Chasing Christmas Eve

by Jill Shalvis

  “The problem is, where does this leave you?” she asked. “You’re already having a hard time with this project and—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said, not wanting to talk about the drone project, which was currently at the top of his shit list. “None of it matters. She’s leaving on Christmas Eve and that’ll take care of everything.”

  She stared at him and slowly shook her head. “You can’t really believe that. Love isn’t that simple, Spence.”

  He drew a deep breath. “Yeah, well, love sucks.”

  Elle didn’t even try to disagree. “Sometimes, absolutely,” she agreed. “But the thing is, once you’ve been hit over the head with it, it actually sucks a lot more to walk away and leave it behind.”

  “I’m not the one walking away,” he said.

  “Maybe it’ll pass,” she said. “Maybe . . . maybe it’s just a really powerful crush.”

  “Deep green,” he said.

  Elle blinked. “Huh?”

  “Colbie’s eyes are a clear, piercing green, but sometimes they’re more like jade when she’s sad or upset.”

  She was still staring at him. “You’ve finally gone off the deep end.”

  “How long have I known you? And the others? And I don’t know what color anyone else’s eyes are.” Not even Clarissa’s. “But I know Colbie’s. I also know that she bites her lower lip when she’s trying not to smile. That her comfort food of choice is mac and cheese. That she loves and cares about her family more than she worries about herself. That she can laugh at herself and life. Hell, she makes me laugh at life, and we both know that’s a real feat in itself.”

  Elle was still just staring at him. “Interesting,” she said. “It’s not just any woman who can get you to slow down and notice the little things.” She shook her head. “I guess I have no choice but to let this go. Or at least try.”

  “Try real hard,” he suggested. “And while I’m asking something of you, I’m going to ask this too—she’s alone out here. No friends, no family. Can’t you and the girls invite her to something?”

  “Like?”

  “Like the chick nights you have where you all get together and . . . I don’t know, whatever it is you all do.”

  Elle looked amused. “Just for curiosity’s sake, what is it that you think we do?”

  “Look, all I know is that last month you, Pru, Willa, Kylie, and Haley all went to some drag show and ended up onstage. When the club got raided by the police for some shady dealings in the back rooms, everyone got dragged downtown. Archer, Finn, and Joe had to bail you all out.”

  “You want me to get your girlfriend arrested?”

  “No,” he said. “I really, really don’t want you to get her arrested. I want you to include her in your crazy-ass gang and make nice.”

  “I don’t make nice easily.”

  “No shit.” Spence gave her the look that he knew she could never resist. “Just try. For me, okay? If you get the others involved, it won’t look like I made you make friends with her.”

  Elle blew out a sigh and hopped off his desk. “The things I do for you.”

  When Spence was alone, he stood at the window and tried to gather his thoughts. Yeah, okay, so he was in deeper than he’d thought, or even planned on. But what he hadn’t yet admitted to anyone, including himself, was that even if Colbie expressed an interest in making this work, he still wasn’t sure they could. Could he change his habits? Let her in, all the way in? He wondered if these worries had anything to do with why his grandpa had picked up and left his family, out of the blue.

  And did the old man have regrets?

  Shaking his head—there was no use going there—Spence called Colbie. He’d already told her Joe and Archer knew. “Elle too.”

  Colbie was quiet for a beat. “Okay.”

  “Don’t worry—they’ll keep it to themselves.”

  “They’re your people,” she said. “If you trust them, then so do I.”

  His people. He had his people, and she had hers. It already felt as though they were a continent apart.

  One afternoon Colbie was writing away and getting lots of pages while she was at it, when Elle texted her to come to her second-floor office. Okay . . . When she got up there, she found Pru, Willa, Kylie, Haley, and Elle going through a trunk of costumes.

  “Girls’ night out,” Elle said to Colbie.

  Kylie was wearing a headband with a feather in it, a flapper dress, and some seriously high heels. “Hard to snag a good man when you’re as short as me,” she said.

  “But can you walk in those?” Colbie asked doubtfully.

  “To be determined.”

  “There are worse things than being short, you know,” Haley said.

  “True,” Kylie said. “There are actually great things about being short. For instance, when you hug a guy and you feel his heartbeat against your ear, you know exactly where to stab him if he hurts you.”

  “She’s just kidding,” Willa told Colbie.

  Behind Willa’s back, Kylie shook her head. No, she was not kidding.

  Haley, who didn’t like men at all, just grinned. Willa was in only a bra and panties, pawing through the trunk. “The twenties theme is harder than I thought it’d be to pull off. I don’t look good in hats.”

  Pru was in her boat captain’s uniform. Or at least the pants and boots. She wore no top and was talking with someone on the phone. “Don’t worry,” she was saying. “We don’t plan to get arrested this time.”

  Colbie hesitated. “So . . . you got arrested last time?”

  “Yes, but that hardly ever happens,” Kylie said and tossed Colbie an outfit.

  “We for sure can’t get arrested again tonight,” Pru piped in. “I’ve gotta work in the morning. Plus I promised Finn.”

  “Party pooper,” Kylie said.

  “You in?” Elle asked Colbie.

  She had no idea. Back home she didn’t have a lot of friends. Janeen and Tracy. Jackson. Andrea Horvath, her editor. Most everyone else had fallen by the wayside when she’d gotten so busy.

  “Colbie?” Willa asked.

  “I’ve never actually been on a girls’ night,” she admitted.

  “Why not?” Haley asked. “You and your tribe too busy or something?”

  They had all paused what they were doing and were looking at her with varying degrees of curiosity.

  “This is a little embarrassing,” Colbie said.

  “It can’t be as embarrassing as when we took Pru to the spa and she screamed the house down during her Brazilian,” Elle said.

  “Hey,” Pru said. “My bits are extremely sensitive.”

  Colbie sighed. “I don’t exactly have a tribe.”

  They all blinked collectively.

  “You don’t have any friends?” Willa asked.

  “Not ones that I can just call up and go out and get arrested with.”

  “One time,” Pru said and sighed.

  Willa smiled sweetly at Colbie and squeezed her hand. “Well, you can change that right here and now. Elle put tonight together, including you, so you’ve got your girlfriends now. Us. Right, guys?”

  They all nodded enthusiastically. Well, except for Elle. Her nod wasn’t quite enthusiastic, but Colbie got the feeling that she didn’t do enthusiastic, so she decided to take it.

  Chapter 25

  #WhatTheFlip

  They all finished dressing from the trunk and Colbie looked around, thinking they looked amazing. She glanced down at the clothes Elle had given her. Clothes being a loose term for a mini halter fringe dress, headband, belly button– length strand of pearls, and thigh-high stockings with lace trim along the tops.

  She didn’t recognize herself.

  They’d just gotten out of an Uber at some exclusive, fancy nightclub in the Financial District, ready to partake in Murder Mystery Night.

  “I just hope I’m the murderer, not the murderee,” Elle said. “I don’t look good in blood.”

  The six of them were dressed
as—near as Colbie could tell—prostitutes from the Roaring Twenties.

  “I wouldn’t mind being the bad guy,” Haley said and smiled. “Elle plans the best girls’ nights out.”

  “Of course I do,” Elle said.

  Inside, they headed to the bar. A few minutes later, Pru eyed the line of shots in front of all of them and grimaced. “Tomorrow morning’s going to hurt.”

  They were each given role cards with their story lines and information. Colbie realized she was the victim, but according to the rules, she couldn’t tell anyone. She was to mingle until half past nine and then “vanish.” But really she’d be allowed into a back room, a greenroom, where she’d be able to drink and eat and watch the next half hour on the monitors as the guests tried to solve her murder.

  Elle immediately dragged them all into the bathroom, where she locked the door and then climbed up on the sink—impressive given her five-inch pumps—and blocked the surveillance camera with paper towels. “Okay,” she said and pulled out the player card she’d been given. “I’m just a patron. You guys?”

  Willa, Pru, Haley, and Kylie all said they were just patrons too. They turned to Colbie.

  “We’re not supposed to tell,” she said.

  “I get that,” Elle said. “But no way am I letting any of you out of my sight tonight for any reason. So I need to know your roles so I can make sure you stay safe.”

  “And not arrested,” Pru said.

  Colbie sighed. “I’m the victim.”

  “Shit,” Elle said. “Okay, we can work with this. Switch roles with me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because no one’s killing you on my watch.”

  Colbie felt herself oddly moved by this. “That’s so sweet.”

  “The hell with sweet,” Elle said. “Spence would fire my ass, and I love my job.”

  Okay, then.

  Elle swapped their note cards. “Remember,” she said, “we stick together.”

  They went out to the bar and had a few drinks. By the end of the second one, Willa was wearing a silly smile. “I love you guys,” she said, slinging her arms around them all. “Thanks for loving me even though I always smell like wet dog and carry pet treats in my pockets.”

  “She’s a cheap date,” Haley whispered to Colbie.

  “Hey,” Willa said. “But true.”

  “I usually smell like wood,” Kylie said, holding up her glass.

  “Sometimes I smell like the bay and pelicans,” Pru said.

  “Well, I smell amazing,” Elle said, waving at the bartender, buying them all another round before turning to Willa. “And ride or die, right? To the moon and back.”

  “Ride or die, to the moon and back,” Kylie, Willa, Haley, and Pru repeated, completely out of sync but with such genuine sincerity that Colbie felt a catch in her throat.

  “It’s so sweet that you guys have each other like this,” she said.

  “And you too,” Willa reminded her.

  “Yeah?” Colbie asked, feeling sappy. And maybe a little bit drunk as she finished her second drink. “You’d really include me after only knowing me for two and a half weeks?”

  “Depends on if you’re going to make a big deal out of it or not.”

  The catch in Colbie’s throat tightened and now her eyes burned too. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, waving a hand in front of her face. “I didn’t realize how lonely I was until right this very minute, being so far away from home.”

  “Aw.” Kylie slipped an arm around her. “We won’t let you be lonely tonight.”

  “Sure,” Willa said. “We’re a pretty good tribe to belong to. We always tell each other if there’s something stuck in our teeth, and we all carry chocolate in our purses for everyone’s various PMS days. Plus we all have our roles. Pru is the voice of reason. I’m the mom. Kylie can fix anything. Haley is our resident healer. And Elle is the protection.”

  “What am I?” Colbie asked.

  “You tell us,” Elle said.

  Their gazes met and Colbie felt the challenge. “I’m a good storyteller.” That’s as far as she was willing to go right now, although looking into their friendly gazes—well, everyone’s but Elle’s; she was avoiding Elle’s—she felt a stab of guilt.

  “That’s it?” Elle asked meaningfully.

  “Yep.”

  “Hmm,” Elle said. “I’m not sure Spence needs a . . . storyteller.”

  Willa opened her purse and handed Elle a piece of chocolate.

  Elle sighed and ate it. After a few seconds, she looked at Colbie. “Sorry,” she said to Colbie. “Old habits, protecting those I care about.”

  “Spence wouldn’t want you trying to protect him,” Pru said.

  “No, he wouldn’t,” Elle said. “And he sure as hell wouldn’t want me to say he’s having trouble with work, but I’m going to say it anyway because he is.”

  “Wait.” Colbie was trying to process but felt impeded by the shots. “What do you mean, he’s having trouble?”

  “He hasn’t been able to concentrate or focus.”

  “Since?”

  Elle just looked at her.

  Right. Since she’d come into the picture. “It’s only been a little over two weeks.”

  Elle nodded. “Time that he didn’t have to spare.”

  Colbie set her drink down. Was that true? And if so, why hadn’t he told her himself? He’d made it seem like everything was fine.

  “You know what we need?” Willa said into the awkward silence. “Another drink!”

  Ten minutes later, Colbie could admit that Willa had been right. She was feeling no pain. In fact, she couldn’t feel her toes. “Huh,” she said and looked down. But yep, her toes were definitely still there.

  “What’s up?” Kylie asked.

  “I thought I lost my toes there for a second.”

  Kylie grinned. “You’re a cheap date too.” She looked at Willa. “We should call Spence.”

  “Oh let me!” Pru said, bouncing up and down and clapping her hands. “I owe him a favor. I can hand him Colbie and we’ll be even!”

  “Hey,” Colbie said, pretty sure she should object to anyone handing her over to anyone. Even if a part of her, a big part, quivered in anticipation of being given to Spence for the rest of the night.

  “Are you denying you’d want to go home and ride him like a wild bronco?” Kylie asked her.

  Everyone stared at Colbie, leaving her in a predicament. “If I say yes,” she said with the care of the heavily inebriated, “then you’ll all know we’re sleeping together. If I say no, then you’ll want to know why I’m not sleeping with him, and then I’ll have to admit that I am sleeping with him.”

  “You do know you’re talking out loud, right?” Elle asked.

  But the others were all high-fiving themselves and also exchanging money.

  “I won,” Kylie said, counting her winnings. “But only because Elle didn’t bet.”

  Colbie looked at Elle.