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“Not well, but her grandfather is handling her, so for now, I’m not too concerned.”

“Well, I hope she goes quietly for your sake.”

“Why wouldn’t she?”

“A woman scorned and all.” She shrugged. “She was not happy you were seeing me. And now she lost her job.”

“I had been wanting to let her go for a few months,” I said. “You had nothing to do with that decision. She may not like that we’re together, but her actions had consequences. She never should have shared information about my deal with you with your uncles. Even if she didn’t declare her feelings for me, I would have let her go. She’s bad for my company.”

“Do you think she’ll cause any problems for you?”

“She won’t be a problem.” I wrapped my arms around her neck. “Not at all.”

It was a comforting lie, because Angelica might not go quietly. She knew too much about my business, but that was a problem for another day.

EIGHTEEN

Ivy

I shoved the letter from the tax office into the kitchen drawer. As if hiding it would make it go away. Losing the house to Huxley or Travis was the least of my problems. If I understood that letter correctly, I was in deeper trouble than I thought. Like really deep shit.

“You’ve been playing house at the mansion.” Jay dropped a few more mini-marshmallows in his hot chocolate mug. “How’s that going?”

“The mansion has hot water and heat.” I sat across from him. “Brand new towels and soft sheets.”

“Why do you look so down?” He blew in his mug to cool his drink. “Are you not into Sexy Santa anymore?”

“I’m really into Sexy Santa.” I sighed. “More than I should be.”

“I’m not getting what the problem is, girlfriend.” He patted my hand. “You’re going to have to enlighten me.”

“I have a dilemma, but I don’t know how to solve it.”

“Are we still talking about the house?” He rolled his eyes. “Sell it to Huxley, and then go live in the mansion. Problem solved.”

“I owe a lot of back taxes on this property.” How had I gotten so behind? Because you don’t have any freakin’ money. “My uncles have offered to buy me out and let me live here.”

“Hmm…” He tapped his fingers on the table. “That’s an interesting turn of events.”

“They want to renovate and let me run the inn to earn my keep.”

“How charming.” He shook his head. “They want to buy your house out from under you and then make you work like some housekeeper to stay in the only home you’ve ever known.”

“You make it sound shitty.”

“It is shitty.”

“It could be a viable solution,” I said. “Even if I don’t love the idea.”

“You’re going to try to compete with Huxley James?” He sipped his cocoa. “That seems like a solid plan.” He giggled. “Not.”

“There’s enough of a market to go around, and I could benefit from his advertising and all the people his project will bring here. He could spare a few customers.”

“What does he think about that?”

“We talked about it, but I didn’t push it,” I said.

“Why not?”