Her mother patted her knee, and Suzanne continued, but she still felt bad about the admission. And how the lie had gotten out of hand, apologizing to her parents for not being honest and walking it back. She told them all about bribing Grady, who hated Christmas, to help her. About the Hokiest Christmas Ever plan.

“You just seemed so sad on the phone, Mom. About you and Dad. And your marriage. So I just came up with this ridiculous idea of pushing you together because I was sure you’d fall in love again if you spent time together.”

“Well, you were right about that,” Albie said, smiling at Simone.

Suzanne smiled, too, before continuing, telling her sorry story about the lines blurring and falling in love with Grady. About the blizzard. And the portrait she’d painted. And Bethany. And how she’d decided to move to Credence and become an artist in her own right, but she couldn’t bear to face Grady’s rejection every day, so she was going home.

Everything. She left nothing out.

Well…she didn’t go into any of the intimate details, but everything else, talking almost nonstop for an hour.

“Oh, darling.” Simone put an arm around her daughter’s shoulders and pulled her in until Suzanne’s head was resting in the crook of her neck. “You did that for us?”

“I didn’t mean for it to get so out of hand, but I wanted to help,” Suzanne admitted.

“It’s our fault,” her mother said. “If you hadn’t felt like you needed to escape to eastern Colorado to get the kind of Christmas you wanted, this would never have happened.”

Maybe. But it was pointless making a chicken-or-the-egg argument now. And it was no excuse for letting things get so out of hand. Suzanne wasn’t going to compound her stupidity by trying to excuse it or find a scapegoat. She was an adult who had dug this hole all by herself.

“Have you told Grady how you feel?” Winona asked.

Suzanne shook her head. “No.” She hadn’t been able to utter the words in the face of his determination to push her away. She’d held off from baring all, needing to keep something back, to protect the thing that was most precious to her heart. Telling him she wanted to stay and being rejected had been hard. Having her love similarly rejected would have been devastating.

Having her hand dropped like a hot potato on Christmas Day had been bad enough.

“I kind of wore my heart on my sleeve, though. I don’t think it would have been that difficult for him to read between the lines.”

“Oh, babe. Men can be surprisingly dumb when it comes to reading between the lines.”