LITMIR.BIZ

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while.”

      “I’m sorry,” Patsy said. “I know I’ve teased you about going home with Nico, but this really is a bad time to be limping around on crutches, even with Mr. Hollywood over there helping you out.” They both watched Nico laughing with two blushing housemaids. “But at least the wedding was all planned. And if you have a lot of running around to do, I can take care of it for you.”

      “Thanks. I can put together the decorations while I’m sitting down. Noelle said she’d help in any way she can, but she has a lot of things to pull together in two days.”

      “She told me she had the dress, though, so that’s one of the big things crossed off her list.”

      They saw Noelle and her son enter the room. Josh whispered something to his mother and then made a beeline for the buffet table. Noelle approached Nico, who seemed to be taking the role of host seriously.

      “He’s so darn cute. I’ve never seen a boy who eats so much, but then again, I raised a girl,” Patsy commented.

      “Noelle says all of his friends are like that.” She wondered what it would be like to raise a son by herself. But now Noelle and Josh had Ted, and the Green Beret appeared to be the kind of man a boy could look up to. They watched as Nico and Noelle talked for a moment. He gave her a quick hug and then turned to Grace and smiled.

      “Please tell me he cooked for you,” Patsy pleaded. “I have to know.”

      “He did.” And now he was heading toward them.

      “So you and George Clooney have something in common,” Patsy teased.

      “Who would have guessed?’

      Nico, carrying a cup of coffee, joined them at the table. His white chef’s jacket made him look terribly sexy, in a television star kind of way. He plopped into the empty chair next to Grace.

      “Good morning, Patsy.” He looked at the open box in front of her. “What’d you get?”

      “Shower gel. Love it.”

      He turned to Grace. “Whose name did you have?”

      “I can’t tell you.”

      “Sure you can. I had Carol, in Housekeeping. I bought her gourmet birdseed. She has parakeets.”

      Impressed, Grace had to ask, “Does ten dollars buy a lot of fancy birdseed?”

      “It does, surprisingly.”

      Patsy looked fascinated. “And you knew she had parakeets because...?”

      “I went to school with her husband. I ran into him at the pet store. Al has a corn allergy.”

      “Who’s Al?”

      “His dog,” Grace told her.

      “Oh. I didn’t know dogs could have allergies.”

      “It gives them skin conditions. Here’s your gift,” Nico said, setting a silver gift bag in front of Grace. “It was under the tree, in the back.”

      “Thank you.” She’d meant to go over and find her gift, but the thought of hobbling over there on crutches had stopped her.

      “Are you going to open it?”

      “Grace always saves hers,” Patsy said.

      “I like to open gifts on Christmas morning.” She savored the presents tucked under her little tree. Her father would send a check, but her aunt’s and cousin’s gifts were already there, waiting to be opened. She would add this pretty silver bag to the others. The tag dangling from the silver ribbon had Grace printed on it in a woman’s handwriting. “Did you cheat again and take my name, Pats?”

      “Nope.” She chuckled. “I cheated and took Noelle’s.”

      “Patsy is in charge of name distribution,” Grace told Nico. “She volunteers every year so she can pick who she wants to give a gift to.”

      “And then it’s random,” Patsy insisted. “Totally up to fate.”

      Hmm. Fate had assigned Grace the challenge of buying a gift for Nico. With the stipulation that a gift could cost no less than five dollars and no more than ten, she’d struggled to come up with something remotely appropriate for a man who cooked professionally. She’d opted for a practical gift instead. Patsy had set her up and she knew it.

      “Where’s yours?” Grace asked. What had he thought of the telescoping ice scraper for his car? It was difficult to wrap, so she’d covered it in red tissue paper, tied a bow and a name tag on it and stored it in her office for the past week. She’d asked Patsy to sneak it into the room and prop it up near the tree.

      “My fancy snow-removal tool is in my office where no one can steal it.” He grinned. “I guess someone assumes I’m not prepared for winter.”

      “Or wants to make sure you’re safe,” Patsy suggested.

      “Or saw you cleaning your windshield with a scraper from the dollar store,” Grace added.

      “Come to think of it, you did see me doing that once,” he said. “And you loaned me yours. So thank you.”

      “That doesn’t mean it’s from me,” she said, but she smiled at him.

      “True.” He pushed the silver bag closer to her. “Open it. I can’t stand the suspense.”

      It wasn’t from Nico, thank goodness. Patsy hadn’t gone so far as to arrange that, which was a relief. He’d bought birdseed.

      “I have something for you,” her friend said. “You can take that home and add it to your pile.”

      “Don’t you think it’s more fun to wait?”

      “Sometimes,” Nico said. “When you don’t have any other choice.”

      She lifted the tissue from the top of the bag and pulled out a fluffy knit scarf composed of blended shades of aquamarine and light blue.

      “Oh, it’s beautiful!”

      Patsy agreed, touching the wool. “It feels like alpaca. Or mohair?”

      “I don’t know,” Grace said, “but it’s so soft.”

      “And matches your eyes,” Nico declared. “Are you sure you don’t have a secret admirer? Other than me, I mean.”

      “Stop teasing,” she said, fingering the scarf. “It looks handmade.”

      “Someone must have made it especially for you,” Patsy said, shooting Nico a suspicious look.

      He ignored her. “Aren’t you glad you opened it? You can wear it tonight when I drive you home.”

      “Home to my place,” Grace said.

      “Home to mine,” he countered. “We have a wedding to organize, remember?”

      “No, we don’t. It’s all done. We can finalize the details later this afternoon.” She intended to dip ornaments in glitter and assemble the lights in the canning jars while she kept her foot elevated. The darn thing had already begun to ache more than she thought it would. Spending another night being pampered by Nico sounded more tempting than she wanted to admit to herself.

      “Al will be heartbroken.”

      “There is one thing you two might need to consider,” Patsy interjected.

      “What?”

      “A bridal shower.”

      “A bridal shower?” Grace hadn’t even thought about something like that for this last-minute wedding, but why not? “When?”

      “Tomorrow night,” Patsy said. “Noelle’s friends on staff have been talking. You know how close they are. We could invite Noelle’s and Ted’s friends, plus some of the family. They wondered

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