Chapter Two
Caleb nudged his food around on his plate. “Are you going to make me finish every last bite like a little kid before you tell me what’s going on?”
Sabrina set a fresh beer in front of him. “We’ll tell you now. Anything to knock that dour look off your face.”
He edged his chair back from the table. “So, what is it, then?”
Sabrina leaned closer to him. “We’re all worried about you, Caleb. Ever since Olivia shared her plans, we knew this Christmas would be hard for you. We don’t want you to be alone. You’ve been stuck in rutsville, my dude. It’s time to make your departure.”
He knew they were right, but he didn’t appreciate the bluntness of their approach.
“Hence the ambush at my place, yes, yes. I’m caught up now.”
“Okay, fine. No one wants to see you isolate yourself this Christmas. No jobs are on the docket until the new year, so you won’t have an excuse to leave the house. So, there’s two options.”
He wasn’t exactly in the mood for his baby sister and her husband to be bossing him around, but this would end sooner if he let them express their thoughts. Caleb popped the cap on his beer. “Which are?”
“Option number one. Help the biddies with their annual toy drive. Meaning you’ll be doing most of the grunt work and standing out on Silver Spring Street in an ill-fitting Santa suit, pestering passersby for donations,” Sabrina said.
“You’re leading with the worst option.”
One of the cats jumped in Sabrina’s lap and she began to stroke it under the chin. “Do you remember Avalee?”
He took a sip of his beer. “Should I?”
“She was the activities director at Sky House. She left us under rather…unfortunate circumstances yesterday,” Brandon said.
“That sounds ominous. Did she die?”
“No, she was screwing around with her boyfriend in a cabin. Guests caught her. It was a whole thing.” Sabrina waved her hand. “Thankfully, she quit before we got a chance to fire her.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
Again, he witnessed his sister and her husband exchange glances. He missed that kind of intimacy, when your partner could know what you were thinking with a glance.
“We won’t be able to hire anyone permanently until after the new year. So, what’s to say you help your local family-owned mountain resort for the holidays?” Sabrina tented her fingers. “After all, you’d be doing us a big favor, helping us out through our first holiday season.”
“As the activities director? Have you lost your ever-loving mind?”
Caleb was by far the most introverted of the Ellis siblings. He would rather grind his teeth down with an angle grinder than lead a group of tourists in Christmas carols. Or god knows what else Sabrina and Brandon had cooked up for the holiday season.
“It’s not so bad. It’s basically acting as a concierge for the guests, arranging their excursions, and keeping up the fun atmosphere at the resort,” Sabrina said.
When all Caleb did was stare at her, open-mouthed, in response, she carried on. “Leading the odd tour, running events. You’re good at all that stuff.”
Oh, wait. They’re serious, aren’t they?
“I don’t know, shivering my ass off in a threadbare Santa suit is looking better and better.”
Brandon exhaled. “Look, we both know that the biddies will work you to the bone. This job is pretty cushy. Almost everything is planned out already. You only have to follow the schedule.”
“The uniform is far more flattering than hobo Santa,” Sabrina added.
He groaned. “I guess deciding to do neither is off the table?”
Sabrina raised her hands. “You know how mom and the biddies are.”
He groaned. “Did they offer you membership yet?”
Sabrina’s response came in a middle-fingered salute.
They weren’t going to let up, he knew that for sure. “Can I sleep on it, at least?”
“Sure. I’ll let Mom know you’re weighing your options and to leave you alone until she hears otherwise.”
“Isn’t that a cheery thought?”
Caleb helped them clean up after dinner then made his way home.
On his walk home, he wondered again why he’d returned to Falling Leaves.
If he’d stayed in North Carolina, he’d probably have landed a permanent teaching job at one of the universities by now.
And even if he hadn’t, he’d be allowed to wallow in peace.
* * * *
It was well after noon when Emma managed to crawl out of bed. She’d allowed herself one day to grieve her former life. Today was it. Tomorrow, she’d start considering her next steps.
She meandered into the kitchen, finding that Davis had left her one of his infamous sticky notes on the counter. The man’s office was a rainbow of sticky notes, coded and placed in a way only he could understand. Emma never went in there for fear of disturbing one.
She peeled the note.
Hey, could you get some boxes from the hardware store? We should start packing for New York.
She placed the note back on the counter and rubbed her thumb over the adhesive to ensure it stayed in place on the quartz countertop.
Pulling a container of no-fat, high-protein yogurt from the fridge, she sat in the kitchen nook overlooking the city.
After a bite, she pulled a face and added something from the forbidden cabinet.
She kept her store of junk food under the sink with all the cleaning supplies. The last place Davis would look.
After sprinkling chocolate candy on top of the yogurt, she turned back to the window.
It was another gray December day in the nation’s capital. Her phone buzzed with a notification. After tapping through the screens, she realized the inquiry she’d sent about booking a cabin at Sky House Lodge & Villas had been responded to.
Hello! Our deluxe tree-line cabin unexpectedly opened from this Thursday, the 13th, to New Year’s Eve. I can email you the booking information. Just let us know your preferred dates.
Sabrina Ellis-Blake
Part of her wanted to dismiss the message. She could stay in over Christmas and enjoy the delights that the nation’s capital had to offer. She could give herself time to decide if she wanted to accompany Davis to New York or not. Movie marathons, perhaps a solo museum trip—it sounded fun.
Also, so typically…Emma. After a day or two, Davis would begin nagging her about the little piles she left in her wake. Books, snack wrappers, a journal, one of the hundred or so pens she had in constant rotation.
If she moved to New York with Davis, her life would be completely different. She’d have to start wedding planning, for one. It should’ve filled her heart with excitement, finally marrying someone she could rely on.
There should be more to a relationship than that, though? He was reliable, most of the time. But there were no butterflies when she looked at him, not anymore. Probably because half the time he scowled whenever she spoke.
Flashing lights and a stream of police cars and black sedans swept through the street below. A motorcade. She stood at the window until all the vehicles had passed.
Davis had already agreed to the trip in theory. It wouldn’t hurt to get more information.
She replied to the DM with her email address and set her phone down. Davis could change his tune once the trip went from hypothetical to reality. But maybe that was its own sign, of a sort.
She was tired of the back and forth, neither of them saying how they truly felt.
Her phone chimed with a video call. It was her sister, Aniyah. She accepted the call. After a moment, Aniyah’s face popped up in the center of the screen.
“Hey, nugget. I just wanted to check in with you.” She set the phone down. Emma could hear rustling in the background.
“What are you doing?”
“Clearing out the pantry. Thanks to my executive dysfunction, you know I need a distraction to complete tasks.”
“Glad I can be of help,” Emma deadpanned.
Aniyah’s head popped back up. “You know what I mean. I got your text last night after I went to bed. Are you okay?”
Outside of Davis, Aniyah was the only family she had.
They called each other sisters, although their bond wasn’t born from blood.
They’d both ended up in the foster care system.
Emma had been somewhat luckier—she’d had a stable upbringing with her grandmother.
She was thirteen when Grandma passed away, and Emma entered the system.
She had no other living family, with her mother dead and her father MIA.
It’d been a terrible few years for them both, until their final foster home. Those last two years with the Grossmans had taught her what a family could be.
“I’ll get through. I always do.”
Aniyah’s head dipped down again as she began rifling through the contents of her pantry. “Life is more than white knuckling our way through it.”
“Did you learn that in therapy this week?”
Her hand flashed in front of the screen, her middle finger raised. “Don’t be a smart ass. It’s not like you’ve been to any sessions lately.”
“My therapist moved away, remember?”
Aniyah snorted. “I thought they went on maternity leave. You need to get your story straight.
Emma tried and failed not to roll her eyes. “Don’t try to make a liar of me.”
“All right, so put that on the top of your unemployment to-do list. Find a therapist.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll work on it.”
“I was giving you a hard time, Em. Go back when you’re ready. It has been helping me a bit.”
“Can we talk about anything other than therapy now?”
“Okay, fine. What’s your plan now that you’re jobless? I mean, after filing for unemployment. Are you finally going to plan that wedding?”
Davis had proposed well over a year ago. Neither of them had been in a huge hurry to plan a wedding. Davis, because he wasn’t exactly sentimental, and his work kept him busy. Emma, because…well. She didn’t want to think too hard about her reasoning.
“Why, looking to see what color your maid of honor dress will be?”