Page 29 of Merry Me
I turned and glared at him like I might bite him.
“Well…no. I thought Paige and Levi were taking care of all of that,” I said slowly.
Easton tilted his head, looking positively entertained. “It was in the email. There was a link to book the rooms. My assistant did it that day.”
Now I was panicking. I vaguely remembered some kind of email, but I’d been finishing up finals and existing on caffeine, stress, and an unreasonable amount of Nutella, and everything was so last minute and…
Fuck. I definitely hadn’t read that email.
“We were responsible for booking our own rooms?” I said, that weird squeak back in my voice.
Margaret winced. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. But we’re at full capacity right now. We don’t have any other rooms available.”
I sighed, dragging a hand through my hair. “Okay, you have double occupancy, right? My grandmother is staying here. I’ll see if I can room with her.”
Before Margaret could answer, a familiar voice piped up from behind me. “Oh, honey, I’d love to help, but I can’t.”
I turned to see MeMaw standing in the middle of the room, wearing a sweater so aggressive it could have blinded me. It had a massive blinking Rudolph nose smack in the middle, and her bedazzled red glasses made her look like a Christmas ornament come to life. Her earrings—Santa riding a candy cane, naturally—jingled as she gave me an exaggerated shrug.
“Why not?” I asked, half expecting an excuse like she needed her beauty sleep or something equally inane.
She leaned in, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, though it was loud enough for the whole lobby to hear. “Because I’m expecting to hook up this week.”
I blinked, my brain short-circuiting. “I—What?”
“You heard me,” she said, her grin wicked as she patted my arm. “I’ve got a good feeling about this place. A woman has needs, Natalie.”
Margaret coughed, clearly trying to suppress a laugh, and I wished the floor would open up and swallow me.
“Great,” I muttered under my breath. “Fantastic. Just what I needed.”
MeMaw winked. “If you get desperate, you’re welcome to the cot in my room. It folds out right next to my bed.”
I blinked at her. “You mean the cotyouwill fold someone out on next toyourbed.”
She winked. “It’s Christmas, baby girl. Miracles happen.”
As MeMaw sauntered off to inspect the cookie tray, I turned back to Margaret, praying she had some miracle solution. “So…just to confirm…there arenoother options?”
She offered me a sympathetic smile. “I’m really sorry. We could put you on the waitlist if someone cancels?”
There were a lot of problems with this situation. I didn’t have a working car, there weren’t any other hotels nearby, and paying for an Uber for a four-hour round trip drive every day until the wedding was going to be astronomical. There was also the factthat I had paid enough attention to know that Paige had planned events every night, and the idea of dragging my ass two hours back home in the middle of the night was less than ideal.
Maybe they had a stable I could sleep in. That had worked out for someone in the past.
“You can stay with me,” Easton said oh so casually, slipping his key card into his back pocket like he hadn’t just detonated my last shred of chill with five casual words.
Margaret gasped, clapping her hands together like he’d just invented Christmas itself. “Oh, that’s awonderfulidea!”
I gaped at her, because why was this stranger trying to ruin my life? “That’s actually aterribleidea.”
She waved off my panic with a dismissive flap of her hand. “Oh, don’t be silly! It’s a suite, dear. Plenty of space! One of you can take the couch—” Her lips twitched. “But whywouldyou?”
I choked on air. My soul literally left my body.
Easton had the audacity to grin like it was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
“No, absolutely not,” I snapped, shaking my head so hard I probably looked like a bobblehead. “There’s gotta be another option.”
