“Maybe we can ask some family members to get everything set up,” he said. “Or we can tell them to have Christmas without us.”
She shook her head. “My family will never agree to having Christmas without me. If I don’t show up they’ll probably skip out on spending Christmas with your parents and do their own thing. You and I are the glue that keeps our families together. Without us, there really is no point.”
“You really believe that? We’re all connected now,” he said. “We’re all one family. They don’t need us to celebrate as a family.”
“But we do need them,” she said miserably. “I’ve never had a Christmas without my family. We celebrate together every year. Now it’s only the two of us.”
“Is that so bad?”
Regret made her body tense up. “That’s not what I meant. Of course, that isn’t bad. You and I are a family. But you said it yourself—I’ve been planning this for weeks. Now it looks like all my hard work might have been for nothing.”
Reaching for the remote, he started flipping through the channels. Finally, he stopped on one of the weather channels. “Let’s keep an eye on the weather and see what happens.”
The weather reporter was updating on the local weather, so she turned her attention back to her husband. “Tell me something... would you rather be here for Christmas than in New York?”
His brow furrowed. “What difference does that make?”
“It makes a difference to me,” she said. “I’ve been planning this for weeks, and for most of it you haven’t seemed all that enthusiastic about having Christmas with our families.”
Dane ran his hand through his hair, frustration etched on his face. “Why are you trying to pick a fight?”
“I’m not,” she said. “I just think you’re more excited about being here alone than with our families.”
“I asked you numerous times to let me help you with all your plans,” he muttered. “But you refused.”
“I wanted to do it on my own—”
“Yeah, well, we’ve been doing a lot of stuff on our own lately,” he said bitterly.
Taking a deep breath to settle her nerves, Allyson said, “I don’t want to fight. I only wish you had consulted me before you decided to fly us all the way out here.”
“I didn’t,” he said flatly, “so we’re going to have to deal with things as they are.”
She felt like there was a dark cloud hanging over her. This wasn’t how their holiday was supposed to go. They weren’t supposed to be arguing this way. She hadn’t meant to get into it with him, but she was so aggravated. Part of it was because Christmas was going to be ruined, and part of it was because she was going to miss her appointment. The very appointment that she had arranged with Cameron.
Then it dawned on her. She had probably lashed out at Dane because she was so anxious about missing the appointment. Everything had been set up for tomorrow and now she was going to miss it. Telling Dane the truth now was out of the question. The stakes were far too high now. Revealing the truth so suddenly would lead to consequences she couldn’t even predict. Better to find a way to solve this on her own. “Yes,” she said finally. “We do have to deal with things as they are.”
He sighed. “The truth is, I’d much rather spend Christmas here with you than with our families. We haven’t spent time together in so long. I thought coming down here would give us a chance to reconnect.”
Panic made her inhale sharply. “You make things sound so dire.”
“They could be.” Dane took her hand in his, the touch of his hand making her stomach flutter. “I know it’s probably ridiculous, but I’m scared that I’m losing you. Losing us.”
A lump formed in her throat. “You’re not.”
He cast her a wary glance. “Are you sure about that? Because every time we might have the chance to spend time together something comes up. Or you’re distracted. Or you’re focused on work. Or it’s Christmas plans. Plans you don’t include me in, by the way.”