Page 8 of Stay this Christmas
“Which movie are we watching?”Eliza stood in front of Eden’s television, remote in hand, her red and green highlights making her look like a Christmas elf. “The one where she falls in love with a ghost? Or the one where she falls in love with a time-traveling knight? Vote now or forever keep your trap shut.”
The four of us voiced our choices at the same time, split straight down the middle.
She rolled her eyes. “I guess I could have called that. Eden and I voted for the hot, sensible guy, and June and Harper voted for the rugged, outdoorsy type.”
I ignored her and buttered another slice of thick, homemade bread. We’d opted to stay in for girls’ night, and we’d each brought something to make a cozy winter meal. June’s butternut squash soup, my bread, Eden’s banana-ginger muffins, and Eliza’s molasses cookies were better than any night out at The Broken Hammer.
Honestly, I might vote we make it a girls’ nightinfrom now on.
“Sensible and outdoorsy aren’t mutually exclusive,” June said. “But you’re right, the knight has a certain something…”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ve got a thing for guys with horses. We know.” Eliza made a face at our cousin, who grinned back.
Since June’s boyfriend, Ty, owned a horse ranch, it probably did make sense she’d lean toward that in a romance hero. As for me, I would go on ignoring Eliza’s hints aboutoutdoorsytypes.
“Your theory is ridiculous,” Eden said from her spot on the couch. She had a pillow in her lap and had picked at a little bit of everything. Her morning sickness had turned into a round-the-clock upset stomach, and I hadn’t seen her eat a full meal in weeks. “Booker is nothing like that ghost. If you think he wouldevergo behind my back on some bootleg moonshine operation—”
“Fine. Forget the ghost.” Eliza threw her hands in the air and grabbed another cookie. “I really just wanted to get Harper talking about Sam.”
I stared her down even as heat crept up my neck. Best part about girls’ night? Spending time with my closest friends. Worst part? Getting grilled by them.
June and Eden weren’t that bad, but Eliza had no more subtlety than the residents of Fiesta Village. She’d been pushing me in Sam’s direction ever since he’d shown up in town, pulling his name into conversations he had no business being included in and generally making him impossible to avoid. No matter what I said to try to dissuade her, nothing could shake her ridiculous notion he’d come back to Magnolia Ridge for me.
Clearly, she’d watched too many cheesy romance movies. Maybe we should have picked a different activity for the night. Monopoly didn’t give anybody starry-eyed notions about reuniting exes.
Not that the girls had willingly played Monopoly with me in years.
“How are things at the Village?”
June asked so gently, I knew we were still talking about Sam.
I hadn’t told them much about it, just that he’d started volunteering there. All my inner turmoil over it, I’d kept to myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them—I had implicit trust in all three of them, and even Eliza would keep any secrets I shared. I just didn’t trust myself to talk about Sam without diving back intofeelingthings about Sam, and I would never cross that line with him again. Much better to pretend total indifference to his existence than allow the possibility of any emotional response to his return.
“It’s not that big of a deal.” An irritation, yes. A big deal? Absolutely not. Seeing my ex through a window for one hour twice a week would be a silly thing to get worked up about. “And anyway, I’m dating someone.”
Sort of. Dating-lite. We were taking things slow, like adults. Not everyone rushed head-first into an epic love story after knowing a guy for a few weeks, the way all the other women in this room had done.
We’d met at a PT conference in Round Rock over the summer. After sitting together through several speakers, we’d gone out to dinner, and our relationship had progressed from there.
Although, relationship might be a strong word.
Eden and June shared a look, but Eliza huffed out a breath.
“Yeah, I forgot about Trevor.”
“Travis,” I corrected.
She jabbed a finger my direction, triumph all over her face. “Exactly my point!”
I splayed a hand. “What point?”
“He might as well be Trevor. We’ve never met him.”
Guilt and a little bit of unease swam around inside me. “He’s been really busy.”
All three of them shared a look. I knew that look too well. We used to look at each other like that whenever Eliza pretended to get moony over her latest diversionary tactic, made-up feelings over made-up guys so we wouldn’t realize she’d boarded up her heart.
“He’s been busy for an awfully long time,” she said.
