This Christmas Read Online Free Page A

around the kitchen, putting the groceries away. Will finishes stacking the gifts and comes into the kitchen.
    “You hungry?” I ask.
    “What?”
    “Are you hungry?” I say a little louder.
    He cuts a glare at the speaker before heading over and turning it down. His eyes seem far away as he heads into the living room and plops down on the big fluffy couch.
    I glance at the speaker, trying to remember if he doesn’t like that song. But instead, I finish putting the groceries away. A wound ball of embarrassment tightens my chest and I’m fighting back tears, even though I have no idea why I’m about to cry. Was coming here a mistake?
    I stack the bags on the counter and head for the stairs. I don’t want Will to see me like this.
    I grab my bag, forgetting how heavy it is without the wheels. I nearly fall over but I catch myself on the railing. Will doesn’t turn around as I jog up the stairs. I’m almost at the top when I hear splitting wood. And before I’m able to register what happens, a sharp pain rips through my leg. A strained squeal escapes my lips and my body falls forward. I drop the bag on the landing, almost face planting but the stupid bag that made me fall protects me. I look down again and now feel the sharp edges of wood digging into my ankle.
    All of the frustration in trying to make Will happy and his grumpy attitude towards everything today explodes out of me in a choked sob as I try to dislodge my foot from the stair.
    “Hadley?” Will says from the first floor.
    Now he talks to me? I turn my head towards the wall, my vision blurred by tears.
    “Hadley?” he repeats. “You okay?”
    “No!” I cry, swiping at my face. “I’m stuck.”
    I’m still not looking at him, but he races up the stairs until he’s at my side. His fingers move over my ankle and I imagine spending the rest of the week in a hospital. How else could I ruin this vacation?
    “Can you move it?”
    I swivel my body in his direction. “If I could, I would have by now.”
    He presses his lips together and looks down at my foot. His close-lipped smile quivers as he rotates my foot out of the stair, slowly at first. If pain wasn’t shooting up my leg I’d hit him for laughing at me.
    Will maneuvers my foot and gently lifts it out of the stair. But now that the pressure is gone, my ankle feels ten times its size. I push myself up the two steps to the landing and sit up, pulling my foot towards me. I peer down at the stair, which now has a gaping hole in it. I wiggle my toes. Those are in place. Next, I try my ankle and wince at the first movement.
    “You’re moving it. So I think it might just be twisted,” he says, sitting back against the railing.
    “It’s not funny,” I grumble.
    His smile widens. “I’m not laughing.”
    Every fiber of me tries to hold onto my anger, but his smile and the fact that I actually broke something with my body weight amuses me for some reason. A giggle seeps between my lips and soon enough we’re both laughing hysterically. I’m doubled over, hugging my arms around my stomach and Will’s shoulders are shaking uncontrollably.
    “It’s almost as bad as Lily’s fall,” Will says through bursts of laughter.
    “I’d forgotten about that!” I squeal. During a school awards assembly Lily was on stage as a nominated speaker and right as she sat down the chair broke underneath her. While most of the school forgot about it a week later, Will tortured her for months about it.
    “It was close,” I say, wincing at the pain in my foot as I stand up on the landing. “But you better not tell her.”
    Will holds his hands up in front of him. “What happens in the cabin, stays in the cabin.” He stands next to me and puts his hand under my arm, holding most of my weight. I lean into him. “You should rest it though.”
    My lower lip juts out before I can stop it.
    Will grins. “You wanted to relax remember?”
    I squeeze his arm. “This wasn’t what I had in mind.”
    I lean forward,