Page 8 of Christmas Criminal

Her brow furrows. "Yeah?"

"She might have been doing you a kindness. Teachers will break the rules for kids who are technically stepping out of line but aren't aproblem." And I can't resist making the joke once it occurs to me. "You know, like Hank, for you."

The glare takes over her face again. "You're lucky I have to be nice to you."

"This is being nice?"

She tries her hardest not to show her grin.

But when I break, so does she.

She shakes her head, laughing. "Stop making me laugh when I'm trying to channel my moody teenage self."

"Hey, if you really want to be miserable, go right ahead."

She shakes her head, letting out a long breath. "Okay, so I guess going to the library over lunch wasn't theworstthing in the world. And I do still love books. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm actually kind of relieved I still love books after all of that."

We reach the door to the garage, and I open it for her to walk through. "What kind of books do you like?"

"Arguably porn," she says.

I blink, wondering if I heard her wrong. "What?"

"I mean, depending on the day, you know? Sometimes I like a nice clean romance, sometimes I like a nasty one."

The door clangs shut behind us as I struggle to catch up. "So a nice clean romance is... arguably porn?"

She rolls her eyes. "No. I'm just giving you the category you're going to put it in before you can judge me for it first."

I raise my eyebrows. "Who hurt you, Noelle? No one cares that you readarguably porn. Or anything adjacent to it."

She eyes me as she drops her bag on the ground next to the float. "Okay, that was a good answer."

"Was that a test?"

"I don't know, Teach. You tell me."

I point to my chest. "Math. No good at words."

"You sure do say a lot of them."

This girl is feisty.I take her coffee cup from her and take a sniff. "Huh. Surprising."

"What?" she asks, her face showing blatant confusion as she tugs it back from me.

"Thought for sure there'd be some alcohol in there."

Her jaw drops open. "Idrovehere!"

"Youarea criminal."

"Nick!"

Her screech sends a little shiver down my spine. I grin.

"So, you want to do the painting or the drilling?" I ask, ignoring her ticking jaw. I grab my drill from where I left it on the step this morning and squeeze the button for a moment, listening as it whirs to life.

She shakes her head almost imperceptibly as she tugs her sweatshirt off.

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