Holiday Magic (Second Chance) Read Online Free Page A

you do yourself, honey. You just don’t think things through. You’ve created this mess, and you really didn’t think about the way it would affect others. You have to stop jumping in with both feet before you test the water. One of these days, you’re going to get hurt. This will be hard for Mark—well, maybe not hard, but uncomfortable at best.”
    Eleni giggled. Georgia realized what she had said, and the double meaning easily attached to it.
    “Seriously? You’ve got your mind in the gutter now? You know what I mean!”
    Disgusted with herself, Georgia couldn’t stop the blush suffusing her cheeks as her imagination brought that image of him vividly to mind. Heat spread through her body. The one thing they had always had was chemistry, lots and lots of reactive chemistry.
    “Mark and I haven’t even spoken since that morning. Seeing him again will be very difficult for me, and now you tell me that I’ll have to see him almost every day?”
    She pushed her hair behind her ears and reached for her wine glass. Her hand trembled.
    “It still hurts to remember what we had. I don’t know about him, but I wish it had never happened—that we had never met.” She took a sip of her wine, and Eleni had the common sense to stay quiet.
    Eleni reached across the table and took her free hand, offering a familiar comfort. Although fraternal rather than identical twins, the girls had always been inseparable – that is until the Mark disaster, and she had missed her sister dreadfully. It was one of the reasons that she had decided to come back to Philly in the first place.
    Eleni was tall, topping five foot ten, with their mother’s fair skin, blonde hair, and green eyes, while she, at five foot six, favored their father’s Mediterranean roots, and had  naturally curly, light brown hair, filled with golden highlights, and light blue eyes.
    Georgia knew that Eleni wasn’t being cruel purposely. She had moved to New York specifically to get away from him, and all the painful memories Philadelphia held for her, especially at this time of year. Her decision to come home now had been based on Eleni’s need, but she would never have willingly put herself in this position.
    “I really don’t think I can do it. I want to help you, but you’re asking too much,” she said, tears running down her cheeks unnoticed. Every time she thought of Mark, her heart broke all over again. She wanted to hate him, despise him for what he had done, but despite everything, she still cared deeply for him—she always would.
    “ Georgia, it’s been three years. You’ve decided to move on, and this is just part of it. Like it or not, he’s my friend and my business partner. When everything fell apart, I supported you, and I’m glad I did, but he’s been there for me too. He’s put up a huge chunk of change to help me open the showroom, and I owe it to him to give it my best shot.” Eleni handed her a tissue.
    “ I know you were hurt, but it’s time to let it go. The way you see things, think of them, determines what you do, and you can’t keep thinking this way. Look at you. I love you, but I’m worried about you. You’ve hidden yourself away from life. You don’t smile or laugh anymore, you’ve lost so much weight, you’re fading away, and I need you with me. I miss my sister. Have you even dated since then?”
    Georgia shook her head. “I have no desire to put myself through that again.”
    “That’s not a healthy attitude. Neither one of us wants to end up on the shelf. You have too much love to give for that. It’s time to bury the hatchet, preferably not in his back.”
    She smiled weakly at her sister’s lame joke. To do that, she’d have to pull the hatchet out of her own heart first. She would probably bleed to death if she did!
    Eleni continued.
    “ Mark made a terrible mistake, and he’s regretted it every day since. You’d know that if you were willing to listen to him. You weren’t just in love. You were