Page 20 of Cooped Up for Christmas

“Oh, please wake up, Victoria.” Olivia’s voice was like fingernails on a chalkboard.

I cracked open a lid. It was still dark so I closed it again. “What is it?”

“It’s the boys. They’re all sick.”

I sat up in a shot. “Sick?”

As horrible as it was, my first thought was, thank God we hadn’t fed them dinner. Someone else had made these very rich people sick. Not very charitable of me, I know, but there you have it.

With a groan I arose. When I got to Jamison’s room, I knew it wasn’t food that had made them all sick. The bitter perfume of it hung on the air. It was a smell I knew well, from my youthful stupidity.

They must have gone back downstairs after I’d left and drank themselves stupid. I mean, really stupid. There were four boys in Jamison’s suite. Four very drunk boys and only one toilet. Need I say more?

It was a mess.

I decided to start with the root of the problem, rather than the still-erupting symptoms, and had Wren make four doses of my famous hangover cocktail. I knew it worked from personal experience.

And then, once I had determined no one had alcohol poisoning—which was a very real thing and had happened to clients more than once during my career—I went and woke up Carmella. Because, seriously? This was her circus. And her monkeys.

She harangued the miserable boys while Wren and I bravely tackled the bathroom. I won’t go into detail. You’re welcome.

After that was done, I felt the need to take a shower. And after that, I dropped back into bed, wondering what on earth I had been thinking, back when I’d thought this job was exciting and fun.

Chapter Six

I woke up way too early the next morning, considering the delights of the night before. One might assume that I was so enthusiastic about my life, I couldn’t bear to sleep through a moment of it, but it wasn’t that.

It was a bone-chilling scream that woke me up.

My eyes snapped open and I stared into the darkness, quivering, waiting for another sound to give me some insight on what had just happened. And yeah, another shrill scream reverberated from the room next to mine—the boys’ bunk. I leaped out of bed and ran into the living room and to the bunkroom door, from which these sounds were emanating. I was about to knock, when another scream ensued.

So I burst through the door.

Jed sat on his bunk staring at his tablet. He was glued to the screen, his mouth agape.

“Hey, Jed?”

He shrieked and bounded off the bed, then whirled around to face me, slapping his hand to his chest. “Oh, Vic. You scared me. Don’t do that!”

“Um, sorry?” I barely winced as another blood-curdling scream from the tablet ended amongst a stabby percussion of stabbiness. “Would you mind turning that down? It’s early.”

“Oh. Sure.” He gaped at me as though he’d only just worked out the fact that other people lived in this tiny cabin too. Then he grunted and complied.

Realizing I wasn’t going back to sleep anytime soon, I headed to the kitchen, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat next to Ben at the table. He looked sleepy, but determined to empty his mug.

“Does it creep you out that Jed likes to watch murdery movies at a remote mountain lodge in the wilderness?” I asked, taking a sip. “Or is it just me?”

He laughed. “Probably just you.”

“Of course.” We both sipped through a delicious silence.

“Hey, Vic.” He shot a look at me. “I’ve been meaning to ask.”

“Yeah?”

“So, you and Rocky?”

“You mean Cooper?”