“That means I get an ice-cream cone.”
“You sure do. Let’s put away our shoes and balls and we can go get one.”
“I won, too. Can I have an ice-cream cone?” Rodrigo asked his brother.
“Sure,” José said. He pulled a bill out of his wallet. “Here. Why don’t you take Christopher over and the two of you can pick what you want.”
The two walked to the concession stand, chattering about Christmas, from what she could tell.
As soon as they were out of earshot, José rounded on her.
“What are you doing here, Lucy?”
She had been asking herself the same thing for the past hour. “I told you. When you mentioned that you were taking Rodrigo bowling this afternoon, I thought it sounded like fun.”
He looked around to make sure no one was around before he spoke in a low, intense voice. “You’re not going to change my mind, Lucy. No matter what games you play. I’m not sleeping with you.”
She yanked her boots on with more force than necessary. “Is that really what you think of me? I’m going to spend the entire holiday break chasing you all over town because I am desperate for a man?”
“No,” he said quietly. “I think too few people have said no to you and you don’t like it.”
“Are you kidding?” she snapped, forgetting to keep her voice down. “People have been saying no to me my entire life.”
No, Lucy, you can’t stay in the same school two years in a row. You have to go back and live with your dad.
No, Lucy. You can’t stay with your grandparents this year. We’ve decided to send you to boarding school.
No, Lucy. I didn’t invite you to the wedding because my new wife doesn’t like that you’re older than she is.
“I’m sorry to be one more, then.” He did look regretful. She thought for a moment he was going to reach out and pull her into an embrace.
She was relieved when he didn’t. At least that’s what she told herself.
“We’re going to see each other again over this holiday season,” he said quietly. “Silver Bells is a small town and we can’t avoid it, with our families being so close. Can we both please try not to make this any harder?”
Christopher and Rodrigo returned at that moment, and she could do nothing but give a short nod.
As she bundled Christopher into her rental car to drive back to Holiday House, her throat felt tight and her chest ached. She told herself it was just residual exhaustion from two days of travel, but she knew better. She was grieving the loss of a dear friend and slowly coming to accept the hard, inescapable truth that she could do nothing about it.
Thirteen
“How did last night go?” Ethan asked his grandmother on a video call Sunday afternoon. “Was the second night as successful as the first?”
Winnie beamed at him. “Even better than Friday. We didn’t have a single no-show last night. At the end of the night, we even had several people donate more than the original price of the ticket.”
“That’s great. People seem to be raving. I’ve had several comments at the hotel.”
“And you were so worried about me. Maybe you should learn to trust your old grammy.”
“You’re not old. But you’re probably right. I should.”
“Probably?”
He smiled. “Definitely right. As always.”
“Darn straight.” As she tilted her head, the sunlight streaming into her room made her hair glow. “You’re still coming for Sunday dinner tonight, right? You haven’t even seen your sister since she got here.”
“I saw her for a few moments when she arrived,” he defended himself.
He would have stopped by last night, but he had been slammed with some last-minute problems at their Macau hotel that had kept him on the phone most of the night. Besides that, he had expected Lucy to be busy helping out with the fundraiser.
And, okay, he had been avoiding Abby.
He didn’t like the way she and Christopher kept wriggling their way under his skin, no matter how hard he tried to keep them out.
He had a long tradition of coming for Sunday dinner with Winnie or taking her out to the hotel restaurant. That practice had fallen to the wayside over the past month since her injury.
“You shouldn’t be fixing a big meal on the one day you have free from hosting your big event,” he protested.
“I’m not fixing jack,” Winnie told him with a grin. “Abby and Lucy put their heads together earlier and decided to try a recipe Lucy learned when