Page 25 of Mr. Naughty And Mrs. Nice

He’s about to tell me, but the front door opens.

You gotta be kidding me! Already?

“Good morning,” Linda says in a groggy voice. Mitch heads right upstairs to his room without saying a word.

I’m expecting Quinn’s mom to be all prim and proper like the other times I’ve seen her, but she looks like she’s had a night. She’s holding her head and looking a little green.

“I’m going to bed,” she says, looking a little unsteady.

Quinn laughs. “Was it the Schnapps, the Baileys, or the wine?”

“It was all three,” she says, looking full of regret. “And tequila.”

“Oh god,” I say with a wince. “Can I get something for you?”

She turns around and shuffles out of the room with her head hung low. “A time machine would be nice.”

Willow returns when we’re eating the eggs, turkey bacon, and toast. She doesn’t look hungover. She looks like she’s on cloud nine.

“Did you have fun?” I ask with a grin as I bite into a crispy piece of turkey bacon.

She exhales as she sits down, a huge smile on her face. “This wasn’t like the other times… I don’t know. Something is different.”

“With Chris?” Quinn asks, his forehead all scrunched up. “I thought you didn’t want to date him because he was too immature.”

“He was,” she says, getting that dreamy look in her eyes. Uh oh. She’s fallen hard. I can tell. “I don’t know. I’m going to take a shower.”

She grabs a piece of turkey bacon and heads up to her room.

“What should we do today?” I ask when we’re alone once again. “I don’t think your family is going to be up for anything.”

“What would you like to do?”

“Something Christmas related,” I say. “Maybe sliding, or going to a holiday market, or shopping for toys and donating them to a toy drive.”

He grins at me. “How about all three?”

“Really?” I thought boyfriends hated doing stuff like that…

“Let’s do it,” he says with a smile. “There’s always a holiday market set up in the community center. After we can go to the toy store beside the diner and load up the car. I’m sure we’ll find a toy drive somewhere and then we can go sliding on the hill behind the elementary school. I’ll show you where I fell off the roof of the school and broke my arm in grade five.”

“You broke your arm?” I say with a chuckle. With those strong biceps it certainly doesn’t look like it.

“I’ll tell you all about it on the drive down there.”

His phone rings on the table and he sighs before picking it up. “Sorry, I’ll be quick.”

“No worries,” I say.

“Taylor here,” he says. I can hear the urgent muffled voice on the other end talking about securing a deal. I lean in closer and think I hear something about the paperwork having to be done this afternoon.

My stomach sinks, knowing our perfect Christmas afternoon was too good to be true.

“I’m going to have to pass,” Quinn says. “If you want to wait, we can talk about it in January.”

“It can’t wait,” I hear the guy say. “It’s now or never.”

“Sorry, Damon,” Quinn says. “It’s not going to happen today. I’m out.”

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