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I start, surprised he’s even next to me. “They’re all pretty. Any suggestions?”
Before he can answer, a female voice says, “Well, Cameron Michaels.” I peer up to find a thirty-something year old woman with impossibly white teeth moving toward us. “I was hoping I would see you here. There’s a tree over there that has your name all over it.”
She wraps her arms around my uncle, and he doesn’t seem surprised, although he’s a little stiff as he hugs her back. I just stand there, feeling like the third wheel for a brief moment.
Pulling back, she beams at him until I start to fidget. “Who do we have here?” she asks.
“I’m Lilianne,” I tell her, holding out my hand.
She gives it a quick shake. “Sophie. My family owns the tree farm.”
My uncle clears his throat. “She’s my—”
I glare at him. If he says niece, I’m going to lose it, but what are we then if we’re not that? Is that the only description? He certainly can’t say this is the girl he likes to fuck from behind.
Maybe coming out with him was a bad idea. Back at the inn, everything seemed perfect for a brief moment. We didn’t need labels, all we needed to know was that coming together felt good. Right, even.
She realizes he doesn’t finish his thought and laughs, puffs of white smoke disappear into the air in front of her. “Be careful of this one,” she warns me. “He’s bound to make you fall in love and then ruin everything.”
My stomach churns. Real fear grips me.
That better not be what’s happening here. Love is not on my short term to-do list.
But when she walks away, threading her hand through the crook of his arm as she leads him to this perfect tree, I can’t help the squeeze of jealousy that hits me.
There’s definitely a story between these two—a past. I shouldn’t care, but I do.
fourteen
Sophie’s brothershelp Cam put the tree in the back of the truck. I sit in the cab, stewing while rubbing my hands together as snow starts to fall outside again.
It’s not the tree. It’s perfect.
It’s not even Sophie or the tinge of jealousy I felt.
I can’t pinpoint exactlywhythis whole thing just freaking sucked.
Uncle Cam gets in, turning the heat up, and then drives away, the tree shifting a little in the back.
I stare at the beautiful white town as we roll through it. If Cameron Michaels was any other man, I’d have the right to get jealous. I’d be asking him right now what the deal is between him and Sophie. Hell, I’d even make him pull over so I can remind him that he likes to fuck me, not beautiful, tree-selling girls with bright pink cheeks.
Cam sighs next to me. “I told you it wasn’t a good idea.”
My muscles tense. “I know.”
“I mean, what am I supposed to tell people?” he keeps going with exasperation. “‘Hey, how’d you meet the girl you’re fucking? Well, she’s my stepsister’s daughter.’ It sounds like an episode of Jerry Springer.”
I drop my head over my shoulder to look at him. “You just showed your age.”
“And that’s another thing,” he says, really getting going now.
“Alright,” I exclaim, trying to stop him from ranting. He’s only reiterating the same things I’ve been saying in my head. Not to be overdramatic, but why is the world so cruel?
You know what, no. The world isn’t cruel. It’s proving a point. I need to finish school before I worry about a relationship. Uncle Cam is the perfect guy for me right now because in reality, nothing can ever come from it.
And as for right now, who cares what everyone else thinks? The only thing we’re doing is fucking.
“Fine,” I tell him. “No more going out of the inn as…whatever this is. Understood.”
