Ty had expected his uptight assistant to relax as they got closer to her hometown—he’d even been looking forward to seeing her in her element—but if anything Andi grew more tense as they drove, a feat he hadn’t believed possible. She was silent all through their fast food dinner stop and though Christmas music filled the car as she drove, she didn’t seem to hear it. Her white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel and rigid, upright posture didn’t ease a millimeter when she passed the sign welcoming them to Clement, Minnesota, Population 5,602 and rolled slowly through the triangle-square bedecked with white lights and featuring a tree as tall as a house gleaming in the center of it all.
In the back seat, Jade had drifted off, her head lolling against the window. Ty reached back, tapping her on the knee, and she jerked awake, eyes wide and disoriented. “Sorry,” he said. “We’re here. Look.” He pointed out the window at the idyllic little town and was gratified to see a look of awe pass over her face.
Carolers strolled through the square, ringing jingle bells and waving to them as they passed. Jade drank in the spectacle.
Thank God she hadn’t already become a jaded teenager. She’d been so reserved around him for the twenty-four hours he’d known her that he’d started to wonder if her emotions were already locked up behind adolescent walls, but trust Christmas to bring out the childlike joy in everyone. Even Ty, who hadn’t really celebrated the holidays since his mother died, started to feel a little twinge of the Christmas spirit at the look on Jade’s face.
“It looks like a Christmas card,” he commented, gazing out the window. “I’ve never had a white Christmas before—unless you count fake snow on movie sets.”
“You’re really a movie star?” Jade asked from the back seat and Ty tried to play it cool as everything inside him straightened and came to attention. He twisted to look at her.
“More of a television star who lands the occasional part in a cheesy romantic comedy.”
Her headphones sat lopsided on her head. “How come I’ve never heard of you?”
He grinned, unfazed by her skepticism. “You aren’t really the target demographic of Task Force One, but trust me, your teachers love me.”
Jade gave a little half smile and tugged her headphones back into place, returning her attention to the Christmas display put on by the town. Dismissed, but feeling strangely light, Ty turned back to face the front.
Creeping along at a pace that would have felt unnaturally slow in a city, but somehow felt appropriate for the small town, Andi navigated the SUV away from the square and through the nearby residential streets, passing houses decked out with every variety of Christmas light imaginable.
“Does the entire town celebrate Christmas?” Ty asked as they pulled onto another street with every house illuminated.
“Welcome to Clement,” Andi replied, her voice sounding strained. “Christmas is serious business when there’s a church on every block. They’re like Starbucks up here.”
Ty snorted as Andi pulled onto a smaller cul-de-sac, this one crowded with cars parked along the sides of the street, and her tension ratcheted up to a previously undiscovered level. Her eyes were locked on a brightly illuminated house at the far end of the cul-de-sac, where people could be seen moving around inside. The place was holiday central, so bright and festive it should have brought a smile to anyone’s face, but Andi’s face was increasingly grim.
“Home sweet home,” she muttered darkly.
Had he completely misjudged the situation? He’d thought Andi would be excited to be home with her family. He’d thought in her holiday bliss she would cheerfully run interference for him with Jade. He hadn’t anticipated the frown she directed at the house.
“Are you okay?” Ty asked.
Andi snapped out of her glower as soon as he spoke, slapping on a toothy, less-than-reassuring smile as she double parked in front of the house. “Here we are,” she announced with forced cheer. “I’ll just—” Ty’s seatbelt clicked loudly as he unfastened it and Andi broke off, frowning. “What are you doing?”
“Coming inside?”
Andi was shaking her head. “I thought you two could stay in the car. We’re less likely to get sucked in if it’s just me. I’ll just run in and then we can get to the cabin—”
“Is there a bathroom?” Jade asked from the back seat.
Andi breathed something that might have been a curse under her breath, but Ty couldn’t quite pick it out. She looked up at the rabidly festive house like there was a guillotine waiting inside for her. Now that the car’s engine was quieter, they could hear music and laughter trickling out into the night.
“Andi?” Ty asked, studying her face for some clue what was wrong.
“Okay. We’re gonna be quick. In and out,” she said, the words as rapid-fire as one of the characters on Task Force One laying out the plan for a raid. “Jade uses the bathroom, I make an appearance, and we keep it low key. Got it?”
“Got it,” Jade and Ty agreed.
* * * * *
She was walking into the Christmas gathering over an hour late with a movie star and his illegitimate daughter in tow. She should have known they were going to make an entrance whether she wanted to or not. By himself, Ty Walker always caused a stir. She should have known that the first time she returned to Clement in three years, with Ty and Jade at her back, it wouldn’t be as simple as a casual “Welcome back.”
They entered the foyer, which thankfully wasn’t visible from the great room and kitchen where most of the family tended to gather. One of her younger cousins, darting through the foyer at top speed, skidded on stocking feet across the hardwood when she spotted them, her face lighting up. “Andi! You came!”
Thankfully the noise in the other rooms kept everyone else from hearing her exclamation. Kendall changed course abruptly, flinging herself at Andi with her usual enthusiasm. Andi’s charm bracelet jingled with the force of the hug and she felt some of her tension loosen a notch. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. “Hi, Kendall. It’s good to see you. When did you get so tall?”
“I know, right?” Kendall bounced back, her sandy brown ponytail swinging. “I’m almost as tall as Mom now.”
Andi’s throat closed at the reminder that she hadn’t just avoided the bad memories when she’d stayed away for so long. She’d missed seeing Kendall grow up. She must be… what? Nearly thirteen? Close to Jade’s age, even though Kendall had a good six inches on her. Andi gestured to Jade. “Kendall, my cousin, meet Jade, my…friend. Do you think you could show her to the upstairs bathroom?” The downstairs bathroom would require walking right through the center of the party and Andi was determined to stick to the In-and-Out plan.
“Sure!” Kendall beamed at Jade, her eyes lighting on her striped scarf. “Is that a Ravenclaw scarf? I’m totally Gryffindor, right? Come on. Did you read the Cursed Child yet? My mom almost didn’t get it for me because it was a play, but I was all, Mom, it’s Harry Potter, right?” Kendall latched onto Jade and the two of them clambered up the stairs. “Do you have a wand? I keep asking and asking to go to Harry Potter World, but my parents are all do you think we’re made of money, Kendall? And I’m all, yeah, obviously! Which they don’t think is funny. No one understands my comic genius.”
Andi snorted at Kendall’s “comic genius” and watched them go, confident Jade was in good hands. Then she turned and braced herself for entry into the lion’s den—i.e. the great room. Find her parents. Hug her brother, congratulate him, and get out. Stick to the plan.
She’d taken only one step toward the family gathering when her eye caught on her parents’ annual Christmas card display in the front hall and she froze.
Every year they hung a giant corkboard there, adding each new Christmas card as it arrived until it was one massive collage of Christmas greetings from all their friends and family. With only a few days left until Christmas, the board was full to overflowing, the cards now layered with their edges overlapping—but one stood out, unobstructed, right in the middle like it had been given a place of honor.
Andi stared at it, feeling her jaw fall open.
Mark.
Mark and his new wife.
Mark and his new wife and their two perfect children.
Holiday Greetings from the Nilsson Family!
She was going to be sick.
Her mother chose that moment to pop around the corner on her way to the kitchen. “Andi! You made it!” she exclaimed, but Andi barely heard her.
She couldn’t find the words to greet her mother. One sentence kept repeating in her mind and that was what came out of her mouth, uninvited.
“You put my ex-husband’s new family on your Christmas card display?”
* * * * *
Whoa. Ty hadn’t even known she’d been married.
At Andi’s words, he tried to read her face, but from his angle all he could see was the line of her profile.
“Don’t make it something it isn’t, Andi,” the older woman who’d entered scolded. “Deb and George gave us the card—they’re so pleased to be grandparents—” Andi flinched, but the woman plowed onward. “They’ll be over for the party on Christmas Eve-Eve and they’d be offended if we didn’t display it. You know it’s our tradition—”
“Are you kidding me?” Andi yelped. “After everything that happened—”
“Mark is still friends with your brothers. We understand that you two couldn’t work things out, but we don’t divorce our friends.”
“Couldn’t work things out?” Andi asked incredulously. “Don’t you think you’re rewriting history a little bit, Mom?”
From the sound of her voice, Ty had a feeling this Mark guy was a real shit. Had he cheated on her? Hit her? Something had happened, because he’d never heard Andi sound so betrayed.
“It’s Christmas, Andrea.” Andi’s mother pronounced the name in a way he hadn’t heard before. On-dray-uh. “Let’s all be a little more forgiving.” Andi gaped at her mother until the woman transferred her attention over Andi’s shoulder to where Ty waited a few feet away. “Who have we here?”
Andi’s head snapped around and when her eyes meet his he realized she’d completely forgotten his existence until that moment—another new experience for him.
“This is Ty Walker,” she said to her mother, her eyes never leaving his. “My boyfriend.”