Page 30 of Yours for the Season
Another uneasy feeling landed in her stomach. What had she gotten herself into? The feeling quickly morphed into anger. “Are you going to introduce me as your girlfriend to everyone we meet, or just the people who have known you since you were a child?” Another thought occurred to her. “And who’s Emily?”
“Emily is a friend,” Tom said.
“Ex-girlfriend, got it,” Sameera said. They stared at each other. “You’ve been holding out on me with a few key details. Such as the fact that your family is famous and owns an entire town.”
Tom wasn’t looking at her, but there was a mulishness to his lips that hadn’t been there a minute before. “Wolf Run is a tiny hamlet in the middle of nowhere. My family is not the House of Windsor.”
“Why do you talk about your home like that?” she snapped. She wasn’t sure why she was digging into him like this. Perhaps on some level, he reminded her of herself—running from her family, from anything that made her feel rejected and unsure.
Tom was wielding their fake relationship like a “get out of jail free” card, and she didn’t like it. She didn’t want to be anyone’s excuse for not dealing with their life. She wasn’t sure she even recognized this version of Tom: The laid-back man she had known in Atlanta was being slowly swallowed up by this moody, unhappy ice prince.
“Like what?” he asked, leaning close, and a whiff of his scent—cinnamon, sugar, and something else that was distinctlyTom—hit her, and she nearly took off running. This wasn’t why she was here. She couldn’t allow herself to be caught up in Tom’s life, his problems, his dysfunction. She had enough of her own.
She shook her head. “You know what? Never mind. I don’t care. This isn’t real, and I’m not going to pretend for you. I won’t play that game. When will Andy arrive?” Ignoring the vulnerability that flashed across his face, Sameera waited for an answer.
Except they were interrupted by a familiar voice. “Sameera! What took you so long?” Tahsin asked.
Chapter Eleven
Her parents and Barb were gathered in front of what looked like a parcel of forest tucked into the end of the main street. Sameera and Tom joined the trio, and Naveed immediately reached for the white paper pastry bag in her hands. His sweet tooth was infamous. When she was younger, he had instituted a “dad tax” on all dessert, which he still enforced to this day.
“Where’s Rob?” Barb asked Tom.
She could feel Tom standing behind her, the rumble of his deep voice as he answered. “He’s not with us,” he said. She tried to ignore him.
“He returned back home to pick you all up. Jan said we can do the scavenger hunt today. Except none of you were picking up your phones,” Barb said. Sameera checked her cell. There were no missed calls, and with a bolt of panic, she realized she had zero bars. What if Bee, or one of the partners, or even a client, wanted to get in touch? Even remembering that it was December 23, and this was unlikely, didn’t calm her. What if Nadiya had tried calling? She would be even more angry that Sameera wasn’t picking up. She needed to return to the guesthouse, where she had cell reception.
Sensing her tension, Tom laid a warm hand on her arm, making her feel even more jittery than she already did.
“Do you need to leave?” he whispered, and though she was still annoyed at him for the scene in the bakery, she was grateful for this moment of care. She nodded, and Tom turned to make their excuses.
Just then, Rob pulled up in the black pickup truck, and Esa and Cal emerged. Her brother was beaming with excitement and even seemed happy—or at least, not annoyed—to see her.
“We have to go,” Tom said abruptly. “Sameera has a lot of work to catch up on, and I’ve already taken up enough of her time by dragging her on a tour of Wolf Run. You all have fun with the Christmas tree scavenger hunt.”
Instantly, Esa’s smile dimmed. She could feel her brother’s disappointment radiate off him in waves, and her heart clenched. She put her phone away.
“It’s okay. We’re already here. A scavenger hunt sounds ... fun,” she added weakly. Esa’s expression immediately brightened, and Sameera breathed a sigh of relief. Staying here was the right call, even if she had no wish to spend more time with Tom. She mentally resigned herself to the prospect of working all night to make up for this sojourn. Even if it might be too little, too late at this point.
“Do we ... hunt the trees?” Esa asked, jumping to the ground from the truck. He turned to Sameera and stage-whispered, “They know conifers can’t fight back, right?”
She smiled at him, grateful he was joking with her, and Esa gave her a small smile back.
“It’s a Cooke family tradition, a scavenger hunt to find the perfect Christmas tree,” Rob said, waving behind him at what was clearly a Christmas tree lot. “Tom’s mother, Pamela, ran the game every year, until she passed. We looked forward to it every year.”
“Even though Mom mostly just made up the rules,” Tom said. He cast Sameera a quick glance, as if to reassure himself that she was still on board. “We had to find every item on her list in the tree lot. The list changed every year, of course. It made picking out a tree feel like an adventure.”
“What do you win?” Esa asked. Sameera recognized the glint in her little brother’s eyes. Her entire family—herself definitely included—was a tiny bit competitive, even her mild-tempered father. As in, they would mow each other down if there was a plastic trophy on the line.
Tom seemed at a loss. “I mean, the person who won got to pick out the tree,” he said.
“Which means there’s a winner and seven losers, right?” Esa said, eyeing their group of eight. When Tom nodded, he yelled “First tree choice is mine!” and ran into the tree lot without looking back.
“We already have a tree set up at home. This is just for fun,” Rob said, puzzled.
“I should have warned you not to mention the c-word in front of my family,” Sameera said to Rob. She leaned forward and whispered, “‘Competition.’”
Tahsin, ever the teacher, took charge and suggested they break off into pairs: herself with Barb, Rob with Naveed, Calvin with Esa, and the happy couple would of course want to work together. Sameera tried to hide her wince.
