Page 96 of Christmas Comeback


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“Maureen is James’s future sister-in-law,” Will said. “We’ve known each other for a while.”

Not a lie, although nowhere near the whole truth. I knew without asking that Will’s parents would never learn the full story of how I met their son. It was enough that Marley, James, Bren, and Chase knew. That would be the extent of the circle.

“You’re Marley’s sister?” Iris asked. “Was it you who took care of William last week, after his fall?”

“I helped. Along with my sister and James. I also drove Will’s car back to the city to spare him the long drive.”

“Oh, that’s right. You’re local. Francesca’s videos are in Seattle.”

“It sounds like this relationship is serious.” Will’s dad interjected, more in summation than as a question.

“We just made it offi—” I started.

“Very serious,” Will asserted. “Newly official, like we said, but very, very serious.”

“Well, Maureen—forgive me if I accidentally call you Francesca—I am happy to meet you, and to find out William is dating someone.” Iris turned to her husband. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any of those videos I’ve watched, but this young lady does some wonderful man-on-the-street type interviews.”

Andrew looked at me. “I can’t say I ever watch the YouTube like my wife does, but if she says you’re good, then I know you are.”

“Father, it’s not ‘the YouTube,’ it’s just YouTube.”

As Andrew opened his mouth to reply, a sharp knock came at the door. Will answered, finding Bren.

“Hey, Will! Is Maureen here?”

Uh-oh. Bren had that excited puppy energy. Something was either very right or very wrong.

“Yeah. My parents are here too. What’s up?”

Bren barreled into the living room, sparing a few quick hellos for Will’s parents before thrusting her phone in my face.

“You hit a million views!”

“What!?” I pulled the phone out of her hands.

“Almost 1.1 million so far! It helps that Stone Caseman shared it first, but now other people are too. It’s just one of those weird things that’s going viral for the holidays. Like cats destroying ornaments or toddlers only being interested in the boxes. Not only that, but the video of your divorced friend is also getting a lot of hits. People like her attitude, and it doesn’t hurt that she’s a knockout.”

I smiled, thinking about how Katy would have appreciated Bren’s assessment.

I’d made a point to stay off my page all day. If comments were negative, or if the weirdos had come out to play, I didn’t want to know about it while I was busy dealing with Will. I’d barely had time to process that he loved me. That I was his girlfriend. Now I was meeting his parents and my YouTube channel—which had been flying under the radar for years—was suddenly blowing up. Talk about a Christmas to remember.

“I watched that video this morning.” Iris came forward and eyed the numbers on Bren’s screen. “A lovely little slice of holiday Americana.”

I pulled out my phone. There were hundreds of thousands of interactions with the video, and I’d received a flood of messages.

“Oh my goodness,” I said, after reading through the first few dozen. “A lot of these are from people asking me to do styling sessions with them. There are even some from other countries.”

“Makes sense,” Bren reasoned. “If they looked at your other stuff on the channel after getting lured in by your small-town,aw-shucksschtick, they’d see how awesome and positive you are. Country in the city, but not a total hick.”

I side-eyed my best friend. “Watch it.”

Bren pinched her index finger and thumb together, leaving a half inch of space between them. “Just this much of a hick. Mostly cool.”

I snorted. “Seriously. People are offering me money to look at their outfits and their closets.”

“Of course they are,” Will said proudly. “You’re amazing.”

I scrolled through more of the messages. But my initial enthusiasm faded as memories from Kolya’s flooded me. The store had offered a styling service. Most of the clientele had been wealthy people who wanted help choosing designer labels and pricey vintage pieces.