The Heart of Christmas. Brenda Novak

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СКАЧАТЬ “Found nothing. About this morning—”

      “I’m glad you called,” she broke in. “I’m running late. My husband left the interior light on in my car, and it wouldn’t start, even after a jump. He’s putting in a new battery.”

      She sounded frustrated. She liked coming to work early so she could head home at three-thirty. But the fact that she was behind schedule suited him fine. “No worries, since I can’t make our original meeting time, either.”

      “Why not? Is everything okay?”

      She knew he wouldn’t have stepped away from the helm of his company, especially in such a hurry, unless he had no choice. She just didn’t know the nature of the threat he faced. Working in personal security for several years, he’d come up against some pretty bad dudes, any one of whom could want to even the score. Marilyn probably assumed he was dealing with a situation like that. But this particular problem was much bigger than anything he’d ever encountered with a client and it stemmed from before he’d started All About Security, Inc. This went all the way back to a time when he’d been a different sort of man.

      “It’s fine—for the moment.” He grimaced at the ribbon of road winding through the hills in front of him and blew on his hands to warm them. There was no snow on the ground, but there was plenty of frost. “So when will you get here?”

      “That’ll depend on whether or not a new battery does the trick.”

      “Fine. Text me when you leave.” Since she was coming from the Bay Area, where his office was located, he’d have two hours from that point.

      “I will.”

      “Perfect.”

      “Are we still meeting in the little park you told me about?” she asked before he could end the call.

      “Yes. Right next to the giant gold-panning statue.” He preferred public places in case she’d been followed. That was for her safety and his; he didn’t like the idea of someone kicking in the door to his room and shooting him before he could draw his own weapon. Although it wasn’t legal for an ex-con to own a firearm in California, let alone carry concealed, he wasn’t nearly as afraid of the cops as he was of the other side. He disregarded that no-firearms stipulation whenever he felt the situation warranted it. He’d been fighting to preserve his own life so long that he simply did what he had to do.

      But, as vulnerable as it made him feel, he didn’t have his gun with him now. He’d certainly known not to take it into a bar. These days a lot of places screened patrons before letting them in and, last night, he’d needed a break badly enough to go unarmed.

      “I’m sure I won’t miss it,” she said. “I’ll see you soon.”

      He was just putting his phone away when he heard the approach of another vehicle. This one slowed before he could stick out his thumb, and the driver, an old man, leaned across the seat and lowered the window.

      “Hey, you need a ride?”

      “I do.” Flashing the guy a grateful smile, Rex climbed in.

      * * *

      “Why didn’t you come to coffee this morning?”

      Eve turned to see Cheyenne, her very pregnant best friend, waddle into the small office at the back of the B and B and bend down to put her purse under the desk. Although Cheyenne had cut back on her hours, first when she got married and then when her sister returned to town so she could help out by babysitting her toddler nephew, she still came in four days a week. Her schedule would change again, however, once she had the baby. As much as Eve hated the thought, she would probably have to find a replacement, at least temporarily. She was already working all the hours she could to compensate.

      “I woke up late.” She feigned more interest than she really had in the bill-paying process she’d started as soon as she arrived. Ever since her competitor, A Room with a View, opened up down the street, it had been a struggle to remain solvent. But she’d fought long and hard and wasn’t about to give up any time soon. Not only would this B and B one day be her inheritance, it felt like a member of the family. And since her siblings, two brothers, were nearly fifteen years older and had lived in Texas since they both joined the air force, she didn’t feel she had any family members to spare.

      “It wasn’t the same without you,” Cheyenne commented.

      “Who came?”

      “Dylan, of course.”

      Chey’s husband had joined them ever since the two started dating.

      “Then there were Ted and Sophia,” Chey went on, glossing over those two names as she always did since Eve had dated Ted last Christmas. “Brandon and Olivia, Callie and Levi, Noah and Addy.”

      All couples. In the past few years, the dynamic of the whole group had changed.

      “Oh, and Presley stopped by,” Cheyenne added. “She was passing out invites to her wedding. I have yours in my purse.”

      Eve swiveled her chair around to accept it. Another wedding. Presley wasn’t a member of their original clique. She was Cheyenne’s older sister by two years. But that didn’t matter. Eve felt she’d soon be the only single person in Whiskey Creek, other than their friends Kyle and Riley. Thank God neither of them had tied the knot. Actually, Kyle had been married briefly to Noelle, the waitress who’d given her and her mystery lover a ride home last night. And Riley had once been engaged.

      Eve hadn’t even gotten that close to the altar.

      “Where were they?” she asked, setting Presley’s wedding invitation aside. “They’re almost as regular as I am.”

      “I don’t know, but we thought it was strange that all three of you didn’t show up.”

      All three of you singles. Crazy how quickly they’d become the minority....

      “I don’t miss often.” Eve was one of the driving forces behind their weekly coffee date. She looked forward to catching up with the people she’d hung out with since forever—although, more and more, visiting with them made her feel she was being left behind. These days, instead of who was seeing whom and what they had planned for next weekend, the conversation revolved around babies and purchasing houses and the ups and downs of marriage.

      Eve had nothing to contribute to that.

      Still, she would’ve attended but she could all too easily imagine everyone wishing her a happy birthday and asking what she did last night, and she didn’t want to be reminded of it. This evening the whole gang was taking her to San Francisco for dinner, in a limo no less. She preferred to start the celebration fresh, as if she’d never gone to Sexy Sadie’s.

      “I’ll see everyone later. I’m sorry I missed out, but...I was feeling pressure to get caught up around here.”

      Cheyenne frowned at her. “Is there a problem?”

      Was she acting unusual? “No, just the day-to-day stuff,” she said. “You know how tough it is to survive the off-season.”

      “But I thought you were feeling encouraged. We’ve been full almost every weekend, and we were full last night, on a Thursday. СКАЧАТЬ