Page 11 of Another Christmas from Hell

“I thought we’d be together forever.” Sniffle. “I just thought you needed time to realize that you couldn’t live without me,” Cayley said as she released a shuddering sigh before continuing. “I always pictured us getting married, moving into a small house with a white picket fence where we would raise our ten children while breeding emus.”

“Emus?” Bryce asked dryly.

Sniffling, she nodded. “We’d make a killing selling emu eggs.”

“And why would we want to do that?” Bryce asked, rubbing his hands roughly down his face, suddenly feeling exhausted.

“How else would we support our ten children?” Cayley asked, frowning up at him.

“Please tell me that you’re screwing with me,” Bryce said, dropping his hands away.

“I would never joke about Fluffy,” Cayley said, blinking up at him.

“Who the hell’s fluffy?”

“Our nearsighted dog, of course. Kids need a dog, Bryce,” she said with a solemn nod, only to follow that up with another shuddering sigh as his eyes narrowed dangerously on her.

“Look, I think I really need to lay down in the fetal position and struggle to fight back the tears that I know are coming while I try to accept that the dream is over,” Cayley said around a yawn that was quickly followed by a mumbled, “Good talk,” as she walked away while he stood there, watching her as he told himself to let it go.

CHAPTER6

“Did you know that your brother was insane?”

“Yes,”Sean said around a loud yawn.“What did he do now?”

“He thinks I’m in love with him,” Cayley said, shifting the phone to her other hand as she threw her bag on a stack of boxes by the backdoor.

“He told you that?”

“Yes,” Cayley said as she took her time selecting one of the delicious treats that Aunt Laura dropped off for her earlier.

There was a heartfelt sigh and then,“This really is going to be the best Christmas ever.”

“It’s really not, though,” Cayley said with a heartfelt sigh as she settled on a brownie with fudge frosting, only to wince when Sean demanded,“What are you eating?”

“Nothing?” she said around a bite of the incredibly delicious brownie.

“Don’t lie to me, woman! I saw Aunt Laura’s car in the parking lot today. What did she bring me?”

“What makes you think they’re for you?” Cayley asked, wondering why she put up with the annoying bastard.

“Because she adores me,”came the answer that had her rolling her eyes even as she found herself sighing heavily as she headed for the door when whoever decided that this was a great time to knock on her door did it again and-

“You followed me everywhere,” Bryce said as soon as Cayley made the mistake of opening her front door.

She opened her mouth to respond, only to shake her head with a sigh as she turned around and made her way back to her kitchen with a muttered, “I really can’t do this tonight.”

“Can’t do what?”Sean asked, sounding bored.

“You were always following me,” Bryce bit out as he followed her inside.

“Is that…is that Bryce?”Sean asked, sounding intrigued.“Do not hang up the phone, woman!”

“When?” Cayley found herself asking, unable to help but frown as she struggled to figure out what the hell he was talking about.

“When we were kids, you followed me everywhere. You were always at the house,” Bryce said, looking incredibly pissed as he glared at her over the kitchen island.

“Because your brother wouldn’t stop dragging me over there,” Cayley said, unable to help but wonder where he was going with this.

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