I really have it bad for my friend with benefits.
“Hey, I miss my dog. Don’t bring him into this,” Sutton said, looking sad at the memory of their family dog. I’d never had a pet growing up so I couldn’t relate to that, but I could certainly relate to Santa being spoiled by a parent.
I laughed and tucked my hair behind my ears, my eyes landing on Leo as he came back into the room, making a beeline for the seat next to me. “I stopped believing in Santa because my stepdad slipped up too. Then my mom gave him strict orders not to even use the wordSantaaround my little sister until she figured it out on her own.”
Leo sat down next to me with a grin on his face as if he was already on the inside of all my family stories. “Yeah, how’d Dave do with that?”
“Not great.” I laughed, unable to take my eyes off him. “Anyway, I called Leo because I knew he would be in the city and I was pretty sure he wouldn’t leave me stranded at the airport,” I said as honestly as possible without screaming “I think we might love each other” at the middle of the table.
“That makes more sense. He’s a last-resort friend,” Sloane said, sipping her hard seltzer, clearly believing my nonchalance. “I’ve been trying to figure out why a girl who looks like you is hanging out with this douche-nozzle.”
“Sloane!” Lavi scolded. “Leo is a nice kid.”
“Our nephew is a fuckboy, Lav,” Sloane said. An unstoppable chuckle burst out of my chest. Their teasing was all so affectionate, it really did feel like being at home.
“Hey, I’m a reformed fuckboy,” Leo said proudly, glancing quickly at me.
“He’s right. I haven’t seen him sneaking out of rooms on campus in his boxers in a long time,” I said with an evil smirk.
Leo shook his head at me like he wanted to give it right back, but he restrained himself. Looking at his family, he stood up. “Okay, do not ask, everyone. I’m not elaborating.”
I caught Jace looking between us with amusement.Based on his expression, he knows more than what the rest of the family has been told.
“You want an iced latte?” Leo asked me, turning my attention back to him. “My mom’s got some ridiculous machine over there Dad got her a few years ago. It can do just about anything.”
“That would be great,” I said, already wondering if they had all the things at home that they had at the café. Kennedy could make her iced mochas and my iced vanilla lattes at home just as well as she could at the cafés. “Do you have—”
“Vanilla?” Leo cut me off with a smug smile, already moving to the kitchen. “Wouldn’t have offered one at all if I couldn’t make it the way you like it. Even have the same syrup they use at Ackerson’s.”
I smiled, my heart wanting me to drag him off and confess everything immediately. Instead, I said, “Thanks,” and turned back to his family. Lavi had a questioning look on her face, but I suspected she wouldn’t be the one to call us out.
“Can we go back? Do you mean to tell me you finally stopped fucking around?” Sloane asked, projecting her voice toward where Leo had started working on my latte in the kitchen.
“Was bound to happen eventually,” he said, giving nothing away.
“He finally screwed the wrong guy’s girlfriend, didn’t he?” Sloane asked quietly, leaning toward me.
My eyes found Leo, the guy who knew how I liked my coffee, cared for me after the worst night of my life, and kept telling me in his own casual way how important I was to him. I did my best to answer without lying until he was ready to tell them the truth about us. “He never told me his reasons,” I said.
“Sloane, let it go,” Adrian said, as if he was trying to cover for us. “Sophia, please help yourself to food. You should make yourself at home while you’re here.”
“Thank you,” I said, trying to pay attention to them again and shift the focus from Leo. I stood up to make a plate of food with the snacks on the table. “I really appreciate you letting me crash at the last minute. I was hoping Leo would take me to the dorms because the rideshares were backed up for hours. But Leo insisted you’d be okay with me coming here. It’ll only be for a few days, I’m going to try to get a flight out after Christmas.”
“These four would never have let him take you back to the dorms to be alone on Christmas Eve,” Jace said. “Did Leo tell you how much notice they all got before I showed up?”
I shook my head, sitting back down with my full plate.
“Zero minutes. They weren’t kidding about the street thing. My mother just brought home a fifteen-year-old orphan for Christmas and convinced everyone to keep me. With you, they at least got an hour’s notice, and no one’s offered to adopt you yet.”
I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping. Leo had told me about Jace being adopted when he was a teenager, but he hadn’t shared that nugget of information. “Is that a joke?”
“Nope.” Leo laughed, returning to the table with my iced latte. He handed it to me before stealing food off my plate while he talked. “One minute I was playing video games with my dad, and the next, I had a new cousin.”
Damn hungry hockey players.I’d learned that if I couldn’t finish my dinner on the bus, there were always several guys willing to fight each other for my scraps. They were like animals.
I shook my head. “Wow, I thought my family had some interesting stories to tell, but so far there’s some real inspiration here.”
Leo smiled at me adoringly, as if he had no idea how not to blow our cover. “Sophia is a writer. That’s how we met. She interviewed me for a piece about the hockey team.”
