Four Days to Christmas...
Preston had given Marie the night to absorb and digest. One night to sleep on what he'd proclaimed in the kitchen, and that was about all he could withstand. The anxiety and desire to take action, to see her, had wailed at him until daylight.
He was typically a patient guy, but he couldn't get past this strange notion that he was on a deadline with her. Perhaps it was of his own making. He didn't know, yet Christmas kept scratching at his brain. Fix it, repair things, mend the fences by...yeah. Christmas.
Perhaps that was due in large part to the fact he'd made his decision to leave town on that particular holiday. He'd gotten an offer to manage a hotel in San Diego in the weeks before, and they'd discussed it, of course. She wanted to stay. He had to go. At
