Page 20 of The Holiday Boyfriend

THIRTEEN

AUSTIN

“Children! Food!”

The shout only caused the sweet dream to shift into an empty whiteness, but the loud banging on the door had me sitting up in shock.

“Breakfast's ready,” Gemma said, poking her head around the door and sticking her tongue at me before slamming my door shut and stomping down the stairs. Despite heading off to college next year, she still acted like a child around me. It must be the sibling bond we shared.

I groaned and ran a hand through my hair to get it at least semi under control and out of my face. My body felt sore from sleeping on my sister's old twin-size bed, telling me that I was too used to the luxuries of a memory foam mattress and thick down comforters.

Not that I could complain, since I was the one who insisted on staying at my parents' place for the past two weeks. I tried to tell myself that it was more convenient since my parents lived closer to the airport than our apartment, and I was making a lot of trips there lately to pick up the fall tourists, but I knew the truth. It was all an excuse to avoid Jim.

I dragged my body to the bathroom, washed up, and hobbled down the stairs. I'd been living in an apartment for so long that I'd forgotten how annoying stairs were, especially when you were half-awake and sleep deprived from a late airport pick-up.

Ma, Pop, and my little sister were already sitting around the table. “Finally decided to get up, huh?” Ma glanced up at me and said.

There was no point in replying since she would always get the final word in, so I plopped myself in the empty chair. Ma immediately started filling my plate with pancakes, muffins, bacon, and entirely too much food for one person. “Ma, I can't eat all this.”

She tsked and continued to pile my plate with more scrambled eggs. “This is why you're so skinny. You're not eating enough.”

I grumbled and accepted my fate of sitting in this spot for the next couple hours until I finished the food, because Ma would absolutely murder me if I wasted food.

“Not that I don'tlovehaving you here, but how long are you staying for? I miss having my own bathroom.” Of course, my dear little sister couldn't wait to kick me out of the house.

“Stop that. This is his home too.” Ma chided her, then turned to me. “You can stay however long you want. Maybe then I can finally get some meat on those bones.”

“I don't know about that. It looks like Gemma can't wait for me to leave,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her as revenge for earlier.

“Untrue,” she said with an eye roll.

“Oh, please. You couldn't wait for me to move out,” I teased, reaching over to tussle her hair. She glared at me and flattened the bangs I'd messed up.

“Well, it's not my fault you had the bigger room,” she muttered, and I chuckled.

I'd moved out at twenty-five, mostly because I wanted to live with Jim. It seemed like a dream to be able to see him every day, eat together, and end the night with him. Little did I know that it was both a blessing and a curse.

“Well, you got the bigger room now, and the bigger bed,” I said, rubbing my still sore shoulders. The twin might have worked for Gemma when she was fourteen, but definitely not for twenty-eight year old me.

Meanwhile, Pop silently sat there watching us with a smile on his face as he sipped his coffee. He was the quiet one in the family, and I'd always been told that I took after him in that regard.

Gemma snickered and stole a pancake from my plate. I shot her a grateful smile. “So, did you get into a fight with Jim or something?” she asked as she soaked the pancake with what was probably a pound of syrup. My stomach hurt just looking at it. It was diabetes waiting to happen.

“No,” I muttered and crunched on a piece of bacon.

Jim had texted me the second day I hadn't returned to the apartment asking if I was okay. His text sounded more detached and reserved than they usually did, and that only confirmed that I'd made the right choice to put some distance between us.

He probably regretted ever having to take care of a drunken me and being pulled into a situation that he obviously wanted no part in.

“Well, whatever you did, apologize and make up,” she said with another eye roll. She had recently become the queen of eye rolls, much to our Ma's annoyance. “I'd happily give in to him in any argument. He's so yummy.”

I scowled at her. Jimwasyummy, but I didn't need my little sister to be crushing on my crush. The situation was already complicated enough.

“Gemma, stop hitting on your brother's boyfriend,” Ma said, but her eyes barely left the local newspaper she was reading.

“Ma, I told you, Jim isn't my boyfriend.”

Such a good thing only happened in my dreams.

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