Page 42 of The Thief Who Saved Christmas

“You might have taken that as an invitation, but I doubt anyone else did.”

In my peripheral vision, I can see Enoch laughing softly. Grace swats his arm and turns to smile at me. “We’re going to go to that special sale you recommended, Anabelle. I can’t wait.”

I smile back. “Oh, you’re going to love it, it’s magical.”

“And we’ll give the name some thought. You know, Enoch is a brand manager.”

“You’d already mentioned it,” he says with a laugh. “I’m very generous with my bad ideas. My halfway decent ones will cost you in whiskey.”

I feel a glow forming inside of me. Maybe I’m not inherently bad at this. Maybe Ryan’s right, and the secret is to combine the things I think I’m bad at with the things I’m good at…

A throat is cleared in an attention-seeking way, and I look up to see Ryan carrying in a plate with great ceremony.

“Mr. Ryan,” Ben says, “that doesn’t look anything like Rudolph. It’s just a big red circle.”

Indeed it is. And I’m already laughing so hard tears are streaming down my face. “You…made…his…nose.”

He grins at me, flashing his teeth. “A red velvet Rudolph nose for the lady,” he says as he sets the plate down in front of me. I get another peek of his muscled, tattooed forearm as he sets the plate down in front of me.

Despite everything, I feel a gush of pure happiness. Of loving this moment. Of wanting to be nowhere else but here, with these people, in this place.

I try the pancake, and it is, of course, delicious.

“You’re awonderfulcook,” I tell him, holding his gaze. He’s stopped in front of me, watching me as closely as if I were aNew York Timesrestaurant reviewer rather than a woman who can barely cook noodles. I feel important when he looks at me like that.

His smile brightens. “I’ve got an interview on Saturday.”

“At a restaurant?” I ask, excited.

“Nah.” His smile falls a little. “But I applied to a few last night. I don’t know if I’ll hear back.”

“Oh, they’ll get back to you,” Cynthia says. “No question. Every restaurant I know of is so hard up I’m surprised they’re not scouring the nursing homes for the power walkers.”

“Sorry,” I say, glancing at Enoch and Grace. “She has a broken filter.”

Enoch snorts. “It’s not a bad idea, actually. They can have my father, if they want him.”

Grace tries not to look amused. “Very funny. Let’s go.”

They do, but they don’t appear to be fleeing, and Lauryn and her son are in no hurry to leave either.

They like it here. It’s possible for people to like it here.

I take another bite of my delicious pancake, and Cynthia turns toward Ryan, who has claimed Enoch’s chair. “Anabelle has decided she’s moving forward with the Christmas rebrand. She’s running a contest to see if anyone can come up with a new name for the inn. Now, this is the important part, so pay attention. She’s going to hang up a stocking by her desk so the guests can put their ideas inside.” Glancing at Ben, who’s chatting away to his mother like a magpie, she lowers her voice. “How many dicks do you think she’s going to get?”

“Five, and all from you,” he says without missing a beat, and I laugh so hard I nearly choke on my bite of pancake.

After I swallow, I say, “That’s what I told her.”

He grins at me. “Great minds think alike.”

But my mind isn’t like other people’s minds, and I know it, so I just smile back.

A couple of hours later,I’m not smiling.

Jeremy Jacobs and Ryan have just come up from the basement, and Jeremy informed me that the pipes look like they’ve spent the last century at the bottom of the ocean with the Titanic.

He’s not a plumber, but his uncle is, and he worked for him for a while.

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