Page 67 of Home for Christmas in July

We smile. And smile. And smile some more while her camera clicks wildly on the mantle. When it finally stops, she grabs it and turns back to us. “Okay, let’s do this.”

As the Jolly and Field women disperse, Nick and I hang back. Once we’re alone in the living room, he backs me up to the wall and drops a trail of kisses along my neck. I wet my lips and pull his head back to nibble on his ear.

“Mmm,” I say. “Wonder what boxers you’re wearing now?”

“Santa wearing a Hawaiian shirt and grilling shrimp on the barbie.”

“No, you’re not.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” He raises an eyebrow.

I give him a slow smile. “Later?”

“Later.” He swallows hard and backs out of the room without taking his eyes off me.

I glance down at my toes and decide Merry’s right. They could use a quick coat of polish. So instead of following the others, I head back to the living quarters to grab the nail polish.

I grab it from the counter in the second bathroom and sit on the edge of the bathtub to give my toenails a coat of pearly white. Then I return the cap to the bottle, check my hair in the mirror, and go out into the hallway.

A door slams somewhere in the private wing. I frown. Nobody should be back here. I almost go to investigate the noise, but I remember my promise to Nick and what happens to characters who are TSTL and stop myself. Instead, I continue on my path back to the inn.

As I’m congratulating myself on my good judgment, I walk past the bathroom where Ivy, Sage, and I got ready, and a flash of red on the mirror catches my eye. I walk inside and stare in horror at the lipsticked letters scrawled over the glass.Puttana.

No, no, no. He’s here. Dante is in the house.

My pulse thrums against my throat as I scrabble in the pocket of my borrowed dress for my phone to text Nick.

He’s here.

My hands shake as I press send. I’m about to slip the phone back into my pocket when it’s slapped out of my hand and hits the bathroom tile. I turn to seehimlunging forward from behind the shower curtain. I open my mouth to scream, and he clamps a hand over my mouth. He drags me out of the bathroom and down the hall to the side exit.

I flail and thrash, fighting hard. Sensei Adam says, in the event of an abduction, to do whatever it takes to avoid being taken to a second location. I kick and wriggle, trying to get leverage to bite Dante’s hand the way I did Nick’s. But he’s moving fast and I can’t get a good angle.

Then he grabs a fistful of my hair and pulls me to the right, fast. An instant later, he pushes me left. My head bounces off the corner of the opposite wall and darkness creeps into the edges of my vision like someone applied a vignette filter. The darkness grows and grows, and then it’s all I see as I slide to the floor.

CHAPTER 28

Nick

I’m chatting with a retired Coast Guard captain and her wife who’ve made the trip from Charleston, South Carolina, for Christmas in July every year for the past twelve years when my phone vibrates in my pocket. I silently curse myself for not putting it on ‘do not disturb’ and ignore the notification, focusing instead on Captain Tanner’s story about teaching her great-nephew to sail.

When the bar opens, the Tanners excuse themselves to trade their sparkling waters for sparkling wine, and I pop into the kitchen to check on Merry and Rosemary.

“Everything good in here?”

“Easy peasy,” Merry says.

“Piece of cake,” Rosemary agrees.

“Speaking of cake, Holly wants me to put the snowman icecream cakes out at six o’clock. Mom usually waited until eight.” Merry looks at me, waiting for a ruling.

I almost say eight because that’s the way we’ve always done it, but I told Holly this was her party now. “Let’s try six this year and see how it goes.”

Merry shrugs. “You got it.”

“Have either of you seen Noelle lately?”

I realize I haven’t seen her since I had her backed up against the wall in the family room. I check my watch. That was over an hour ago.

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