Page 105 of The Merry Matchmaker

A text came in from his sister.You know,Scrooge changed.

He ignored it.

His phone rang. It was his mother’s ringtone. He could ignore his sister, but he knew better than to ignore his mom.

“Hi, Mom,” he answered, schooling his voice to sound pleasant.Nothing wrong here in Scrooge Land.

“How was Corky’s visit with Santa?” Mom asked.

Griff wished he hadn’t told her they were going to the Santa Walk. The last thing he wanted was to relive the day. “We got it done,” he said.

“I’m glad you went ahead and took him.”

“I’m not. He’s still convinced he’s going to get a mom. It doesn’t matter what I say or do. He’s going to be disappointed.”

“For a minute. Until he gets distracted playing with his toys.”

“Yeah, every kid will take toys over a mom.”

“We’ll get him through,” Mom promised.

His son’s disappointment would be short-lived, and yes, they’d all keep him busy and distracted. But the longing would return. Griff knew. You could move away from those longings, but in the end they always caught up with you. How did you outrun them?

He said goodbye to his mother, and misery came crashing down on him. An unmanly sob escaped before he could catch it. Was this what the rest of his life was going to feel like?

He wanted to move on with the memories but without the pain. That probably wasn’t possible, but was it possible to at least bring the pain down to a more manageable level so he wouldn’t feel so bitter and frustrated? So he wouldn’t lash out at people who really didn’t deserve it?

His behavior earlier had been over the top. What would Kaitlyn have had to say about that? Moot point. If she was still with him, he wouldn’t have behaved like that. He’d have been happy.

Stefanie Ludlow had told him to go back to his Krampus cage. He was living in a cage. How had she known?

How could he break out?

He texted his sister.How did Scrooge change?

The answer came back.He got up the next morning and did something different.

Hmm.

Frankie was still feeling grumpy when she opened the shop on Sunday. Neither church nor a good helping of Christmas cookies during the social hour after the service had helped. Neither did entering her little Christmas kingdom.

Natalie was off, spending the day with her in-laws, which was fine. Frankie didn’t expect many customers and probably didn’t need both her mother and Elinor. She wished she’d given Elinor the day off as well, as Frankie wasn’t in a proper frame of mind to deal with her employee.

“No one’s going to come out today,” she grumbled as she came in from spreading ice-melting compound on the sidewalk.

“Okay, spill. What is wrong with you?” Adele demanded.

“Nothing,” she said.

“I always know when there’s something. Don’t make me drag it out of you.”

“Okay, if you must know, it’s Elinor.”

“Elinor? What did she do wrong?”

“She’s late.”

“All of ten minutes. After the snow we got last night, she’s probably taking her time on the road. Or she’s dragging from her big day.”

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