Page 29 of Stuck in Christmas

My jaw dropped. “Your internet is working?”

“I read it on my phone.”

“You have service?”

Eli’s brow furrowed. “Sure. Don’t you?”

I pulled my useless phone out of my coat pocket and showed it to him. “No bars. I haven’t been able to tell anyone where I am.”

The blood drained from his face as he considered what I just said. “Oh, no. I’m sure people are wondering where you are.”

I sighed. “I know they are.”

Eli held his phone toward me. “If you want to borrow my phone, here you go.”

I snatched that phone out of his hands so fast that the momentum nearly sent me to my backside. Thankfully, Mr.Strong-And-No-I’m-Not-Thinking-Of-His-Hard-SpotsMarine caught me before I could crash to the ice. I barely registered it as I stared at his phone, and my heart sank.

“You don’t have bars either.” I reluctantly handed him back his phone.

Eli angrily shoved the phone into his jeans pocket and skated away from me a few inches. “Sorry. Guess you’ll have to wait a little longer to call your boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” I frowned. “Who said anything about a boyfriend?”

He shrugged. “I assumed when you said people were wondering where you were.”

I bit back a smile. Jealousy was adorable on this guy. “No boyfriend. The spa I had reservations foris probably wondering where I am. I was supposed to be there days ago.”

“Days ago? You just got here yesterday.”

I closed my eyes and tipped back my head. Was I praying? Asking for guidance? It’s not like any of those tactics worked in my previousninedays stuck in this hellscape. “It’s a long story.”

“I like your stories.”

“You’re not going to believe me when I tell you.” I shook my head.

“Try me,” Eli urged, his blue eyes boring into me.

I took a deep breath. “I’m stuck in Christmas, Mississippi.” I held up a hand to stave off the protests that Eli always gives me when I say that. “Now, before you get all bent out of shape about me saying ‘stuck’ - I don’t mean it’s a terrible place to be. I mean, I’mstuck. I keep re-living the same day over and over again.”

He glanced around the rink. “So, we’ve been ice skating before?”

“Well - no.”

“I’m confused.”

A teenager barrelled straight toward us, and I pulled Eli out of the way. “Every day is a little different. I start in the snowbank outside of Bonnie’s.”

Eli pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry about that. I should’ve shoveled.”

I put my hand over his mouth. “Stop. That’s not the problem. I start in the snowbank, then the next morning, Joe or Bonnie sends us on one errand or another.”

“Errand? Like what?”

“Picking a Christmas tree, baking cookies, sledding.”

“Sledding is an errand?” Eli asked.

I laughed at that one. “You suggested that as a reward for the cookie baking.”

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