Page 3 of Snowed Inn For Christmas

“Daisy—” Julie opened her mouth to say more, but I shook my head and folded my arms over my chest as she stalled.

“Fine.She can watch TV.”Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

I nodded and walked into the living room, hoping there was something kid-friendly to watch.My grandmother had a collection of DVDs that I had recently put into a donation pile, so I grabbed the box and dug through it until I found a few that seemed safe.

“The Little MermaidorCinderella?”I asked, holding both of them up so she could see the covers.

“The Little Mermaid!”she squealed, grabbing the blanket from the back of the couch and getting settled.“Do you have any popcorn?”

“Daisy!”Julie hissed, now standing behind her.“This isn’t our house.We can’t just ask for things and make ourselves at home.Besides, you haven’t even had breakfast yet.”

“But you said that we were going to li—” Daisy started before Julie stopped her.

“Yes.Plans have changed since then,” Julie said firmly.“We will talk about it later.In private.”

I watched them for a few minutes, not loving what I was hearing.Something was wrong, and I needed to know what it was.

“Do you like extra butter?”I asked Daisy, earning a hard glare from Julie as she tilted her head to the side and placed her hands firmly on her hips.At this point, it seemed irrelevant whether the child had eaten breakfast yet or not.She wanted popcorn, so she was going to get popcorn.

“Yes!Please!”

“You got it.I’ll start the movie now and then bring you some popcorn in a few minutes,” I said, smiling down at the adorable little girl.

I could feel the intensity of Julie’s stare as she followed me into the kitchen and waited until there was enough space between us and her daughter before she began speaking.

“What the hell was that?”she demanded, pinning me with a look as she pointed at Daisy.

“The kid asked for popcorn, so I’m making some,” I replied as I opened a bag and popped it in the microwave.

“You have no right to just—”

“Ihave no right?Are you kidding me?Youshowed up at myhouseand tried to break in.”

She pressed her lips together as she shook her head.

“It’s notyourhouse,” she countered.

“Really?Because I’m pretty sure the trust paperwork shows that I am the sole owner of the place now that my grandmother is dead.”

“I’m sorry.I didn’t know that anyone would be here.I figured since she was gone...”

“You would break in and be a modern-dayGoldilocks?”I arched an eyebrow and waited for her response as the popcorn popped.

“It wasn’t like that,” she said with a heavy sigh as she pulled a chair out from the dining table and sat down.“I didn’t know where else to go.”

“I’m going to take snacks to that adorable little girl while she watches a movie, and when I come back, you and I have a lot of talking to do.”

She nodded and lowered her head, watching as I took the popcorn out of the microwave and poured it into a giant bowl.

“She can’t have that entire bowl,” she objected, looking horrified when I grabbed a handful of individually wrapped snacks from the counter and winked at her.There was nothing I loved more than getting under her skin and had been doing it since the day I met her twenty years ago.