A Christmas For Carol: A Small Town Second Chance Holiday Romantic Comedy (Hope Island Holiday Romances Book 3) by Teagan Hart

Author:Teagan Hart [Hart, Teagan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Strike Press
Published: 2022-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

18

Patrick

“Are we interrupting something?” Nikki’s voice hit them like a bucket of cold water. He and Carol scrambled away from each other. She, at least, was able to get to her feet and dust herself off, her dignity more or less intact. He, on the other hand, still had one arm stuck in the ridiculous costume. And it was starting to rain as if the atmosphere was in on dousing whatever had been about to happen between him and Carol. Which was nothing, he firmly told himself. He hadn’t meant to knock her off balance when he was trying to yank off his costume. In his deep desire to just get the damn thing off, he didn’t just knock her off balance. He’d practically thrown Carol. When he’d realized she was going to fall, he’d just wanted to keep her from bashing her head on the ground. It was what anyone would do. I was being polite. That was all. It meant nothing else. He told himself this, but the burning guilt that punched him in the gut told him it was more, no matter how much he wanted to deny it.

“No,” he heard Carol say as he tried to disentangle his arm from his costume and get to his feet. “Just a little costume mishap. To be honest, I’m surprised they waited until after the parade to cause bodily injury. I mean, I heard Darcy’s costume plotting for bodily injuries all the way here.”

“Are you ok, Uncle Scrooge?” Alex asked, coming over to try to help Patrick to his feet. The help was more hindrance than help, but Patrick did his best to make Alex feel like he was pulling him to his feet.

“Oh yeah. I’m fine, Al. What . . . uh, what did you think of the parade?” Alex launched into ranking his favorite trees and he saw Fionna, Marigold, and Carol start to wrestle Carol’s costume back into what looked like a body bag. He and Nikki, with as much help as Alex could be, muscled his costume back into a duffle bag. When they had all finished, the two groups stood together awkwardly for a moment. Patrick kept his gaze on the duffle bag, screwing with the zipper.

“Well, we’ll see you all at rehearsal tonight,” Nikki said quickly. Patrick joined in with the hasty goodbyes and slung the duffle bag over his shoulder. Alex took his hand and Nikki led the way to the theater. He expected to hear Carol, Marigold, and Fionna behind them, heading in the same direction, but the trio passed them, heading for their house. Probably because Carol wasn’t planning on coming to rehearsal. Again. A little thread of annoyance snagged in his mind. Didn’t she have altered costumes for actors to try on? Why wouldn’t she come to support Fionna and Marigold at the very least? Wasn’t she there to spend the holidays with them? At least she’d be at opening night. One more day and . . . And what, his brain wanted to know.

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