Caribbean Christmas by Jenna Bayley-Burke Read Free Book Online

you have your idea after the sun comes up?” Holly’s voice seemed slow and rough, as if she didn’t know it was almost eight.
    “Sun’s been up for hours, babe. I’ve gone through the entire routine for my hip-hop class. Hence my moment of genius. Someone needs to invent a way for me to hear music in one ear and use my phone with the other so I can work out and do business. Two birds.”
    “I’m sure there’s an app for that, but with you it is a horrible idea. You have a hard enough time paying attention as it is.”
    “Moving helps me focus.” She pulled one arm across her body to loosen her back. “Seriously. Do we know someone who could make that happen?”
    “Sass? It is seriously dark outside.” She whimpered like a hungry kitten.
    “Open your curtains. I need to talk to you before I hit the water.” She stretched her other arm, trying to focus on relaxing the muscles, not envisioning Joe Prinsen’s sculpted back working the sailboat. That was, if he still insisted on being her chaperone. Yesterday she’d wanted to sail around the island herself, but after last night being alone didn’t sit right.
    “Listen, Miss Dawn Dancer at the equator.” More rustling, and was that a groan? “Where am I?”
    “Your folks’ house?” Crap, she couldn’t have Holly pissed right now. She needed her voice of reason, and that had been Holly for the last decade.
    “In Fairbanks, Alaska. Where it is the middle of the night. Dark and quiet and perfect for sleep.”
    “Okay, sorry. But can you go back to sleep after? I’ll be fast.”
    “That’s what he said.” Holly’s quiet chuckle meant she was game, thank goodness.
    “I’ll do business first, that ought to perk you up. The appliqués on the bandeau top and micro thong are a go. I know I was doubtful, but I figured out how to make it work while I was on the plane.”
    “They didn’t disappear into your muffin?”
    It was her turn to laugh. “Nope, kept it covered, and not much else.”
    “Huh. Well, I guess if you’re going to wear a suit that small, you’re not concerned with being modest.”
    “And I made some adjustments on the crocheted bodice one-piece. You wouldn’t believe my fix.” She used her best dork voice. “Buttons. I sewed buttons on my underwear.”
    Holly’s laughter might wake up her entire family. “You better be careful or Sassy V is going to be a one-season line and you’ll wind up teaching aerobics forever and I’ll have to beg for my job back. This is the first Christmas I have been able to enjoy since I was fifteen and got caught up in the retail grind.”
    “Yes, no more managing boutiques for you.” She reached one arm up and leaned to the side. “But I like turning music up loud and shaking my ass. I’m more comfortable doing it at the gym than in clubs. Those places are just a meat market.” She shuddered at the memory of the last time she’d been out with friends and wound up surrounded by a bunch of grabby frat boys. No, thank you.
    “Maybe the clubs in New York will be different.”
    She stretched to the other side. “I don’t want to live in New York. It snows there.”
    “We’ll have to be there for meetings and shows. It will be exciting.”
    “It will be cold. My hands get cold in Miami. I’ll wind up with frostbite up north.” She took a deep breath and gave voice to the idea she’d been toying with since she’d signed the contracts. “You know, we could move down here.”
    “I’m a chubby girl from Alaska. You really think I’d survive on Vanilla? I’m built to dress in layers and I’m not talking about layering your crocheted muffin cover.”
    “Anguilla, and you would love it. We could even develop a machine that sprays on sun block like they do spray tans. I had to strip myself naked this morning and practically bathe in the stuff. And I’ll have to do it again later.” But maybe then she’d have help, in both the naked and rubbing her body down departments.
    “I don’t