Page 28 of The Holiday Makeover

And, yeah, it threw up some serious roadblocks. But couples, even married couples, made long-distance work all the time. It wasn’t impossible.

Before I could get a word out, she rushed on. “So if you could just work on the kitchen, I think Coco would really like that. I’ll do as much as I can to make over the other rooms before the party. After the holidays, I’ll take my time really renovating the house.”

She might as well have said, You’re not part of the equation, buddy.

Yeah. I got that loud and clear.

I knew her going out with Lily last night didn’t bode well for me. Lily had always had a chip on her shoulder where I was concerned, even back in high school. And looking back, I couldn’t blame her. She knew how Rory really felt about me all those years. She probably thought I was the world’s biggest prick.

And maybe I was.

I pressed my palms against my thighs and blew out a slow breath. The panic was rising again—not that it had ever really gone anywhere. Maybe she’d truly closed the door on us this time. She was clearly planning a future without me in it.

But in every version of my future, she was there.

She left me no choice.

I was going to have to distract the hell out of her.

Chapter Ten

Rory

“Hello, is this Eden Russo?”

“It is,” a sweet female voice answered on the other end of the line.

I wanted to fangirl a little—okay, a lot—but I kept it together. I loved her online cooking show. “I’m Rory Winters, Cosette Fox’s granddaughter.”

“Oh.” A tiny pause. “I’m so sorry about your grandmother. She was my favorite student. I’d never seen an eighty-two-year-old shake their hips the way she could.”

A laugh bubbled out of me before I could stop it. I could picture it perfectly—Coco in her sparkly sneakers, hips swaying as if she were auditioning for a music video instead of taking a rec center dance class. She was such a character. The life of every party. And she never missed a chance to try something new. She always said that was the key to staying young.

Maybe that’s why I never expected her to die. Not really. Not until she was at least a hundred.

“She loved your class, and she loved you. That’s why I’m calling. I know this is probably presumptuous on my grandma’s part, and it’s the holidays, so please feel free to say no. But my grandma didn’t want a funeral. Instead, she wanted her annual Christmas Eve party to be a celebration of her life. And . . . she requested that you cater it. I don’t know if you even do that sort of thing, but—”

“I don’t,” Eden said gently, “but for Coco, I would love to.”

My breath caught. “Are you sure? It’s Christmas Eve.”

“Honestly, I welcome it. It’s the first year I won’t have my daughter for Christmas. The distraction would be lovely.”

A little jab pricked my heart. I knew from watching her show that she and her husband had divorced—and if I remembered correctly, he’d left her for her best friend. Yikes. That was worse than being left for a job. Or for whatever Tate had convinced himself he needed.

Not to say I didn’t understand why he wanted a prime-time show. It was a big deal. I knew that. And I even considered it, but I couldn’t stand the thought of more exposure. More people telling me Tate could do better. And look who Tate chose to date after me. Actual supermodels and A-list actresses. There was no competing with that.

So, maybe Tate had left me for other women.

Ugh.

Speaking of Tate.

I was doing my best to avoid him. I’d holed up in my room like a teenager hiding from her crush. Or, in my case, the man who’d broken my heart and was now acting like he was auditioning for the part of “world’s best ex.”

I thought for sure that when I told him this morning I was moving back to Aspen Lake, he’d have hightailed it out of here.

Instead, there’d been this determined spark in his eyes. A spark I did not ask for. A spark I was sure would cause me angst and make Lily produce her ever-growing list of why we hate Tate.