Take Me Home for Christmas (Whiskey Creek #5)(75)
Author: Brenda Novak

Wasn’t Eve going with him?

Either way, being around Ted would only confuse her, make her want things she couldn’t have. For once, she was going to protect herself. She was going to get out of the mess she was in and figure out how to stand on her own two feet, even if it killed her.

And sometimes she thought it would. When she woke up this morning and realized what she’d done, she’d been ready to give up. Booze would beat her even if she overcame everything else. So why try?

Then she’d remembered the night Eve had appeared in her room and dragged her out of bed to eat the first real meal she’d had in days. Maybe, because of their current circumstances, they couldn’t be friends, but that moment had left an indelible impression on Sophia. She needed to honor the spark Eve had given her, as well as the promise she’d made that night to keep fighting, regardless of how bad it got.

“I’m afraid I don’t have time for stuff like that this year,” she said. “After the library, I’ve got to get online and see if I can find an inexpensive car. There are places advertising that they’ll finance anyone. ‘Good credit. Bad credit…’ You’ve heard the ad.”

“You have a busy day planned.”

“I need to take advantage of my off-hours. I’ve got to become independent.” She spoke with the determination she felt, but a small part of her still feared that the odds against her were too high.

“Can you make time for an AA meeting tomorrow night?” he asked.

“I have no way to get there,” she said. “That’s why I’m hoping to buy a car as soon as possible.”

“I’ll take you until you can arrange your own transportation.”

She raised a hand. “That’s okay. I’d feel too guilty dragging you to something like that. You don’t deserve the humiliation or the tedium of hearing everyone’s story.”

“What’s your story?”

“You don’t want to hear that, either,” she said. “Anyway, I know Eve wouldn’t like it if I dragged you off.”

He started to speak, then changed his mind. “Eve’s very supportive of you. She was really excited when I hired you.”

She gave him a sad smile as she climbed out of the Jacuzzi. “That was before,” she said.

28

Before he’d started sleeping with Eve.

Ted understood what she meant. Essentially, he’d cost Sophia her only friend. Although he hadn’t recognized that until tonight—hadn’t even thought about it that way—she was right. Before Halloween, Eve had been all about helping Sophia. After he took Eve to bed, that changed. Eve hadn’t been unfriendly. She hadn’t even said anything bad about Sophia. But she’d stopped reaching out to her.

“Damn,” he said with a sigh. As much as Eve and his other friends teased him for being ambitious and organized and having his shit together, he’d taken a wrong turn last month. The only thing he’d succeeded in doing was making life harder, for himself and both women. He still had to face his feelings for Sophia. The past four weeks with Eve had done nothing to change that.

And getting together with Eve hadn’t been his only mistake. He remembered saying, when Skip’s body washed up on the shores of Brazil, that Sophia would solve her problems by hooking up with another guy who had the money to bail her out of the mess she was in. But he’d seen no evidence of that. She hadn’t been out partying. She hadn’t brought anyone home. She didn’t have access to the internet in the guesthouse, so she wasn’t cruising the dating sites.

He liked what he saw in her, despite her problems. She’d proven herself to be a loving mother. She did her best to earn what he paid her, even if it meant staying late. And she never took advantage of what he was willing to do for her. He was impressed whenever he found a receipt with $3.58 on the counter or some other odd amount that showed him how hard she was trying to be honest. Those were traits anyone should be able to admire.

* * *

Ted didn’t tell her he and Eve had broken up, but Sophia soon figured it out. It was sort of obvious when Eve didn’t come over for the next three weeks. It became even more obvious when he had Sophia and Alexa decorate his Christmas tree, do the Christmas shopping for his business contacts and eat dinner with him instead of carrying their meals out to the guesthouse.

Even if all of that hadn’t given it away, she would’ve realized they were no longer seeing each other on the eighteenth, when she overheard him arguing with his mother. Mrs. Dixon must’ve told him he was making a big mistake letting Eve go because he responded with comments like, “I love her, too. Just not in that way.” And, “It’s my life. I have to trust my own judgment.”

As conspicuous as Eve’s sudden absence was, Sophia never mentioned it, and she told Alexa not to say anything, either. She thought that if he wanted to talk about his love life, he’d bring it up—but he didn’t, so she focused on her job, taking care of her daughter, practicing her typing and handling as many errands as possible so Ted could finish his book.

He was working hard, spending long days at the computer, but he found time to drive her to an AA meeting every other night. He also helped her negotiate with a bankruptcy attorney, whom she put on retainer with the small amount she managed to save so far, which stopped Skip’s creditors from hounding her. And because she hadn’t been able to find a car, the weekend before Christmas he took her to Sacramento to shop for one. Alexa had been planning to come with them but she’d made friends with a whole new group of girls and stayed behind when she got the opportunity to go on a two-day snowmobile trip.

“How come you haven’t asked me about Eve?” Ted wanted to know as they drove.

Sophia shifted in the confines of her seat belt. “I figured it wasn’t my place.”

“I see.”

“Is she okay, though? With how things turned out?” She’d considered calling but was afraid Eve would misinterpret the gesture. Sophia didn’t want her to think she was secretly celebrating—or had been rooting against her from the beginning.

Sophia did, however, feel a certain amount of relief….

“Eve’s a great person,” he said. “She’ll be fine.”

“And the rest of the gang? What do they have to say about it?”

“Fortunately, not too much. It’s a bit…uncomfortable when we go to coffee. She’s not really speaking to me yet, which is hard. But we’re trying not to let what happened ruin our friendship or the chemistry of the group.”