All Through the Night: A Troubleshooter Christmas Read Free

place—”
    â€œIt’s hot,” Jules said, and their gazes locked. And yeah. It was definitely time to go inside the hotel.
    No doubt about it, even though Robin was already having the best weekend ever, it was about to get significantly better. But then he realized that
weekend
was an assumption that he really couldn’t make. Jules’s work schedule was as crazy as his. “Can you stay until Sunday night?” he asked.
    Jules gave Robin a sidewalk kiss—eye contact that dropped down to and lingered on Robin’s mouth. But then he smiled as he looked back into Robin’s eyes and gave him an even better gift. “I took Monday off, too. I’m here until Tuesday morning.”
    A long weekend.
    It was stupid as shit, but Robin’s eyes actually filled with tears at the idea of four whole days with Jules.
    Jules, gallant as always, pretended not to notice. “We’re going to need his suitcase back out of the cab,” he announced, and then proceeded to tip both the doorman and the driver liberally. His hand was warm and wonderfully possessive against Robin’s back as he ushered him into the hotel lobby, trusting Dunn to deliver their bags back to Robin’s room.
    â€œI’ve got to check back in,” Robin said, detouring to the front desk instead of letting Jules steer him to the elevators. “I checked out—I thought I was going to be in D.C. tonight.”
    â€œUh-oh,” Jules said.
    â€œUh-oh?”
    â€œLet’s just…check back in quickly,” Jules told him. “Rumor has it there’s a hotel room crunch in Boston this weekend.”
    Words that were tragically confirmed, mere seconds later, first by Melinda of the front desk, and then by the hotel manager, Mrs. Hanniford, who was a daughter of the American Revolution, related to John Adams on her mother’s side, a PFLAG mom, and in possession of one of
the
most ridiculously broad Boston accents Robin had ever heard. He usually loved hanging with her, just listening to her talk, but today he didn’t like what she had to say.
    Not only were there no rooms in this hotel, but there was nothing available anywhere in the city, including Cambridge and various suburbs all the way out past Framingham. It was, Mrs. H. told him, parents’ weekend at nearly all the colleges in the metro Boston area. During this one weekend in the fall and graduation weekend in May, there was always a hotel shortage in what was undeniably the biggest college town in the nation.
    â€œPretend I didn’t check out.” Robin gave Mrs. H. his most win-some smile. “It’s been, what? Ten minutes. I wasn’t supposed to check out, and I’m coming back tomorrow. The maid probably hasn’t even made up the room. I’ll just go back in. You don’t even need to change the sheets. We can just trade towels…”
    â€œBut you did check out. The computer already processed it.” Mrs. H. liked him. She did. She often worked the night shift, and had invited him into her office for tea on quite a few occasions. She obviously hated the fact that she was now royally fucking him. “We have a waiting list. I could put you on it…?”
    â€œMrs. Hanniford,” Robin said. “Betty.” He leaned closer. Lowered his voice. “See the incredibly gorgeous guy talking on his cell phone over there?” He gestured with his chin toward Jules.
    Mrs. H. looked and then nodded.
    â€œThat’s Jules.” He’d talked and talked and
talked
about Jules during their tea parties. Mrs. Hanniford could have been given a pop quiz on All That Was Jules, and gotten an A-plus. “I checked out of the hotel because I couldn’t bear to be away from him for another minute, only he surprised me by flying up here to see me. I’m pretty sure that one of the things I’m going to do tonight is ask him to marry me. Please don’t make me do that while