Page 95 of When the Fake Snow Falls

His smile stretches further. “I know.”

“But she’s going to ruin everything. You know she will.” I don’t need to specify who I’m talking about. There’s only one person standing in the way of this now.

I know it’s a risk. Relationships are never a guarantee, but there’s no way Nicolette will let this go. She’ll up her game with him. I’m sure her emails will get worse, and she’ll force him to stay and work late more often than not. She’ll call him while we’re out just to pull his attention away. I can see all these conclusions so clearly in my mind, like a movie I’ve seen a million times. Because IknowNicolette, and if she thinks she’s losing her hold on Chase, she’s just going to dig her claws in deeper.

But Chase is unfazed. If anything, his smile steadily grows. “She got fired.”

My mouth falls open. “What? Why?”

Scratching the back of his neck, he says, “Remember the man with the pregnant wife? At the Christmas party?”

I nod.

“Well, he sort of owns the firm. He works out of our bigger office in Tampa, so he’s rarely at our firm here, but he overheard what happened at the party.”

My eyes widen. “Everything you said to Nicolette?”

He takes in a breath and nods. “Everything.” Dropping his hand from the back of his neck, he stares at me with beautiful, earnest eyes. “He looked into the emails Nicolette’s been sending at work and thought they were enough to fire her. She’s gone.”

I clap a hand over my mouth. “She got fired on Christmas Eve?”

At first, I’m not even sure he can understand my muffled words, but he goes on to say, “Just before Christmas Eve. It happened Monday night. That’s when I got the call, anyway.”

It must have happened right after her last hair appointment with me. She came in on Monday since her usual Tuesday appointment fell on a holiday. My eyebrows pull together. “Wait. He called you? To tell you he fired Nicolette?”

Chase’s mouth quirks, but not in the usual, confident way. If anything, he looks bashful. “Yeah. He, uh . . .” He shakes his head a little in disbelief. “He wants to give me her job.”

I blink, and now it’s hard for me to fight my own smile. “Are you serious? Chase, that’s amazing!”

A nervous breath of laughter leaves his lips. “Yeah, I still haven’t wrapped my head around it. It’s a bigger promotion than the one I was going for, but it’s not like I don’t know how to do the work.”

“You’ll be incredible,” I assure him, my smile warming as it stretches further across my face.

Nicolette got fired. She’s no longer Chase’s boss. She won’t have any control over him. Because she won’t be his boss. She won’t be anything.

The realization dawns on me, and my eyes lock on Chase.

Nicolette is unemployed.

As if reading my thoughts, Chase says, “She might not keep her weekly appointments with you. She might for a little while and then drop off, or maybe she’ll find a new job in no time and it will change nothing.” He shrugs. “I don’t know.”

My eyes scan his as I try to imagine every scenario that can come from this.

“But, Candace, she gotfired.It will be hard to turn everyone against you when she’s clearly the one in the wrong.”

He’s right. God, I hope he’s right. “And if she asks me about you?”

Chase’s eyes are bright when they meet mine. “You don’t even know my name.”

My laugh comes out sounding more like a scoff, but I can’t fight my smile. “I’m serious, Chase.”

“So am I.” He grins. “You have no idea who I am.” He holds my chin between his fingers. “Never seen me a day in your life.”

I suck in a breath. He’s so close to me like this. With him holding my chin in place, I’m forced to look at him.Reallylook at him. The scent of spice and teakwood floods my senses, and I’m overwhelmed with how badly I want to kiss him.

Keeping his voice low, Chase says, “As far as Nicolette is concerned, we can be strangers. But between us, I want to know you better than anyone.”

He’s put me completely in a trance. All I can do is nod more than I need to and utter the word, “Okay.”

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