Page 5 of My eX-MAS Emergency

I spun so fast I stumbled in my hiking boots—the perfect complement to my blue scrubs ensemble. “Why? We don’t need his help.” We were absolutely not inviting him to our Christmas extravaganza.

She batted her beautiful eyes while doing the whole pouty-lip thing. “It wouldn’t be Christmas without him. He’s like a dad to me. And you said I could have anything I wanted.”

It was then I realized I’d just been played by my niece. I was both proud and irked. “Don’t get any ideas about me and your uncle. There’s no one I hate more in my life than your uncle Tristan.” I thought this was a good time to be brutally honest.

“That’s okay.” She grinned. “You can just ignore him like you always do.”

“Fine.” PS: It was not fine.

“I love you,” she said, sickly sweet.

“Uh-huh.”

She laughed, and my heart melted. I would do anything to make her happy, even if it meant being in the uncle’s presence. I was good at pretending he didn’t exist. It was one of my superpowers. No problem. I had this.

“Bye, honey.” I walked out the door before she could trick me into anything else. I tiptoed out into the darkened hall and walked toward the floating staircase. Stella’s home was hugely open, with tons of large windows. When the sun was up, it lent to gorgeous views of the lake. For now, it just had me feeling eerily exposed.

On my way down, I noticed a lump under several blankets on the couch in front of the grand two-storied stone fireplace. It looked like Quinn wasn’t the only person who didn’t want to sleep in her room. I crept toward the kitchen to grab some protein bars and my water bottle, trying to be as quiet as possible for Stella.

When I opened the refrigerator, Stella scared the crap out of me. “Hey, sis,” she croaked.

I grabbed my wildly beating heart and turned in her direction. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

She pulled a blanket up to her chin. “You didn’t.”

I grabbed my protein bars and water before walking her way in the semidarkness.

She rested her pretty head on the designer velvet couch and sighed.

As I got closer, I could see her eyes were as red as her hair. “Rough night?”

“Yeah,” she whispered. “Always.”

“You know, you could have come up and snuggled with me and Quinn.”

She gave me a weak smile. “Quinn needs you all to herself right now.”

“She needs you too.”

Stella’s eyes watered. “I’m not really good for anyone right now. Maybe ever.”

I placed a hand on her tangled hair. “Stella, you know that’s not true. You were my favorite trouble buddy.” She really was. Once upon a time, we were the best of friends and inseparable. Even though she always wanted to be an other-side-of-the-lake person. But then Jonathon entered the picture, and everything changed. She changed.

“You were always good at getting us in trouble.” She wasn’t wrong.

We got into all sorts of mischief. Everything from toilet papering the principal’s house to teaching our fellow students how to make rum in chemistry class. Of course, we feigned innocence about the liquor thing, saying it was just an unfortunate accident. Obviously, I would never condone underage drinking. That’s what I told the teacher, anyway. But now I actually believed it. It’s amazing what becoming a doctor will do to you. In the ER I’d seen too many lives shattered by drunk drivers for me to ever touch the stuff again.

I grinned. “Well, I have to be respectable now.”

“At least you did something with your life. No one will ever accuse you of trapping anyone,” she choked out.

That got my ire up. I might have to forget the respectable thing for a hot minute and avenge my sister’s honor. Why is it always the woman’s fault? When it comes to pregnancy, it takes two to tango. “Who says that about you?”

She lifted her head up and let out the heaviest of breaths. “No one,” she lied. “I got what I always wanted, right?” Her eyes wandered over the spacious home, decorated with the finest furnishings. Everything she ever wanted before her eyes, right down to the mega veranda with the perfect view of the lake. She had everything money could buy. Yet it was obvious it didn’t bring her the happiness she thought it would.

“Did you get what you really wanted?” I had to ask.

She sat up steely straight, making my hand fall off her head. “Yes.”

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