Snow’s lips already form the word no and I can see her bowing out of this, but a selfish part of me rears up first. “Of course she is,” I say quickly. “She was even kind enough to bring the food.”
Snow shoots me a confused glance, then offers her armful of sandwiches to Thea. “Take your pick!”
We sit at Thea’s table a few minutes later and dig into our respective meals with one eye on the clock.
Keeping Snow here is selfish of me, but every snatched moment with her is what is keeping me sane.
I’m like an addict who can’t go more than five minutes without a hit from her presence, so I’ll take what I can get.
She sits across from me next to Thea and quietly eats while listening to Thea talk about her amazing flight down here.
She details everything, from the food she had to the comfortable seat and even how polite the staff were.
Through it all, try as I might, I can’t keep my eyes off Snow.
She looks a little better.
Staying in my guest room seems to be helping her catch up on sleep and the cats love having her there.
I’ve been ensuring she eats at least two decent meals a day—difficult in our line of work.
It’s the little things I can do to help her while ensuring she doesn’t feed into that reckless streak she’s developed.
“What do you think?” Thea asks, and suddenly, all eyes are on me.
I finish my sandwich and tense. “About what?”
“Are you serious?” Thea groans and she glances at Snow. “How my scatterbrained brother became some leading surgeon is beyond me. He wouldn’t ever remember his own birthday, never mind listen to anything anyone has to say if he’s not interested.”
“That’s why I’m a leading surgeon. I’m interested in surgery.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Thea snorts while Snow chuckles to herself. “I wasaskingif you would come and visit me for Christmas since I came all the way down to see you.”
“Oh.”
“Oh, he says,” Thea groans. “Is that it?”
“I can’t make any promises,” I say. “You know how my work is. I can’t put in for time off this close to Christmas.”
“I did ask you back in March,” Thea accuses.
“I know. But… It’s difficult.”
“Plus, he’s up for a promotion,” Snow remarks, and she hides her smirk in her next bite.
So this is my punishment for making her eat with me.
“Promotion?” Thea nearly jumps out of her seat. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wasn’t planning to,” I say with a warm, accusatory glance at Snow. “Until it was a done deal.”
“Dude, that’s not the point. A promotion is huge! What is it even for?”
“Chief of Surgery,” Snow answers in a flash. “In fact, he’s filling in for the position right now, technically.”
Every warm part of me wants to reach across the table and kiss her just to keep her quiet, but as frustrating as it is to hear my sister explode, I live for the amused twinkle in Snow’s eyes.
“Chief of Surgery?” Thea can barely contain herself. “Why didn’t you tell me? This is the sort of thing you tell your sister. You don’t keep it a secret! Are you crazy? Do you know what this means? Also, what does the schedule look like for the Chief because I bet you could get Christmas off, right?”
