“I know you’ll be disappointed. This is your dream trip. And it’s Christmas, and I know how you feel about Christmas.”

He knew how she felt about Christmas, but he was going to ruin it for her, anyway.

“Are you telling me you’re not coming to Lapland?”

“I’m still coming, but a few days later. I’ll change my flight. You go ahead without me.”

Without him? This was a family holiday! A special trip Holly would hopefully remember happily for the rest of her life. How could that happen if her daddy wasn’t there? How could it be a family trip without Seb? Which part of that didn’t he understand?

Emotion clogged her throat. “You’re saying you have to work at Christmas.”

“Not over Christmas itself. But at the beginning of our trip, yes. And believe me, I’m no happier about it than you are.”

She didn’t believe him. If he wasn’t happy, why was he doing it?

“What is this meeting? You work with a team. Can’t you delegate?”

“No. I’m the only one who can do this meeting. It’s tough out there, and I don’t have a choice.” He didn’t look at her, and that felt significant. He’d always been good with eye contact. It was one of the many things that had attracted her to him in the first place. He looked at her. He saw her.

But not now. He wasn’t looking at her. He wasn’t coming to Lapland with them. Apparently he had no choice.

There was always a choice.

Work? Did he really expect her to believe that? He was good at his job: that she believed. He’d been promoted several times. But no one was indispensable. And if it was work, then who was Mandy, and why was he lying about meeting her?

Panic froze her ability to think. Alix’s warning kept playing on a loop in her head, and she could no longer switch it off.

How well do you really know him? He’s a player.

Was that true? Had Alix been right?

And what did she do now?

Did she fly to Lapland without him and hope that whatever it was fixed itself in her absence, or did they disappoint Holly, stay home and confront the problem?

Either way, it seemed Christmas was ruined.

3

Alix

Was she happy with her life? What sort of a question was that? And why had Christy asked it?

She loved her life. She loved her apartment in London, with its views over the river. She loved the fact that she had her huge, comfy bed all to herself. She didn’t sleep on one side, waiting for someone to fill the other side. She slept in the middle. If she wanted to read in the night, she turned the light on. Her fridge was full of her favorite food, her shelves stocked with her favorite books. Most of all she loved her job—every glorious, challenging, frustrating, stimulating minute of it. Lonely? As if!

Alix stood in front of the mirror in the luxurious hotel bathroom and carefully applied her makeup.