Christmas at Holiday House - RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,35

is doing us both a huge favor by coming out to help you. I would hate to repay her by setting her up for a broken heart. That would make me a lousy friend.”

“What would make you a lousy friend? Hi, Lucy.”

She and Winnie both gasped when Abby walked into the room, followed closely by Ethan. How much had they overheard?

“I was saying it would make me a lousy friend if I brought home malong tod, which is fried insects, for the annual Silver Belles white elephant exchange,” she improvised promptly.

“Please don’t.”

“Hi, sis. Happy Thanksgiving.” Ethan leaned over Winnie so that he could be in the frame. As Lucy saw him and Abby together, she wondered if Winnie might be onto something.

She wasn’t sure how she sensed it across thousands of miles, but there was a certain vibe between them.

Was it possible? While she would love the idea of her best friend and her brother being together, she just couldn’t get over her fear that Abby would end up shattered if things went wrong.

Oh, she hoped Winnie didn’t cause trouble for Abby.

“How did you like the house?” she asked.

“It’s an amazing building,” Abby said. “With about eight thousand rooms that need to be decorated.”

Lucy winced, not missing the pointed look Abby sent her. She should have expected her grandmother would enlist Abby’s help, but Winnie’s accident had made her forget all about the upcoming house tours.

“Oh, my.”

“And you know how talented I am at decorating. I mean, my dorm room at ASU was fabulous, right?”

Lucy had to laugh. “By the time we left school and you married Kevin, you had a few more skills, didn’t you? I dragged you to enough flea markets and thrift shops. Some of my genius must have rubbed off.”

Before Abby could answer, Christopher awoke, probably disturbed by the new voices.

“Hi, Mommy,” he said sleepily. Lucy watched as Abby became the consummate mother, hugging her son and smoothing down his hair.

The picture wasn’t completely clear because of the crappy internet in her apartment, but she thought she saw Ethan watching the two of them with an odd look.

They talked about inconsequential things for a few more moments, until she saw Winnie yawn.

“I should go so you can rest. I’m glad you had a good day.”

“Goodbye, sweetheart. See you soon,” Winnie said.

As soon as Lucy ended the call and closed her laptop, she stared at the walls of her apartment—nicely decorated, she had to admit.

He was dating someone.

Only a few months after telling her he loved her, José had decided she meant what she said and was moving on.

Some of her excitement in returning home had dissipated like dew on the grass under the morning sun.

She wasn’t even sure she wanted to go home now, if she would have to face José dating some faceless woman. What kind of name was Quinn anyway?

She started to flip open her laptop to search for the woman online but made herself close it again. It wasn’t any of her business. She had made her position clear and couldn’t blame José for believing her and moving on.

This only proved her own philosophy. Love wasn’t real. It was a construct that turned otherwise rational people into something she never wanted to become.

Seven

If Abby thought coming to Silver Bells would be a nice, relaxing holiday break, she was destined for a rude awakening.

Over the next week and a half, she worked harder than she remembered in her life, even during the tough years when she first started as a nurse, when she was working fifty hours a week to support herself and Kevin, who had been deep into medical school.

That time in her life had been tough, yes, but she wouldn’t have traded it for anything. She and Kevin had been focused on the same goal, excited about their future. She believed their marriage had been stronger because of the hardships they had faced together.

“What’s next?”

Abby pushed away the echo of loss and forced a smile for Mariah Raymond, who had brought her son, Dakota, over to play with Christopher. The two boys were happily laying out a wooden train set Winnie had found in a closet, one she told them cheerfully she had bought for Ethan when he was the boys’ age.

Abby stepped back to look at the vintage-ski-lodge-themed Christmas tree she and Mariah were working on in one of the second-floor bedrooms.

“That looks great to me. I don’t know what I would have done without you and the other Silver Belles.