Page 78 of Hers for the Weekend

Kinzi smiled at her, a little flirtatiously. “I’m off in thirty if you want me to show you up?”

Holly put her head in her hands. How could she have a hangover when she hadn’t had anything to drink? “How old are you, Kinzi?”

“Um, twenty-two?”

Holy shit, she’d been in elementary school when Holly had been getting married.

Before she met Tara, Holly had a habit of hooking up with the hottest waitress in any bar, but the very idea of hooking up with anyone made her tired.

“I’m flattered but unavailable, kid,” she said, and winced. She sounded like a jaded old man in a noir movie.

“Oh.” Kinzi looked down at her apron. “Well, I can still show you up? The lock has kind of a trick, and if you don’t do it right, the door sticks?”

Holly did not ask if Kinzi was sure, since she obviously didn’t know she phrased every sentence as a question.

Half an hour later, she let herself get led up the back stairs to a little apartment that had clearly been recently stripped of all its extra stuff by someone moving out. There was a neatly made double bed, faded blue paisley curtains that would do nothing to keep out the sun, and a beat-up old wooden dresser, plus a rickety metal bedside table with a lamp. It looked like someone had furnished it from their grandmother’s garage sale.

It also felt like home and comforting as hell after a week of feeling like a fish out of water with millionaires and celebrities.

“Um, do you have, like, a bag?” Kinzi asked, hovering in the doorway as Holly sat down on the bed and felt the old springs bounce.

“It’s coming with Ernie,” Holly said.

Kinzi was silent for a moment, obviously waiting for an explanation that wasn’t coming. “Okay, well, the bathroom should be stocked? Brady, the guy who took over for me? He can get you anything if you need it before Ernie gets back? I’m going to go wrap some presents for tomorrow?”

God, tomorrow was Christmas.

“Thanks, Kinzi, this is perfect,” she said, trying to channel Tara and be polite, since this girl had done nothing but be kind and helpful (she’d even hit on her respectfully) and also because she thought Ernie would frown on Holly snapping at the waitstaff. Holly was, she was certain, already on thin ice.

Kinzi nodded and went to leave, turning back at the door. “The TV works but only on channel three?”

“Who needs more than one channel?” Holly joked to put Kinzi at ease. “Merry Christmas, Kinzi.”

That got a genuine smile. “You too, Holly.”

Sometime after midnight, she was propped up against the lumpy pillows on the bed, watching an informercial on channel 3, when Ernie knocked on the door.

“I wasn’t sure you’d still be up, but I wanted to check that you were okay,” she said, pulling Holly’s duffel inside with her. “And give you your clothes, since you’re still stuck in the dress you wore to the wedding.”

Holly smiled a little wryly. “It’s really kind of you, especially considering…”

Ernie waved her words away. “I don’t have any loyalty to Tara, and she’s got a whole battalion to ride for her. You helped me out when you didn’t have to, so I’m returning the favor. So. What do you need? You obviously can’t drive back to Charleston with Tara, but after Christmas, we could get you on a plane? Or you can stay here as long as you’d like. The offer stands—I could use a waitress like you.”

“You don’t think the Carrigan’s crew would avoid the bar like the plague if I was there?”

This earned her an eye roll. “Please, what is this, high school? They can come in, or they can miss pub quiz, and Miriam never misses pub quiz.”

It was a tempting offer. She liked Advent, and she’d already been thinking about moving on from Charleston. She couldn’t imagine going back to Emma’s, having to serve Tara coffee and cake and pretend everything was fine. But she would have to go back to pack up her apartment and get her car. And before that…

“I think,” she said, taking a deep breath, “that what I’d like to do next is go home for Christmas.”

Ernie blinked at her, then looked at her watch. “Okay, well, it’s already Christmas, and I don’t know where home is, but you might need to pull off some kind of magic trick to get there. Do you know what travel is going to be like today?”

“Know anywhere I can rent a car? It’s a fifteen-hour drive, or twelve the way I drive. If I leave now, I can be there before they eat lunch.”

“Oh, you’re not leaving now. You’re sleeping.” Ernie shook her head. “If you want to leave after you sleep, I’ll start looking at flights or find you a car. Or a Greyhound. But you might want to think about planning to do New Year’s with your family.”

Holly didn’t want to wait. Now that she’d decided, after all these years of avoiding Christmas at home, she wanted to go immediately. She admitted to herself, though, that maybe she didn’t want to keep sitting alone in her feelings. No matter how poorly she’d treated Tara, her parents would be thrilled to see her and would bandage over all her wounded emotions.

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