Page 6 of Santa's Dirty Secret
“There was something in your voice that sounded like you needed me,” he says. “I’m sorry for sending your dad away over the holiday. I didn’t know that you had all this planned for the two of you.”
The anger lessens inside me. “I did it for you too. Mom would do all of this for the four of us.”
He slowly turns around the room, taking in all the decorations. “She would have loved this.”
"Thanks." I smile, happy that someone appreciates what I tried to do.
His gaze stops on me, and his brow furrows in confusion. I'm sure he's about to scold me on how little I'm wearing right now, but it's more than what he just saw a few minutes ago.
“Where did you even get that?” he asks, pointing at the shirt.
I glance down at the faded navy shirt with the cracked white lettering that spells outYALE. "It got mixed up in the laundry last year. I never saw my dad wear it, so I thought I'd keep it for myself as a nightshirt."
“You wear it in bed?”
“Yeah, so?”
Nick shakes his head, and the corner of his mouth ticks up in amusement. My heart hammers at the sight. I don't know what I said to make it appear, but I want to make it happen again.
"You never saw him wear it because it's not his," he says. "That's my shirt. I let him borrow it for a pick-up game of basketball we had over lunch one day."
Have I been sleeping in Nick's shirt for over a year?
The dampness between my thighs increases, and I shift my hips. But Nick's laser-focused gaze doesn't miss the movement. His intense gaze darkens.
“Do you want it back?” I reach for the hem of the shirt, ready to lift it off me.
“No.” He holds up his hand to stop me and clears his throat. “It looks better on you anyway.”
“I came to check on you to see if you are okay. And now that I see you are fine, I should be going.”
“Wait, that’s it?”
“What else is there?”
I ignore the pang of pain his words elicit in me. If I don't want him walking out the door and out of my life for another few years, then I'm going to need to be the one to make the first move.
“I guess I thought that even though my dad is out of town, maybe we could spend time together and catch up. Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve and I don’t have any plans. Do you?”
He uses the back of his thumb to scratch the scruff on his square jaw. The silver hair at his temples shimmer from the lights on the Christmas tree.
“I don’t suppose you’d be interested in going to a charity ball with me tomorrow night?”
“I’d love to,” I blurt out before I can play it cool.
“It’s a black-tie event. I’m not sure you will have time to find something on such short notice.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I tell him. “I know all the good shops in the city where I can find something.”
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. “I insist you let me pay for the dress since you are going as my guest to the event.”
I shake my head. “I don’t need you to buy me a dress.”
“Very well then.” He puts his wallet back in his pocket. “I will pick you up here at seven o’clock tomorrow.”
“It’s a date,” I say, almost as a challenge to see if he will refute it.
"It's not a date," he says, but as he turns to leave, I catch the corner of his mouth as it ticks up again in amusement. "Oh, and Alexis?"
