A California Christmas (Silver Springs #7) - Brenda Novak Page 0,53

back long before now. Normally, I struggle to sleep for any length of time, so I don’t know how I conked out for so long. I should’ve set an alarm.”

“It’s fine,” Emery assured her. “You must’ve needed the sleep.”

“But it’s your first day, and you’ve been on since ten without a break. You must be hungry. I brought you some leftover spaghetti you can heat up in the microwave in back.”

“Actually, some of Aiyana’s sons stopped by not too long ago and brought me something to eat.” She was reluctant to mention that it was Dallas specifically who’d done this. She preferred to act as though she was a friend to the whole family.

Because she was, she reminded herself.

“Oh good.” When Susan looked at Tobias, her face brightened immediately. “Tobias!”

“Hello,” he said. “I just swung by to see if you were doing okay today. Looks like Emery’s helping a great deal.”

Susan glanced around the store and seemed satisfied with what she saw. “Yes, she is.” She turned to her. “Everything go okay while I was gone?”

“It was busy, but when you own a store, busy is good.”

“That’s true,” she agreed, seemingly relieved that the world hadn’t gone to hell simply because she’d overslept.

“Is there anything you need me to do while I’m here?” Tobias asked. “Carry in supplies or change out ice cream tubs or whatever?”

Susan took him in the back and had him refill the flour bins, since he was there, anyway, but he walked out fifteen minutes later. “It seems you two have a strong friendship,” Emery said, wondering why Tobias, who wasn’t related to Susan, was so diligent about seeing to her needs.

Susan watched through the window as he climbed into his truck and drove away. “Life can be strange,” she said simply.

Thinking about Thursday night and how it had changed her the past two days—so much that she couldn’t seem to get back to the person she’d been before sleeping with Dallas—Emery absolutely understood.

“Yes, it can be.”

* * *

“How was your first day?” Aiyana asked as soon as Emery walked through the front door.

Emery stopped short when she saw Aiyana sitting in the living room with Cal, Liam, Bentley and Dallas, all of whom were spread out on the floor, making wedding favors. Emery bit back a smile at the sight of Cal’s big, calloused fingers struggling to tie a dainty red-striped ribbon with a thank you card attached to it around a clear glass mug filled with hot chocolate mix, crushed candy cane and mini marshmallows. Emery thought it was a particularly cute favor, given the season, but she had to laugh at Aiyana’s “work crew.”

“Great. I earned some money, which was all I was hoping for.”

Aiyana finished a bow and set the lidded mug aside. “How’s Susan? Dallas told me she stranded you at the store for hours, and I know she wouldn’t do that if she was well.”

“She wasn’t feeling too great at first but seemed better after she had a chance to rest.”

She pulled a new mug into her lap and wound the ribbon around the neck of it. “Good. Have you eaten dinner? I cooked a roast with some vegetables, if you’re hungry.”

Emery stole a glance at Dallas, who was sitting with the mugs he’d completed lined up on one side of him and the sea of mugs he had yet to do on the other. “I ate a late lunch,” she told Aiyana. Unsure whether she should thank Dallas again for being considerate enough to grab her that sandwich, she decided not to draw attention to his kindness, in case Aiyana read too much into it. That was another consequence of Thursday night, she realized. Now they had something to hide. “I brought home cookies in case everyone would like dessert,” she announced.

That was all it took to get Liam and Bentley to abandon their posts. They jumped up, probably as eager to get out of tying bows as they were to get hold of the sack she carried.

“Do you need help with the favors?” Emery offered.

“If you don’t have any other plans tonight,” Aiyana replied. “As you can see, I have a few recruits, but Liam and Bentley are dying to go AWOL, and we’ve invited a lot of people to the wedding, so it’s no small task.”

Knowing how popular and well-known Aiyana was in this area—Cal, too—Emery had no doubt the entire town would turn out. Even more than the locals. A great number of her former students