Page 52 of The Duke Who Saved Christmas
Beth had parked outside the front of the house, and given that it was already snowing, that seemed like a bad idea.
I detoured down the path to the garage and opened it remotely with the key. The door whirred to life, lifting, and I drove into my spot and parked up.
Then glanced back.
Hopefully Beth’s keys weren’t in an obscure place. There was no way I was going to leave her car out there to be snowed on.
I shut the garage behind me and checked the forecast on my phone as I headed back towards the house. After it confirmedwhat I thought was coming overnight, I let myself into the house and checked the key hooks.
Her keys were there.
I quickly went back out, drove her car into her slot in the garage, and got myself back inside. There was a chance she was already asleep in her room since the pregnancy combined with her heavy workload was exhausting her, but I still went looking for her in the hopes she was still awake downstairs.
I found her in the living room, curled up on the sofa.
Asleep.
Smiling, I walked over and knelt in front of her. “Beth?” I whispered.
She didn’t so much as twitch.
“Bethany,” I said softly, touching her shoulder.
She grunted and rolled her shoulder as if to shake me off.
“Okay.” I fetched two thick blankets from the ottoman under the window and gently tucked them around her, then got her a bottle of water from the fridge. I used the notepad on the fridge to scrawl her a quick note about her car and popped it under the water bottle.
After stoking the fire and throwing some fresh coal on it, I hesitated before leaving. I wanted to make sure she really was okay—she looked fucking knackered if the shadows under her eyes were anything to go by.
Her phone lit up on the table, and my eyes widened as it did the tell-tale jerk of a vibration.
I darted across the room and grabbed it right as that started. Instead of it buzzing across the table and waking the dead, never mind Beth, it vibrated in my hand, and I took a peek at the screen.
Zara.
I hesitated only for a second before I ducked out of the room and answered. “Hey,” I said.
“Tom?” Zara’s voice crackled with the poor signal, and I quickly moved away from the dead spot that I knew was the living room door. “Is that you?”
“Yeah, sorry, dead spot,” I replied. “Everything okay?”
“Uh, why are you answering Beth’s phone?”
“She’s asleep.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“She’s asleep on the sofa,” I said, expanding on my original answer. “Her phone was on the table, and I didn’t want it to wake her up vibrating.”
Zara was quiet for a second. “Oh. Why is she asleep on the sofa?”
That was a loaded fucking question.
“Busy day,” I answered vaguely.
“Thomas!”
“She’s slammed at the shop, and the lights were turned on tonight, so she’s had a long day.”
