Page 65 of Getting Lucky

“Yeah, I know,” Maisie said dryly. “I noticed that half of our Instagram traffic was from Seattle. Thanks for reposting them.”

“You did us a favor. People love seeing hot guys holding dogs.”

Maisie felt a little prick of jealousy. But while she didn’t love the thought of other women checking him out, no one could deny the results. It was the best quarter they’d had in a long, long time, and she knew she had Jack and Iris to thank. Well, along with a little assist from Molly.

“It’s not just the watch,” she admitted. “I’ve been going through their things,” she said through the burn in her throat. “I’ve put together a lot of boxes for charity. It seemed like a good thing to do for the holiday. And I’m going to give some of Mom’s vintage stuff to Adalia for her sculptures.” She swallowed. “Most of the furniture’s going to go too. I already went to a couple of places to scope out some new pieces.”

“Oh, Maisie,” Molly said, “you don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that. This is good. This is what Mom and Dad would have wanted.”

“I know that.” And she did. She always had. But for a long time it hadn’t been whatshehad wanted. There’d been a solace in hanging on.

“Onward and upward,” Molly said, repeating the phrase their dad had always used.

“Onward and upward,” she repeated through her throat, thick with emotion.

“Anyway, I’ve got to go. I need to take an Uber to my next date. This one’s a legit, for-real date.” Maisie heard another aggrieved sound in the background, presumably from Blake. “Get this. The guy’s a hot veterinarian. I know you’d approve.”

“Have fun,” Maisie said. “I love you.”

“Love you the mostest,” Molly said and made a dramatic smooch at the phone before ending the call.

In the wake of their conversation, she felt not just alone but lonely. And the house’s lack of holiday cheer started to bother her. Perhaps it had been a mistake not to decorate. Maybe the only people here were her and Einstein and Chaco, because they certainly counted, but shouldn’t they have some joy too?

If she was going to decorate, it would be much more fun to do it with someone else, but Adalia was busy with preparations for the unwanted guests—if you asked Maisie, Adalia was investing way too much thought into the bachelorette disaster; for the bachelor party, Maisie had booked a tour of the local breweries and called it a day—and Blue had become enmeshed in this Bad Luck Club. Jack had run with his idea of setting the Christmas Eve engagement party as a pop-in, pop-out type event, so at least Blue was coming to that. But she was spending Christmas day with a couple of the other members of her club. Maisie hadn’t asked why she wasn’t spending it with her family instead. She understood without asking that it was the kind of thing Blue would share when she was ready. The holidays were a minefield of emotions for most people.

So instead she tapped her phone for a moment and then texted Jack:Would you and Iris be up for some decorating fun? I need some help from Santa.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jack studied the text on his phone, then glanced up at his sister, who was icing sugar cookies. It was nearly eight, which was later than he’d usually suggest an outing, but knowing her, she wouldn’t go to bed until midnight or later, and who was he kidding? He really wanted to see Maisie. They’d been texting all week, but he hadn’t seen her since the photo shoot…and the kiss.

And if Iris came with him, he wouldn’t have to worry he’d be on anything but his best behavior.

Which was why he found himself saying, “Hey, Iris. Maisie just texted and invited us to come over to help her decorate for Christmas.”

Her head jerked up, a tube of red icing in hand. “She hasn’t decorated yet? It’s, like, three days before Christmas!”

“Hey,” he said with a shrug. “All I know is what she said.”

She scrunched up her nose. “Why’d she text you and not me?”

He resisted the urge to cringe. “Maybe because it’s so late. She probably wanted to text me to make sure it was okay.”

“Yeah,” she said, shifting her weight to one side. “Maybe.”

“Do you want to go? You didn’t show much interest when Addy and Finn put up the tree a few weeks ago.”

She gave him a guilty look. Adalia and Finn had tried to make decorating the Christmas tree a family activity, complete with warm cider and cookies they’d baked together. Finn’s excitement about the whole thing had almost been comical. According to Adalia, his parents had always used a personal shopper to buy his gifts, which they’d had professionally wrapped. A chef had made their Christmas dinner. None of that sounded especially bad to Jack, but the situation admittedly lacked warmth, something he’d always had from his grandmother. And then with Iris.

But the family-bonding Christmas activity had gone down before Iris’s recent thaw toward Adalia, and his sister had silently put up a couple of ornaments before asking if she could be excused to do homework.

“Well…” she said sheepishly.

He hadn’t meant to make her feel bad, so he jostled her arm and said, “It’s okay, Iris. There was a lot going on and…” He pushed out a sigh. “I get it. That being said, this is up to you. If you’d rather stay here and decorate your cookies, I’m good with that too.” He grinned. “I will gladly keep eating them.”

“I’m cutting you off anyway,” she said with a laugh. “Three’s plenty. We can’t risk you getting flabby for your puppy pictures.”

He groaned. “You really need to ask Finn and River to do their share. They were Maisie’s friends first.”

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