MISTLETOE,MOONLIGHT AND MY SECRET
Somewhere behind the counter, the radio was playing carols too quietly to make out the words, just enough to fill the silence Victoria had left behind her.
"Is she gone?" Chloe stage-whispered, peering out the fogged glass like Victoria might still be lurking in the snowbank.
"She's gone."
"Did we survive?"
"Barely," Maya said, sinking onto the stool behind the register, legs finally giving out from under her. She pressed both palms against her eyes. "I need a minute. Possibly a year."
"Take it." I crossed the shop toward her, snow still melting off my shoulders onto the wood floor, close enough now to see her hands were shaking, fine and fast. "For what it's worth, that wasn't about you."