She laughs and waves away my concern.
“It’s all nice things, I promise. He adores you and your dad.” She looks over her shoulder where the other partners are slowly demolishing a spread of nachos. “I was curious if you wanted tohave dinner with Noa and me during the next big road trip after the holidays. We like to get cozy, so we tend to make a sleepover of it, but you don’t have to stay overnight if you don’t want to.”
My eyes catch on Noa where she talks with Marilyn. I swallow the melancholy from missing Billie.
“Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun,” I say, managing to keep the longing out of my voice. I pull out my phone and hand it to her. “Text me the address and what kind of wine I should bring.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
BILLIE
“Let’s go get those chocolates from your stockings,” Marley’s brother says, effortlessly herding all of the kids scattered around the large living room onto the back porch. Brett presses a kiss to Marley’s temple and then follows the other men out of the room. In a matter of minutes, it’s only Marley, Dani, Valeria, and me.
They move closer to me, each taking up a spot within touching distance of where I’ve buried myself into a corner of the large sectional, trying to keep out of the way of their very happy Christmas celebration. I sigh and set the glass of wine on the side coffee table. My voice is petulant, and I can’t even dredge up the effort to be embarrassed by that.
“Am I really that obvious?”
All three of them say, “Yes,” entirely in sync and then laugh.
Dani runs a hand over her growing belly before sighing.
“In transparency, we all have a betting pool about what happened.”
“You donot.”
Valeria only nods, giggling.
“It was Mark who started it,” she says. “You can blame him.”
I toss a pillow at Dani, but I manage the first smile in over a week. Marley takes in the entire scene, her eyes keen even as she smiles at me finally relaxing. She’s been nothing but supportive since I showed up in a crying mess on her doorstep late Wednesday night with nothing but my purse.
“I don’t know if I should ask what you all have guessed,” I admit, trying to delay the meltdown that will accompany me finally saying any of the events from the last two months in Nashville.
“Well, Brett already got half-credit,” Marley says. “His guess was that you bonded with Paxton. I then tried to tell him that that wouldn’t put you on a plane back out here, but he just shrugged and stuck to that guess.”
Valeria taps her collarbone right where the bonding bite sits on me. Despite everything, I blush. All three of them laugh.
“We also have something for you,” Dani says. She reaches under the coffee table, not hindered by her pregnancy at all at this point, only a couple months away from her due date, and grabs a gift bag with vintage reindeer on the sides.
I frown and look at the small collection of perfume they’ve already given me.
“It’s not from us,” Marley says in answer to my glance. “It came yesterday. Well, one of them came Monday, but the other one came yesterday. I wrapped them together.”
Nerves freeze me with my hand outstretched to take the small bag. Dani frowns, the corners of her eyes creasing with worry, but sets the bag in my palm anyway.
It’s like an out-of-body experience as I ease the tissue paper to the ground and grab the first item. It’s a box, similar to something that would hold a necklace, but not quite as thin. I recognize it instantly from the last few Christmases we’ve spent together. A weight presses on my chest, and my heartbeat roars in my ears. I ease the box open. A handmade wooden tag,designed to look like a boarding pass, sits nestled against velvet. It lists Prague as the destination, the first two weeks of June the travel dates. When I pick it up, all three women murmur words of excitement.
“That’s so pretty! I forgot Paxton does that for you every year.” Valeria says. “Oh! Prague! You’ve wanted to go there for years, right? That’s going to be so fun.”
A lump fills my throat, and I can’t manage to swallow around it. There’s a note in the case, carefully folded to disappear under the tag. There’s never been a note before. I hand the tag to Marley and then take the note, unfolding it with trembling hands.
Bee, I hope your Christmas is happy and filled with warmth. You deserve all the happiness in the world. I know you’ve always wanted to go explore the Byzantine cathedrals. The tickets are under your name. Take whoever you want. I know you’ll have a wonderful time.
Yours.
There’s no signature, not his name or his initials. JustYours. I turn the note over before they can read his writing and grab the second item, trying to keep from crying just yet. The girls’ excitement has faded, each of them realizing I’m not responding similarly. Marley sets the tag back in the box then hands it to Dani, her frown deepening as the minute stretches.
The second item is slightly larger, carefully wrapped in kraft paper and twine, sprigs of ruscus tucked into the knot. That lump grows larger.
