I want to—” Bailey coughed, then cursed. “Kai would want to look out for him—cough—and I wouldn’t ask for your help—wheeze—if it wasn’t important.”

“I’ll find him.”

“Lucas…” Bailey’s tone was softer now, almost pleading. “Please. He’s struggling, and if he’s here, check on him. Be kind. For me?”

Be kind. I’m always kind.

“You just focus on getting better and taking care of Kai.”

“And maybe getting Boots to stay off Kai for five minutes,” Bailey replied, another soft chuckle escaping him. “Boots, stop!”

“Good luck with that,” I said, forcing a smile into my voice. “Get some rest, Bailey. I’ll message you when I find Holly.”

“Thanks, Lucas. Talk soon.”

Holly was in town but hadn’t given Kai details. What was with the cryptic message? And why didn’t he have the decency to answer Bailey’s calls?

“All right, Holly,” I muttered, slipping my phone back into my pocket. “Let’s see where you’re hiding.”

It took me a mere thirty minutes to track down where Holly was staying, and by the time I got the answer from a friend of a friend who’d driven past a cabin with a bright blue car parked outside, my stomach was twisted in knots. Holly wasn’tjustpassing through—apparently, he was booked in at one of the Kissing Pines cabins for three months.

“For real? Three months?” I asked Bertram, the owner of said cabins, trying to keep the shock out of my voice.

Bertram Norstrum Junior, a local property tycoon—if owning three cabins that had seen better days made a man a tycoon—nodded, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Yep, that’s what he booked. I said we weren’t renting, what with the renovations and all, but he paid for it upfront, and that was about it. Due in on Friday.”

First of all, Friday? Today was Wednesday, and he was early. Also, what the fuck? Three months. My mind spun, the reality of Holly settling in for the winter sinking in fast. This wasn’t just a visit. Was Holly here to stay?

Oh, well, I’d check on him later, given I had a shift; only, as soon as I stepped through the door, Duncan asked, “Have you found Holly yet?”

“How did you?—”

“Bailey called me, said Callum couldn’t help, and I’m working, so he’d ask you.”

Why was I last on the list? “He’s up at Kissing Cabins,” I explained.

“I thought they were shut right now for repairs?”

“Bertram said he paid cash up-front and didn’t care if the cabin wasn’t finished.”

Duncan raised an eyebrow. “Are you going up to check on him?”

“Bailey asked me to, clearly way down the list after Callum and you,” I replied, more defensively than I intended. Duncan looked confused. Almost as if he couldn’t quite understand why I was getting defensive or standing in our store when I should be out there on Bailey’s mission. “Anyway, I’m on shift now, so how about I take over here, and you go.”

He frowned. “I was going to talk to you anyway. I’ll cover your shift,” he gestured at the quiet shop. “The kids are due soon; I’m watching out for them when they’re in the back.”

“I can do that.”

Duncan was confused and frowned. “No, I promise I’d help with Mitchell’s math homework, and you know you’re shit at that.” He was laughing, but then he must have seen something in my expression. “Um, do youneedme to go instead?” He glanced back at the math textbook paperback on the counter, open with Post-it notes marking pages.

He was right; I was shit at math.

It fell on me as the only not-ill, uncoupled, childless one of the four Haynes brothers. So, I nodded and smiled, grumpy as soon as the door hit me on the way out. I headed out of town, driving the two miles up the mountain road towards the start of the High Peak pass road and the cabins before the skiing complex. The road was narrow and winding as the incline grew steeper, but the snow was still light despite the darkeningskies. It wasn’t hard to spot the cabin Holly was staying in—his obnoxious car was there, standing out like a sore thumb in the snowy landscape. The personalized license plates,H011Y 59, were just as attention-grabbing as the car.

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