Page 35 of Mistletoe Mistake
I meet his eyes and allow myself to drown in their sincerity for a moment. I let myself trust in the magic he’s shown me.
Let myself trust in him.
“Good enough,” I whisper right before our mouths meet and I melt into the comfort of his taste.
“I knew it! I fuckingknewit!”
Nick and I jump apart and find Brandon and Amy standing in the doorway.
Nick leans down and mumbles in my ear. “Okay, I’m a little spooked.”
“Brandon, what are you doing?” I decide offense is going to be my best defense right now.
He ignores me, instead turning to his wife. “You owe me fifty bucks, Ames.”
“I can’t believe that stupid plan worked,” she grumbles.
“Wait, what is going on right now?” I’m so confused.
“I bet Amy fifty bucks I could finally get you two together before Christmas.”
I feel Nick’s chest rumble at my back. “You bet Amy you could—what?”
“You heard me. I can’t believe you two weren’t going to tell me. It cost me five hundred bucks to get your super to agree to lie to you about the plumbing and you were going to let me go on thinking my plan had failed.”
“You bribed my super—”
“You know what? Bribe is such an ugly word, Nick. I gave him a financial incentive to help nudge the course of true love.” Brandon holds his hands up and looks at us innocently, while Amy shakes her head.
“Are you fucking kidding me, B?” Nick moves toward him, but I hold him back. “I’ve been killing myself with guilt over this and you planned the whole thing?”
The grin falls from Brandon’s face and is replaced with something resembling hurt. “Well, if you had just been honest with me about this shit between you two, I wouldn’t have needed to resort to these tactics.”
“Brandon.” I try to calm the tension between the two. “Did it occur to you to broach the subject with Nick?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
Nick groans behind me.
“How did you even know how we felt?” I can’t help being curious.
“Oh, please,” Amy snorts.
“Yeah, it’s not like you guys were subtle. You” —he points to Nick— “have been low-key stalking her on social media for three years.”
“Reeeeeally?” I turn and smile smugly at him.
“You always ask about her and every time you come to our place, the first thing you do is go and stand in front of the mantle looking at the pictures. Specifically the pictures of Holly.” He grimaces. “It’s kind of creepy, dude.”
I laugh, a full-on belly laugh, feeling lighter than I have all night.
“And you.” Brandon turns to me. “You’ve had a crush on him since we were kids. I kept waiting for you to grow out of it, but you never did. Also kind of creepy, Hols.”
I’m going to kill him.
“You did?” Nick’s self-satisfied voice sounds behind me.
“That’s neither here nor there. You—” I point a finger at Brandon. “Have far too much time on your hands.”
