Fake Christmas
He narrowed his eyes. “Why tomorrow especially?”
She opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out. Dammit. Already she’d revealed too much. He wasn’t supposed to know about the plans she had made with Cameron. Wasn’t supposed to know the real reason she had been distracted all these weeks.
Grimacing, she said, “We were supposed to spend time with Holly’s new baby. I just wanted to spend some quality time with my nephew, is all.” At least that wasn’t a complete lie. She really had been looking forward to spending time with Owen, but that wasn’t the reason for the desperate, aching panic that tightened her stomach.
Not to mention, with so much going on she needed her family with her. Needed their support while she went through this. Being alone with Dane like this and not being able to tell him the truth... it was shattering her.
“So that’s all that’s been bothering you?” he pressed.
Before she could stammer out a response, Chef Durand appeared in the living room.
He cleared his throat loudly and said, “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Prescott. Dinner will be set in ten minutes.”
Allyson felt her face flush with embarrassment. Had Chef Durand heard their heated argument? She didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. Especially since he had agreed to work on such short notice.
“Good evening, Chef,” Dane said. “Thank you. Do you want us in the dining room or outside?”
The chef spread his arms wide to gesture around the room. “The dining room, outside, the living room, the kitchen... wherever you’d like, Mr. Prescott.”
Dane shot her a questioning glance. “Allyson?”
“The living room would be great,” she replied. “Thank you so much, Chef.”
Chef Durand flashed a smile and headed back out of the room.
“Do you think he heard us arguing?” She chewed her bottom lip, concern flooding her.
Her husband sighed. “I hope not. No, I don’t think so. It doesn’t matter. He won’t say anything to anyone. He’s the hired—never mind. Maybe, let’s just try to make the best of this. I know this isn’t what you wanted, but we’re here now.”
She wished she knew how to make him understand. But looking at him now, she was reminded of how different they were. Every time it felt like they were getting closer and closer to each other, life threw a wrench into the works.
Despite his assurances that he wasn’t entertaining a divorce, anxiety was setting her on edge. As bad as a divorce was, that wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to them. Nothing scared her more than the prospect of waking up one day and finding that she and Dane were strangers to each other. Two people living under the same roof, who had no idea how they had gotten there in the first place.
“I’m sorry I’ve lost a bit of my Christmas spirit,” she said gloomily.
“Well, earlier when I wasn’t feeling it, you tried to get me all excited about Christmas,” he pointed out. “Now, it looks like it’s my turn to get you excited again.”
She glanced back at the television. The weatherman was talking in front of a map of the United States. “Oh, Dane! Turn up the volume.”
He pointed the remote as the television and the weatherman’s voice filled the room.
The weatherman gestured to the northeast and started talking about the snowstorm. “This storm is heading towards the East Coast. It’s probably going to start snowing hardest at about 1pm local time tomorrow.” He continued, explaining specifics of the snowstorm. “This is a very dangerous storm, and flights to and from New York have been cancelled. The storm looks like it will last longer than predicted, going into Christmas Eve. So, if you’ve got any plans that require you to fly into or out of New York, you might want to cancel them.”
“I KNEW IT.” SHE WAS still staring at the TV. “We’re not going to have a Christmas.”
Dane frowned. It was clear that Allyson had a specific idea of what Christmas should be, and she had no desire to entertain anything else. “We can try to do some of the things you usually do with your family.”
“We can’t make a snowman here,” she said flatly.