Page 6 of Santa’s Little Faker
“Secret Santa Daddy my fucking ass.” That was dangerous, not cute. “Who talked him into that kind of ridiculousness?”
Well, at least the camera might give me some good information because it looked perfect and the settings were already configured to send me an alert anytime it sensed movement. “Try stalking him now.”
Toys and chocolates.
Asshole.
Orlando was too innocent to realize how dangerous those were, but I wasn’t and I’d figure out how the whole thing happened.
“Research. It’s time to research.” Still grumbling as I put the ladder back and headed inside, I pulled out my phone again as I stomped into the living room. “Social media first and then back to that stupid app.”
His family liked to post about every fucking thing that happened to them, so I knew I’d be wading through a thousand ridiculous ones to find anything useful. But between pictures of their dinners and oversharing about what everyone was doing, I finally found a few that were useful.
“Enzo?” Reliable, professional Enzo was the one who’d started Orlando down the path to getting a stalker?
Sure, it was subtle and some of the relatives posting about Enzo’s new boyfriend didn’t seem to understand what they’d seen, but it was there. It seemed like Enzo had finally come out of the kink closet and didn’t mind letting everyone in the family know that he was back to dating guys and liked taking care of his boy.
This was definitely Enzo’s fault.
And possibly half the rest of the family because it seemed like over the past six months a ridiculous number of them had set up kink profiles online.
“His stalker could be half his fucking family.” Great. “He’s going to end up with a second cousin as his wannabe Daddy stalker because he didn’t know incest was a thing.”
I was going to have to keep a close eye on Orlando…and whoever was seducing him with toys and chocolates.
****
“Flowers. It’s flowers for fuck’s sake.” I hadn’t gotten a damned thing done all morning but I caught the flower delivery guy as he was getting out of his small van. “What the fuck? That’s huge.”
It had to be the biggest arrangement I’d ever seen and there seemed to be something besides flowers on it.
What the hell was in the flowers?
Fuck it.
Giving up, I logged out and stopped pretending to be getting anything done. I’d try again later, but for the time being the fucking delivery was the most important thing going on. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say and hadn’t figured it out by the time I’d put my shoes on, but I had confidence I could fake it.
Mostly.
The delivery guy was pulling away as I crossed the yard, but I had to knock on the door because Orlando had already gone inside. I was patient, though, and tried to look bored and pleasant as he opened the door wearing a bubbly smile. “Hey, Bastian. How was your trip?”
He seemed to be completely ignoring the gigantic floral arrangement on the small table in the entryway, and somehow seemed to think I wouldn’t notice that the vase was in the shape of a train car and the flowers were decorated with tiny cars and trucks.
It was like an oddly decorated Christmas tree and was probably for a baby shower or something, but it would be perfect for a little.
The only thing better would’ve been one decorated with tiny tools since he seemed to like the ones that had come with the bear. It left me wondering if his Secret Santa couldn’t find a better one to fit or if he’d just taken the easy way out.
“It was fine.” Yes, he asked about my trip. “Thank you for watching over the house while I was away.”
Technically he’d picked up my mail and had done a few things to be helpful, but it was still nice and a good reason to come back over. “Did you happen to see an envelope being delivered? One of those large ones from Fed Ex?”
As he frowned, thinking about the answer, I pretended to finally see the flowers. “Those are pretty. Who are they from? Oh, did you get them for someone in the family?”
I didn’t point out that they could be for a shower or something like that, but he smiled and blushed as he glanced back over at the flowers. “No, they’re for me.”
At some point I needed to explain the concept of white lies to protect his privacy.
“They’re cute.” When would it be appropriate to explain that? “Did you get a new girlfriend?”
