Page 46 of A Hard Luck Christmas

Jack didn’t laugh with her. “I wouldn’t offer if…if I didn’t think it’d be good for you.”

She took a drink of her water. “Good for me? In what way?”

“In all ways. It’d give you a little space, less time you have to spend trying to please your father. And I’m not sure exactly what you’re making, but I have a pretty good idea and feel comfortable offering you twice as much.”

Patience let her fork dangle above her plate. “Did you say twice as much?”

“It’s what I’d have to pay anyone else—anyone as good as you. And then I wouldn’t have to train someone, so it would benefit me, too.”

“The business has grown quite a bit since I was there,” she pointed out.

“Exactly why I need someone as conscientious and thorough as you are.”

Patience considered the dreams she’d put off—that vision of LA she’d had at the coffee shop earlier—and knew that having more money in savings would help if she ever really decided to move away. Leaving her job at the church would upset her father. He’d take it as a defection—he and Jack had always battled over her, and her father wouldn’t like feeling as if he was losing her again. But why let that dictate her response? She’d lived under the heavy weight of his expectation for too long already. If it was a better opportunity, a way to make significantly more money, he should be happy for her.

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

“Do it, Mom,” Ari encouraged. “Then we can come eat here even when Dad’s not with us.”

Patience patted her daughter’s leg. “Like I said, I’ll think about it,” she said, and when the check came, she insisted on paying for her own meal.

* * *

After dinner, Patience felt even less like heading home. Since she knew her daughter wouldn’t need her for anything—Ari would be going straight to her room to outline the last chapter in her science book to get ready for her big test and then to bed—she asked Jack to drop Ari off on his way home, said she had to handle a couple of things for the festival, and drove over to the motor inn.

Kanon had thanked her via email for the photos she’d sent, but she was eager to see the new ads and learn how the ones they’d put up last night were performing. Visiting him also gave her something to do until her father went to bed…

Afraid Glenda would be watching the motor inn again, Patience parked around the block and walked. She felt silly having to go to such lengths, but she didn’t want Glenda to see her car in the lot for the second night in a row. That would just confirm, in her mind, that something sexual was going on—and she’d already proven she’d use that information in the worst possible way.

Kanon—or Kelsey—had hung a wreath of real boughs with a simple red ribbon on every door since she’d been there this morning, which added to the Christmas spirit. There was also a fake but realistic-looking candle burning in each window that was also new.

The inn looked warm and inviting. “Great job,” she muttered as she knocked.

Kanon answered wearing only his jeans, which felt far more scandalous than it should have. Her face began to burn the second she saw his bare chest, probably because she had trouble keeping her eyes on his face.

Once he realized it was her, he left the door standing open but backed up and pulled on a sweatshirt. “Sorry, I assumed it was Kelsey saying good-night or something,” he said above the TV playing some sort of sporting event. “What’s up?”

She almost mentioned the ads, but she could easily have emailed him to see how they were doing. That was no real reason to disturb him in his home, which in this case also happened to be his bedroom. So she decided not to even try to claim that excuse. She was interested in the ads, but this visit was about more than the festival. “I’m trying to stay gone until my dad goes to bed, so I thought I’d swing by and see what you were up to.”