Page 43 of Three Days of Holiday

I was more scared of what her answer would be to my next question than any of the competitions I’d entered for the farm.

“Holly, I’m jobless and have zero prospects. I’m also pretty sure the place I plan to relocate to might run me out of town on the first night. You can totally do better, but I hope you’ll give me a real chance at being your boyfriend.”

I couldn’t tell for certain, but the way her face moved, it looked as if she was biting on those two precious lips of hers. We each took a breath and my eyes pleaded for her to make the right choice.

To choose me.

She leaned back, and for a moment I thought my heart might break until she lunged at me, her arms wrapping around my shoulders, and squeezed tightly in a world-changing hug.

“Yes!” she shouted, blasting my ear drum, but I’d never complain.

I kissed her, putting the unspoken promises between us on my lips. I’d make sure she never regretted her decision.

Gravel sprayed against the side of the dirt road, breaking us apart. Tires kicked up dirt and spun as a car came to a screeching stop outside of the truck. The door flung open and a head emerged before darting at us.

“You whore!”

15

HOLLY

Will jumped in front of me as Diane lunged into the truck. Her body hit the big metal bar at her waist and then she struggled to pull herself up into the bed.

“You cannot have him, you skank.” Diane sneered and looked at me as if I was a piece of dirt she wanted to use her shoe to grind into the ground—beneath her feet, right where she thought I belonged. “I’m not letting you waste all of my work at gaining control of the farm.”

Will’s body blocked most of my view, but I disentangled my now-staticky hair from his shirt and leaned over his shoulders, trying to get a look at Diane. She trudged with her elbows, pulling herself higher on the truck bed, her movements short but solid. She resembled a walking female robot, and I widened my eyes and pinched my lips together to stop myself from commenting on it.

Not the time.

Her movements were so stiff, her eyes hard, and even the words as she spilled out insults had a robotic soundto them. She was my personal walking, talking Terminator.

Except she wasn’t walking but still trying to pull herself up into the truck. Something was holding her back and in a moment of frustration, she raised her face to the sky and screamed, kicking her feet.

Someone on the back end of the truck wrapped their arms around Diane’s waist and gave a good tug.

“Hope?” I asked. She tilted her head to the side, giving me a better view. “Were you spying on us?”

Hope gasped for breath as she tugged on Diane but had little success in removing the woman so hell bent on getting into the truck. “Of course I was. Like I’d let you leave and not see what he had planned.”

Diane screamed again, emphasizing the complete chaos as she jerked her hardest, trying to dislodge my sister’s grip and get herself into the truck. Hope hung on to the woman’s body, squeezing tightly, like it was a normal late December afternoon.

“Eww,” I said, shaking my head.

Will held his arm out to stop me from getting closer, but he didn’t move as he took in the scene.

Hope gave another large tug on the woman, finally causing one of Diane’s hands to slip. “I would have left before you got to the really good part.”

My sister smiled up at me, her grin so wide it looked like she was having the time of her life. It was a definitely a Christmas Eve to remember. In her distraction, Diane used the opportunity to kick Hope right in the stomach.

I grabbed for my sister, though I couldn’t reach her from my distance away in the truck. She lost her grip onDiane and went flying to the ground, her butt skidding against the rocks.

Will kept one hand on my shoulder, trying to hold me back as he worked his way closer to Diane to intercept her when she made it onto the truck. Without my sister holding her back, she easily pulled herself into the metal bottom of the truck. The fake snow fell around her, the twinkle of the light of the metal roof from the fake stars giving her an even more sinister glow as little speckles of stars rotated on her cheeks.

It was a crazy version of theTerminator Does Christmasand I made a mental note to never watch one of those movies ever again.

“William,” Diane said, her eyes darting in the space as she reached the man who stood between us. “How could you do this to us? It would have been perfect.”

If she hadn’t been calling me a skank and kicking my sister in the stomach a few seconds ago, I might have had pity for her situation, but in the heat of the moment, that was not happening.

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