Page 72 of Wild Nights

Marcus appeared behind him, and I hugged him too.

"Have a great holiday," I said to him.

"You too, Miss Carolina. Don't be a stranger." Then Marcus winked.

I wanted to promise I'd see them in April, but that wasn't a promise I could make. What if Oliver told me not to come? "Merry Christmas."

Then I walked out of the room, my heart breaking a little more. This was harder than I thought it would be. Oliver was waiting with Xander in the lobby.

Oliver raised a brow. "You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. It was nice to see you again, Xander." To my surprise, he put his arms out for a hug. "Hope we'll see you again." Then he winked.

From behind us, Oliver grumbled, "We need to leave if we're going to make it to the airport in time for your flight."

"Always so grumpy, Oliver. You need to let loose more." Xander walked into the lodge. "Now where's my favorite nephew?"

Oliver held the door for me. It was time for me to leave and forget about this magical place. For one day, I was part of something bigger than me, and it was amazing. I could see myself living here with Oliver and Joey, visiting them at the lodge, and coming home to them at night. My heart squeezedas Oliver hurried to open the passenger side door of his SUV for me.

It was freezing out, and the trucks were still working on the lot. I waited for Oliver to rush around the hood, and climb into his side of the SUV. "Will you officially reopen tomorrow?"

"We don't have anyone checking in until the twenty-sixth. We'll get the guests out today, and then have a couple of days for family."

I settled into the seat as Oliver turned up the heat and tilted the vents in my direction. "That sounds nice."

"It's always crazy around here for Christmas since the family is so large. This year, my brother Killian is coming home, and I just heard that my parents will be here too."

"I'm so happy for you."

"Yeah, we never know when Killian will have time to make a stop, and my parents said they just couldn't stay away. They want to meet Eli's new girlfriend, Scarlett. We all grew up together, but I guess they want to see for themselves that Eli's fallen in love."

"That's sweet." I couldn't even imagine being part of a family like that. We'd been burned so badly by my dad that we were all cautious when it came to love, whether it was friendship or a significant other.

"What are your plans when you get home?"

"I'm meeting with my dad tomorrow." It felt good to share this development with him.

Oliver glanced over at me before returning his attention to the road. "Really?"

"Yeah, it's time for us to talk through things. I'm done avoiding my past and pretending it's not affecting me now. If my mom and Ginny can move on relatively unscathed, then I want to as well."

"That's great. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks. And then I'm going to spend whatever part ofthe holiday with my family that they'll allow. I know they have plans with their significant others. But I'm sure we can spend a few hours together." I wasn't positive about that. It was possible my mom and sister were planning on doing something else entirely. I hadn't touched base with them while I was here, and they hadn't reached out. I didn't want Oliver to feel sorry for me. "The holiday will look different this year, but I'm determined to have a good time."

Oliver nodded.

"What about you? What are your family's traditions?"

"We spend Christmas Eve together. Then we come together at some point on Christmas Day. It's a lot of togetherness."

"That sounds amazing." And exactly what I envisioned when I thought about the holidays.

"Marcus will get a week off after this, so we'll handle the cooking and cleaning. But the only house big enough to serve us is the lodge. So we'll all stay there on Christmas Eve night."

"I kind of love that."

"It works for now. But once the family expands, I don't know what we'll do. Eli is planning on moving from his penthouse to a house he's building with Scarlett sometime this summer."

---