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He becaot drunk to survive Christmas?”

She nodded and gave a cute sh heels”

“It was iotta say”

“More like

e” She hid her face in her hands andclearly, “I’ to hear the end of it once Clara finds out” She lowered her hands and gave hiht look “I s over like she does, and Maisie will laugh then try and support ers and did quotations marks “‘Penelope, we have a reputation in River Rock Don’t mess that up’”

“That’s Clara, I take it?”

Penelope nodded and her eyes cast doard

“Ah, it wasn’t so bad,” he said, trying to reassure her He’d seen people do farnaked things “Well,was pretty terrible, but you can live that down”

“Hey!” She picked up a throw pillow next to her and tossed it at hi is just fine, thank you very much”

Good, he had her laughing Her singing was actually great

She took another nibble of herinto the fire, while Ty snored loudly, before she addressed hi for you?” she asked

He shrugged “I’hout the holidays” Then so more important occurred to him “Why aren’t you with your family this Christmas?”

She tossed the last piece of muffin into her mouth “No one wanted me there”

He stilled, looking for any hint of hurt in her expression He found none “What do you mean, no one wanted you?”

She stared blankly at the flickering flaht it was best that I didn’t co, even though I know he isn’t” She turned to face hi hurt by her parents was a regular occurrence “They divorced that year I met you That’s why they pulled me out of camp to come home”