Page 2 of His Off-Limits Christmas Gift

Yes!It would have been freaking lovely to just bluntly explain why Kyle dumped me. But it wasn’t my secret to share. He’d done me a really shitty deal by expecting me to take the brunt of the gossip and questions while he returned to campus for a couple of weeks prior to winter break.

Heneeded to tell them all why we weren’t together anymore. It wasn’t fair to dump the responsibility on me.

“No,” I answered dryly, tired of the echo I had to give.

“But—”

I groaned again as I sat up enough to look back at her. “Mom. I don’t want to talk about Kyle.” It wasn’t petulance. It was a promise not to out one of my oldest friends.

She furrowed her brow, taking my stern words as a challenge. “Okay, but what about?—”

“No, Mom. Please. I don’t want to talk right now.” At all. With her constant pestering, I wanted to hide and burrow in a hole until Kyle could face all these questions.

God, I want to get away. So, so bad.They were already so pushy with the mandatory jolly moods and “let’s celebrate!” mentality that was getting so forced and commercialized. Where every little thing had to be photographed and captioned and shared. It didn’t feel like family time anymore, just a massive production of consumerism and obligated happiness.

And this undercurrent of wishing for me and Kyle to get back together made it worse.

“That’s all you say. That you don’t want to talk.”

I twisted to sit fully upright and rubbed my face. “That’s not true. I told you all about the contract job I’m going to start in January. I had a conversation with you and Dad about my loans and how I anticipate paying them off. Yesterday, I tried to ask you about maybe doing something different for next year at Christmas instead of the same old everything here.”

Her mouth hung open. “Rachel! The same old everything? That’s how you see it?” She flung her arms out, exasperated. “This is the most magical time of the year.”

I stared at her, not budging. “Foryou, it is.”

You do you, Mom. Don’t kowtow me into it.

“You’re just saying that because you’re mopey and sad about your little fight with Kyle.” She crossed her arms and lifted her chin, stubborn as ever.

“It wasn’t a little fight.” I licked my lips, unsure how to convey this message any clearer. “We. Broke. Up.”

“Butwhy?” she whined, lowering her arms again. “If you would just talk to me, for God’s sake, we could figure this all out and you could apologize and?—”

It was my turn to drop my jaw. I did so with a loud huff, incredulous. “Why shouldIapologize?”

She pressed her lips together and shrugged a little. “Well, isn’t it your fault?”

“No!” I got up, tired of this. I wasn’t a bratty kid. I was an adult. But she was taking this too damn far. She had to respect the boundary I was insisting on for my privacy here.

“This isn’t because he gently suggested that you should work out more?”

I gave her a droll look as I approached her. “No. It’s not because of that.”

“Everyone puts on a little extra over the holidays. It’s understandable, but?—”

“That’s not why we broke up.” I held the door open for her and gestured for her to leave. “The reason we did isourbusiness. Not yours.”

“Oh, that’s nonsense. I’m your mother. And Emily is worried about Kyle dumping you too.”

Because we were supposed to marry. All that Kismet crap they clung to when we were toddlers.

“Please, Mom. Stop badgering me about this.” I raised my brows, waiting for her to argue.

She didn’t, thank God. She got the hint that I wasn’t in the mood for her being pushy. Turning with a mutter that I couldn’t hear, she left my room.

As soon as she was gone, I closed the door and grabbed my phone from my pocket.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. It made no sense to move when I’d only be moving to the next town over in January, but I couldnotstay here like this.

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