Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 37751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
“It’s a pretty popular name,” I say.
“It’s not that damn popular.”
“He’s a successful businessman from Park City, Utah.” Grandma throws me under the bus again. “I see you’re from there, so you might’ve crossed paths with him before.”
“I’m pretty sure I have.” Dante smirks. “What a random series of coincidences I’m seeing between the two of us.”
“Yeah, whatever,” I say. “Anyway—”
“It’s not often that I hear about a “Dante” from Park City, Utah, who also knows a woman named Georgia who is engaged,” he says. “ I’d love to grab a beer with him or get our pictures taken together.”
“We will totally arrange that.” Grandma Hattie chats with Dante like he’s a real friend and not a parasite, even offering to escort him to his suite.
When she finally finishes, I head to my office and shut the door.
Taking a few deep breaths, I tell myself that the past twenty minutes never happened and I will wake up from this nightmare in the morning.
It’s still a perfect Christmas, still a perfect Christmas…
TEN
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
GEORGIA
My Holiday Wish List
1. Yesterday was all a dream.
2. Dante is not a guest here, and my family is not expecting to meet my nonexistent fiancé.
3. I am still on track to have the best Christmas ever.
I fold the list into a tiny square and slip it into Santa’s three-foot tall mailbag.
Then, like I’m the starring actress in a Hallmark movie, I twirl around as the lobby’s speakers play “All I Want for Christmas is You.” If I’m following the typical script, I just need to wait for the clocks to rewind to yesterday so I can make better decisions and keep my mouth shut about “Dante.”
“What the hell are you doing, Georgia?” Taryn bumps into me mid-spin. “I’ve been looking for you all morning.
“So my wish list didn’t work?”
She shoots me a confused stare.
“I’ll take that as a no…”
“Anyway,” she says, “since I’ve so generously volunteered to help out at the estate this holiday season, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I wasn’t able to secure the top suite for you and your fiancé, and that’s not all.”
Okay, it’s time to come clean.
“Look, Taryn,” I say. “I need to tell you something.”
“Me too.” She places her hands on my shoulders. “You’re fucking screwed.”
“So, you already know the truth?”
“Yeah.” She nods. “I just found out why you’re about to have a serious skeleton crew on hand…Taylor Swift just announced a surprise holiday festival here and I’m pretty sure you’re about to experience some ‘suddenly sick’ employees.”
“Taylor Swift is coming here?” I smile. “Really? I mean, they wouldn’t do that to me during the business time of the year, right?”
She blinks.
Rushing over to the employee check-in screen, I notice that six people have called in today.
What the hell?
Convinced this is an error or a last-minute holiday prank, I call the first employee on the list. Sarah Folsom.
“Hello?” she answers on the first ring.
“Hey Sarah, it’s Georgia from The Grace Estate.”
“Hey there, Georgia!”
“I noticed that you called in sick for today, with an indefinite return date. Am I reading this right?”
“No, um…” She coughs. “Something serious is coming to town. I mean, ‘going around,’ and I don’t want to miss it, you know?”
“You mean, catch it?” I cross my arms. “If you’re supposedly sick, don’t you already have whatever it is?”
“Um…” She coughs a few times before ending the call.
I call her right back, and it goes straight to voicemail.
“I’ll call everyone who is still scheduled and get back to you.” Taryn takes the phone from me. “Go get some fresh air.”
“Fine.” I head to the courtyard and pace between nutcrackers, mentally calculating how small of a staff I can use to run this estate.
“Georgia Bee?” My grandmother’s voice makes me stop.
“Yes?”
“Happy Seven Star Day!” She approaches me and hands me an emerald green gift box. “You can open this one before Christmas.”
In need of good news, I tug at the ribbon and push off the top. Inside is a huge diamond key with my name etched onto its handle.
“The Grace Estate would still be a regular resort if it weren’t for you,” she says, “and as soon as I meet your fiancé this Christmas and you show me that you can handle running this busy holiday on your own, this resort is yours.”
“Seriously? That soon?”
“It would’ve been a lot sooner, but I wanted you to have a life outside of work, so you won’t make the same mistakes I did.”
“I thought you wanted me to be more like Savannah….”
“Where would you ever get an idea like that?”
“Because she has everything together and she’s super professional.”
“One ‘Savannah’ is more than enough. Trust me.” She hugs me hard. “When exactly is Dante coming in?”
“Um, well, he actually—You see, the thing about him is, it’s complicated.” I stutter.
Now is the perfect time to admit the truth, to come clean about all the random gifts and fake voicemails.