Page 329 of A Merry Mountain Christmas

If he had trouble with near strangers knowing his personal business, he wasn’t going to enjoy talking about what they’d overheard at Shebeen.

A pause, into which Lee hiccupped. “I didn’t expect to meet you like this.”

Jack raised his brows. “Oh? I was under the impression you would have preferred not to meet me at all.”

A shadow passed over Lee’s face. “I almost went to your bar half a dozen times on my last business trip to Chicago.”

Shock filled Jack’s eyes. “But you didn’t?”

“No, I was…” Lee trailed off, looking like he’d lost the point, or maybe like he didn’t want to admit to his little brother that he’d been scared. And for the first time, Maisie felt something like sympathy toward him. Maybe he wasn’t what he seemed, just like Jack wasn’t the humorless, straightlaced man she’d taken him for.

“Why don’t you take him to the bar?” she suggested, gesturing toward it.

“Do you really think more alcohol’s the solution here?” Finn asked in an undertone.

She let out a little huff of laughter. “In lieu of one of Dottie’s miracle hangover cures, I was going to suggest coffee.”

“Who are you?” Lee asked, shifting his attention to Maisie. “You were at Thanksgiving, weren’t you?”

Before she could confirm it, Jack put his free hand on her hip. “She’s my girlfriend.”

He said it hastily, then threw her a look, obviously worried about how she might react.

She just leaned into him and said, “I also have a name. I’m Maisie.”

“Oh, you’re the one who—”

Alarm knifed through her. Had Georgie told him something about her? Did he know she’d had feelings for River? She certainly didn’t want Jack to find out from his drunk-as-a-skunk half-brother.

“—who’s friends with Adalia,” he finished.

The relief was real. And when Finn pulled her away, giving her a pointed look that was probably obvious to everyone, she let him.

“We need to go check on River!” he announced, speaking louder and more emphatically than was necessary.

Jack gave her a look like maybe he didn’t want her to go, but he didn’t attempt to pull her back or refuse. In fact, he hooked an arm around Lee’s shoulders and helped him stagger over to the bar.

Maybe Jack would get enough coffee into Lee that he could relay the bad news. Or if their talk went really poorly, and he was feeling spiteful, he could just tuck the photos in his jacket into Lee’s pocket to give him a surprise for later.

She chuckled to herself at the thought, which was the kind of thing Molly would have come up with as punishment for a vindictive ex. Oh God, Molly was going to be pissed, but Maisie couldn’t let her write about this train wreck, even if the names were left out. It had become too personal for Jack.

“You think he’s going to be okay?” Finn asked nervously as soon as Jack and Lee were out of hearing.

“Which one?”

“Both of them, I guess. I feel kind of bad about Lee. I gave him some high-gravity beers back at the house. He started drinking hard after Jack left. I think he felt guilty about how things went down…and he just kept going once we got here.” He shot her a glance. “From what he said, I take it things aren’t going great with Victoria.”

She stifled a laugh.

Understanding flashed in his eyes, and he pulled her to a stop. “I can tell you know something, and I absolutely donotwant you to tell me. I don’t need any more secrets.”

“Fair play,” she said, raising a hand as her white flag. “Suffice it to say that their romance won’t be long for this world. Dottie saw them breaking up in, like, five cups of tea.”

“Good,” he said decisively. “Because Addy hates her, and she sounds awful. Lee might be a stuffed shirt…well, most of the time”—he waved in the direction of Jack and Lee, who was singing loudly to Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out”—“but he’s not half bad.”

“A rousing endorsement.”

He shrugged. “You know what I mean.”

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