Page 83 of The Holiday Ex-Files

By the time we made it to the paint samples, I felt as if I had been on my morning run, training for the 5K Noah and I were doing on Thanksgiving with his nephews. Thanksgiving was going to be busy for me.

I took some deep breaths and reminded myself that holly and jolly didn’t own me. The problem was, part of me wanted to deck the halls and falalalala. I rubbed my flat abdomen, the invisible scar I was trying to keep from ripping open. I knew it meant in some small way that Ben still owned me. The past several weeks I had taken back what I could. Even enjoyed myself. More like rediscovered my sparkly side who was all for doing away with me. I had to admit, I did like her.

Why thank you. By the way, did you notice they decorated the tree all wrong on aisle 10? Hello, did you see all those gaps? Maybe you should go fix it.

Miss Sparkly was looking for a hit of pine. I would not be her dealer.

Instead, I settled Luna next to me and grabbed some greige paint samples. Sparkles could get high off paint fumes later.

Noah sidled up to me. “You doing okay? You looked like you might hyperventilate there with all the—”

I placed my finger on his lips. I was good at catching him now before he used the C-word. Unfortunately, his supple lips felt way too good. Don’t even get me going on his stubble. Forget the pine, we were going to get high off Noah’s charm.

Noah grinned, and I dropped my finger before I did something skanky like run my hand across his chiseled jawline.

Just do it.

We are not a Nike commercial, Sparkles.

“I’m fine. Thank you for asking,” I answered, before holding up some paint tiles. “What do you think? Ginger Sugar or Cotton Gray? I’m thinking Ginger Sugar.”

“Sounds like a good stripper name,” Noah teased.

I snort laughed. I laughed a lot around Noah. I always had. “So, no Ginger Sugar.” I placed the tile back and picked up a few more samples. While I was comparing the five shades of white, my phone exploded with noises and notifications. I handed Luna’s leash over to Noah and reached in my bag for my phone. My social media pages were going wild with comments. I had no idea why. My daily posts did well, but not like this. Before I could log in to my accounts, I got a message from Mara.

Mara: Don’t panic, but someone just posted a picture of you and Noah on your pages. Also, is there something you want to tell me?

Her words had my stomach dropping to the floor. So much so, I couldn’t respond to her. I had to see what I was dealing with. From the sounds of it, I wasn’t going to like it. With shaking fingers, I got on my Facebook page—that’s where most of the notifications were coming from. Sure enough, someone had posted a picture of Noah and me in the hardware store. We looked, in a word, coupled. His hand was on the small of my back, and we were both smiling. Luna only added to it. We looked like a danged Hallmark Channel movie poster. Title: Hardware Magic. Wait, that sounded more X-rated. Regardless, it was getting two thumbs-down.

My breaths became shallow as I read the comments the photo was garnering.

I have to say, I’m kind of disappointed.

Was it all just a lie, Cami?

I thought she really understood what it meant to be single. I’ll miss her posts.

I grabbed my chest, tears filling my eyes.

“Cams, what’s wrong?” Noah was obviously concerned.

I looked up into the warm, inviting eyes of the man who had gotten me into a huge mess. “Noah,” I squeaked. “People think we’re dating. Someone just posted this picture of us.” I held up my phone and looked around for the creepy culprit. I knew someone was watching us.

Noah grabbed my phone and grinned. “We look good.”

I swiped it back from him. “This isn’t good, Noah. This is bad for both of us.” Annika was probably going to flip her lid. And we know she likes to stab things.

Noah’s brow crinkled. “Bad how? Like I said, I don’t give a damn what people say about me, in person or online.”

“You’re lucky that way. This could be the end of my business,” my voice hitched.

Noah pulled me and Luna to a more out-of-the-way place near some large buckets of paint. He placed his hands firmly on my shoulders, searching my eyes like he was looking for the right words to say. His face went from pinched to pursed to tight, finally landing on a soft smile. “Cami, I get why you do what you do, but someday you are going to have to quit letting other people rule your life, whether it’s Ben or your followers. I know you’re trying to figure out your life right now, so go tell the world whatever you need to, to make yourself feel better. But just remember, until you own your life, you’re never going to get better.” He kissed my head and walked back toward the paint samples, leaving me without any air to breathe.

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