I'll Be Yours for Christmas by Samantha Hunter Read Free Book Online

How could she explain why she hadn’t been there? That she’d been so busy, and so distracted by thoughts of Reece, that she hadn’t thought twice about the tree lights or the electrical problem?
    She groaned, standing straight, wiping the tears away. No time for this now.
    She had to get the insurance settled and cancel the wedding they’d been planning—that would be another tough phone call. The couple wouldn’t likely find another venue with only weeks until the wedding, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that. Abby would have to refund their deposits. That was going to hurt.
    She’d see if Hannah would let her move in for a while, though it would mean driving back and forth to Ithaca daily, or maybe her insurance would pick up a room at the local inn, for a while at least.
    â€œI thought you might be down here,” a familiar voice said behind her.
    â€œHannah,” she said, trying to sound normal, but her voice cracked under the weight of her exhaustion, being up all night, dealing with it all.
    Hannah was across the barn, holding her arms out and Abby didn’t hesitate.
    She held on to her friend, just for a minute, but it was Reece’s arms she knew she’d been seeking. Remembering how good it had been, not just the sexual part, but the way he’d held her against his hard chest later, when they’d watched the firemen work, had kept her from losing it altogether. She wanted that comfort back.
    No, no, no. That was how she’d gotten into this mess, sort of.
    â€œYou okay?” Hannah asked, stepping back and smiling as two of the barn cats wound their way around her ankles.
    â€œYeah. I’m just so thankful the barns are far away from the house,” she said, stroking Beau’s silky nose. All of the animals were okay.
    â€œThat is a good thing,” Hannah agreed, chuckling softly as Buttercup snorted happily in response to more scratching. “Everything else can be replaced. It was a straightforward electrical fire. The insurance agent is already on it. Things can be rebuilt.”
    â€œTrue, but I don’t know if that will be enough,” Abby said, too discouraged to be optimistic. “They can’t start rebuilding until after winter, which means we’re not only losing the Christmas events, but the spring wedding season and tastings as well. We lost almost all of the Riesling casks. With Reece selling, this could just be akiller blow,” Abby said tightly, her throat constricting at the thought.
    â€œHow am I going to tell Mom and Dad? I feel so much like I’ve let them down,” Abby said, sucking in more tears.
    Hannah knew just what to do to drive the tears away.
    â€œSpeaking of Reece…he seemed awfully involved in helping you last night. And I couldn’t help but notice when we went inside that at first his shirt wasn’t buttoned up quite right. You know, like it had been put back together in a rush,” she said, with mischief in her tone that made Abby’s tears completely evaporate.
    Abby groaned. Did everyone know where she’d been and what she was doing?
    As if reading her mind, Hannah added, “He said he saw the fire from his house, got dressed and rushed down to help. Don’t worry—he didn’t give anything away, though I sure hope you’re going to share details with your very best friend in the whole wide world, right? You know, about why Reece was really getting dressed?”
    Unbelievably, Abby had to laugh. Leave it to Hannah, even in the middle of utter loss. When all Abby had left was this barn and what was in it, her friend found a way to lighten the mood.
    Reece had been wonderful. He hadn’t left her side until Hannah had arrived. He jumped in, talking to the firemen, police and the other people milling around, even opening up the main room of his winery for people to come in, get warm and have coffee. At some moment when she’dbeen