OH SHIT.

THE two words played over and over in my head. But as I stood beside my latest client, Beth McAllister, I found myself face to face with the man I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since he’d vanished from my arms nearly twenty-four hours ago.

How in the world was it possible that I was standing opposite the cute, sexy nerd, whose lips had been sweeter than anything I’d ever tasted before, watching his face turn ashen? I knew I was the one to say our meeting was fate, but come on, this was just all kinds of messed up.

“Miles?” Beth said under her breath. “Don’t just stand there, God. And here, I’d told Sean that my baby brother was the sweetest of us McAllisters.”

I was so busy trying to sift through the information Beth had told me about her family, and work out how in the world I’d managed to miss something as monumental as her younger brother’s name being Miles—as in Mistletoe Miles, my Miles, her Miles—that I missed him taking a step forward, and then promptly tripping on the lights I’d been fixing.

He stumbled forward, and before I knew it, Miles was back where he’d been hours earlier—in my arms.

“Oh shit,” Miles said, and I couldn’t help but chuckle because he’d just voiced my exact thoughts, unbeknownst to him. “I’m—” Miles cursed and clutched at my sweater as he righted himself, and Rick guffawed.

“You moron,” Rick said. “Way to greet a guest. Don’t worry about him, Sean, he’s always been a klutz.”

“That’s okay,” I said, as Miles let me go as though I was on fire—and not in a good way. “Things happen. Miles, is it?”

I held my hand out to him, wondering how exactly Miles was going to play this out, but it seemed he wasn’t about to blow my cover just yet, because he slowly reached for my hand and said, “That’s right. And you said your name was…Sean? Sean what, exactly?”

“Miles,” Beth said, and slapped her brother in the arm. “Stop being so rude.”

“No, it’s okay,” I said, and ran a hand up Beth’s back, making sure to play my part to perfection—after all, that was what she was paying me for. But I also wanted Miles to know I hadn’t lied to him last night about my name. “Sean Aiden Mahoney.”

“Now if that’s not a good Irish name, I don’t know what is,” Suzanne, Miles’s mom, said, but I hadn’t taken my eyes away from Miles, whose eyes were now darting back and forth between me and his sister.

“Anything else you want to know?” Beth asked Miles. “His age, social security number? Need a blood sample?”

Miles cocked his head to the side. “You’re what, twenty-nine?”

I forced out a chuckle. “Nice guess.”

“Yeah, it was. Do I win something for guessing right?”

“Why don’t you have another cookie,” Beth said, picking one up off the plate and shoving it into Miles’s mouth for him.

His gaze left mine as he turned toward his sister, still chewing, and once he swallowed, he said, “So when did you two lovebirds meet?”

“Down, boy, down. I already grilled him,” Rick said, throwing his arm around Miles’s neck and dragging him away. “Who wants a drink?” he called out over his shoulder.

“Your father should be back soon with the rest of the supplies for mulled cider if you want to wait,” Suzanne said, following after them with the tray of cookies she took out of Beth’s hands.

From the kitchen, Rick let out a laugh. “No, we don’t want to wait.”

When we were left alone, Beth looked at me with apologetic eyes. “Sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into Miles. He’s usually so…”

“Antagonistic?”

“I was going to say friendly, but I can see why you’d think that.”

“Maybe he’s just tired. You said he had a long drive, right?”

“Yeah. I’m sure that’s it.” Beth looked over her shoulder to make sure we were still alone, and then said quietly, “Thank you again for being here. I already feel a load off.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

A small smile crossed her lips. “And your job.”

“No reason it can’t be both.” Along with frustration now that Miles had entered the picture to complicate things. How was I supposed to be in a house with him and his family for the long weekend and manage to fulfill my contract with Beth? It wasn’t a situation I’d run into before, and it would be tricky to navigate, that was for sure. Especially when all I’d wanted to do when I saw Miles was repeat our kiss from the night before, but this time with no interruptions.

The front door burst open, and Jack, the McAllister patriarch, stepped inside, his arms weighed down with the dozens of grocery bags he carried. I hurried over to help take a load off at the same time Beth reached him.

“Hey, Dad,” she said, then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before heading to the kitchen to drop off the bags. I followed behind, but made sure to move to the opposite side of the counter to Miles and Rick, who both greeted their father with a hug and kiss to the cheek.

“I see everyone’s met?” Jack said, looking between us all, and when his eyes landed on me, they narrowed a little. “Beth’s been keeping this one a secret from us. Did you know about Sean here, Miles?”

Instead of answering, Miles raised his glass and downed whatever amber liquid was in it, and when he coughed, Rick slapped his back and said, “I told you to take it easy. You never drink whiskey.”

Something I knew firsthand from the night before, and the reminder of that had Miles’s eyes flying to mine. “I thought it would help warm me up. I’m feeling rather cold.”

Yeah, the glare he was aiming my way was close to arctic in temperature, and then he put his glass on the kitchen island and turned toward his mom.

“I’m going to head upstairs and put my stuff in my room. When’s dinner?”

“Oh, dear,” Suzanne said, as she walked around the counter and placed a hand on Miles’s arm. “I actually put Beth and Sean in your room, since it’s the only one with a queen bed. I have you in the guestroom.”

If I thought the stare before had been cold, well, the one that found me then was downright frigid.

“In my room?” Miles said. “Are you serious?”

“Miles,” Jack said, clearly as shocked as everyone else by this stranger who’d inhabited their brother’s body and made him a prickly version of himself. “I’m sure you’ll survive. The bed in the guestroom is long enough for your legs. So how about you be a little more hospitable?”

Miles’s jaw clenched, and he took a step back from the island. “You’re right,” he said as he walked past his brother, back toward the living room. “I’m just going to go and get my blanket for the guestroom. If these two…lovebirds aren’t using that as well.”

“No,” Beth said. “I folded it up and put it on the chest at the end of the bed for you. I know that’s your favorite.”

Miles tried for a smile, but it looked strained as he raised a hand and then left the kitchen to head upstairs.

As he disappeared from sight, Jack looked at his wife across the kitchen island. “What’s gotten into him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s been acting peculiar since he got here. You don’t think he’s…on drugs, do you?”

“Oh, come on, Mom,” Rick said. “This is Miles. He wouldn’t even take a drag of a cigarette that one time I got busted and Dad punished us by making us all try it.”

As the family continued to speculate over their brother and son’s odd behavior, my eyes drifted to the living room, where I could hear footsteps punishing the stairs one at a time, and thought Miles was likely envisioning my face as he marched up them.

If only I could explain… “Hey, Beth?” I said in a lowered voice.

When she looked at me, I reminded myself I was here to help her this weekend. That was my job. But I’d be more effective if I wasn’t thinking about what the man upstairs was stewing over.

“Do you mind if I run upstairs and try to smooth things out with your brother? I feel like we got off on the wrong foot, and, well, I’d just feel better if he didn’t want to poison my eggnog.”

Beth offered a kind smile. “You don’t have to do that. He’ll come around.”

“I don’t mind, really,” I said, and tried not to sound too eager.

“Well,” she said, and shrugged. “It might help. Plus, Miles isn’t the type who’ll punch you or anything. The worst he’ll do is maybe slam a door in your face.”

“Good to know. I’d just feel better if we could work out what’s the matter and start over.”

Lies. I knew exactly what was wrong, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Miles suddenly became the type to punch someone in the face.

“Okay. You remember where the room is, right?”

I nodded, then squeezed her hand. “I won’t be long. Promise.”

As I walked through the living room, I looked up the staircase and wondered what exactly I was going to say to the man upstairs likely cursing my name—well, one of them, anyway—and knew I wasn’t about to find out by standing down here.

It was time to go and face the music, and decide where this fickle little thing called fate was going to lead us now.