Jenny Holiday - Cozy Up for Christmas: Four Holiday Novellas

Thank you to my agent, Courtney Miller-Callihan, for her excellent agenting but also specifically for her weepy enthusiasm for this book (sorry I ruined the airport).

My thanks to Sandra Owens and Amber Belldene for reading an early draft and helping me muddle through a few problems, and to Christine DAbo for being my trusty sprinting buddy.

As always, thanks to everyone at Forever Romance, particularly Lexi Smail for the spot-on editing and for being the best title-thinker-upper ever.

P lease God, please God, please God, please God.

When Elise Maxwell peed on a stick one gray Friday morning in December, she wasnt sure what outcome she was praying for. They both seemed equally terrible.

One of them might have a teeny-tiny bit of wonderful mixed in with all that terrible, though.

Maybe. Possibly.

Super teeny-tiny.

But she refused to think about that. There was no way. It was impossible. If anything, she was in freakishly early menopause, her poor beleaguered reproductive system deciding to just hang it up early.

And even if it was, by some bizarre miracle, possible, it was still impossible. Her entire lifeher lovely, hard-earned, self-made life that she lovedwas based on not having kids.

Dang. She was going to throw upand who even knew why? Morning sickness or the imminent and terrifying end of life as she knew it? Potato-potahto.

She reached for the stupid test to put herself out of her misery.

Not yet! Elises phone was propped up on the vanity in the bathroom so her best friend, Gia, could watch the proceedings from Milan. Gia was in a bathroom, too, a tiny, dingy one, but at least it was private. She was wearing a robe, her full face of makeup featured weird glued-on purple rhinestone eyebrows, and her hair was arranged in an elaborate updo. Its too soon! The directions said it would take a minimum of three minutes. Theres no point in doing this incorrectly. You want to be confident in the results, whatever they are. So dont sabotage them.

But

Elise! Do not get sloppy now! Leverage some of those perfectionist tendencies youre so famous for, for Gods sake!

Right. Okay. But what was she going to do for the nextshe toggled over from Gia on FaceTime to check the alarm shed settwo minutes and seven seconds?

I just need a minute! It was Gia, calling to someone outside her door in Milan.

Gia was working, and Elise couldnt expect to monopolize her indefinitely. If you need to go

Are you fucking kidding me? I dont need to go. An insistent knock on her door suggested otherwise, but Gia just rolled her eyes and shouted, Hold your damn horses!

Maybe Elises defenses were down, but Gias salty language, combined with her utter dedication to seeing Elise through this whole peeing on a stick trauma, gave her an attack of the BFF warm fuzzies. One thing she could absolutely count on in this world was Gia. And Wendy and Jane, tooshe felt a little bad for leaving them out of this loop, actually. Usually they faced momentous life events as a foursome. Theyd all been in attendance when Jay proposed to her. And, of course, theyd all been in her wedding.

So they should probably all be here when she found out if Jay was going to divorce her.

Whats the job today? she asked Gia, both to distract herself and to pretend for one second that the mornings proceedings were not only about her.

Runway. Vionnet.

Never heard of them.

Which is probably the only reason I got a booking.

The way she said it, with a self-deprecating tone that was not usually in her repertoire, snagged Elises attention and actually managed to hold it. There had been a few hints lately that Gia wasnot unhappy exactly, but maybe not as enthused about her job as she used to be. Why do you say

Is there any snow there yet?

Gias attempt to change the subject was painfully obvious. But Elise would roll with it, because that discussion would take more than the few minutes they needed to fill. And the best friends shared a love of winter, so snow was a welcome topic. No. Its gray and cold here, but not cold enough to snow.

I hope we get some snow before Christmas. It can hold off until my flight lands and then really dump down.

Dont hold your breath. Theyre saying its the warmest winter on record so far, and

The alarm on Elises phone was only a gentle tinkling sound. She had picked it specifically because she and her husband, Jay, were proponents of morning sex, and being woken gently rather than jarringly was better for setting the mood. But right now it might as well have been an air raid siren. She jumped so violently, she knocked Gia into the sink.

Sorry! She righted the phone.

The moment of truth! Gia made an exaggerated funny face and performed a jazz hands gesture. She was trying to put Elise at ease.

It wasnt working. Nothing would work.

Except a negative result.

Gias jazz hands morphed into drumming hands, and she added a theatrical drum roll noise. Elises heart felt like a drum, a snare drum in a demented orchestra gone rogue.

She closed her eyes, picked up the test, took a deep breath, and in a reverse squint of sorts, half opened one eye.

And when she saw the thing that was simultaneously her worst fear and the thing she had grown to secretly want more than anything else in the world, her eyes flew open so fast and so violently she felt like she might have sprained her forehead.

Oh my God.

What? What? What? Gias voice got higher with every What? Adding to the cacophony, someone had started pounding on Gias door again. Or maybe that was just Elises heart, which had left snare drum territory in favor of booming, galumphing kettle drums.