Page 24 of Real Tree / Fake Boyfriend

“Just sugar.” Jules went over to the fridge once Walter delivered the mug to him. He looked at the refrigerator and ran his fingers over the traditional Ashford family Christmas card held up with a wreath-shaped magnet before he shoved his hand under the ice maker and grabbed a handful of ice.

Everyone went quiet and watched Julien move across the room, a pile of ice in his bare hand, before he sat next to Tyler. Julien carefully plopped the ice into his coffee and stirred.

“What’s that about?” Tyler asked once his family returned to their sluggish morning conversation. His mother toldBrad about local headlines while Cece continued piling platters with her pancakes and eggs.

“I don’t like hot drinks,” Julien explained. “This is fine, though.”

Tyler filed that one away for his notes and thanked Hailey for his hot chocolate, which was covered in whipped cream and looked way too sugary for them to have been criticizing energy drinks just moments before. Julien would probably think he was a hypocrite now, too.Perfect.

He took a long sip. When he looked up, Julien was staring at him.

“What?” he asked.

Julien gave him a soft smile. “You have a little whipped cream, just… right here.” Julien reached over and ran his thumb over Tyler’s upper lip. The finger was calloused, rough against the sensitive skin of his lip, and Tyler almost moaned.

Thankfully, he didn’t moan, but what he did instead was much more insane. He leaned in and sucked it offJulien’s thumb.

The sweet cream mingled on his tongue with the slight saltiness of Julien’s finger. His skin was cold from the ice he had just held, and Tyler ran his tongue over it before his mind caught up with what he was doing. He leaned back as fast as he had leaned forward. “Hailey, can you get me a napkin,” he practically yelled, hopping out of his chair to join his sister.

He looked around the room, sure that everyone was staring at them, athim, and wondered what the fuck he had just done. No one was. Julien was back to stirring his coffee like nothing had happened, though a smirk played on his lips.

Chapter 11

Julien

Julien sat crammed in the back seat of Hailey and Walter’s car as they drove to the Christmas Market. Tyler sat beside him, ignoring him as he talked to Hailey about her wedding plans.

From what Julien could gather from the snippets of conversation he had heard, Hailey was in a war with their mother over the guest list.

“Walter has such a small family, you know? I don’t want to invite everyone from our side, including friends and Dad’s work colleagues. I feel like it’s already getting out of hand. We’ve only been engaged for a month, and already we’re at two hundred people,” Ty’s sister complained from the front seat.

She had the sun visor flipped down, and the mirror opened so she could look at Tyler through it without turning her head as they spoke.

“Cece and Brad had three hundred, I think. You might end up with the same,” Tyler told her.

Tyler had been hot and cold all morning, and Julien didn’t know what to make of him half the time. Sometimes, he thought Tyler liked him, and then he would make some entitled comment that made Julien want to strangle him. But Tyler had been pretty standoffish since breakfast.

Julien had no idea why. They were supposed to be playing a lovey-dovey couple, and Julien wasn’t about to let Tyler change his mind. Not when he was close to freedom.

“But I want something small. We were tossing out the idea of a destination wedding, you know? Only inviting the closest people. You know how much I love Italy.”

Tyler let out what sounded like a relieved breath. “Hails, do it. Youhaveto put your foot down if you want to do that. It’s not their wedding. I told you this before.”

Julien could agree with Tyler there. As much as a destination wedding was rich people’s shit, it was Hailey and Walter’s wedding, not Connie or Cece’s wedding.

Julien didn’t pretend to understand the dynamics of this family but could imagine that, given how close everyone seemed, it was hard to feel like they could speak up. Julien couldn’t relate, but watching from an outsider’s perspective was interesting. He wasn’t jealous. He was happy on his own. But he wondered what his mom would have thought if he had gotten married when she was around.

“It’s still early. We have time to make it perfect.” Walter reached out to squeeze Hailey’s hand. “You know I am happy just to marry you.”

Tyler didn’t even hide his groan. “Yuck. Spare me, please.”

“Oh, please. You can’t say anything anymore, Mr. PDA,” Hailey giggled. “You guys are all over each other, so don’t even.”

Tyler blushed. “We are not,” he protested.

Julien caught the glance directed at him before Tyler looked back to Hailey’s reflection. For someone who had been so eager to have Julien perform the part of his boyfriend, he looked embarrassed at being called out for thevery mild PDA.

“You guys are sweet,” Wally said. “Jules, how long have you and Tyler been together? He never said,” Walter asked. He used the rearview mirror to look back at Julien as he drove, in a strange mimic of how Hailey spoke to her brother.

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