Page 4 of Christmas with Hope

“I hate you,” I sighed.

“You’ll thank me. I want an invite to the wedding.”

“Geeze, Stefanie. Why would you even say that? We’re strangers.”

“Not for long. Ta-ta, sis,” she mused before hanging up on me.

“Bitch,” I muttered under my breath.

I opened my mouth to tell Colton how we had been set up, but his phone rang at that exact moment. He grabbed it off the coffee table, looked at the display then answered.

“Where the hell are you guys?” he grumped into the phone. “What do you mean you aren’t coming?”

Colton gave me a sympathetic look.

“You know you’re fucked up for this, right?” he said with his eyes still locked on mine. “This isn’t fair to her.”

I gave him a small smile.

It was funny how we were both worried about the other person being upset. I wasn’t upset about being alone with him. I was worried that he would be disappointed and abandon ship.

“If Hope doesn’t kill you, I will,” Colton growled into the phone before hanging up. He tossed his phone on the coffee table then pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I won’t take it offensively if you want to abandon ship,” I smiled, hiding my true feelings. The truth was if he abandoned ship, I’d be disappointed.

“It’s not that,” he shook his head and lowered his hand down to his lap. “I just feel like this isn’t something to do to a woman. Ya know?”

“If Stefanie and Tim trust you then I’m not worried,” I nodded at my own words. “But it’s still messed up that they did this.”

“Yeah. Just a smidge messed up,” he sighed with a chuckle.

“Going to abandon ship?” I asked nervously.

“No. Are you going to?” he asked quietly.

“I took a week off of work and there’s plenty of room in the cabin for the both of us. Right?” he nodded in response. “Then we’ll be just fine.”

“I promise to be on my best behavior,” he said huskily, making my heart skip several beats. “Fair enough?”

“I thought you were on Santa’s naughty list?” I retorted with a smirk. The look in his eyes changed. I couldn’t describe it other thansexyand panty-dropping.

“Will you be staying on Santa’s naughty list this week?” he smirked, making me wish I had brought my battery-operated boyfriend with me to the cabin.

Chapter Three

“I’ll behave,” he chuckled and stood up. “Guess we should take a look at the fridge and pantry so I can go grab some groceries from the nearby town.”

“Nearby town?” I scoffed. “Nearest town is like a gazillion miles away.”

“It is pretty far, but food is important.”

“I’ll ride with you and keep you company if you’d like.”

Colton remained quiet while he stared at me. I wanted to ask him what was wrong; however, the words were nervously lodged in my throat.

“I’d love for you to ride with me to town,” he smiled then stood up. “Shall we do an inventory of the kitchen and go from there?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, standing up and heading towards the kitchen with Colton close behind me.

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