Willow didn’t answer him. She got in her car, revved the engine and nearly hit Carl’s piece-of-crap vehicle as she hauled ass down the drive. She didn’t get stuck in the mud, didn’t even come into danger of it, because she didn’t bother to turn around.

“Whoa! What the hell!” Carl stepped out into the rain to watch her go. Then he looked at Tobias. “What’d you do? Try to get in her pants?”

“Stay out of it,” Tobias snapped and went back inside, where he tried to relax, but he was even more listless than he’d been before his encounter with Willow.

Finally, he changed his shirt, scooped his keys off the counter and headed to the Blue Suede Shoe. The flashing neon sign was only a block away when he glanced over and saw Susan sitting at the same intersection. She noticed him, too, and gave him that dirty look of hers—the one that made him feel as though he wasn’t worth the air he was breathing.

It distressed Tobias that she had the power to cut him so deeply, but she had good reason to hate him, so he just looked away and let her start off first as soon as the light turned green.

This just wasn’t his night, he decided. And he didn’t feel a whole lot better later on, even though he beat all challengers at pool.

It didn’t matter what he did.

All he could think about was Harper.

The rest of the week went by very slowly. Harper had always loved the Christmas season, but she was learning that it could be hell when you were suffering. All the twinkling lights, and the cheerily decorated houses and yards and rooms—even the smiling faces—somehow rubbed salt in the wound. And it took such energy to keep up with everyone else’s good cheer.

Her mother often said that time took care of everything, but Pearl never added that time moved on leaden feet when you most needed it to race. Right now time felt like it was standing still.

Although almost every moment was a struggle, Harper didn’t let herself call Axel, not even when she remembered the tender times they’d shared, the past Christmases, most of which—at least in the early years—had been so idyllic. And she responded to his many attempts to contact her with a brief text here and there. She wanted to be a fair ex, but it would be far too easy to backslide if she wasn’t vigilant.

She didn’t let herself respond to Tobias, either. She had responsibilities, and she was going to see to those responsibilities instead of allowing herself to collapse under their weight and run into the arms of a stranger.

“Hey.”