Page 11 of Meet Me on Christmas Eve

Wow, he went there.

I don’t want to tell him.

I don’t have to tell him anything.

Well, I guess if he lives here, he’s going to find out soon enough, if he doesn’t already know and isn’t pretending.

I sighed and pointed toward the lake. “Northam Resorts. It’s mine.”

His jaw dropped so fast I thought it must have hurt. OK, so he definitely hadn’t known. “You—yourun the resort? The … the one where we met?”

I’d have to ignore that last part. “Yes, I run Northam. I’ve owned and run it for several years now.” I leveled him with a forced smile. “You look astonished. Is it that shocking that I would become successful in life, Terry?”

He scoffed. “No. I mean … I had no idea.” He made a face then, as if trying to puzzle out in his mind how he hadn’t known about this. I wondered how long he’d been living in the area.

“And how about you, Mr. Grant? How’s the family and the trust fund?” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

His face fell, as though I’d stabbed him. I felt something sharp in my own chest. “All gone, except for Blair.”

“Oh, where did they go?” I tried for sincere politeness this time.

His jaw clenched, he looked at me and said more loudly this time, “I said they’regone.”

I couldn’t breathe. Did he mean … had they died? “Do-do you mean—”

His jaw ticked again, and he sighed. He looked away for a long moment and then back to me. “My parents died the same year I met you, a few months later. Terrible accident. It’s just Blair and me now.”

Blair was his sister, who had never liked me, though she pretended she did in front of Terry. “I’m so sorry,” I said quietly.

“It’s OK. It was so long ago,” he said, looking off into the distance. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“OK.” The other part of what he’d implied sunk in then. “Do you mean the trust fund is gone too then?”

His eyes met mine again warily. “The family fortune was decimated, yes. But don’t go feeling sorry for us. Grants always land on their feet.”

“Oh,” I said, unsure how else to respond to that. “So, you’re really into costumes, eh?” Humor wasn’t really my thing, but I felt like I needed to lighten the mood somehow. I could hate him, but I’d still feel bad for anyone who lost their parents. I certainly knew what that felt like.

At this, the corners of his mouth turned up a bit. “Well, tis the season.”

Realization dawned then. “Wait, do youworkin the shop?” Had his fortunes really sunk that low? Not that working in a shop waslowexactly, but his family had been flat-outrichbefore. Like filthy rich.

“No, I just walk around wearing an elf costume for fun, Mariana,” he said, a playful look on his face. “Of course I work there.”

My eyes widened slightly, and then I nodded. This would be another staffing change I’d need to make because there’s no way in hell I’d havehimworking for me. But this reversal of our fortunes was … jarring. Interesting. Awkward. He had to feel it too.

“Eh, it is what it is.”

Oh shit, had I said any of that out loud? “What?”

“You said it’s awkward.” He looked slightly amused as he studied me. “I’m guessing from your face that you didn’t realize you’d said it out loud. Well, I guess some things haven’t changed. You used to do that all the time.”

Another trait of the old, unrefined Mariana I thought I’d left behind but hadn’t, apparently. He must bring out the worst in me.

After a tense silence where I realized I was probably frowning, he crossed his arms and asked, “Am I beneath your notice now, Mari?”

Hearing him call me by my nickname was so jarring that I gasped. Or maybe it was the insinuation that I was … what, a snob?

I looked him in the eye, raising my chin. “What is that supposed to mean?”

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