Page 78 of A Very Naughty Christmas

Dixie slipped her thumb under the flap and read the handwritten card.

“What does it say?” Rose Weston demanded from the next stool where she sat eatinglunch with Tammy after some last-minute shopping. “I’m hoping for hot. I’ve been married for eight years and now have to get my hotness vicariously through others.”

“Jake’s still fit and handsome, Rose,” Tammy replied. “It’s not like he’s bald, got a beer gut and bad breath, like my Evan. That’s why I kicked his ass to the curb.”

“Okay, I’ll admit my husband is easy on the eyes, but between football and golf, the honeymoon is long since over. With Kyle, I bet it never comes to an end,” she sighed.

Dixie felt her tension ease. The other girls were as moon-eyed as she was over Kyle, and it made her feel normal. Although when surrounded by a room full of Prescotts and Goodwins later tonight, she wouldn’t have her home girls to remind her of that fact.

“Can I text one of you if I start having a meltdown, tonight? Maybe you could tell me about a time when he wasn’t perfect?”

Tammy and Rose looked at each other and shook their heads.

“Sorry,” Rose responded. “I can’t remember him so much as belching. His seat was in front of mine in math, junior year, and I copied his answers on a test. It was the only A I got the entire semester. He was even perfect in trigonometry.”

All three of them turned to Beth Parsons. She was also having lunch with the pair of old friends and had firsthand knowledge of all that was Kyle, seeing that she had been his date to the senior prom, his senior year when she’d been a junior. She’d broken up with him to date Jerry Freeman, who was six feet eight and the captain of the basketball team, because of all things, he was taller than Kyle by five inches and she thought he suited her six-foot frame better. A big, shallow, stupid mistake, one that she admittedly regretted to this day, especially since she’d married Jerry and he also had the previously mentioned beer gut, although his hair was holding up so far.

“Don’t be like me and fuck this up,” Beth warned before she made a sad, slow trek to a vacant table to finish her pie, alone with her regrets.

Dixie bit her lip as she watched her go. “Is this what I have to look forward to? Becoming another sad, forlorn, regret-filled woman in eight to ten years?”

“Not with Kyle,” Janice replied. “You can thumb your nose at the rest of the dumb bitches who let him go. Beth broke up with him, remember?”

“As did Gina Franks, Erin Briscoe, and Willow Phillips. Why they thought there was something better out there, I’ll never know,” Tammy said in disgust. “Dumbass bitches.”

Rose giggled and Janice nodded with the wisdom of a sage.

“It’s almost three o’clock, girl,” Tammy said. “Don’t you have to be ready?”

“Yes, and Pete said I could leave early. I gotta go.”

“I’ll drive you,” Rose volunteered. “Tam, you get the check; you owe me for lunch.” As usual, she started to argue. “We don’t have time for your BS. I bought last time, so this is your get. Have Beth leave the tip.” She helped Janice repack the dress and accessories inthe box. “Get your coat.”

Not daring to argue with the mother of three, Dixie got her coat, hat, and gloves, tucking her tip wallet deep into her pocket, then called her Merry Christmases before following Rose out to her car.

An hour and a half later, she was turned out in the second fanciest dress she’d ever worn. Her makeup was perfect from Rose’s light touch, and not to be left out, Tammy, who had barged in while she was still in the shower, had done her hair in a sleek French twist, with a few loose curly tendrils streaming over her shoulders. She’d never felt so beautiful, which explained why Tam’s beautician’s chair was never cold at Nadeen’s.

The girls had left five minutes ago, and Dixie was finally alone. She’d have been better off if they’d stayed to distract her because her mind was conjuring up all sorts of ways she might embarrass herself and Kyle tonight. Number one, falling and busting her butt in a room full of people on her four-inch heels. Or spilling food on her dress, or wine on whoever had the misfortune of sitting next to her. Or getting spinach dip stuck in her teeth. By the time the expected knock came at the door, she had convinced herself she was sick.

“I can’t go,” she said before he had time to step inside.

“Baby, breathe.”

She sucked in a deep gulp of air as he came in and closed the door. It didn’t help much.

“Now tell me what’s wrong,” he ordered gently as he calmly watched her pace.

“I’ll puke in your car. And when I get there, I’ll spill spinach on your mother’s head and get wine stuck in my teeth.”

“What?” he asked, clearly amused by her panic.

She came to a stop, while shaking her head and twisting her hands nervously. “That didn’t come out right.”

“I didn’t think so,” Kyle answered with a grin, so handsome it almost hurt her to watch. He hadn’t shaved, and his beard, which was hot, made him look ruggedly sexy in his dark suit with its green tie that matched her dress.

Despite how fine he was, she scowled at him. “It’s not funny. I’m a wreck and I’ve changed my mind. I’m staying home with Lucy. We’ll have Christmas here together, won’t we, kitty?”

At the invitation, her cat, who was busy winding her body in between and around Kyle’s legs, peered up at her, then sniffed, as if in disdain, before she walked away with her tail in the air. “Traitor. See if you get the salmon treats I’ve got under the tree for you from Santa.”

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