Page 38 of Feels Like Home
"I didn't want to upset him. And besides, the last time I tried to get between them, I ended up being the bad guy. For all I know, Zane could be setting me up. I go running off to Buzz about what he said, Buzz works up the balls to confront him, Zane denies it, and then Buzz is pissed at me for creating drama and putting him in that situation."
"You really think Zane would do that?"
"At this point, yeah. I wouldn't put anything past him."
She grabs a pair of tongs, walks over to the oven, takes out a cookie, places it on a plate, and hands it to me.
"What's this for?" I ask, glancing down at the snickerdoodle.
"To make you feel better. The holidays are coming up. You used to love Christmas."
"Past tense," I say, blowing on the cookie to cool it down before taking a bite. "Mmm. Delicious."
"I'm thinking of experimenting with some different flavors this year."
"Like what?"
"Chai spices, browned butter in the dough, and maybe filling the center."
I polish it off with my second bite. "Nah. Stick to the original. That was a mouthgasm."
"Now that is high praise." Lola smiles, returning to the stovetop. "So what are you going to do about Zane?"
"I don't know yet. But if he keeps pushing me, I'm going to fight back."
"Just don't do anything you'll regret later."
I smirk and lift my chin. "I won't."
24
Courtland
"Buzz is in the shower. He'll be out soon," I say, placing the gifts that arrived in the mail a few days ago on the coffee table and plonking myself on the couch in front of my laptop.
I'm met with a chuckle from Scooter in the top right corner of my screen. "So why aren't you with him?"
I roll my eyes. "Because we're just friends."
"Technically husbands," Cyrus supplies from the left side of my screen, smiling.
No matter where we are in the world, the four of us always spend Christmas Eve Eve together. It's a tradition we started in my first year of college and have kept up every year since without fail.
We mail our gifts to each other on December 1 to make sure they arrive in time, and then on December 23, the four of us hang out, chat, and open them in front of each other. It's a much-needed injection of fun before being forced to spend time immersed in the traumas that are our biological families.
Scooter is in LA. Filming ofKUWTVhas wrapped, but his dad is visiting him this year, which is why he's staying on the West Coast. And Cyrus is in Milan, pretending to be working on next year's summer campaign, though the three of us secretly suspect he's spending the holidays with his Italian agent, which for some reason, he's been unusually coy about.
"Why are you in a Speedo?" Scooter asks Cyrus when he stands up to get a glass of water.
"Just got back from the shoot. Cute, isn't it?" He angles himself toward the camera, showing off a neon-yellow low-rise and ultra-tight mini Speedo stretched across his narrow hips.
It's cute all right, and also, a sledgehammer to my fragile ego.
"Can you cover up, please?" I say, grimacing. "Don't need to be reminded how gorgeous you are. Especially since I've been spending way too much time in Lola's kitchen."
"Fine." He sighs. "I'll grab a robe. Americans are such prudes."
"I will remind you that you are also an American," Scooter teases, but Cyrus has already left so he either didn't hear him or simply pretended not to. "Now that it's just the two of us, is it safe to talk about the Z-word?"
