Page 31 of Take Me Home for Christmas

She ran over to me. “Honey, what’s wrong? Is it Brax? We think he’s so nice, but if he’s causing any trouble?—”

“It’s not Brax,” I said, swiping at my eyes and letting her guide me to a chair at the table. The first thing she did was grab the wine bottle from dinner from the counter and pour some into the only clean cup left in the cupboard—ironically, a sparkly Disney princess cup of Emma’s. As I knit my hands together, I realized I was shaking. It felt good to sit down. It felt even better to have a friend to talk to.

Dina patted my hand and waited in her patient way. She’d always been there to give boy advice and makeup and fashion recs. She was the one who made sure I didn’t overload my freshman schedule in college with courses so I could have some fun too. Basically, she was the older sister I’d never had.

I swallowed. “You can’t say anything,” I managed.

“You know I won’t.” I did know this. When she caught me buying beer with a fake ID as a teenager, she drove me back to the convenience store to return it but didn’t tell my parents. And she covered for me once when I’d stayed out too late with Charlie, telling my parents that I’d been with her. I wasn’texactly a kid who pushed boundaries, but those times she’d saved my butt without hesitation had meant a lot.

How could I even begin to explain this giant mess I’d created? Ironically, the mess seemed to be more about me than my mom. How had that happened? Maybe Dina wouldn’t be sympathetic. After all, I’d lied and then brought the lie home in person. Not exactly adult behavior.

“Brax is amazing,” she said. “The way he looks at you.” She fanned herself and mouthed a silentwhew. “And he’s so personable and nice. And Emma adores him. She’s a very good judge of character. He’s a keeper.” She paused. “Right?”

“He’s not a keeper,” I whispered. I cleared my throat and forced out the words. “Because he’s not my boyfriend.”

First, she looked perplexed. Then her mouth dropped open. To her credit, she quickly closed it. When Emma and her other future children were teenagers, she’d be a great mom, slow to judge. “What?”

“We did date for a few weeks last summer—long enough for me to really like him.”Maybe even fall in love with him, a little voice inside me whispered, but I pushed it aside.

“Wait, you?—”

“I’d been telling Mom all about him—I mean, after the thing with Charlie, I guess I thought I’d never feel that way.” If I was going to spill the tea, I’d better spill hard. “I fell for him. But then we discovered we were going to be working together, and he told me he thought we’d be better as friends.” I took a big breath. “He dumped me.”

Her expression changed from confused toYou did go to med school, didn’t you?“And you brought him here anyway?”

Right? What was I thinking? “I was desperate. But I’m okay. To be fair, he’d warned me from the start that he doesn’t do serious. But I thought—” I sighed. “I thought he might beit.”

She sat down next to me and held my hand.

“Right around the same time, we found out about Mom’s cancer and…” Underneath her frown, I could practically see her pulling the whole terrible story together. “I couldn’t bear to tell her the truth. I did the exact opposite—lied my head off until I ran into a big problem.”

Her eyes got wide. “What big problem?”

“Christmas.” I buried my head in my hands.

Stupid, stupid Christmas.

She lowered her voice. “Did you sleep with him?”

I didn’t deny it. My this-is-a-complete-debacle look must’ve tipped her off. “Oh, honey.”

“The cancer was such a shock. I couldn’t think of any way to make it better.”

“Wait a minute.” She crossed her arms. “If he blew you off and broke your heart, why are you still friends?”

“At work, getting along is sort of a necessity.”

“Now I want to kill him.”

“I can handle Brax,” I said hurriedly. I really wasn’t sure of that, but I had to sound grown-up here. “My friend Gabe was supposed to come, but he was about to get engaged, and Brax ended up helping me out. But right now, Liam and Caleb are telling him everything about me.”

She frowned. “What can they possibly tell him that matters?”

“I never told Brax about Charlie. I’m not going to the party, so I didn’t think it was necessary to explain.”

She got up and shut the door between the mudroom and the kitchen. “You brought your fake boyfriend home, and he doesn’t know your ex-fiancé just got married?”

I crossed my arms. “After Brax friend zoned me, I didn’t want to discuss personal things. But now he’s going to find out anyway. I feel like a coward.”

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