Twelve Days of Christmas by Debbie Macomber Read Free Book Online

her attention was drawn back to the choir and Mrs. Bounds. Regretful or not, Julia was finished with him, with the experiment, with everything—even if it meant she would lose the chance at this job. Her stomach was in knots. She desperately wanted this job, but not at the expense of her sanity.
    When the performance was over, Julia stepped outside and called Cammie, who happened to be grocery shopping. It took her best friend all of two seconds to figure out she was upset.
    “Julia, what’s wrong?”
    She blurted out the entire story and finished with “I’m giving up the blog.”
    “You can’t,” Cammie cried. “Have you looked at the numbers on the post you put up yesterday? You’ve got over a thousand hits, with two hundred shares. Do you have any idea how big that is?”
    “I just can’t do it any longer,” Julia insisted.
    “You can,” Cammie encouraged. “Think about it. Don’t overreact. Yes, Cain is difficult and you have every right to be upset, but there’s a reason he’s the way he is. It’s your job to find out what makes him tick.”
    “He’s arrogant and—”
    “Wasn’t he all that before you started the blog?”
    Her friend had a point, and as much as Julia wanted to argue with her, she couldn’t. “Yes, I guess…”
    “Then nothing has really changed, has it?”
    Julia straightened. As much as she hated to admit it, Cammie was right.
    “A thousand hits,” her bestie repeated. That was way beyond the interest Julia had been able to generate before.
    “People are loving your blog and this project. When you get a chance, read the comments posted in the last couple hours.”
    “I will, for sure.” Julia tapped her foot while she considered this news.
    “You say Cain accused you of following him?”
    “Yes, the man is delusional.” His accusation continued to enflame her.
    “You could have claimed that he followed you, you know? Cain was there for a reason.”
    As always, Cammie had said exactly what Julia needed to hear. Cain hadn’t shown up at the Manor House out of the blue because he was in the mood for a bit of Christmas cheer. She suspected he had a friend or a relative at the complex or was there out of some obligation.
    “Thanks, Cammie. I’ll check in with you later.”
    “Do that, and keep your cool.”
    “I will.”
    With a plan in place, she returned to the building and stepped up to the receptionist’s desk.
    —
    “Do you have a resident here with the surname of Maddox?” she asked, doing her best to give the impression of goodwill toward all men.
    The woman behind the counter smiled. “Yes, that would be Bernie. Nicest man you’d ever want to meet—charming and sweet.”
    Charming and sweet?
Clearly he was no relation to Cain. She would have liked to seek out Bernie right then, but she feared Cain might still be in the building. She’d return at a later date and introduce herself and find out what she could about Cain, if indeed they were related. The more she knew about him, the better prepared she’d be to show him kindness, even if she had to do it with gritted teeth.
    Before she was finished, Cain Maddox would rue the day he’d met her.

Julia’s Blog
    TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
December 17
A Smile
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    My friends, I have a small confession to make. I nearly abandoned the project after my last encounter with Ebenezer. I’ve never met a more frustrating man in my life. He actually accused me of stalking him because I happened to be in the same place as him! Truthfully, it was sort of spooky. But stalking him?
    Pullleeeease.
    This experiment has gone from a mission to a battle, and at the moment the opposition (Ebenezer) is winning. A woman can take only so much. It just so happened that I had an excellent reason for being where I was. One he discovered soon enough. I know he regretted his accusation, but did he apologize? Did he admit he was in the wrong? Not Ebenezer. When I next looked for him he’d disappeared, and truthfully, that was