adorable—and reassuring—that his little sister, even at twenty-five, blushed and stammered when talking about sex.
“Do you have to make me say it?”
Teague raised one ungloved hand. Guess after spending the last three years stationed in the desert, he was happy to trail his fingers through the snow. “I’ve been gone, remember? I need somebody to say it.”
Alex emailed the guy regularly. But he hadn’t bothered to fill him in on Everleigh’s latest romance because…well…they never lasted. He’d assumed that by the time Teague shipped back home, this idiotic move of dating her boss would be over.
This was one of the rare times, though, that Alex hated being right. “Randall was Ever’s boss at the art gallery. They were a thing. Dated for a couple months, then just moved in with him at Thanksgiving.”
“And he fired you? While you’re living together? Man, that’s cold.”
Ever tossed her head. Tried to look stoic, but that fell apart when she sniffed and her lower lip trembled. “We’re not living together anymore. His, ah, fiancée found out about us.”
After a quick is she for real exchange of looks with Alex, Teague said, “Did you know about her?”
“Omigosh, of course not! There’s no excuse for cheating…unless you don’t know you’re doing it. I’d never consciously hurt someone like that. Randall’s a two-timing snake.”
Seconded. Alex wanted to pull a reverse Santa on the guy. Go break in, grab all the presents under his tree, and give them to a homeless shelter. Everleigh was a walking and talking bleeding heart who always ended up with men who treated her badly. It killed him to watch it keep happening.
“Did you love him?” Amelia asked quietly.
“No. But I thought that I could. So my heart’s in one piece, pretty much. I’m just out a job and an apartment. My car’s loaded up with all my stuff. I was hoping I could move in with you until I can sign a new lease?”
“You’ll have to share my bed. But it won’t be the first time we’ve had a sleepover. The only thing is…my lease is up in a week. The building is going condo. They’re raising the rents by two hundred percent to drive out the people who don’t want to buy in. We’ll all be out.”
Holy crap.
Worst. Christmas. Ever.
Alex rubbed a reassuring hand along her back. Even though she probably couldn’t feel it through the world’s puffiest coat. “Amelia, don’t worry. We’ll find a place. The internet doesn’t close for the holidays. We’ll start looking tomorrow.”
“I got a jump start. Here.” She dug in the pocket of her forest-green jeans, then handed him a piece of cardstock. “Merry Christmas.”
“What’s this?” Holding it diagonally to catch the flashing red and green lights in the display window, all he could make out was a drawing of a large brick building and a number.
“A lottery ticket. I bought it at the coffee shop while waiting for you all to show up tonight.”
“It doesn’t look like a lottery ticket.”
“Not for money.” She rubbed her hands together. “For something much better.”
Even Everleigh rolled her big blue eyes at that. “Like what? Magic beans?”
“A distillery?” And Teague’s guess resonated with a lot more hope than Ever’s.
“It’s to win a historic inn. It’s my present to Alex, so he’ll have his own hotel to manage that nobody can take away.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet. Thanks, sis.” Alex leaned down a good six inches to drop a kiss on the top of her head.
Teague plucked the paper from Alex’s fingers to examine it. “The coffee shop’s running a lottery? Beautiful girl, I think you got played.”
“No, it’s real. The owner’s helping out a cousin of a friend…” she circled her hands in the air “…there was a long story. But it’s definitely for real. The drawing’s tomorrow.”
Alex agreed with his friend. It sounded sketchy. More like a half-assed plan to bilk customers of a few extra dollars.
On the other hand, it’d put a smile on his sister’s face. It gave her hope on this shitstorm of a day, which was priceless.
From the only two cells of his brain allowed to be spontaneous, an idea emerged. “How about we frontload our luck? Let’s walk back to the coffee shop right now and we’ll each buy a ticket.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, we’ve all hit rock bottom, right? There’s nowhere to go but up. We’ll count on some old-fashioned Christmas magic to reboot our lives.”
Teague and Amelia hard-packed snowballs as they walked, winging them at the ornate light poles. Everleigh started singing ‘It’s