Here Comes Santa Claus: A Christmas Romance Novella by Erin A. King

Author:Erin A. King [King, Erin A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

It was dark. Not dark-dark, but significantly darker than it had been. Zoe reached blearily for her phone, almost dropping it when she realized it was 7:00. She glanced at the TV, still on the cooking channel, and then over at Guy, asleep on the other side of the bed.

How had they slept the whole second half of the day away? This was some jet lag-style bullshit, and she did not approve. She wasn’t supposed to accidentally take a five-hour nap. She was never going to be able to fall asleep for real tonight after this.

She slid out of bed and dipped into the bathroom for some water, being as quiet as she could to avoid waking Guy, but he was awake anyway when she came back out into the bedroom. “Damn, you’re a light sleeper,” she told him, and he shrugged.

“You get used to being on half-alert when you work in a hospital,” he replied.

“Do you learn to fall asleep easily too?” she asked, dropping back down onto the bed. “Because I could use some tips on how to sleep at night after sleeping all day.”

“You’re the flight attendant, shouldn’t you be telling me how to combat jet lag?”

“I can tell you how to avoid jet lag, by not sleeping when the sun is out even if your body says it’s bedtime. But clearly I’m bad at following my own advice.” She sighed, turning her head to glance out the window at the streetlamp-bright parking lot. “But then, I guess the sun didn’t really come out today, did it? No wonder my body is confused. Too many carbs and no sunshine makes Zoe a sleepy zombie, apparently.”

Guy disappeared into the bathroom and came back out with his own drink. “And you didn’t even finish your carbs,” he reminded her. “You still have to eat your cake.”

“Oh, yeah.” She had forgotten about the cake, which was a testament to exactly how much macaroni she had eaten. She was not normally one to forget about cake. “I’m gonna call Lydia and make her blow out the candles with me.”

She muted the cooking channel and grabbed her phone while he retrieved the slice of cake from under its room-service dome and sat down next to her on the bed.

“Hey,” Lydia said when she picked up.

“Hey yourself,” Zoe replied. “Go get yourself some cake, it’s candles time.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” Lydia dropped the phone, leaving Zoe and Guy staring up at the ceiling of Zoe’s parents’ living room. The phone jostled a moment, and then Zoe’s dad peered down at them from an unflattering angle.

“Happy birthday, Kitten,” he said, smiling at the screen, his familiar salt-and-pepper hair and round face causing another pang of missing her family to squeeze at her chest. “Who’s that, is that that might-be-a-serial killer you’re shacked up with?”

Zoe rolled her eyes at him, but couldn’t help her grin. “Yes, this is Guy. In addition to being not-a-murderer, he’s promised me not-candles for my birthday cake.”

“Is

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