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“You don’t have to get so mad. They’re on, okay? You can tell Davey I was a good girl,” she said, her tone snarky, and I knew she was irritated. I couldn’t even blame her.
“I’m not telling Davey shit.” I wanted her to know we weren’t kids anymore and the last thing I was doing was reporting back to her big brother about her behavior.
“Yeah right,” she argued under her breath, and I took a possessive step toward her, my frame hovering over hers.
“You’re a grown woman who can take care of herself and make her own decisions. It’s time your brother finally figures that out.” I stared into her green eyes, the color of them piercing, rooting me firmly in place. It took every ounce of willpower I possessed to not lean down and give in to what I’d wanted for so long.
“He’ll never stop treating me like I’m fifteen,” she tried to say, but her voice stuttered, and I wondered if my being this close made her uncomfortable.
Did she still want me as much as she used to?
I wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her toward me, pieces of her body brushing against parts of mine. “Do I make you nervous, Ivy?”
That damn tongue reappeared once more, licking her top lip this time, and I started shaking my head.
“Put that tongue back in your mouth,” I chastised, and she did as I’d asked, which surprised me. I’d figured she’d argue.
“Maybe one day, you’ll start seeing me for who I am too.” She wiggled out of my grasp and walked out of view, that skirt barely covering her ass with each step she took.
She thought I still saw a teenage girl when I looked at her, as if that was a bad thing. Ivy had no idea that I’d always been in love with that teenage girl.
PUT SAINT UNDER MY TREE
IVY
Why couldn’t I just be a normal person whenever it came to Saint LaCroix? His very existence gave me goose bumps and made my knees weak. But the way he’d just pulled me against him like I belonged to him or was somehow his… well, a man shouldn’t be able to do that sort of thing if he didn’t mean it.
“You’re flushed.” Cori was suddenly at my side, her eyes narrowed in on my face. “What happened?”
“Saint,” was all I said.
One single word, and she understood completely. Cori and I had been friends since high school. Our moms both worked at the salon that my mom owned. And now, Cori and I worked there too. She knew all about my feelings for Saint—both past and present tense. Not that they’d changed much over the years.
“Why do you think I made you do this?” she asked, and I wasn’t sure what she was getting at.
“Huh?”
“Ibeggedyou to be Santa’s elf,” she said, emphasizing the wordbegged, as if I needed the reminder.
“And?” I implored her to keep talking.
“And I told Saint you were doing it, and he said yes before I even told him what I needed.”
Was she saying what I thought she was saying, or was I interpreting things all wrong?
“So, you’re telling me—” I started to put the pieces together, but her impatience cut me off instead.
“I’m telling you that he agreed to be here today because you were going to be here.”
I started shaking my head in disagreement. “That can’t be true.”
Cori had been telling me for years that Saint wanted me as much as I wanted him, but I’d figured that she was wrong. Or at the very least, insane. She was my best friend, so of course she encouraged the notion that my lifelong crush would eventually turn into something more. It was pretty much a prerequisite of being a girlfriend—supporting the fairy tale. We all wanted it in some way, whether we openly admitted it or not. That movie-worthy love story.
“One day, the two of you will get your shit together and put us all out of our misery. But for now, we have kids to make happy.”
I followed her out of the dressing room and onto the normally empty stage that had been transformed into a North Pole wonderland. There was fake snow all over the floor and trees, a red-and-green neon sign with an arrow pointing to the left, and a gold-decorated chair for Santa and the kids to sit on. A photographer was finishing setting up, the flash going off every few seconds before he looked up at Cori and gave her a thumbs-up.
“It looks amazing,” I whispered, noticing that she was grinning from ear to ear at her achievements as she looked out at the long line of kids waiting, tugging on their parent’s arm.
