Home for the Holidays by Rochelle Alers

and he was serious about buying out the owner of the auto body shop, but there was still his uncertainty about Iris.
    He liked her, but they weren’t ready for marriage. And even if he were to fall in love with her, there was the possibility she would never agree to marriage after everything she’d been through.
    Collier ran a hand over his face. Life had just thrown him a vicious curve. He’d met a woman with whom he could bare his soul and possibly share a future, and she wanted no part of it. And each passing day brought him closer to the time when he would have to leave her and return to his base.
    Collier opened his eyes and stood up. Brooding about his budding relationship wasn’t going to help anything. Instead, he focused on finishing the Christmas decorations before Tracy and Layla returned home.
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    Iris answered her cell phone when she recognized Tracy’s ringtone. “Hey, stranger.” It’d been weeks since Thanksgiving when she’d last seen her friend, while Christmas was only two weeks away.
    â€œYeah, right. I know you’ve been busy, but you could’ve sent your BFF a text telling me you’re okay instead of me having to hear it from my brother.”
    â€œI’m okay, Mama.”
    Tracy’s laugh came through the earpiece. “I miss seeing you when I come home after classes. I love my brother to death, but I can’t talk to him about certain things.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œLike Evan inviting me and Layla to come to Florida over the Christmas break. I’ve promised Layla I would take her to Disney World if she kept her grades up, but Gainesville isn’t Orlando.”
    â€œDo you like Evan enough to spend a week with him?” Iris asked her friend.
    â€œOf course I do.”
    â€œThen trust him not to put you in a compromising position. I can assure you he has enough space in his house where you and Layla can sleep in one wing and he and Allie in the other. And then there’s Evan’s eagle-eyed, overprotective live-in housekeeper who’ll make certain your virtue will remain intact.”
    â€œNow you sound like a character from a Regency novel. What you don’t understand is that I’m tired of being virtuous, Iris. I’m ready for my Mr. Right Now, but I don’t want to use your brother like that.”
    Iris closed her eyes and counted to five. “Are you calling me to get my approval to sleep with my brother because if you are, then you have it, Tracy. Evan’s a grown man and you’re a grown-ass woman who doesn’t need anyone’s permission or approval to sleep with whomever she wants. Now, I’m going to end this call because I don’t want to be late for my date with your brother, who I just might sleep with tonight. Good night, my friend.”
    She took a quick glance at her watch, remembering she’d told Collier she would meet him downstairs in front of the sweetgrass shop at six thirty. It was to become their first official date because of her hectic work schedule.
    They were going to see The Best Men Holiday , a comedy-drama plot spanning the Christmas holidays, which coincided with the current holiday season. It didn’t matter to Iris that the Cove’s single-screen theater showed movies three to six months behind the first-run feature films on the mainland. She preferred viewing movies in the small theater. Putting on a jacket, she left the apartment.
    With Thanksgiving behind her and Christmas quickly approaching, time was a luxury she could ill afford to squander. The shop was so busy Mabel asked if she would work weekends and come in on Mondays when the shop was closed to keep up with the mail orders. Iris couldn’t refuse her now that Lester had reduced his work hours to half days. This left Iris with just Sunday in which to go to church, clean her apartment, do laundry, and unwind. Usually she attended the eleven o’clock church service