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Sweets?
I blinked rapidly.
This was not the Claus I knew.
Not at all.
The Claus I knew was grumpy growly and did not show up on my porch. Ever.
He had been at my house once, and that was the day I moved in. Tony had managed to wrangle Claus into helping me move all of my furniture, and Claus had left before I could even say thank you.
Claus and Tony had been friends for as long as I could remember.
I had been the annoying little sister who always wanted to hang out with them, but they didn't want me around since I was three years younger than them.
Growing up, our mom and dad worked a lot, and Tony was always in charge of watching me. Claus would come over every day after school, and most weekends, he was there, too.
Sure, our parents worked a lot and weren’t home a ton, but it wasn’t as bad as how Claus had it.
His dad had died before Claus was even born, and his mother was in and out of rehab from the time he was born until she died when he was seventeen.
Mom and Dad had a rule that friends weren’t allowed in the house while they worked, but that never applied to Claus.
They knew that our house was a safe place for him, and they weren’t going to take that away from him. Hell, after Claus’ mom died, he lived with us that summer while he worked to save enough money to get his own place.
Claus was always thankful for what my parents had done for him, but he never got too close to us.
Well, I should say me.
He wasn’t mean to me, but it wasn’t like he went out of his way to ask me how my day was or anything.
He was just Claus, my brother’s hot, grumpy friend.
Claus who was on my front porch and had just called me sweets.
That was new.
And odd.
“Uh, hello?” I croaked.
He held up the large paper bag. “What the hell did you order?”
I blinked slowly and tipped my head to the side. “Am I in some alternate universe right now?” My eyes darted from Claus to the bag. “Did I die or something?”
“No alternate universe and you are very much alive, sweets. Let me in before this gets cold.”
I didn’t move because none of this was making sense. “Why are you wearing that hat?” I asked.
“You gave it to me.”
I furrowed my brow. “Uh, I did?” I had no memory of that. Though, if I were in an alternate universe, I wouldn’t have a memory of it.
He nodded and stepped toward me. “Senior year. There was a Christmas party on the last day before winter break, and everyone was supposed to dress up. You gave me this hat to wear.”
That sounded like something I would have done. But why did he still have it? “Uh, okay.”
He moved closer. “You gonna let me in the door, or are we gonna eat on your porch?” he asked.
