Never Christmas Without You. Reese Ryan

glare.

      Martin grinned. “That’s fine, I’m happy she’s in my imagination.”

      As if Justin would let Martin anywhere near Alex. Luckily for Martin, he narrowly dodged a beat down thanks to an intervention. Justin pulled out his ringing phone and turned his back to his cousin. “Yeah?”

      “Justin. Thank God you answered. I didn’t want to disturb Alex. You know how she gets—she’d be freaking out right now.”

      “Cassie? Calm down. What’s the matter?”

      “The pieces haven’t arrived. No, scratch that. Some of them have arrived. But not all of them. And I watched the guys load the truck myself. Alex is going to kill me. And just when we started to become friends. Oh my God.”

      This was so bad. “Cassie, calm down. Were there any other scheduled deliveries for the truck?”

      “I was on the phone with the truck delivery people this morning. They’re looking up to see where else the vehicle stopped. But the problem is, I’m here at the gallery and I’ve got maybe two-thirds of the pieces we promised. And I don’t know a way to fix this. Alex put everything that she had at the studio on that truck. I have no contingency if they can’t find the pieces.”

      His gut curled in on itself, and the bile rose. Alex had worked so hard for this. She was finally getting the recognition she deserved. She was selling her pieces. This gallery showing was going to open up new opportunities for her. She needed this. “Cassie, calm down. I’m coming. We’ll figure this out together.”

      “What about Alex? Will she know there’s a problem?”

      “You and I are keeping any problems to ourselves for now. Besides, she asked me to look in on the gallery today anyway.”

      He hung up with Cassie and turned on his cousin with a grin. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to go save the day for my girlfriend. You should be so lucky.”