Be Mine at Christmas Read Online Free Page B

always said you don’t remember how you ended up in that room with Stephanie.”
    “I remember bits and pieces, but mostly it’s a blur.”
    “Well, Angela might be able to explain it.”
    Matt shoved a hand through his hair. Even if she could provide the answers he’d long craved, what was done was done. They couldn’t go back and change anything.
    Lewis came into the room and leaned on the desk. “So, what do you say?”
    Matt still felt a little resentful despite the passing years. But maybe he was overreacting. Angela seemed nice enough as an adult. And there was a slight chance she hadn’t been a party to his downfall. Stephanie had certainly never needed her help to try and corner him before.
    But every other time, he’d managed to get away. That was the difference!
    “Something about Stephanie chilled me to the bone,” he said, recalling her overeager smile, the way she brushed up against him at every opportunity, her attention-hungry eyes.
    “Angela isn’t Stephanie.” Lewis bent lower to peer questioningly into his face. “You’re not going to back out on me, are you?”
    Matt sighed. What the hell. He could survive one dinner. And, as Lewis said, maybe she’d be able to tell him what had really happened so he could finally understand why he’d let Danielle down so badly.
     
    A NGELA SHIFTED NERVOUSLY as she waited next to Kayla on the doorstep of Lewis’s wooden A-frame. Set a couple of blocks off C Street, the main business district, it looked like so many of the other homes and businesses in Virginia City—as if it had been built in the late 1800s. It probably had been. But it was recently painted, a muted yellow with white trim, and obviously well-maintained.
    She wondered where Matt lived. While they weregrowing up, his parents had owned a jewelry store called Comstock Silver and Turquoise. She’d watched for it when she and Kayla had driven through the slushy streets—the weather had warmed enough to melt some of the snow that had fallen the day before—but if his parents still had the store, they’d changed the name and the location. An old-fashioned soda shop now resided where the jewelry store had been.
    The door opened and a child of about five, with bright red hair and a few freckles, gazed out at her.
    “Hello,” Angela said.
    He continued to stare, but Lewis’s voice rose from behind him. “Derek, those are our dinner guests. Invite them in, okay?”
    The boy stepped back and opened the door wider just as Lewis crossed the room, obviously intent on making sure his son followed orders. “Hi,” he said when he saw them. “I’m glad you could make it.”
    Dinner smelled like roast turkey. “Thanks for inviting us.” She handed Lewis the bottle of wine she’d bought.
    He checked the label, smiled as if it met with his approval and asked to take their coats.
    Kayla removed her parka and Angela shrugged out of her trench coat. “Thank you. It looks like the weather’s clearing up,” she commented.
    A short, slightly plump woman with hair the same color as the little boy—and lots more freckles—stepped out of the kitchen. “I think we’ll have a white Christmas. They’re expecting a big storm next week.”
    She sounded relieved, and Angela guessed that a white Christmas was very important to her. Judging by the many decorations adorning the yard outside and the two Christmas trees—one in the living room and one in the adjoining dining area—she took her holidays seriously.
    “Angela, this is my wife, Peggy,” Lewis said from the coat closet.
    “Nice to meet you.” Angela didn’t recognize her, but she seemed friendly.
    “And this—” he turned and grabbed the boy who’d answered the door, pushing him to the floor in a playful tussle “—is Derek.”
    The boy squealed and giggled as he struggled to get free, and Lewis finally released him. “He’s the youngest of the kids. The older two are with their grandma tonight.”
    “I wanted to go, too,”