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I side-eyed him. “You were invited for Christmas.”
“And as my parents are bailing on me tonight, I fully intend to take you up on that invitation.”
“Good. Then you can help with the shopping.” I slapped his shoulder. “Now go and take a shower.”
He snatched the towel off the bed, winked, and disappeared into my bathroom.
Shaking my head, I took to my vanity and sat down so I could brush and dry my hair. That was the reason I had to shower first—it’d take him less time to shower than it would for me to dry my hair, so here we were.
I brushed it out and grabbed my hairdryer and set to the chore that was blow drying my hair.
I needed magic for this. It took far too long.
I hummed away happily to myself as I worked through my long, dark hair with the dryer and my brush. It really did take for-fucking-ever, and it didn’t help that I kept getting distracted and not drying sections properly so I had to go back to them.
Did my mom really expect something to happen between me and Nicholas? She’d barely seen him, so there was no way she could—
Oh.
My sister.
I’d spoken to her about it, hadn’t it? About him.
I bet she’d told Mom.
As soon as she’d recovered from pregnancy and childbirth, I was going to kick her ass.
A scream ricocheted through the room, and I almost dropped my hairdryer. I spun around on the stool and turned the machine off in time to see hair that looked suspiciously like my niece’s flying away.
My door was open.
Nicholas was wearing nothing but a towel.
Oh, dear.
“Who was that?” he asked, staring at me and clutching the towel tightly.
“Short, no front teeth?”
“Yeah.”
“That’ll be Jazzy.”
“I thought you said the door was locked!”
I slapped my hand over my mouth. “Oh. I didn’t lock it after I got the towels!”
Nicholas quickly shoved it closed and turned the knob to lock it, then looked at me. “I swear to God, Quinn…”
“This is your fault! If you’d kept your feelings to yourself, we wouldn’t even be here!” I dropped my towel to the floor and darted to my dresser for some underwear, then quickly threw on a shirt and some sweats. “Stop staring at my ass!”
He blinked and copied me, grabbing clean clothes from the bag he’d packed last night before we’d come back here. When he was changed, I unlocked the door and we both ran out and downstairs where Jazzy was shouting about a weird man in my bedroom.
“We know,” Mom said to her. “Jazzy, calm down.”
They knew?
Of course they knew.
I stopped in the kitchen doorway and cleared my throat.
Verity peered up at me over her mug and smirked. “Good morning, sunshine.”
“I will throw that all over you,” I warned her.
“Girls, please.” She wiped her hands on a towel and looked at Jazzy. “Is this the strange man?”
Jazzy nodded. “He wasn’t wearing clothes.”
Verity’s eyebrows shot up.
“He had a towel on,” I said quickly. “He’d just had a shower. It’s fine. She didn’t see anything.”
“Told you he was in there,” Verity said, sipping her drink.
“I believed you,” Mom replied. “But those keys could have been anyone’s.”
Nicholas frowned. “Keys? Wait. Oh.”
“Indeed.” Mom grinned. “Would you like some eggs?”
What the crap was happening?
He glanced at me. “Sure?”
“Come and sit.” She motioned to an empty place setting at the table, and Nicholas quietly shuffled forward. “How was the chili last night?”
My sister had such a shit-eating grin on her face.
Actually, you know what? I kind of deserved this. I had yelled at her.
“It was delicious, thank you,” he replied to Mom, eyeing her as she piled eggs onto his plate.
“Good. Is your boiler fixed?”
“I don’t think it can be.”
“Are your parents in town?”
“Going out of town tonight.”
“Excellent. Then it’s settled. You can stay with us for a few days.”
I stared at my mother.
Nicholas swallowed. “I couldn’t impose on you—”
“Nonsense. Think of it as a thank you for stepping in and helping us.” Mom beamed at him. “It’s the least we could do. Would you like a coffee?”
I’d woken up in a parallel dimension, hadn’t I?
That was the only explanation for this.
“Sure. Thank you.”
Mom poured him a coffee and looked at me with the pot still in her hand. She beamed. “Eggs and coffee, honey?”
“No,” I said slowly. “No, thank you. This is weird.” I motioned to the table. “I’m going to finish drying my hair.”
Nicholas shot me a look as if to say, “You’re leaving me here?” but I didn’t even hesitate.
He said yes to the eggs. He could cope with it.
If I had to go grocery shopping, he could handle breakfast there.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“That’s weird, right?” I asked Erin as we walked through the tree barn. “Like, weird-weird?”
She nodded and stopped in front of the wreaths. Her mom wanted a new one for the bakery. “It’s… a bit strange. Not you and him. I could see that happening a mile off. But that your mom would be so… into it?”
