“I’m not sure what Boxing Day is, but tomorrow, everyone clears out.”

“Sorry, what?” She shook her cloudy head, still frowning.

“Bob, Jackie, and the cousins fly out tomorrow night, so they’re driving back to Denver in the morning, and Mom and Joe will be gone by lunchtime. Dad’s staying a couple more days—there are a few maintenance jobs he wants to get done—but, as you’ve seen, he keeps to himself.”

“Hang on, do you mean that tomorrow all this hullabaloo goes away, and we’ll have some proper time together?”

“Exactly.” Lucy’s thoughts flew straight to her “snowed-in” fantasy, the one she’d been nurturing for several days now. “And I thought that once everyone’s gone, we could take the snowmobile out and go snowshoeing.”

Snowmobiling and snowshoeing? Outside? Away from the warmth of the cabin?

The fantasy crumbled. “Oh, right. That sounds lovely,” she lied.

Chapter 26

Jules

Jules’s ringtone surprised her, and it took a moment for it to register that it was her phone ringing. She saw her brother’s name on the screen and suddenly remembered that she’d missed a call from him the day before when they were driving down to Matt’s place. She smiled; a call with her brother was just what she needed to keep her from worrying about Matt.

“Hey, Will, sorry I missed your call yesterday. So, how is everyone? You guys having a good time?”

“Uh, yeah.”

She could hear the hesitancy in his voice. “Hey, is everything okay?” A loud PA announcement intruded on the call and she pressed a finger against her free ear.

“Jules, where are you?”

“The emergency room,” she replied, only realising how careless that was when Will practically shouted, “What?” into her ear. “I mean, I’m here with a friend. I’m fine. He’s fine too, mostly. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“So, he’s okay? You’re okay?”

“Yeah, he’s just getting an X-ray. He fell off a horse and it’s probably just a sprain, but we’re getting it checked out.”

She heard her brother blow out a long sigh, picturing him clearly. He’d be rubbing the back of his neck and puffing out his cheeks in relief. She smiled, missing him like crazy. “So, what’s up?” she prompted. He sighed again, but this one didn’t sound like relief. “Will?”

“Actually, I’m really pissed at you, Jules.”

Her stomach plummeted. She loved that she and Will were close enough to tell each other when they were pissed off, but she knew exactly what this was about. And she felt terrible that she hadn’t made things right with Lucy yet. She’d put it off and now Will was calling her from half a world away.

“I know, I get it,” she said, falling on her sibling sword.

“Well, what the hell, Jules?”

She shook her head even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “I don’t know …”

“That’s not good enough. You’ve made Lucy feel like crap. For no reason, and she basically avoided me most of Christmas Day.”