Page 4 of Rejoice

“No, that guy is the day after tomorrow,” Jim deadpanned.

“Shut up and get on with your ghosting, Marley.” Gray sounded resigned,but he wasn’t putting a stop to this play.

I swallowed back the nervousness that bubbled up. I crossed my fingers Gray wouldn’t blow this whole thing off.

“Whoooo. Come with me, Master Sergeant Grayson Scrooge to visit your Christmases past.” Jim led Gray out of the room just like we’d planned.

That gave me plenty of time to stew about how mad he would be later.

The two of them returned in a half an hour. Gray wore his sand-covered fatigues now too. He definitely had his mad on.

“Fine. You want me to say I was fucking lonely sitting in that hellhole night after night. Then I’m saying it. Didn’t matter if it was Christmas or not. Operators love their country and hate the military, especially on holidays.”

Good thing Jim and Gray had been friends for a long time because anyone else might not have taken kindly to that dark mood getting fifty pounds of sand in pretend Iraq thrown at them created.

“Of course, you were. We all were. What I’m saying is you weren’t the only one lonely at Christmas, dickhead.” Jim jerked his chin in my direction.

Gray glanced at me and then did a double take. I patted my hair and put on the fake smile I’d learned so well growing up.

“Hey, Gray.” I’d rehearsed my lines a zillion times in the last half hour. Once again, I crossed my fingers he would play along. “Have you seen Marc? I can’t find him anywhere.”

Gray’s eyes widened and then he frowned. He glanced around the room at the life-size cutouts of the people from my past.

I’d stashed Mindy behind the bar. No doubt with his training in observation, he noticed she was missing too.

Because he and I both knew exactly where Marc and Mindy were. I hadn’t known back then.

Christmas a year ago, sitting at the country club surrounded by my so-called friends and family had been lonely. I’d insisted on hanging out at the bar waiting for my fiancé to show up. Grayson looking on, being the consummate bodyguard.

I was good at pretending that sitting there alone hadn’t bothered me. How could it when there was so much holiday cheer to be had?

I was super at lying to myself about a lot of things back then.

Gray stared at me for a full minute. Without taking his eyes off of me, he addressed Jim. “Jackass, I’m sure there is a hot woman warming your bed at home. I got this.”

Jim tipped his head to me and when I nodded, he saluted and walked out, grabbing the cut-out of the cute waitress on his way.

I worried my lip between my teeth as Gray crossedto me. He lifted his hand to my face and ran his thumb across my mouth, stopping me from doing any more damage. “Why do I have the feeling there’s a life-size cardboard replica of Sparky fucking Mindy in the bathroom?”

“Probably because there is.”

He shook his head. “You went to a hell of a lot of trouble here. You didn’t have to dothis for me.”

“I did too.” Sometimes he was so dense.

“Okay, love.” He grabbed a strand of my wig and rubbed it between his fingers. “I hope this isn’t permanent. I never liked you blonde. The real you is so much more beautiful to me.”

Sweet talker. I pulled the wig off and tugged my hair out of the tight bun. All along he’d seen more of the real me than anyone else ever had.

“Are you a little less scroogy now?”

“I never thought about you being lonely at Christmas. I’m sorry for that and I wish now I’d done something sooner. Come to bed with me now and I’ll spend the whole night making it up to you.”

He led me off toward our bedroom and I happily followed him.

He hadn’t quite answered my question.

That was okay, because I had more in store for Gray. The Ghosts of Christmases Present and Future were on their way.

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