A Mistletoe Miracle by Emma Jackson

Author:Emma Jackson [Jackson, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2019-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Sleep did not come easy to me that night, despite my exhaustion. I was wired up like Nick had spiked my vodka with Ecstasy, just lying in my bed, one arm thrown over my eyes, trying desperately not to keep thinking about all the delicious kisses. And eventually the buzz of the Mince Pie Evening going smoothly and Rachel going into labour and then me giving in to my attraction to Nick leaked away; my mind wandering to less pleasant things while my muscles remained tense.

The weather app I’d checked before bed had been pretty clear. This snow was going nowhere. Tomorrow, I was going to have to do it all over again. Manage with what little staff I had, beg Neeta to work on Christmas Day. And if she couldn’t, I was going to have to figure out how to cook a three-course Christmas dinner for nearly two dozen people myself. I was no chef; my last attempt at cooking for a group of people had ended up with one of them puffing up like a piece of popcorn. And I’d never cooked a roast in my life. Growing up in a hotel had meant dinners were leftovers more often than not. My mum knew how to cook, but she rarely did it in the flat for us.

So, if I didn’t fix this dinner issue – the pinnacle of Christmas Day – the Hotel Hopper was going to write a terrible review. And in the wee hours of the morning, no matter how much I told myself that all I could do was my best, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Peter’s kept telling me that my best was unlikely to be good enough.

And just to add to the insomnia, I started to worry about how my grandad was doing and whether my mum was okay looking after him. Or if she was going crazy worrying about the hotel. Or worse, believing it was all fine because I was here ‘handling it’, setting herself up for the shock of a lifetime when she got back.

At some point my brain must’ve switched off because I woke up to the alarm going off at half past five, but my legs and arms felt like they’d been filled up with sand.

I waited until I had a jug of black coffee in my stomach before I tried talking to Neeta, explaining the events of the previous day and asking her if she could come in tomorrow.

The answer was ‘no’. This was not good. In fact, I felt well and truly doomed.

‘How d’you figure that one?’ Neeta placed her own steaming mug of coffee in front of me where I was slumped on the kitchen stool, similar to how Dorie had passed out the day before. Apparently, I’d spoken out loud about being doomed. ‘Sounds like you did an amazing job. Really pulled it out the bag. Today’s gonna be cake in comparison to that. And good riddance to that piece of crap, Henry.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.