Page 17 of Naughtying Up St. Nick

My stomach sinks at her words. I hate that she’s going through this, that her family can’t see how amazing she is. That Harlow’s family can’t see how amazing he is. I don’t know why families have to be so complicated.

“Are you going to go to the wedding?” I ask.

Min chews on her lower lip before rolling onto her back and staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t know. What would you do if you were me?”

“I don’t feel like I can answer that.”

She tilts her head up to glare at me. “Imagine you were me.”

“I don’t want to.”

She reaches over and pinches my leg. “I don’t know what to do, Cal. I don’t want to spend an entire week lying to all my parents’ snooty friends, but…it’s Lina’s wedding. I know she didn’t really support me, but she’s my sister. I don’t want to be petty and miss out on something like this.”

“Then don’t,” I say. “If being there for Lina’s wedding is this important, maybe you can grit your teeth and get through it. You’ve survived worse. I mean, all you ate was cafeteria food your whole freshman year.”

“Ugh. Don’t remind me.” She lets out a breath, then says, “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. How was your date.”

“It wasn’t a date. We just went to get a gift for George, the boy in the foster system.”

Her expression softens at the mention of George, but then she says, “I’ve seen the way Harlow looks at you. It was definitely a date.”

“He’s not interested in dating me.”

“Oh, come on.”

“No, I’m serious. We talked about it when we first—” I cut myself off as I remember I never told Min about any of this. As far as she knows, Harlow is just someone I knew from high school. She doesn’t know why we started seeing each other again, and she still doesn’t know anything about Jesse.

“First what?” Min presses. “What are you even doing with him? Because you’re not the kind of guy who does random hook-ups, even if you’ve known the guy since high school.”

“It’s…complicated.” I still can’t tell her about Jesse. It’s too embarrassing. I can’t believe I told Harlow.

Min studies my face for a long minute before shifting her gaze back to the ceiling. “Fine. You don’t have to tell me. Just be careful.”

“I’m always careful.” It’s the truth. The only problem is, careful is what led me to being with Jesse. And that was one of the worst decisions I ever made. When I’m with Harlow, I don’t have to be careful. I don’t have to worry because despite everything, I trust Harlow. And even though we agreed to end this in January, I’m starting to think that letting Harlow go will be the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do.

Ten

Harlow

Our last day at the village is Christmas Eve, where we work later hours to make sure every kid that shows up can talk to Santa. I meet up with Lily and give her the telescope Cal and I got for George, along with some other gifts for kids in the district who need it.

On my way back to the main office, I run into Maddie, who insisted on bringing Santa some cookies.

“You’re going to come see me before you leave for California, right?” Maddie asks, her lower lip stuck out in a pout.

I glance at Sharon to make sure it’s okay before telling Maddie, “Of course I’ll come see you. And when I come back to visit, I’ll bring you something, okay?”

Maddie beams and hugs me before skipping off to the parking lot.

Sharon gives me a hug before following her daughter.

Once they’re gone, I glance at the red chair at the front of the line to find Cal watching me.

I keep my expression neutral even as heat shoots through my body. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been together, I’ve only grown to like him more and more. I thought I had feelings for him in high school, but it’s nothing compared to how much I want to be with him now. I’ll admit that back in high school, a lot of those feelings were powered by lust, and while I definitely still feel that now, it’s also more than that. I’ve gotten to know him better than I ever did when we were teens, and I’m getting to see layers of him I’ve never allowed myself to see with anyone else I was with. It’s just always so much easier to keep people at arm’s-length when I know they’ll be done with me as soon as they’ve gotten what they want from me.

But with Cal, I already know he’s going to leave; that was our deal, and it seemed like a really good idea at the time. But now whenever I think about us going our separate ways at the end of this, my stomach flips.

I do my best to ignore it throughout the day because I know that once Cal and I are back in my apartment alone, he’ll be the only thing I’ll focus on.

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