I manage not to jump out of my skinandignore the pointed observation. “Merry Christmas, Aunt Mara.”
“You, too. I hope you haven’t been behaving yourself.”
“He’s been getting up to all sorts of trouble,” Jules promises, speaking for me with an exaggerated lie. The onlytrouble I’ve been getting up to this year is constantly re-inserting myself into Rory’s bullshit like a glutton for punishment.
I pointedly change the subject and ask Mara about her daughter. “No Glory this year?”
“She’sworking, can you imagine?”
Of course Mara is horrified at the thought, but Glory is her opposite in many ways.
“Christmas break is a good time to pick up extra shifts,” I point out, and then think,I could have done the same.
“That’s what she said.” Mara shakes her head. “Well, it’s her time.”
I smile. “How is she liking university?”
“Loves it. Just loves it.”
“That’s great.” I glance back at Rory. She still has one of the twins on her hip.
Mara follows my gaze, then smiles.
Damn it.
“I need to…” I pull out my phone, and there’s a text message on the screen that helps me extract myself from this conversation. “We had a skater break her arm earlier today. I was going to say I need to check on her, but her mom has sent an update, so excuse me for a minute.”
“Of course.”
I carry my bag into the back room and stash it beside one of the couches, then I click into the message. It’s a photo of Emma and her parents in front of the tree I left on their porch. Emma’s arm is in a cast, but she’s smiling now.
I send back a quickMerry Christmasto them, then take a deep breath as I hear another raucous peel of laughter ring out.
Chapter 18
Rory
Garrett doesn’t come back immediately. I hate how much I want to follow him into the back room. I’m going to resistthatinstinct, though.
I can’t run away from him and then chase after him. I need to slow down and just be more…careful.
“What should we do first?” Jules asks. “Make boozy eggnog? Decorate cookies?”
“Eggnog,” Mara says.
“Cookies,” the twins scream. One of them right in my ear.
Wincing, I set him down. “Definitely eggnog.”
The kids climb onto the kitchen chairs, making them my mom’s problem as Cassie catches our aunts up on her separation, without giving any details. Jules and I escape to the liquor cabinet.
“Do you think they fought about kids?” Jules asks under her breath.
“They who?”
“Cassie and Nate.”
I do a double take. “What? Why do you think that?”
