“Connected?” Gracie scoffed. “My mother and aunt run it and I’ll no doubt inherit it someday. Is something wrong?”
Bianca’s eyes shuttered as she seemed to consider how to respond. “Under the circumstances, I should tell you this alone, Marsh.”
“You can tell me here,” he said calmly, clearly well versed in Bianca’s dramatics. “Anything.”
“I need to be alone with you,” she practically whined.
Just then, Gracie noticed the car lights leaving, which meant Bianca had come by Uber and wasn’t going anywhere.Dang it.The warm bubble of their night popped so fast Gracie almost felt the temperature drop.
Newt barked once, then trotted over to sniff the newcomer’s boots suspiciously. Kat, sensing drama, leapt onto the back of the sofa like she needed the high ground.
Marshall froze, eyebrows lifting with curiosity. “Bianca? What’s going on?”
Bianca pressed a shaking hand to her chest. “There was—there was a thing in my cabin.”
“What kind of thing?” Olivia asked.
Bianca shuddered dramatically. “A spider. A monstrous spider. Practically prehistoric. The thing was the size of a dinner plate, I swear on my life.”
Benny’s mouth twitched. Gracie shot her son a look that said:not one word.
Her genius son was surely thinking what she, born and raised in Utah, already knew. Wolf spiders—a creature that barely broke a few inches and could never be described as the size of a dinner plate—would be deeply burrowed underground in December. Not even the heat of a fire could coax them out of their warm winter holes.
“It was directly over my bed!” she exclaimed when no one seemed to be upset enough to suit her.
“Did you call my mother?” Gracie asked. “MJ is on-site in the lodge and she’d have come kill it for you.”
“I asked for help,” she continued, sounding purposely vague, “and no one came! I could’ve died, because that thinghadto be poisonous. Now I’m shaking all over and I just… I can’t go back. I need to stay here tonight.”
Marshall blinked. “Here?”
“Where else would I stay?” She glanced at the tree and the kids. “I didn’t know this was a family tree decorating night.”
When four unsmiling faces looked at her, she threw off her coat. “Well, I know how this goes,” she announced. “The silver hairy stuff goes one at a time, right? Your mother was the original control freak who wouldn’t let us toss the tinsel.”
She looked from one to another, no doubt seeing Olivia’s dismay, Marshall’s disgust, Benny’s curiosity, and Gracie’s ache for this woman to leave as quickly and unexpectedly as she’d arrived.
“Don’t get comfortable.” Marshall crossed his arms. “You cannot stay here.”
“Well, I can’t stay there with a spider the size of that tree spinning a web over my head. He could fall in my mouth!”
Benny snorted, earning a vile look from Bianca.
“Benny,” Gracie whispered, gesturing to him. “Maybe we should give them some privacy.”
“Not necessary,” Marshall said, putting a very possessive arm around her. “We don’t need privacy and we sure don’t need help. Call the Uber back, Bianca. You’re not staying here.”
Bianca’s expression sharpened. “Marshall. Please.”
He didn’t budge.
And Gracie, watching him stand his ground—with kindness, not anger—felt something unfurl warm and proud inside her.
Bianca’s face pinched as she realized she wasn’t winning. “Fine. Then you’re coming with me, Olivia. Let’s go.” She whipped her coat off the sofa and pulled it back on. “We’ll wait outside in the cold for our car.”
“Bianca.”
“Mom!”
