Page 163 of The Duke Who Saved Christmas
My voice turned into a squeal when Hazel yanked me back down onto the bed.
“Absolutely not. If I let you get away with this, you’ll fob me off by saying, ‘It’s Christmas!’ Then it’ll be, ‘It’s the new year!’ and worse, ‘I’m going home, leave me alone!’”
Well… Maybe.
“So, no. You’re not making excuses. You’ve been staying here for, like, a week, and I’d have to be blind to not see that there’s something going on. The man is obsessed with you! He’s either touching you or staring at you like he wants to. Not to mention, he’s the sole reason that the wedding—” Hazel froze, but her eyes widened the tiniest bit.
“He’s the sole reason that the wedding, what?”
“Well, is happening. You know?” She laughed awkwardly. “If he hadn’t told Emily, then…” She held out a hand and stared over the top of my head. “She wouldn’t… You know…”
“You mean the wedding wouldn’t be happening if Thomas hadn’t recalled the possibility of the licensing being renewed and called everyone to action? Then asked Emily to take the credit for it all so I wouldn’t think he was swooping in like some heroic knight in shining armour?”
“Nooooo. Who gave you that idea?”
“Well, aside from the fact everyone here is a terrible liar, Emily already told me.”
Hazel pressed her lips together. “He asked her not to.”
“Yes, but unfortunately for Thomas, he vastly underestimated my intelligence.”
“Yeah. For, like, your entire lives.”
There would be no arguments here. “I figured it out. He has a hero complex, but he hates getting credit for it. He’s the kind of guy who’d scour donation pages and help them meet their targets whether it’s fifty quid or five thousand and sign it off as anonymous.”
“Has he ever done that?”
“Probably.” I shrugged. “Also, he has a pattern of saving my arse, and he’s about the only person who could mobilise so many people at such short notice. And certainly, the only one who could pull Zara in line.”
“Yeah, she wants a job.” Hazel scooted back on the bed and crossed her legs. “She told me she told her boss to shove his job up his arse, quit on the spot, and is now trying to show him all her good sides.”
“Is it working?”
“No idea. He’s too busy paying attention to you.” Her smile grew again. “So… What’s going on?”
I groaned and stood up. “All right, if we must do this, can we do it in our pyjamas?”
“Excellent idea.” She handed me her wine glass from the floor, and I put it next to mine. We both opened our cases andgrabbed our pyjamas, then got changed. It took another half an hour between us to remove our makeup and wash up, and when I returned to the bedroom, I was greeted by the sight of my sister sitting on the bed with her lap full of various beauty products.
“What’s this?”
“Well, I thought you’d want me to do some relaxing stuff tonight, so yesterday I went out and bought all this stuff.” She held up a couple of the packets. “There’s some sheet masks, feet masks, hand masks… Honestly, I got a bit excited and just grabbed everything.”
I opened my mouth to say I had it covered, then stopped.
Ihadhad it covered.
Then everything went to shit, and I’d forgotten all my plans.
I smiled. “Yeah. This was exactly my plan, but I forgot in all the chaos.”
My sister’s face lit up. “Really?”
“Yep. I had a whole thing planned for tonight and…” I shrugged. “I never did it.”
“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you forget anything before.” She bounced up onto her knees, sending the packets flying everywhere. “I’m going to remind you of this forever.”
“I figured as much. What did you get?”
