Page 124 of Touch of Class

“It looks good!” Izzy blurted out.

“No,” Gillian protested.

“It does,” Daphne said. “You look adorable, like some model in a holiday catalog for Christmas whimsy and joy.”

“Really?” Gillian grinned proudly. “It’s not my usual style.”

“I think everything is your style.” Daphne pulled her back onto the couch and kissed her soundly. “Do you know how maddening it is that everything looks good on you?”

“No, please tell me how much it unnerves you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, not as much as it used to.”

“Because of all the other ways I manage to endear myself these days?”

“Something like that,” Daphne admitted grudgingly, “but you know I won’t give up on finding those flaws eventually.”

“Nor would I want you to,” Gillian said playfully. “You’ll just have to try harder with next year’s Christmas sweater.”

“Next Christmas?” She feigned disbelief. “What makes you think you have what it takes to still be here next Christmas?”

“I have no idea,” Gillian said, “other than the fact that I love a challenge.”

Daphne sighed, then kissed her again. “And I love that about you.”

Epilogue

“This place is so cool.” Daphne heard her daughter bouncing up the stairs of the cabin Gillian had rented near Ithaca for New Year’s before her curly hair came into view. “I beat Robin at pool.”

Gillian turned to her friend. “You got beat at pool by a child?”

“It’s not fair,” Robin whined. “Sawyer was standing behind the eight ball when they reminded me of … something.”

“And you scratched, didn’t you?”

Robin hung her head. “Totally.”

Gillian chuckled and turned to Izzy. “It’ll make more sense someday.”

The girl shrugged. “Well, for today, I win.”

“I think we all win.” Tegan came around the corner carrying a charcuterie tray filled to the brim. “This is my most luxurious New Year’s Eve in my whole life. We’ve been here only four hours, and I already feel the stress of meltdown season melting right off me.”

Brooke paused an in-depth conversation about travel with Hugh to pluck a grape off the platter as her girlfriend passed the couch. “I can’t believe I’m eating again after the dinner you delivered. Is decadence going to be a theme of the trip?”

“Absolutely.” Gillian sipped from her wineglass with feigned casualness, but Daphne could tell she was dying to give them the full itinerary. She honestly didn’t know how she’d resisted this long. Gillian had shared the dates and rough plan weeks ago, then dropped a few packing suggestions as the time grew near, but Gillian wasn’t fooling Daphne with her new go-with-the-flow routine. There was no way this woman had pulled them out into the country near the site of her glory days without creating a full-blown schedule of events.

In the old days, she would’ve dragged this out to see how long Gillian could keep up the chill-vibes party-planner act. Now she’d learned that giving her a chance to shine usually benefited everyone with the good fortune of getting to bask in her light, so she tossed her a softball. “When do we get to hear the full scope of everything you’ve planned for the next couple of days?”

“If you really want to know …” Gillian beamed at her, full of love and not even trying to hide how much she’d been waiting for someone to ask exactly that. “Tomorrow I’ve planned for a New Year’s Day reset, no wake-up calls, no dress code, no responsibility, simply a big brunch followed by bingeing movies all afternoon while I make sauce for dinner.”

A light cheer went up through the group at the last bit.

“Then the next day, we bounce back, but not too fast. In the morning, I’ve booked us all spa treatments.”

“Even me?” Izzy asked excitedly.

“Even you!”