Page 2 of Blame It On the Secret Santa

“Seriously—what is that supposed to mean? What games?”

I balled my fists at my sides and growled in frustration that he hadn’t answered me.

“Ugh. He is the worst.” I shook my head and tried to take a deep, calming breath as Rachel grinned at me. “What? What’s that smile about?”

“Nothing. I just see a romance in the making. That’s all.”

I pulled my head back and scrunched my face in disgust.

“Are you kidding me? Do you not remember us dating in high school and what a cluster fuck that was? Dating Sean is thelastthing I would ever do.”

“Have you never heard of enemies to lovers and second chance romance?”

“No. But I have heard of enemies who do everything they can to kill the person who drives them crazy.” I held my hands in front of me and mimicked choking Sean.

She rolled her eyes and headed to the customer service station where she and I would be working today. Each department had one to keep the line down at the main customer service desk, which was used for returning items and answering general questions. It was pretty basic, with two computers so we could look up inventory when needed.

“So what? He got your name in the drawing. It’s not that bad.”

“It’s terrible. Not only did he drawmyname,Ihad the unfortunate luck of drawinghis.”

Rachel’s eyes widened nearly as big as her smile.

“Stop it,” I hissed, pointing a finger at her as I glared. “Whatever love spell you’re trying to conjure up inside of that hopeless romantic head of yours isn’t going to work. Sean is the enemy and it’s imperative that you remember that.”

She could believe in fairy tales and happily ever after all she wanted, but one thing I knew for sure was that Sean and I would never, ever get back together.

Two

Sean

My head was throbbingby the time lunch came around, not that there was time to actually take a lunch break. I was stuck up front working a register but couldn’t stop thinking about getting Cassidy’s name in the gift exchange. How weird was it that I would pick her name out of the eighty-plus employees who worked at Waldon’s? I knew she was mad when I first started working there, but this would royally piss her off knowing thatIwas the one getting her a gift for Christmas this year.

By the time my shift ended, I packed up my stuff and made my escape before Bruce could ask me to stay longer. I knew it was insanely busy today, and they needed the help, but there was also a limit to how much more I could take. Customer service was never my strong suit as I generally preferred to keep to myself and not have to talk to people if I didn’t really have to—which was basically the opposite of what I was expected to do at Waldon’s. It wasn’t that I wanted to work there; I just didn’t have many options at the time. I wasn’t expecting to come back to Sugarplum Falls after being gone for twelve years, but when my mom called, saying she needed help, I made that my priority.

I pulled into the garage and turned off the car. My stomach growled, but I hadn’t felt like stopping for fast food, even though it was quick and easy. I was doing my best to take care of myself, which meant eating right. I waited for the garage door to finish closing before opening the door into the house.

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