“Hell no. I respect an entrepreneur. And I knew that a sweet girl with nowhere to go on Christmas must have her reasons for going along with this whackadoodle scheme my grandson cooked up.”

“I do,” I whisper. “And I swear, I have no intention of hurting your family.”

“I know you don’t.” She taps her temple again. “I can tell. Which is why I haven’t said anything to the rest of the family about the inheritance and why I won’t. Oh, Lovey knows about the stipulation, but she hasn’t put the rest together. Bless her heart, but she’s high as a kite most of the time these days. That hip surgery really took it out of her. This is your and Andrew’s secret, and you get to decide if and when you want to reveal it.”

I take another sip of mulled wine and try to figure out what I did to deserve Meemaw’s confidence. And also… “I’m sorry, but what you said earlier, about me and… Jack…?”

“Ah.” She winks at me from the rim of the bathtub. “Now that’s a funny story. Last Christmas, my granddaughter calls me to tell me all about this girl named Ellie who broke her heart after they got trapped together in the snow. And this Christmas, a girl named Ellie shows at our cabin acting all kinds of weird around my Jack. It didn’t take a genius to put it all together. Do you want to tell me why you ditched my granddaughter last Christmas?”

I really do not. “Does Jack know that you’ve put it together? That I’m the Ellie from last year?”

Meemaw shakes her head.

“Then why are you telling me now?”

“Why are you crying in the bathroom?” Meemaw snaps back.

I stare into my drink again. I could lie to Meemaw, but she’s the one person at the cabin who knows everything, the one person who might understand why my body feels like it’s being torn in a dozen different directions. “Because I didn’t know the truth about Claire until an hour ago,” I say, and I tell her about the conversation with Jack.

“Ah. I see. So, my little turtledove.” Meemaw thwaps my leg when I finish. “Sounds like you’re in quite the pickle. On the one hand, you’ve got my grandson and the money. And on the other hand, you’ve got my granddaughter. What are you going to choose?”

I stare down at my fingers wrapped around a mug of mulled wine as I sit on a toilet seat, tears barely dry on my face. “I don’t think there is a choice to be made, Meemaw.”