Page 123 of Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist

“What?”

“Not your thing? All right, she’ll walk up to you in a crowded place and whisper, ‘I always believed in you…I just didn’t believe in me.’”

Nick blinked at her.

“Oh for the love of Target, never mind! Pop culture is lost on you, my friend!” Merry shook her head. “All I’m trying to say is she’ll show up with some big romantic gesture you won’t understand but still love. You’ll kiss, fall into each other’s arms and live happily ever after.”

“You do understand what reality is, right?”

“Reality TV, yeah. For sure.”

She walked away from him and he dragged ass the rest of the day, avoiding his mother’s watchful eye and managed to get the hell out of there without a lecture. He followed his sisters down to the basement to practice, watching the stairs anxiously for Noel.

Soft footpads sounded on the stairs and his mother popped her head out.

“Hey, Nick. Noel’s feeling under the weather and I was hoping you could drop by a container of my healing chicken noodle soup.”

“Um, sure.” Nick wasn’t sure how Noel would feel about him swinging by her place, especially considering he was ass deep in love with her. He should find a way to stay away from her until his broken heart healed, but they were too intertwined in each other’s lives for that to happen. The Christmas Concert. The guys. Even family gatherings were unavoidable.

He’d planned on leaving the soup on the mat and texting her it was there, but he knocked instead. She answered it wrapped in a blanket like a burrito, only her face sticking out. Her nose and cheeks were flushed and her eyes watery with fever.

“Man, you really are sick.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” She sighed. “Sorry, I hate feeling like garbage. It makes me snappy.”

“It’s fine. Mom made you soup.” He held up the bag and her face lit up.

“Bless her. Did she pack crackers?”

“Of course.”

Her arm snaked out from between the blanket split, and she tried to take the bag, but he held it away.

She frowned. “What are you doing?”

“Taking care of you. Now go lie down before you fall down.”

“You don’t have to do that. I don’t want to get you sick.”

“Believe me, whatever you got, you were contagious long before today, so I’m already contaminated.”

“That’s a lovely thought,” she grumbled.

Still, she stepped back and let him in. He couldn’t fight a grin as he watched her waddle in her blanket burrito back to the couch and flop down with a moan.

“I hurt everywhere.”

“I’m sure you do.” Nick walked into the kitchen and poured the contents of the first plastic container into a bowl. He popped it into the microwave, removed a sleeve of crackers from the bag and put the rest of the soup in the fridge. He clicked his tongue at how empty it was.

“Where are all your groceries?”

“I ate them all. I was going to go shopping today and then this happened.”

“You got a list somewhere?”

“Corkboard next to the fridge.”

Nick grabbed the fifteen-item list on snowman stationery. “Well, if it had been a snake it would have bitten me.”

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