Page 4 of The Crush of Christmas Past
Pretending to be in love with a best friend I adore should be easy.
What could possibly go wrong?
Two
Isla
TheoThorne—that’swhat.
Or, more accurately,who.
My nightmare before, during,andafter Christmas.
I skid to a stop in the entryway, breath catching, mouth parting in surprise. My heart slams against my ribcage, and my mind short-circuits as too many thoughts crash into each other and overload the grid.
Almost an entire year had passed since I last saw him, but Theo hasn’t changed much.
Same broad shoulders and neck-craning height. Dark, wavy hair that triggers finger twitches. Afull bottom lip, framed by a jawline sculpted from a mold not readily available to mere mortals.
Then there’s his presence—calculated control layered with a curated kind of dominance. It precedes him. And does torturous things to my nervous system.
As a creative, I should wield a sharper vocabulary for the visual impact of him, but his nearness pummels rational thought to pulp. Even after all this time, I can’t brand him properly. Cliché ads for luxury cologne, top-shelf whiskey, and cold, cruel regret are all much too tame for Theo.
Why is he here?
What am I supposed to do now?
For the last five years, his pointed boycott of all things merry spared me from his detached glory. My holiday survival guide never needed a chapter on how to survivehim.
Now he’s here. And I’m unarmed. Completely and utterly defenseless.
I blink, praying the scowling tower of a man in a charcoal sweater and dark jeans is a hellish hallucination brought on by exhaustion and peppermint fumes.
All hope shatters the moment he steps forward and locks eyes with me. That deep green holds the same pull as the wild forest surrounding us. The intensity of his stare steals every molecule of air from my lungs.
Shit.
He’s real. Very,veryreal.
As his gaze cuts deeper, a flurry of snowflakes erupts in my stomach. One charged heartbeat later, the blizzard flash-freezes into a block of ice that plummets straight into my gut.
Uncomfortable, yet also—no.
Nope.Absolutely not.
My best friend’s older brother is off-limits.
Firmly and forever.
Six Christmases ago, I made the mistake of confessing my very real, very messy feelings to a man who undoubtedly saw himself as way out of my league.
Spoiler alert: it did not go well.
At all.
Theo didn’t just turn me down. He erased himself from my life. Severed a bond over a year in the making. One I’d allowed to settle somewhere permanent.
Our connection was genuine. Unexpected,sure—but real.
