Page 40 of Christmas Criminal

She rears back. "What?"

Bluff called. "That's what I thought."

"Well–"

I shake my head. "I don't trust you to be a serious egg-thrower now. You faltered. I have no more faith in your egg-throwing abilities."

She huffs, but she can't stop the laughter jumping from her throat. "Nick!"

I shrug. "Confidence is the name of the game when throwing eggs, and I don't think you've got it."

She scrambles to her knees so she can crawl toward me and whacks me lightly on the shoulder. "Maybe I'll eggyou," she says. "From this distance, I bet I could get you right on the nose." She reaches out and pokes it.

I ignore the zip of heat that runs down my spine with the contact.

"With what eggs?" I press. "Unprepared." I make a tsking noise with my tongue while shaking my head. "Sorry, Noelle, I can no longer recommend your services to the rest of the neighborhood."

She laughs again, shaking her head. "Don'teggme on. I can figure out where you live."

I raise my eyebrows. "Wow, the threats are getting real now. Do I need to call Hank to arrest the criminal again?"

She purses her lips as she glares at me. "Maybe I'll give you a pass this time."

And then we hear it again. "Nicky?" from somewhere above us.

I shake my head, pushing my glasses up into my hair so I can run my hands over my face. "God, what iswrongwith this woman?"

When I put my glasses back on, Noelle is staring at me, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. "You okay?"

She blinks and averts her gaze. "Yeah."

I sigh. "I guess I'm going to have to face her at some point."

"She really annoys you, doesn't she?" Noelle asks.

I nod. "And it really fucking sucks because she hides behind these big smiles and nice words and has everybody fooled. And if I don't like the former president of the PTA,I'mthe asshole. God forbid I tell anyone she shamelessly threw herself at me last year in a completely unneeded attempt to get her daughter's grade raised. I can only imagine how that would turn out."

Noelle purses her lips. "I'm sorry."

I shrug and shake my head. "I'm overreacting. I don't have to see her anymore aside from town events. It's a non-issue."

Noelle reaches out, resting one hand on my arm to stop me from scrambling out from under the table yet. "Maybe we can make her think you're no longer available."

I raise my eyebrows. "What does that mean?"

She bites her lip as she reaches for my hair, running her fingers through it. She pushes on one side of my glasses so they're lopsided.

"Can I touch you?" she asks.

My blood freezes in my veins. Becausefuck yesbutno no no.

"Like, put my arm around your waist?" she clarifies.

I clear my throat, desperately trying to will away the images that flew through my mind when she asked if she couldtouch me. "Yeah."

She musses her own hair, pinches her cheeks, and scratches at part of her neck.

"What are you doing?"

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