Page 344 of The Christmas Wife

"Your boss."

"And if I don’t want your job?"

I lean back in my seat and nod toward the door. "You’re free to leave."

She glances toward the exit, then back at me. Her blue eyes spark, and color flushes her cheeks. She glowers at me, her features set in a mutinous expression.

"That’s what I thought." I rise to my feet, head back to my chair and busy myself with the document open on my computer.

Footsteps sound, then she walks over to stand on the opposite side of the table. "Are you going to tell me what else is expected from me?"

"Your task list is in your inbox, Ms. Young, along with my expectations of the role. I assume you’re able to read?"

She makes a strangled sound at the back of her throat.

My lips twitch. This has got to be the most fun I’ve had since preparing for my sermons. The thought wipes the smile off my face.

I managed to put the days of my being a priest behind me. I managed not to think of the absolute calmness which filled me then. How I was so sure I'd found my calling, my purpose… Only to find, it's not for me. And I haven’t allowed myself to think back in such detail to that time in my life. I thought I’d managed to put it behind me and move on, but all it took was one conversation with her, and the gates to my past have been pushed open. My hard-won control over my thoughts has never been this tested. I was right. She is a test, a provocation, a problem poised to flush out the weakness in my defenses. And I’m not going to let her win. I’m going to resist her. I’m going to use her to strengthen my resolve. I will not be swayed from mypath. I will not give in to this temptation. I will stay true to my promise to never be involved with anyone.

"I take that as a yes?" My voice comes out in a snap.

She flinches, then juts out her chin. "Thank you for sending through my job description. I promise I will not bother you with such trivial questions again."

She turns to leave, I call out, "Oh, Ms. Young? The zipper on your skirt is undone."

8

Mira

"Oh, my god! What did you do?" My friend Abby cackles from the couch. We’re in the townhouse she shares with her husband Cade. He’s the captain of the English cricket team and currently on a tour of Australia.

"What could I do?" I look into the depths of my glass of Pinot Grigio. "I hauled ass out of there, then ran to the ladies room and checked."

"And," Gio interjects, "was your skirt unzipped?"

"Yep," I say sadly. "I must have tugged on the zipper a little too hard while I was trying to pull it on that morning. It must have broken at some point, and I didn’t realize it."

"Oh, no," Summer, Sinclair’s wife, gasps. "You were wearing a skirt with a broken zipper all that time?"

"Don’t remind me." I tilt the wine glass to my mouth and polish off the liquid. The alcohol slides down my throat, hits my stomach and sets off a pleasant warmth. I hold out my wineglass.

Gio tops me up, then herself. "I can’t believe he pointed that out to you."

"It might have been worse if he hadn’t. I’d have ended up flashing the world. This way, I only flashed him. I hope."

"Oh, honey, I am so sorry." Summer rises from the couch and walks over to me. She hitches a hip on the arm of the chair I’m seated on and touches my shoulder. "I can only imagine how mortifying that must have been."

"It was." I press my head into her arm. My family is not the most demonstrative, to say the least. My ma died when I was little. My father married again, and my stepmother and half-sisters, have never been welcoming to me. Surprisingly, it worked in my favor when I wanted to leave home. My stepmom sided with me—probably because she wanted me out of her hair. Definitely, because she wanted me to get into trouble, in the hope I would spoil my chances of making a good marriage.

How I wanted to be able to do that, too. But I couldn’t break my father’s heart that way. Maybe he wasn't always available to me, but he loves me, in his own way.

That's me, the responsible girl, at heart, even though a part of me wants to break free and rebel so much. I tried to please my stepmom, went out of my way to be friends with my half-sisters, but that invisible barrier that comes from not being blood seemed to always be between us. The three of them were a unit, and I was always on the outside. I thought I’d never find my tribe, until I met Abby and her girlfriends. They adopted me, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I belong.

"Learn from it and move on, honey." Summer runs her fingers though my hair. "Don’t dwell on it, or it’ll drive you a bit crazy."

"I have been going around in circles in my head," I admit.

"I hope you, at least, flashed Priest properly," Gio drawls.

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