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“Okay.” He grabbed two plates from the cabinet and followed her to the table.

Instead of sitting across from her like he normally did, he sat next to her.

When he placed a plate in front of her, she said, “I don’t need that.”

“Yes, you do. You need to eat. Even if it’s just a little.”

It took a little cajoling, but he finally got her to eat a little. After lunch, she had a little more color in her face.

In that moment, he was okay with his vehicle taking some time to be repaired. He had a feeling Leah was going to need a friend as she processed this revelation.

Chapter Seventeen

“Deck the halls.”

Leah sang the song as she rushed around the inn, putting up holiday decorations. She wanted to have everything up before her guests arrived that afternoon. She only had three rooms reserved, but she told herself it was much better than none.

Paul and his crew were outside, putting Christmas lights on the tall pine trees. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to Paul again. She thought of going outside to speak to him, but she didn’t know what to say.

It wasn’t like he’d come to her to talk either. Was he avoiding her? Or was he taking a moment to come to terms with the shock? If so, she couldn’t blame him. She’d suspected the truth when she found the wedding picture, so she had a little longer to come to terms with this information, and yet she was still struggling with it.

Shaun was carrying the empty boxes up to the attic while she arranged snowmen figurines on the mantel.

Buzz.

She reached for her phone in her back pocket. She checked the screen. When she didn’t recognize the number, she pressed the phone to her ear. “Kringle B&B. How may I help you?”

“I need a room for tomorrow night,” the female voice said.

“Let me check our availability.” She knew she had a room available, but the potential patrons didn’t need to know that.

Leah made her way to the registration desk. She grabbed a pen as she looked at the registration book. “Yes, we do have a room available. Is it just for one night?”

“Make it for two nights.”

“Okay. And your name please?”

“Um...” There was a slight pause. “Mary... Shepherd. Mary Shepherd.”

Before Leah could ask for her credit card information to secure the room, the woman hung up. That was strange. Maybe the woman lost her signal. She would probably call back.

Leah shrugged it off and went back to work.

Just then Shaun came down the stairs. “Did I hear you talking to someone?”

She nodded. “It was a reservation for tomorrow evening.”

“That’s good.”

“Uh. Yeah. It is.” She still hadn’t had a fully booked night since she’d arrived in Kringle Falls. She didn’t know if it was due to her taking over the inn or if her grandmother had been losing business over time.

She’d already thought of ways to bring in more business, starting with social media. But she hadn’t waded into advertising yet, because she was still making up her mind if she was staying in Kringle Falls or not. Everything in her life felt as though it were changing rapidly, and she was struggling to keep up.

“Leah, do you want me to get that?”

She blinked and looked at Shaun. She had no idea what he was talking about.

“The door.” Shaun’s brows furrowed. “There’s someone at the door.”