Page 14 of My Rival for Christmas

“So youdoremember things about me.”

Her brows furrow together, and I ignore the pinch of pain between my ribs as I say, “I’m from here.”

“What?”

“This is my hometown.”

Realization dawns on her before the words are even finished coming out of my mouth.

“Oh.”

I deflect that brief sting of seeing she really doesn’t remember. It’s my fault for thinking she filed anything about me outside of skating away. I know where I’ve always stood, and that’s partly why we find ourselves constantly at each other’s throats, her with her fangs, and me with my teasing, so I do what I always do—push through the disappointment with another lightweight quip. “Bet you wish?—”

Until I see her face. Actually see past the glares and the snarl and the freckles that have always been my downfall.

She looks tired, and not with the kind of exhaustion that comes from a day’s worth of travel. Just like her stare I felt boring into me from across the room, this goes deeper, weights tied to her bones.

Paige looks completely worn down. Her normally glowing skin is now dull, if not a little gray. Blueish-purple bags sit under her gemstone shaded eyes, and tension brackets her mouth. A kind of tension that digs deeper than just seeing me.

Something happened.

I know it like I know all these little details about her. Like how she prefers hot chocolate to coffee, even when running on little to no sleep, how she will spend an absurd amount of money on skincare to make herself feel better after a bad day, how she hates Christmas but loves festive treats, or how she has never met a grudge she is able to let go of.

Paige Montgomery is a book I can read a thousand times and never get bored with.

But this? I don’t like this page.

Especially if it has to do with Cole.

“What did he do?”A surge of territorial protectiveness I have no business feeling fills me. “Did he hurt you?”

I have no right. I tell myself it’s not fair. To feel this way about her partner of the last two years, not when I all but flung her into his weak, conniving, lifeless arms.

“You don’t get to ask me that.” Paige’s face shutters, shutting down. “Not after what you did.”

Inwardly, I flinch. “I’m not your enemy, Paige.”

“No,” she agrees, making the word sound like the saddest song. “You just decided you’d rather be my rival, and somehow that will always feel worse.”

Before I can respond, her friend Kylie appears, giving me a look that says exactly how she feels about me. And it’s not a happy feeling.

“P? We gotta go if we’re going to make that reservation,” Kylie says, sliding a protective arm across Paige’s shoulder, and I hate the swell of jealousy filling my chest, wishing it was me with my arm around her instead.

They leave without another word. And I’m not sure how I feel as I watch them go.

I have to tell her. I have to tell her why I left her two years ago. I’ve made a lot of mistakes when it comes to Paige Montgomery, but I’m going to make things right.

I’m going to make us all right.

But first, I gotta find out what Cole did.

Slipping my phone out my back pocket, I’m about to text the one person who always knows more of Charmed’s happenings than me when Dax comes back, a guy we hung out with from his high school in tow. I think his name is Calvin.

“Bro,” Maybe-Calvin breathes out beside me, his eyes trailing after Paige. “Who wasthat?”

“Not for you,” I growl before firing off my text. My hand grips the phone tighter than necessary to keep me from throwing a punch at a friend of a friend.

I can’t get kicked out of this place.

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