Page 29
My jaw dropped. “Your internet is working?”
“I read it on my phone.”
“You have service?”
Eli’s brow furrowed. “Sure. Don’t you?”
I pulled my useless phone out of my coat pocket and showed it to him. “No bars. I haven’t been able to tell anyone where I am.”
The blood drained from his face as he considered what I just said. “Oh, no. I’m sure people are wondering where you are.”
I sighed. “I know they are.”
Eli held his phone toward me. “If you want to borrow my phone, here you go.”
I snatched that phone out of his hands so fast that the momentum nearly sent me to my backside. Thankfully, Mr.Strong-And-No-I’m-Not-Thinking-Of-His-Hard-SpotsMarine caught me before I could crash to the ice. I barely registered it as I stared at his phone, and my heart sank.
“You don’t have bars either.” I reluctantly handed him back his phone.
Eli angrily shoved the phone into his jeans pocket and skated away from me a few inches. “Sorry. Guess you’ll have to wait a little longer to call your boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” I frowned. “Who said anything about a boyfriend?”
He shrugged. “I assumed when you said people were wondering where you were.”
I bit back a smile. Jealousy was adorable on this guy. “No boyfriend. The spa I had reservations foris probably wondering where I am. I was supposed to be there days ago.”
“Days ago? You just got here yesterday.”
I closed my eyes and tipped back my head. Was I praying? Asking for guidance? It’s not like any of those tactics worked in my previousninedays stuck in this hellscape. “It’s a long story.”
“I like your stories.”
“You’re not going to believe me when I tell you.” I shook my head.
“Try me,” Eli urged, his blue eyes boring into me.
I took a deep breath. “I’m stuck in Christmas, Mississippi.” I held up a hand to stave off the protests that Eli always gives me when I say that. “Now, before you get all bent out of shape about me saying ‘stuck’ - I don’t mean it’s a terrible place to be. I mean, I’mstuck. I keep re-living the same day over and over again.”
He glanced around the rink. “So, we’ve been ice skating before?”
“Well - no.”
“I’m confused.”
A teenager barrelled straight toward us, and I pulled Eli out of the way. “Every day is a little different. I start in the snowbank outside of Bonnie’s.”
Eli pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry about that. I should’ve shoveled.”
I put my hand over his mouth. “Stop. That’s not the problem. I start in the snowbank, then the next morning, Joe or Bonnie sends us on one errand or another.”
“Errand? Like what?”
“Picking a Christmas tree, baking cookies, sledding.”
“Sledding is an errand?” Eli asked.
I laughed at that one. “You suggested that as a reward for the cookie baking.”
