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“In Arizona,” she answered breezily.

My face fell as I took a seat at my desk. I was used to my parents being on the move. They were based in Charlotte and hardly ever home. But I thought they would at least be in North Carolina or Georgia, spending the upcoming holiday with someone in our family.

“What’s in Arizona?”

“Golf courses, dear.” Her voice held excitement. “You know your father is still supporting my new hobby. He surprised me with a golf trip.”

“What about London and Ocean, you’re not spending Thanksgiving with one of them?” I knew I didn’t check the family group chat often enough, but there was no way I’d missed that much.

“Ocean is at the beach. I think he has a new distraction. A supermodel or something. And London is here with us. Her suite is next to ours. You know she has separation issues,” she filled me in, speaking casually about my twenty-one year old sister. “We’re never gonna marry that girl off or convince her to go to school anywhere but online.”

“You don’t sound too hurt about it.”

She released a small trill of delighted laughter. “Oh, of course not. I wish all of you were like that. You and Ocean have always been so…distant.”

“I’m not distant, mom.”

“Fine…independent.” I heard a fork hitting a plate before she heaved another dramatic sigh. “Either way, we can’t wait to see you for Christmas. Are you bringing Noah?”

“Yes,” I replied without thinking. I always brought Noah.

“And what about your neighbor girlfriend? Does she have family? You know we have plenty of room. Tell her she’s more than welcome to join us at the house.”

“It’s True. Her name is True, mom,” I supplied. But her question made me pause because I didn’t know where True wasspending the holidays. I knew her birthday was on New Year’s Eve and that Noah had planned something for it, saying I needed to buy her sixteen presents and get them to him by December 1st. But what about Christmas? Was she spending that in Bliss Peak or was she going home? Would she want to spend Christmas with us? Was it too soon?

We’d settled into a routine over the past week that felt right. Every night I went to sleep with True and Noah in my bed and every morning I woke up to them.

This morning I had to force myself away when I saw the way Noah was using True’s body as a pillow, his arms wrapped around her middle while his head rested on her chest. True’s hand had been in his hair, holding him in place while they slept peacefully.

Every day, I accepted that I was obsessed with them. They were fucking perfect.

“I’m gonna put her down as a maybe,” my mother said when I didn’t reply.

Shaking my thoughts back to the holidays ahead, I started sorting through my emails while my mother told me about her plans for the rest of the trip. The conversation was enough to keep me partially engaged while I ran through admin work. Until I opened one of the automated emails that went out this morning, reminding a guest who would be checking in on Friday morning about their reservation and what to expect in Bliss Peak for the week they would be in town.

Anger burned in my chest. Who the fuck had approved this?

I wasn’t even supposed to see these emails but I had never taken my name off the BCC list after the grand opening. My need for control wouldn’t allow me to distance myself too much. And now that shit was paying off at the wrong time. In the worst way.

They were checking in in less than forty-eight hours.

Why the fuck would they book a suite here? And what did I have to do to undo it?

“Mom, let me call you back. Tell dad and London I said hey. Love you.” I hung up as soon as she acknowledged my words.

Then I stared at my computer screen, waiting for the words to morph into something I wanted to read.

The silence in my office was so thick, I could hear every tick of the clock on the corner of my desk and every icy flurry of snow hit my windowsill before I snapped out of it.

Pushing back from my desk, I called Noah and it went to voicemail three times in a row before I got up to look for him on foot.

I checked his wood shop outside. He wasn’t there, which wasn’t surprising because it was snowing.

I checked the dining room. No Noah.

The entertainment room. Still no Noah.

I climbed the winding staircase to the second floor two steps at a time and walked into the gym, expecting to find him. But all I saw was two guests on cardio machines, facing the panoramic windows and mountain view.