her father was not only awful, but strange. To ease the pain, she did her best to focus on the new aspects of her life: working with her friends, her new responsibilities at the vineyard, and now…maybe Becca, too.
“Who knew you could string up a tree so impressively?” Madison asked Gabriella, hand on her hip as upbeat Christmas music played over the sound system. Joey had put together the playlist herself. No, it wasn’t quite December yet, but they geared up early for the holidays at Tangle Valley so their guests could enjoy them to their fullest. Gabriella had been put on twinkly lights duty and had the tree looking fabulous in no time. She spaced the strands perfectly, a true pro. “Did you go to tree school and never say?”
“Of course I attended tree school. Who didn’t?” Gabriella reported from on top of the ladder leading up the sixteen-foot tree. “You should have taken advantage of more of my hidden talents.”
“Now you tell me.”
The two were great at easygoing banter, even about their past relationship, which seemed to be as casual a conversation for them as what was on television that night. It perplexed and impressed Joey, equally.
“You guys never celebrated a Christmas together?” Joey asked. “As a couple, I mean. Sometimes I feel weird talking about your romantic relationship because I never witnessed you as a couple. I have no idea why I’m saying these things out loud. Sometimes I misplace my filter.”
Gabriella took a last appraising look at her work and came down the ladder. “Well, it was one of the darkest times in my life,” she deadpanned.
Madison swatted her arm as she hopped to the ground. “She’s going to believe you. She’s Joey and she does that. Fix it.”
Gabriella laughed. “Fine. No, it’s not weird. I have a handful of exes, but this one was a keeper because she’s a knucklehead, but a nice one. No other reason.”
“She once had nice knucklehead embroidered on a pillow for me,” Madison said. “And no, we casually dated through a Christmas once but were broken up as a couple by the time the next one rolled around. I don’t think I ever saw her tree.”
“It is certainly impressive the way you two get along so well,” Loretta offered, as she hung the festive red bows she’d made herself, evenly spaced as always, below the bar. She turned around to them as the music shifted to “Jingle Bells.” “Shows true maturity.”
“I’m a mature knucklehead,” Madison said, adjusting a garland. “I like the progress.”
“Thank you, Loretta. Given your wisdom, I take that as a compliment. One of us is definitely more mature than the other, however, but we’ll let that go.” Gabriella winked.
“I’m not even going to argue that point,” Madison said wisely. She poured another mug of the hot mulled wine. “This batch is amazing. Your father’s recipe really holds up.”
“The secret is in the brown sugar, he always said.”
Loretta nodded. “He was right.”
Joey grinned, knowing if her dad were around, he would have tromped through at the end and offered to help, knowing full well there’d be little to do other than sip the mulled wine and enjoy the splendor around him. “That’s actually my grandfather’s recipe. Handed down.”
“Well, that makes it even cooler,” Madison said and lifted her mug.
The door opened and they all turned. Becca smiled tentatively as she entered, wearing jeans, tall boots, and a maroon sweater. Joey tried not to gawk. Work Becca was sexy as hell, but Casual Becca was swoonworthy in a whole separate manner. It was hard to pick a favorite. Pretty much whichever one was in front of her at the time won out.
“Hey, guys,” she said, popping on a Santa hat from her bag, which scored her mega points. “Things certainly seem fun in here.”
“And they just got more fun,” Madison murmured quietly with a sly grin in place.
All heads swiveled to Joey in happy surprise, because of course she hadn’t told them Becca was coming. What if she hadn’t been able to make it? She would have felt silly. But with her friends now eyeing her proudly, she leapt into action. “Hey, Becca. Glad you could make it.”
“I was worried because there was a wave of fires to put out and three unexpected phone calls from Orlando, but I fought them off bravely. Didn’t want to miss this.” She looked around. “What can I do?”
“How are you with snow stencils? These windows could use a few holiday designs.”
“We’re about