Page 107 of Kiss Me at Christmas
She cupped his face in her hands.
“No, no, it’s so much more than nice. It’s all the very best words. If you were inside my body right now, you would know how you make me feel.”
“Well, that’s a very saucy invitation.” He grinned mischievously.
She flushed instantly, realizing what she’d said, and dropped her hands, snorty-laughing as she did so.
“Oh gosh,” she said, flustered. “What I meant was…”
He kissed her, and she could feel the smile on his lips. “I know what you meant; I’m only teasing.”
“Let’s keep it clean at the dinner table, shall we?” Grace called.
The call came through just after six a.m. on Saturday morning. As with any call that came in late at night or early in the morning, Harriet’s mind immediately flew to bad news.Oh god, Maisy!She swallowed down the adrenaline as she snatched up her phone.
“Hello?” Her voice was gravelly with sleep and trepidation.
“It’s Ken. Sorry to wake you so early.”
Not Maisy!The relief was dizzying, and she flopped back onto the bed, taking a couple of deep breaths, one arm draped over her face.
“Are you still there?” Ken’s voice broke through the sound of blood rushing in her ears.
“Yep. Here. What’s up, Ken?”
“We’ve got a problem.”
She sat up again. Alert. “What kind of a problem?”
She knew he would be rubbing the back of his neck with one of his giant hands.
“Some of the pipes froze overnight.”
“Okay.”
“And burst.”
“Where?”
“Over the stage.”
“How bad is it?”
“Bad.”
Forty minutes later, having waded through last night’s fresh snowfall in the dark—her car was snowed into its parking space—she arrived at the theater. James was waiting for her on the path just outside the main doors, stamping his feet against the cold.
“How bad?” she asked.
He screwed his face up in answer.
“Fixable?” she asked.
“So Ken says. I guess he would know.” But he didn’t look convinced. “My phone’s been pinging like a pinball machine since you messaged the group chat.”
She sighed. “I figured they had a right to know.”
James held the door for her, and they went inside, the lights bright after the darkness. Shouts and ominous crunching sounds poured down the grand staircase to the auditorium. She looked up and sighed again.
