Page 25 of This Christmas

“She is just a tool that he can use to get to me,” she said. “My counselor says it’s a narcissistic tendency. I didn’t even know what a narcissist was until I started seeing her.”

“You were in a coma for a while?” He’d been pissed about that fact once he’d watched the video of what her husband had done to her, especially knowing the man hadn’t spent even one night behind bars for slashing her wrists and making her fall to the hard ground with her daughter in her arms.

“Yes.” She glanced down at her wrists as if remembering the pain. He couldn’t see any scars, but knew that they were probably there. She looked up toward the window, and her eyes grew unfocused, as if she wasn’t really seeing the rain falling outside. “Charlotte spent most of that time at a stranger’s house. Ted had hired the woman, the nanny, the day after… my accident.” She air quoted the last two words. “He dropped her off in the same clothes that she’d been wearing that night. They were still covered in my blood. He hadn’t even let them keep her at the hospital to check her out further. She still had a dirty diaper on. The woman sat on the stand in court and confirmed that Ted didn’t visit Charlotte even once the whole time.”

“I read her testimony.” He paused and glanced down at the sleeping girl between them. “I wanted to hit your ex really, really hard for that.”

Her eyes moved from the window to him. “That’s what Max said in court,” she told him with a smile.

“I haven’t met your brother yet, but something tells me that we’d get along.”

She smiled again just as the credits for the movie started to roll on the TV. She switched off the TV and rose quietly, then lifted Charlotte from the sofa. The little girl barely stirred, murmuring something about Olaf.

“Need any help?”

“No, I’ll just go put her in bed and be back.” She quickly disappeared.

Joe grabbed the empty plates and bowls and walked to the kitchen to start putting them in the dishwasher.

When she came back downstairs, she crossed her arms, hugging herself as he started the dishwasher. “She’s out,” she said softly.

“Does she always talk in her sleep?” he asked with a grin.

Ally nodded. “Yes. Sometimes she walks in her sleep too.”

His eyebrows shot up. “That could be…”

“Dangerous.” She nodded. “It’s one of the reasons we have locks on some of the doors.” She motioned toward a door. “That leads to the basement.”

“Right.” He nodded.

“She only does that when she’s stressed or doesn’t get a nap during the day.”

They were quiet for a moment.

“How long are you going to stick around town?” she asked, leaning against the countertop as the dishwasher started to hum.

He shrugged. “I’m paid up at the hotel until Tuesday.”

“Do you have another job lined up already?” she asked, tilting her head slightly as if trying to assess him.

“No, I normally take a few days between. This one, I may take longer.”

“You’re in Portland?”

He nodded. “Have you found a job here yet?”

“Not yet. I have an interview tomorrow. If nothing pans out, my brother-in-law Nate has a job waiting for me at the Brew-Ha-Ha.”

“You don’t want to work in a coffee shop?”

She sighed. “I was hoping to get away from serving people again.”

“Where’s the interview at?”

“The coast guard training facility just down the street.”

His eyebrows shot up. “I bet that’s a good place to work.”