Margaret looks pointedly out the window at the backyard, which is a blanket of white after last night’s snowfall. “Even if there was, I think you’d struggle.”
“Anything heavy I could lift or carry? Another Christmas tree to haul inside?” My muscles are itchy with the need to move.
“Ah, the energy of youth.” Celeste sighs, and I grit my teeth. I didn’t realize all the St. Claire women would be obsessed with my age.
There’s a crash in the living room, followed by a loud wail. Celeste looks at me with pleading eyes. “Any chance you want to take these little monsters sledding?”
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Darby
I’m awake, but I don’t want to go downstairs. And it’s not just because I can hear my nieces and nephews trying to shout the house down. I love them almost as much as I fear their tiny, destructive powers, and between that and the familial judgment I’m sure is waiting for me, I’m in no hurry to leave the bed.
The bed where Gabe rocked my world last night, maybe for the right reasons and maybe for the wrong ones. On the other hand, is there a wrong reason to give someone a toe-curling orgasm?
I groan and press a pillow to my face. There’s a tiny possibility that I overreacted last night. And there’s an even bigger possibility that I overreacted last night because I’ve gotten kind of used to men who say one thing but mean another and in the end are insincere assholes with no interest in sticking around. Is Gabe, in fact, the rare non-asshole, and was he serious about what he was trying to say last night?
My phone buzzes, and I push my pillow away to grope for it on my nightstand.
Faith: How’s it going there?
Ah, perfect. A Christmas Eve check-in from the woman who set all this in motion by telling Gabe that he might be able to help me with a family issue.
Darby: Is Gabe an asshole?
Her response to my context-free question arrives immediately.
Faith: Not in my experience.
Faith: Then again he IS a man. So.
Darby: Yeah.
Faith: Does that mean it’s not going well?
Darby: It was. I may have screwed things up.
Darby: I kissed him. I did a lot more than kiss him.
Darby: It was amazing by the way.
Faith: GIRL. YES.
Faith: But if that made things weird, just talk to him. He’s got an inferiority complex and needs a little extra encouragement from time to time.
I almost ask why she hadn’t tried to keep Gabe for herself, but I’d rather not plant that suggestion in case it gives her ideas. Faith is sarcastic, single, and confident, which I’m pretty sure Gabe likes. And I’m increasingly becoming aware how muchIwant to be the only sarcastic, single, confident woman in his life.
Darby: Okay, thanks. How’s it going in Beaucoeur?
Faith: The usual dread before a mandatory parental visit. What doesn’t kill us…
Darby: …sends us to therapy.
Faith: LOL. Love you. Call me when you’re back in town.
“Ugh, fine,” I say to the empty room. “I’ll go talk to him.”
But by the time I make it downstairs, it’s eerily quiet. I’m starting to wonder if the household got raptured when I find my sister sitting in the living room, staring at the Christmas tree.
