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going on with you two?” Eric asked, returning them to the subject at hand.

      Rob contemplated his beer. “Sometimes I wonder if, aw, I don’t know. I think we got married too young.”

      “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of leaving Ivy,” Eric said.

      “I don’t know,” he said again. “Sometimes I feel like I missed out somehow.”

      Eric couldn’t believe his ears. Rob and Ivy were the perfect couple. In fact, he’d envied his old high school buddy. Rob seemed to have the perfect life. He’d married into a great family, and Christmas Haus, the shop he and Ivy owned, was a gold mine. It was originally called Kringle Mart, and they’d recently changed the name and doubled their business. In addition to sitting on a gold mine, he was married to a pretty woman who was about as nice as they came. A perfect life, a perfect marriage. If Rob couldn’t make it, who could?

      Lately, Eric had been feeling the pull toward marriage. It seemed as though all his friends were happily paired off, either married or in a serious relationship. Well, it had until tonight.

      “You’re nuts if you leave,” he told Rob.

      “Yeah, probably,” Rob agreed. “But I wish I’d stayed single like you, man. Your life is your own. You can do what you want. All of that, plus good home cooking.”

      Who was he kidding? Eric’s life was tied up in running the lodge and watching over his mom. Yeah, the home cooking was great and there was nothing else he’d rather do than run the lodge, but living with your mom didn’t exactly make for a great sex life.

      “Yeah, right,” he said. “My life’s so great, that’s why I’m hanging out with you two—who, by the way, are a real pair of downers.”

      “Love can be a downer,” Rob said morosely.

      Rita was back with their beers. Just in time because Rob had swilled all of his. He lifted up his glass. “Okay, guys, here’s to the new year. Let’s hope it gets better.”

      “I’ll drink to that,” Eric said. And better for him would include a woman. He was getting tired of his bachelor existence, tired of things not working out. His younger brother didn’t seem to mind going through women like candy but Eric did. He was ready to settle down.

      Except if someone in a practically perfect marriage like Rob could be discontented, if a nice guy like Bubba couldn’t hang on to a woman, what chance did he have? And where was he going to find Ms. Right? Date local, great idea. But he’d tried the local girls and nothing had come of it. He’d even expanded his search to nearby Wenatchee and that hadn’t panned out, either. Was he too picky?

      No, he decided. It wasn’t picky to want what his folks had. They’d been so happy. Maybe that was some older-generation thing. Maybe it didn’t work that way for people his age anymore. Who knew?

      All he knew was that hanging out with his friends should have put him in a good mood and instead they were a holiday bummer.

      Never mind, he told himself. Santa’s still alive and well, and it’s Christmas in Icicle Falls. Your life’s not so bad.

       But hey, Santa, if you’re listening, it could be better.

Chapter Four

      I’ll Be Home for Christmas

      “What do you mean you won’t be coming for Christmas Eve?” John Truman’s mother demanded.

      John had not been looking forward to this conversation, which was why he’d put it off to the last possible minute. “I’m doing something with Holland.”

      “With her family?” his mother asked suspiciously. When it came to Christmas and her kids, Mom didn’t like to share.

      “No. Just the two of us. But we’ll be back Christmas Day.”

      His mother harrumphed. “That’s all well and good, but it’ll just be us on Christmas Day. What am I supposed to tell the aunts and uncles, and your cousins? And Ben’s bringing his fiancée, too.”

      As if John hadn’t already met his big brother’s girlfriend a million times. Anyway, if all went according to plan, he’d be showing up on Christmas Day with a fiancée of his own.

      When he shared this with his mother, she wasn’t all that excited. “So, you’re going to do it.”

      “Yep. We’re driving up to Icicle Falls tonight to stay in this really cool B and B and I’ll propose on Christmas Eve. Then we’ll come by the house on Christmas Day and show you the ring.”

      There was a long moment of silence on his mother’s end. “Well, John, we love you and you know we’ll welcome her into the family.”

      And that was as much as he was going to get out of his mother. She and Holland hadn’t quite warmed to each other yet. Mom thought Holland was self-centered. Translation: Holland didn’t always want to go along with Mom’s social plans for the family. Holland thought Mom was controlling. Translation: Holland didn’t always want to go along with Mom’s social plans for the family. They were both strong women but John knew they’d really come to love each other. Eventually. Once Mom got over the idea that Holland wasn’t good enough for him.

      All moms thought that about their kids, right? Except she loved his brother’s fiancée, probably because Margo fell right in with everything Mom wanted to do, from impromptu family picnics to Father’s Day barbecues. But Holland had a family of her own, and an important job at a Seattle ad agency. She had a social life, too. She had girlfriends, and a book club, and that all took time. And she and John had friends. They couldn’t necessarily drop what they were doing and come running whenever Mom called. That was what Holland said when she balked at Mom’s latest plans for family (and girlfriend) solidarity. Fortunately, she’d never said it to Mom’s face, or there would’ve been hell to pay.

      “I just hope you know what you’re doing,” his mother added.

      Oh, yeah. Feeling the motherly support here. “Thanks, Mom.”

      “You haven’t even been together a year.”

      “Eleven months.” Close enough. And they’d known each other before then. They worked in the same downtown building and had hung out at lunch sometimes.

      “And you two did have that rough patch,” she continued.

      “Everybody has rough patches, Mom.” He remembered his parents doing their share of fighting when he was in grade school. “Anyway, that was months ago.” He and Holland had worked things out since then. Okay, so they still had a fight once in a while. Every couple had disagreements, right? “We’re fine now.” And they were going to have a great time up in Icicle Falls, where he’d booked them a room at the kind of classy place Holland would love, with a fancy lobby and fireplaces in the rooms. Oh, yeah. It was going to be totally romantic. He had everything planned out. A late dinner at one of the local restaurants, shopping the next day, followed by a romantic sleigh ride and maybe some skating in the outdoor rink in the town square. Then, after Christmas Eve dinner, he’d whip out the ring he’d bought, get down on one knee and ask her to marry him. After that they’d have champagne in their room, get a fire going in the fireplace and heat up the sheets. Oh, yeah. Holland was going to be blown away.

      “I just don’t want to see you hurt,” his mother said.

      Had his mother been a wet blanket in another life? “What makes you think I’ll get hurt?” He wasn’t an idiot, for crying out loud.

      Another silence on the other end of the line. “Honey, sometimes you’re not...”

      “Not what?”

      “Not very realistic.”

      Okay, sometimes he was an idiot. But how could he have known Sarah Schoop was out to use him? Okay, so

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