Page 37 of The Holiday Boyfriend

Us fooling around might have started on a whim of wanting to help my friend release his frustrations, but it had evolved into so much more during these past couple months.

Somewhere along the way, the love I'd always had for my best friend had changed and become something more. Something bigger.

I love Austin.

I wasinlove with Austin.

And perhaps I always had been but never realized it was possible. I thought back to how irritated I was whenever someone mentioned Austin getting back with his ex—that fucker—or how much I'd miss him when we were too busy to see each other, or how much I liked Levi knowing about us being together. The signs were so fucking obvious that I was a fool to have never realized.

Maybe my mom was right when she'd said I was dense.

I was in love with my best friend, and I didn't want to lose him to anyone else.

Blood rushed through my ears and my heart dropped at the impending end date I'd promised him. I could slap myself for being so stupid to have ever agreed to that.

Austin wanted this to end once the last dance finished. I needed to do everything in my power to prevent that from happening, and that meant proving to him that us being together made sense. I thought back to the hope and longing in his eyes when he mentioned the Doves of Destiny.

I'd show him that he didn't need to look any further because his fate was with me. Now the problem was how was I going to do this…

Lost in thought, I wasn't paying much attention to the conversation Austin and Levi were having, but it sounded like they were reminiscing about the past.

I'd been curious about the circumstances of how they connected, so I focused on the present and noticed that Levi was sitting so close to Austin that he was almost on his lap. His movements were wild and exaggerated, but his eyes were clear without a hint of drunkenness in them, so that obviously wasn't an excuse for his behavior.

Seeing that Austin made no moves to stop him and instead kept flicking his gaze back and forth between the two of us, I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling the familiar sense of jealousy at Austin being so close with another man.

I cleared my throat to get their attention. “Aren't you crowding Austin a bit too much? How about some personal space?” I said, trying to play it off as teasing, but even I could hear the hardness in my tone.

Levi waved off my comment with a laugh and hooked an arm around Austin. “He's fine. With ourhistory, this amount of intimacy is nothing, right?” he said. His words were hinting at something that I didn’t like at all. He then turned to Austin, probably to get him to agree with him.

No matter how dense of a person I was, there was no way I could miss the innuendo in his tone. Something had clearly happened between Austin and Levi and the past, and from the looks of what was currently happening in front of me, Levi was keen for a trip down memory lane.

Like hell I would let that happen. Not on my watch.

Austin's eyes widened so big that they were almost circles, but he didn't say anything. Noticing this, Levi pulled Austin even closer to him and prompted again, “Right?”

I glared so hard at him that Levi probably felt the heat of my gaze, but he merely glanced at me before turning back to face Austin.

“Austin,” I said in a low tone that almost came out as a growl. Austin nearly jumped when he saw my expression, then quickly nudged Levi, telling him to cut it out. However, it was too late. I'd already heard more than enough.

“I don't care what you did with him in the past, but remember—”

“Who says what we had was just in the past?” Levi cut me off and shot Austin a flirtatious wink.

This time, I couldn't suppress the growl of irritation that had been brewing since his earlier comments. I wasn't a caveman who growled and grunted at people when I was angry. I knew how to use my words, but there was no way I was capable of articulating anything through my current jealousy and rage.

I didn't want to show Austin my bad side, especially when I wanted to show him that I was the one who was meant for him. Growling at people certainly wasn't going to win me any points on that front.

So before I completely lost control of my temper, I shot up from my seat and excused myself.

Austin shouted at my back, telling me to wait, but I couldn't. The pub suddenly felt too tiny, and I couldn't stay seated, watching them flirt right in front of me. I had to leave before I said something I regretted and lost Austin forever.

TWENTY-THREE

JIM

The biting evening breeze hitting my face did wonders for cooling my hot head. I took in a deep lungful of breath, trying to freeze the anger that had welled up inside me.

It didn't take long for the frigid December wind to remind me that I'd run out without my coat, which was stupid of me considering we were in the middle of winter. As if to mock me for my foolishness, a snowflake landed on my nose. The weather had apparently decided thatnowwas the best time to start snowing.

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