Page 41 of Falling for the Forward

Hallie is the first to laugh. The other two girls look at me, trying to decide if it’s okay to laugh. When I look at Harry, he’s smiling.

“I’ll go see what else we can whip up,” he says, getting up from the table.

Charlotte gives me a remorseful look. “I’m sorry, Suki. That was my fault.”

I laugh because what else can I do? Once my family sees me laughing, they join in. Other than my dad, who still looks pissed off.

“Girls, why don’t we work together and get this mess cleaned up?” Sean says, rising from his chair.

When Carter comes into the kitchen a few minutes later, he’s taken his sweater off and rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt. He sees me holding a pan of sweet potato casserole with a pig footprint in it and takes it, moving it onto the island.

“Darling is in our shower,” he says. “I put some blankets in there. Hopefully he won’t ruin anything.”

Bash comes up and puts a hand on my shoulder and a hand on Carter’s. “I wasn’t hungry anyway. You want me to see if I can find an open carryout place?”

Carter nods. “That’d be good, thanks.”

Bash walks away and I step closer to Carter, whispering, “I’m sorry about my dad.”

He opens his arms and wraps me in a hug, kissing the top of my head. “We’ll get through it.”

Fake relationship. Not his real feelings. I have to remind myself yet again because he smells really good and I didn’t realize just how much I needed a hug right now.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Suki

FOUR WEEKS LATER

“So while both the Yeti and the Stanley are both excellent cups for hot and cold drinks, I believe the clear winner after my tests is the Yeti.”

Dex grins widely and claps as Olivia finishes practicing the speech he helped her write and coached her on performing. Mara, Harry and I all join in on the applause.

Olivia meets my gaze and smiles. In just a few days, Dex took her from overwhelmed and nervous to poised and confident.

“I’ll be tossing my Stanley when I get home,” Dex says proudly. “Can you believe this girl? She needs to be on the speech team.”

“That was amazing,” I tell Olivia, hugging her. “You’ll have to do it again for Carter.”

It’s Christmas Eve, and my friends have come over to hang out with me and the girls while Carter does some last-minute shopping. Harry brought homemade cinnamon rolls, so we’re allsugared up. Darling is curled up, sleeping at Harry’s feet like he knows who made the sticky-sweet treat he loved so much.

“Are you guys ready to make some gingerbread houses?” I ask.

The girls have been excited about this for days, so they’re the first to arrive in the dining room and sit down.

I tried to plan a fun day since this is their first Christmas without their mom. This afternoon we’re going to a family skate at Carter’s team arena, then to a downtown Christmas market.

I already have a lasagna in the refrigerator for dinner and we’re making ice cream sundaes and watching Christmas movies after that.

I’m gathering the last of the gingerbread supplies in the kitchen when Mara touches my arm.

“Hey, remember that professor I had a thing for last year?”

I scoff. “Remember? You talked about Professor Lumberjack constantly and texted me all your stalker research about him from social media. I feel like his close personal friend.”

“A yes would suffice.”

I shake my head, amused. “Yes, I remember.”

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