“Do you think he’ll skip Christmas dinner?”
“Who knows?” She longed to tell Claudie about his issues with Christmas, but she wouldn’t. She’d promised. Holding the mug in both hands, she took a sip. “Nice. Does rum go okay with Baileys?”
“What?”
“I had hot tea laced with Baileys over at the bunkhouse.”
“Huh. That’s a new combo for them. Was it good?”
“It was, oddly enough. This is better. I don’t usually mix different kinds of booze. I don’t want to make myself sick.”
“Ah, there you go. You’re coming out of it already.”
“Out of what?”
“Your meltdown. Ten minutes ago you wouldn’t have given a damn about making yourself sick.”
“True. I still feel awful, but I was borderline suicidal when I walked in.”
“Yep. Scared me a little.”
“Sorry.”
“You pulled out of it. That’s all that counts. So what happened, chica?”
“I can’t tell you all of it. I promised not to, and I’ll keep that promise.”
“Of course. I assume we’re not talking about the secret project.”
“Lord, no.” She’d forgotten about the Beaver Bunch. “I guess he’ll still present it on Christmas Day, but….”
“It’ll be awkward.”
“Or not. Nobody needs to know we broke up since you’re the only one who saw it happen. We’d already planned for me to come back here for two days so you and I could make fudge. That can be the cover story.”
“I guess, until everybody sees you two together.”
“Yeah. He’ll be better at faking it than I will. The guy plays his cards close to the vest.”
“I’m not all that surprised.”
She took another swallow of the eggnog and raised the mug in Claudie’s direction. “Good call, hermana.”
“That’s what I’m here for. So what can you tell me?”
“Bottom line, he has some ugly stories from his childhood. From what we’ve heard about his sister’s experience, that won’t surprise you, either.”
“Nope.”
“I’ve figured out he had it worse than she did and shielded her as best he could, but he refuses to talk about it.”
“After all these years?”
“He insists on keeping it buried. Even Jordan doesn’t know the half of it.”
“Oh, boy.”
“I took a long ride on Sol today to think it through. Then I picked the Damsels’ brains on what makes or breaks a relationship. I didn’t say why I wanted to know, but I’m sure they figured it out.”
