Chapter 15

* * * *

On Christmas morning three days later, my cell phone rang. The shrill sound pierced my drowsy brain, startling me awake. Groggy with sleep, I reached out from beneath the warm covers of my bed to fumble along the nightstand, but I couldn’t find the phone and gave up.

Beside me, Nigel stirred among the sheets, pulling me close. “Time is it?” he mumbled.

“Early,” I answered. The phone stopped and I sighed, relaxing into Nigel’s arms.

I was almost back to sleep when the phone started up again. This time Nigel made a grab for it, leaning above me as he answered it. “Yeah?”

I kissed his upper arm where it stretched across my face. Nigel gave me a quick smile that lit up his dark eyes, and I plunged my fingers into his mussed hair. “I’m Nigel,” he said into the phone. “Who’re you?”

I tried to imagine who it might be this early—my mother? Barry? “Who is it?” I whispered.

Nigel held the phone out to me. “Chad?”