Chapter 21
CHAPTER 21
D ecember 18 th
Office parties can be both fun and horrendous. You just want to leave and get on with your vacation, but the co-workers who have far too much to drink make you sit back and watch the trainwreck as one bad decision leads to another.
One office party to go then I’m heading home. I got one more text from Max. He said he missed me too and was finishing his case. I started to send him texts every night about my day, letting him know how often I thought of him, and telling him to arrest other people since my time in jail was over. But I’ll always sign in as his jailbird.
“I hate these things,” Jack grumbled as he handed her a glass of champagne. The board of directors, including his mother, watched the party from across the room. The brave executives would come over and say hi. Paige had ventured over and given Mrs. Griffin a gift. It was a book from a new author she’d signed who wrote very hot, very alpha, very growly vampires. Mrs. Griffin’s lips had twitched when she’d declared it would be her nighttime reading and maybe Paige wasn’t as much of a hussy as she’d thought. “I also can’t believe you and my mom are becoming friends.”
“I wouldn’t call us friends. I’d call us people who can now sorta tolerate each other. What is she going to think of Moxie?”
Jack smiled and looked so happy at the mention of her name. “I’m bringing her over for dinner this weekend to meet my mom. I’ve told her all about Moxie and that I love her.”
Paige reached out and squeezed Jack’s arm. “I’m so happy for you both.”
“My mom said it would be nice to have a real estate agent in the family since we like to invest in property. She very much approves that Moxie isn’t a direct employee. I think she was stunned when I said the L word and is just so happy that this could lead to grandchildren that she’s playing nice. How’s Max? I heard he wrapped up his case today. There was a picture of him at the mayor’s office online.”
“What?!” Paige pulled out her phone and looked up the local news.
NYPD Detective Key in Undercover Sex Trafficking Sting Across New England.
“You know, since his picture in the news with the mayor, it means his undercover work is done. I wonder why that is?” Jack winked at her. “When do you leave?”
“In two hours. I’m catching the train to Vermont so I better go soon. I guess I won’t have time to see Max, but I’m so proud of him.”
“He’s a good guy, working the way he does. He makes the rest of us look bad,” Jack said with a smirk. “Now, I don’t want to see you in the office until January third. Got it?”
“January? I’m supposed to come back on the twenty-seventh.”
“Are you telling your boss what to do? I don’t want to see you back here until after New Year’s. You have more sick days and overtime piled up than you’ll ever go through. Now,” Jack raised his glass, “congratulations to one hell of a year, Miss Turner.”
Paige smiled and raised her glass. “You too, Mr. Griffin.”
Jack hugged her tight. “Thank you for being my friend, Paige, and for introducing me to Moxie.”
“Merry Christmas, bestie.”
Jack let go of her as he chuckled. “Get out of here. Enjoy your vacation.”
Paige ordered an Uber while she finished packing. She sent Max a text with a link to the news article and congratulated him. She told him how proud she was of him but had to finish packing.
Her app told her the Uber was getting close. She zipped her bag as a knock on her door sounded. Paige had kept up with Clark’s insistence on locking her door, which Leah took a bit to learn. She ran into the door several times until she got the hint that the door was to stay locked.
Paige unlocked it when she saw who was standing on the other side. “Max!” Paige smiled and hugged him tight. “What a great surprise. What are you doing here?”
“I was in the middle of a meeting with the police chief when Jack called me. He said you were leaving for the holidays. He also told me at the last book club meeting, the night I spent the night, that Kitty told you I wasn’t dating Sierra. You didn’t know I had broken up with her until then?” he asked Paige. Max was normally always calm and put together, but now he looked . . . rattled.
“Why would Jack tell you that? And why would you race from a meeting to ask me this?”
“Answer my question. Please.” Max glanced at his watch and Paige heard the app ding to alert that her driver was here.
“No. I didn’t know you’d broken it off with Sierra.”
“But then you found out and you asked me to spend the night?” Max pushed as if he were interrogating her, trying to find the answer to something he needed to know.
“Yes.” A horn honked out on the street and Paige grabbed her bag. “I’m sorry, Max. I have to go. We’ll talk about this when I get home. Just know that my love life might be a mess. I have no idea how I might be at having sex. But I’m okay with that. I’m a good person with good friends, and I reached my career goal this year by working my ass off. I should be embarrassed telling you this, but I think I finally understand my heroines. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about if you’re honest with yourself.”
“What does that mean?” Max asked as he grabbed her bag and they began to walk down the stairs. “Honest about what?”
“It means,” Paige said as she stopped at the car she’d ordered. “You’re one of my best friends and I know this could mess things up, but I like you, Max. I really like you. I’m not Sierra. I’m not rich or a size zero. She is beautiful, and I’m . . . me. Why would I ever think someone like me, who got arrested for prostitution and is such a loser that she can’t give her virginity away, would have your interest? But here I am. Telling you that I like you, I want to be with you and that the idea of we just feels right. The rest is up to you.”
“But your adventures?”
“Come on, lady!” the driver called out after slamming the trunk on her bag.
“I stopped going on adventures when I realized you’re the only one I want to have adventures with. Merry Christmas, Max.” Paige rose up on her toes and kissed his cheek before getting in the car. She looked out the window as Max ran his hand through his hair. She hoped he would have time to process what she said. She hoped she had a shot with Max, but she wasn’t going to beg anyone. If Max liked her, if Max really was waiting for her, he’d be waiting to tell her how he felt when she returned. For now, he was safe, and he knew how she felt. That was enough.
It was hard, but Paige pulled out a small-town romance book on the train. She wasn’t going to obsess over Max while she was gone. She was going to focus on the holiday and enjoying time with her family. So, instead of cyberstalking Max, she became lost in the story about the high school bad girl coming back to her small town as a well-respected businesswoman and going to head to head with her high school crush.
By the time the train pulled into her hometown station, the hero had proposed by writing Will You Marry Me? on the town’s water tower. That’s what Paige wanted. She wanted love and she wasn’t going to settle for anything less.
Paige got off the train and was instantly enveloped in a hug by her mother. “Lily, let the girl breath,” her father, Adair Turner, said before wrapping them both in a bear hug. “Welcome home, kiddo.”
“Sweetheart!” her mother cried as she pulled back and took a good look at her. “You’ve changed. You look so professional.”
“I guess I have. It’s good to be home.”
Her father grabbed her bag and they walked to the old red pickup that her father had driven for decades. Turner Inn and Christmas Trees was emblazoned in white across the door.
She told them all the latest on her friends and her job as they drove through her small town, Kringle Falls. She loved her hometown. The town square was lined with little chalets for the holiday market with a giant Christmas tree in the center.
“Tonight is the tree lighting and the holiday market is every night until Christmas Eve,” her mother told her as if Paige didn’t already know the schedule, which hadn’t changed since the end of World War II.
“I can’t wait, but my favorite part is Holly’s Bookstore. I love her children’s Christmas reading and gift-giving. I love seeing books get into the hands of kids. It makes my bookworm heart happy to see them start a lifelong love of reading,” Paige said as they drove by Holly’s Bookstore.
Her father cleared his throat. “Tell her, honey.”
“Tell me what?” Paige asked.
“Holly might not be able to have another Christmas reading after this year. A big developer bought the building and is pressuring her to close immediately so he can get to work installing some chain restaurant,” her mother told her.
“No!” Paige’s favorite Christmas memories were of sitting around the tree at Holly’s as she read and handed out books to all the children. “We have to do something!”
“Nick North is trying, but it’s an uphill battle,” her father answered.
Paige tried not to gasp. Nick? Her high school crush? The most popular boy at school? The quarterback and the guy who dated Stacy Winter, the prom queen? “What is Nick doing to help?”
Her mother patted her leg. “That’s right. You don’t know. He was recently elected mayor.”
“I bet Stacy loves being the mayor’s wife.” Stacy had not been nice in high school. She never actually achieved Sierra-level bitchiness, but she always tried her best.
“Oh no, they got divorced. Nick is single. He’s trying to save Holly’s business,” her mother said. “I also have some bad news.”
Paige watched as they turned into their farm and headed for the house. The tree lot came into view first. She loved seeing it full of people shopping for trees and wreaths. “Worse than Holly’s closing?”
“No,” her father said with a chuckle. “It’s good news for us. We sold out the inn this Christmas. I’m sorry we couldn’t save your room. The holidays this year have been our busiest ever, which is good since we have so many repairs that need to be made.”
“Then where am I staying?” Had she really been kicked out of her own house for Christmas?
“After Thanksgiving, Nick came and helped us fix up the little cottage down the path out back. He fixed the electricity, and your father and I cleaned it out. With Nick’s help, we moved all your things from your room into it. It’s your own little house so you’ll never be without a place to stay again,” her mother explained. “I can’t wait for you to see it.”
Her father parked the car at the side of the house. People were coming and going. The firepits, both out front and behind the house, had people sitting around them. Locals her parents had hired, served hot chocolate and passed out smore making kits.
“I better go check on everyone,” her mother told her before leaning over and kissing her cheek. “Nick will be at the tree lighting tonight. Go see him and maybe he’ll have an idea about how to save Holly’s.”
“Come on, kiddo. Let’s get you settled in.”
Paige followed her father down the gravel path to the back of the house. It cut through a small section of woods lined with cute lanterns hanging on posts and into a clearing where the little cottage stood.
“It looks great, Dad.” The cottage had been painted a bright white that seemed to make the snow around it glow while the red door and red shutters popped. Garland and Christmas lights hung over the door and giant red lit-up ornaments sat out front near a small firepit and two chairs.
“Wait until you see the inside.” Her father unlocked the door and handed her the key.
Paige went inside and smiled. A Christmas tree decorated with a book theme stood in the corner of the one room cottage. The main room had room for only two comfortable chairs facing a fireplace and a small coffee table. Behind the chairs was her childhood queen-sized bed, decked out with holiday sheets and pillows. A small kitchenette sat against the other wall with a small refrigerator, sink, and microwave. Through the small kitchenette was a door leading to a bathroom.
“We redid the bathroom. New pedestal sink and shower.”
Paige went and looked behind the Christmas-wreath-clad door. “Oh, Dad. This is amazing. You’ll make a fortune renting it out.”
“Not this. This is for you. We always want you to have a place to come home to. And, maybe you’ll want to come back more often if you know you have a space that’s yours alone. Who knows, maybe Nick might want our big city girl to come home more often,” her father said with a wink.