When she started writing, she found her fingers could barely keep up with her thoughts, and she couldn’t stop smiling. The dates had all been so different—just like Colin, Brendan, and Tyler were so different. Yet, all the dates had all been special in their own way, reminding her why she had loved these three men so much.
But when she tried to pick one guy who stood out over the others, one guy she had the strongest connection with, one guy she could see herself starting over with, she couldn’t choose. Right now, all three guys were on a level playing field. They all had impressed her, and they all had touched her heart.
What she did know was that she wanted to try to embrace love again. They had all reminded her what it was like to love and be loved. It was something she had been missing in her life, and she knew how lucky she was to be getting a second chance with three amazing guys.
But at this moment, she couldn’t choose one over the other, and she knew her time was running out. Tomorrow night was the Christmas Camp dance when she’d promised to tell the guys her decision, and she didn’t have a Christmas clue what that decision was going to be.
She hoped having one more day with them would give her the clarity she needed to make what could turn out to be one of the most important decisions of her life.
She had always tried to follow her heart, but the problem was, this time her heart was pulling her in three completely different directions with three completely different guys.
She picked up her cell and started scrolling through the pictures she’d taken on the three dates. All the guys looked so happy. But it was the picture of her and Luke, the selfie he had taken of them, where she looked the happiest.
When she glanced up from her phone, one of the Santa figurines, lit up in the moonlight, caught her eye. She shook her head emphatically. “No, I’m not going there,” she said to the Santa. “He has a girlfriend. He doesn’t have a reindeer in this race.”
But when she turned out the light and shut her eyes, it was Luke’s face she saw as she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The next morning, Riley woke up to the Santa alarm clock.
“Ho! Ho! Ho! Time to get up and go! Ho! Ho! Ho! Let’s go! Go! Go!”
“What? No. Stop it,” she grumbled as she fumbled around trying to turn it off. The batteries she’d taken out were somehow now back in.
Santa continued, only getting louder and louder. “Ho! Ho! Ho! Time to get up and go! Ho! Ho! Ho! Let’s go! Go! Go!”
“What’s going on?” she demanded, yanking out the batteries. She looked over at the Santa figurines. “Who did this?”
But she didn’t have time to obsess over the answer because when she saw the time was almost nine o’clock. She freaked out.
“Oh no. I overslept.” She jumped out of bed. “My phone alarm didn’t go off!”
Riley scrambled around her room and got ready in record time. She ran down to the kitchen, closely followed by Comet, and found Maryanne alone, cleaning up from breakfast.
“Have I missed everyone?” Riley asked. “I’m so sorry. I overslept. I swear I never do that. Why didn’t you guys wake me up?” She looked down at Comet. “Even you didn’t wake me up.”
Comet barked and wagged his tail.
“Luke said to let you sleep, that you probably had a late night on your date with Tyler,” Maryanne said. “How was it? Luke said Tyler took you to the Skyline Resort.”
Riley nodded. “The resort was impressive.”
Maryanne laughed. “I meant how was spending time with Tyler?”
“Oh, Tyler. He was pretty amazing, too,” Riley said. “And it seems the things I always worried about with Tyler—him being a workaholic and never having time for us—he now says he wants to change. He wants to enjoy life more.”
Maryanne smiled. “So this is good?”
“Really good,” Riley agreed. “But so were my dates with Colin and Brendan.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Riley said. “I know I can’t keep dating all three of them . . .”
“No,” Maryanne said. “That would definitely land you on Santa’s Naughty List.”
“But does that list even really matter?” Riley asked, only half joking.
“Uh, yeah,” Maryanne said, “it definitely matters. I saw the guys this morning. They all came down for breakfast asking where you were. They seem like they’ve already fallen hard for you.”
“Oh boy,” Riley said. “How is this happening? I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“All you can do is listen to your heart,” Maryanne said.
“But what if my heart’s confused?” Riley asked.
“You’ll find a way to figure it out,” Maryanne said. “It’s Christmas. You just need to believe.” She moved a plate of cinnamon rolls in front of Riley. “Here you go. I made something for you.”
Riley’s eyes lit up. “Cinnamon rolls? One of my favorites!”
“But not your only favorite,” Maryanne said. “You also love blueberry muffins, right?”
Riley nodded, impressed. “My mom used to make them for me on special occasions. But how did you know that?”
“Before everyone came to Christmas Camp, we asked them their favorite Christmas dishes for our last dinner tonight. I think so many memories are connected with the food we eat, especially family recipes. I wanted to surprise you with your favorite things, but when I asked your three exes if they knew what you liked at Christmas, they all said you’d never celebrated Christmas with them.”
When Riley looked up at Maryanne, she was thankful to see Maryanne wasn’t judging her, but she did look curious.
“Anyway,” Maryanne continued, “I did some
