Page 281 of A Merry Mountain Christmas

His mouth parted, but he couldn’t find any words. He was momentarily speechless.

“It can’t be easy becoming a guardian to a seventeen-year-old girl. I know that’s why you were gone this summer. You were being a father to her.” She grimaced. “You could have told me, Jack. I would have understood.”

“But I didn’t know that at the time,” he said. “And I’m pretty protective of her.”

She released a short laugh. “Trust me, I get it.” She paused. “River says she’s going to start working with Maisie at the shelter.”

“Today was her first day,” Jack said, thinking about Maisie, his heart feeling both heavier and lighter at the same time. “But she wants to start working there twice a week.”

“I saw you and Maisie at Thanksgiving,” she said quietly. “Are you two seeing each other?”

“You mean dating?” he asked, caught off guard by her bluntness. “No.”

She pushed out a sigh of relief. “Okay. That’s probably for the best.”

“What makes you say that?” he asked, toning his question down fromwhat the hell does that mean?

A tight smile twisted her lips. “It’s nothing.” She pulled into Jack’s driveway and shot him a glance. “I just don’t think Maisie’s in a place to start a relationship right now.”

“What?”

“Look, I know I’ve missed out on a lot of years of being your big sister, but trust me on this one, okay?”

He was about to insist she elaborate, but Iris’s face appeared in the upstairs bedroom window. She was bound to wonder why he’d left with Maisie and come home with Georgie. Besides, she seemed to resent all the time he spent with his “fake sisters,” as she called them.

“Thanks for the cake,” he said, holding up the plate. “And I guess for the warning, although I’d really like to know more.”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

But if it was nothing, she wouldn’t have mentioned it, would she have?

It probably didn’t have anything to do with River, because if he and Maisie had been involved at some point, that would be very much in the past. He and Georgie were getting married, and only a total jerk would ask a recent ex to be in the wedding party. But Georgie was making it sound like anything with Maisie would be complicated, and that was the last thing he needed right now. Maybe Georgie knew something from River. It tracked with what Maisie said earlier, about having her own reasons for staying away.

“Thanks anyway,” he said, trying to keep his disappointment out of his voice. “You’re filling in that big sister role pretty well.”

She gave him an apologetic smile. “Just trying to keep you from getting hurt.”

Now he was even more intrigued. Maybe Maisie had just gotten out of a relationship. If that was the case, he’d rather know. The last thing he wanted was to be her rebound. He was done being everyone’s second choice. For once, he wanted to be first.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Maisie had always worried what would happen if anyone discovered her secret about River. Anyone other than Molly and Mary, anyway, because they’d known for years. But Finn had caught her at a low moment and guessed the truth. Now, Adalia and Blue knew too, and life wasn’t any different. Adalia had kindly told her that she’d already guessed, and Blue had sighed deeply and said she understood the drive to keep a secret better than Maisie could ever know. Surprisingly, they had both supported her decision not to tell River.

Maisie had gone to Bro Club on Tuesday, after spending half of Iris’s training session showing her the best way to clean poop out of the pens and the other half making up for it by teaching her how to train puppies to sit. Part of her had worried it would be weird to hang out with Finn and River, like maybe the fraying threads of Finn’s filter would completely rip free now that Adalia openly knew what he had done, but he didn’t say anything, and River was too pumped up about the plan to (hopefully) disinclude Prescott from the engagement party to talk about much else.

She hadn’t told the others, but she’d had another reason for suggesting they hold the party on Christmas Eve. Christmas hadalways been a hard time of year for River. His mother had left him with Dottie two weeks beforehand…and he’d never seen her again. And while they were inviting Georgie’s estranged father to all of the festivities, no one had breathed a word about Esmerelda. Nor would they, she was sure. Everyone involved knew better.

By the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, she was feeling pretty good, until Mary called her at ten until five.

“Hey,” she answered, washing out some dirty bowls. Iris was with Beatrice today, and the other volunteer who was supposed to be helping out had called in sick, sounding so hung over she’d almost accused him of pregaming for SantaCon on Saturday. “What’s up?”

It wasn’t usual to hear from Mary at this time of day, on a workday, no less. Mary was a lawyer, and she always insisted on a firm separation between her work life and her personal life.

“I’m sorry,” Mary said, sounding flustered, “but your gift got delivered early. The deliverymen were supposed to carry it inside for you, but apparently no one was home, and the dogs were barking, and they just left it there. That is so against the rules, and I’m going to write them a scathing Yelp review, but that doesn’t change the fact that your gift is sitting out there.”

“Um, I’m sure it’s fine,” Maisie said, not going into all the ways her sister’s explanation was crazy. It was almost three weeks before Christmas, for one, and for another, the house was set back from the road enough that it was highly unlikely any teens would happen along and steal her packages.

“No, you don’t get it.” A pause hung on the other end of the line. “I got you a new bedroom set.”

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