“Hang on. There’s a pretty bad ice-up situation here. I’ve got a crowbar and I’ll have you out in a minute.”
Some ominous cracking sounds followed, and a moment later the door opened and cold air flooded inside. Maggie gasped “Brrr!” and clutched her coat around herself.
From the other side of the door, Mauro looked ruefully at them as he stood there holding a crowbar. “I guess we better shut the sauna down until the weather warms up a little, or we figure out a solution to this. Meanwhile I’ll get some deicer outhere. Really sorry about that. You all aren’t having much of a vacation, are you?”
“It’s okay,” Sam said. He looked down at Maggie with a grin playing around his lips. “It didn’t turn out so bad.”
He wasn’t aware of having put an arm around her waist. Perhaps it was still there from when they had been kissing earlier; he’d nearly lost his awareness of his surroundings in the heat of Maggie’s mouth.
But he was all too aware of it when he looked up, past Mauro, and saw his daughter looking at both of them with a betrayed expression.
“So this is me getting a say in it, huh?” Charlie snapped, just before she stormed off.
CHARLIE
Miserable and angry,upset with herself as much as the adults, Charlie huddled on the couch in front of the fire. She was aware of her dad having come in a few minutes ago, but had ducked down so he wouldn’t see her. He would probably be looking for her any minute now.
She felt awful about—well, all of this, really. Her dad had been so sad without Mom. She knew he still was sad, even though he hid it from her. And he deserved to find a new person, just?—
Just not her. Not Maggie. Please.
There was no way that Maggie wasn’t cozying up to her dad to get something out of him. For so long, it had been just the two of them. They looked out for each other.
Charlie reflexively rubbed the patch of sweater neck between her collarbones, feeling the nubbly knit of the sweater, and what wasn’t under it.
After a moment, her finger stilled.
She realized that she could think of a way to get rid of Maggie for good.
It would only work if her dad didn’t trust Maggie. But—this would prove it to him, wouldn’t it? Prove to him what kind of person Maggie really was, and how he really felt about her.
SAM
Charlie showedup back at the room before Sam had a chance to go look for her, but she was distant and uncommunicative as they got ready for bed. She took the bed, while Sam slept on the cot. He didn’t see any reason to have Housekeeping change the sheets—Maggie had only been there one night—but this meant he was sharply aware of Maggie’s smells, the scent of her floral shampoo, the lingering impression of her soft skin that had impressed itself where he was now lying ...
Sleeping in the generator shed would have been easier.
From the bed came a soft grunt and the sound of Charlie turning over. He could see the glow of her phone screen, so she wasn’t asleep.
“Charlie, honey? You awake?”
“Mmmm,” was the only reply, but it didn’t sound sleepy.
“Looking forward to Christmas, punkin? Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, you know.”
Charlie huffed a very teenager-ish sigh. “I’m notfive, Dad.”
Sam rolled over and propped his head on his arm. He was acutely tuned in to Charlie’s moods most of the time, or at least he tried to be. This one was unmistakable. “Charlotte, are you upset?”
“Whatever, Dad.”
“That kind of sounds like a yes.”
Charlie draped herself over the edge of the bed. The cot was lower, so she was looking down at him in the dim room. “You’re a grownup. You can have ...thingswith other grownups if you want to. So. It’s all fine.”
“Okay, so you’re mad about Maggie.”
“Ugh!” Charlie flopped back; he could no longer see her. “I just said it was fine!”
