Page 32 of The Naughty List Agreement

Send me the address.

He did and she liked the message.

She hadn’t had plans for Thanksgiving ever. Not unless you counted Mrs. French trying to set her up, which she didn’t. No one would be trying to set her up at Nick’s house. Nick had drawn a boundary and she had to respect that.

Which was disappointing but hey, that was life.

There was no way she could show up at his parents’ house empty-handed, but stores wouldn’t be open today. Hurrying to the kitchen, she searched her cupboards. She had frozen blueberries that she used in her morning oatmeal and the ingredients to make a pie crust from scratch. While not the holiday’s traditional pie, she hoped they’d appreciate it nonetheless. Once the pie was in the oven, she took her time getting ready.

She’d already transitioned her wardrobe for Christmas. Standing in front of her closet worrying about what to wear because Nick would be there wasn’t something she’d allow herself to indulge in. She wasn’t trying to impress him or his family. He was just a colleague who had invited her around to his house. She needed to stop being ridiculous.

She made herself wait until she’d arrive exactly on time, even though that meant she had to drive past their driveway twice. Even if she hadn’t had the address, she’d have known she was at the right place. It was like Christmas had exploded at the Bari household.

The front lawn was covered in inflatables depicting different scenes for the holiday season. A sign near the gingerbread mailbox proudly proclaimed them the “Winner of the Pine Falls Holiday Showcase”. A two-story inflatable Santa waved wildly from his position atop the chimney. Next to him was a large sleigh with eight reindeer suspended as if they were ascending up from it, ready to take off.

She turned down a gravel road that meandered past open meadows and a red barn. Wooden cutouts of carolers smiled as she drove past them. The house itself was white clapboard framed by stone walls and sugar maples. There wasn’t a surface that hadn’t been draped in multicolored lights. The house was large but not flashy, all long proportions and symmetry. The roof was steeply pitched dark slate and there were two brick chimneys rising from the center. Wide multi-paned windows were evenly spaced and framed by shutters painted a dark green.

Each window had a wreath hanging in it and thick garlands were draped along the eaves. There was a broad front porch that stretched across the front and wrapped around the side of the house, supported by plain square columns that were draped in lights and greenery. A life-sized nativity stood to one side with real, live sheep and a donkey in a pen next to it.

Nick hadn’t been kidding when he’d said his family was into Christmas.

Parking her car and grabbing her pie, Cora walked toward the house. The front door was painted dark green, matching the trim on the windows, and there was a transom window above it with stained glass. She lifted her free hand to knock on the door but it opened before she could. A woman who looked a lot like Nick, but slightly older and rounder, stood there.

“Oh, hello there!” she said warmly.

“Hi. I’m Cora, a … friend of Nick’s,” she said, awkwardly holding out the pie. “This is for you.”

“I’m Wendy, Nick’s mom. He’s out in the barn with his father. I was going to hurry them up, but let’s put your pie in the kitchen first,” she said, gesturing for Cora to enter.

Wendy took the pie from her as Cora hung her coat on the wall. She tried not to be obvious about staring at the family photos on the wall. She couldn’t help lingering on one of Nick and his sister. Their close bond was obvious. This was precisely why she shouldn’t be here. That picture made her want something she couldn’t have.

She caught up with Wendy in the kitchen. The room smelled heavenly—not like any family gathering Cora had attended in her life.

“So how do you know Nick? Did he meet you on that app of his?” she asked.

“Uh, no, we work together. I run the Winter Wonderland festival. Nick is going to be our featured toy vendor this year,” Cora said.

“Oh, that’s interesting,” Wendy said, nodding, though she was clearly distracted by the pot she was stirring.

Cora didn’t know what to make of this situation, and wished she could go back to studying the pictures of Nick on the wall.

Cora wore a pair of winter-white pants that she’d paired with an ivory and gold rollneck sweater. Her hair hung to her shoulders but had a bow holding the sides back, emphasizing her high cheekbones. Nick’s mind was flooded with images of the two of them from the night before. The way her eyes had fluttered closed and her head had tilted right before their lips met. How she’d hesitated for a split second before she’d made the first move.

This was a mistake. He’d lost all objectivity where she was concerned. Inviting her to his folks’ house on Thanksgiving was dumb. Rookie mistake.

So much rode on him helping her to change her attitude toward the holidays, and here he was lusting after her like he was a sixteen-year-old with his first crush. Shoving his hand through his hair, he stood there in the kitchen, listening to everyone else talking until they all looked at him.

Well, fudge.

Obviously he needed to respond to whatever they’d been discussing. “Sorry, I was thinking about the WonderHaus.”

“The WonderHaus?” his dad Nicholas asked.

“The new toy your son has developed for Winter Wonderland this year. It’s really something.”

“Is it?” Nicholas asked.

“It’s the dollhouse but modified and updated to integrate with devices and a smart app. We have some different schematics that kids can use to design and decorate their home and make it exactly what they want.”