Page 20 of Another Christmas from Hell

“I spoke with your father the other day,” Mr. James said as he joined her by the sink while Cayley did her best not to wince at the realization that she’d just been caught devouring his son with her eyes and-

It was probably for the best if she pretended that this never happened, Cayley decided as she cleared her throat and mumbled, “Oh?” as Mr. James took the lid from her and dried it with a towel.

“For some reason, he was under the impression that you were spending Thanksgiving with your fiancé’s family,” he said, throwing her a questioning look as she grabbed another dirty pot.

“Probably because I led him to believe that,” Cayley said, making his lips twitch.

“And Mary?” Mr. James asked, mentioning her new stepmother.

Cayley cleared her throat and murmured, “She may have had something to do with my decision.”

“Not a big fan?”

Blinking, Cayley repeated the line that she’d been using since she found out that her father was marrying her old high school English teacher. “As long as he’s happy, that’s all that matters,” she said, nodding solemnly as she made quick work of scrubbing the pan clean.

Chuckling, Mr. James said, “Fair enough,” before bringing up the one thing that she’d been hoping to avoid, “And is there a reason why your father doesn’t know that you ended your engagement?”

Biting back a sigh, Cayley said, “Because I didn’t think that it was a good idea to tell him.”

At his questioning look, Cayley said, “He worries about me.”

“That’s his job,” Mr. James said as he took the clean pan from her and began drying it with a towel.

“The only reason that he moved was because he thought that Kevin would look after me. I don’t want to give him one more reason to worry about me,” Cayley said, knowing that if her father found out what happened that he wouldn’t be happy until she finally gave in and moved closer to him, but even then, that probably wouldn’t be enough to get him to stop worrying about her.

“From what I’ve seen, Sean’s been looking after you,” Mr. James said as Cayley glanced back up to find Sean glaring at her through the window, mouthing, “Watch your back.”

She opened her mouth only to wince when Bryce slammed into him from behind and knocked him on his ass.

“Then again,” Mr. James drawled as Bryce looked up and his intense emerald gaze locked on her, making her swallow hard, “Something tells me that your father doesn’t have anything to worry about.”

CHAPTER11

For a moment, Cayley stood there, debating the pros and cons of doing this, but…

She’d put this off long enough, Cayley realized as she set her alarm clock to four in the morning, determined to finally go Black Friday shopping and see what all the fuss was about. That led to her doing a quick search online to see if there was anything that she should do to get the most out of this experience, which was followed by re-setting her alarm to one a.m., making sure that her coffee pot was ready to go, picked out her clothes for the morning, downloaded a new book to her phone so that she had something to do while she waited in line, and debated looking for her old beach chair so that she could relax in line only to decide against it since that just seemed like a lot of work.

Once she had everything prepared to make sure that her first Black Friday shopping experience went smoothly, Cayley took a quick shower, changed into her pajamas, and called it a night, only to find herself staring at the wall as she once again found herself thinking about Bryce and-

There was something seriously wrong with her, Cayley decided as she rolled over onto her other side, glared at the wall, and found herself wondering why Bryce was suddenly being nice to her. Well, as nice as a man who enjoyed glaring at her could be, Cayley thought as she closed her eyes only to groan pathetically when what felt like a few minutes later, her alarm clock suddenly went off, refusing to shut up until she was forced to bitch-slap it into submission.

That was followed by staring numbly at her alarm clock, trying to figure out why she was awake at one in the morning, only to remember her Black Friday goals from the night before. Grumbling, Cayley turned over and buried her face in her pillow as she struggled to find the willpower to get out of bed, only to decide that she loved sleep more than discounts. Decision made, Cayley snuggled back under the covers, released a soft sigh and went back to sleep.

Several hours later, she was well-rested and ready to start her day. After enjoying a leisurely breakfast in bed, she read for a bit, followed by a nap, a hot bath, and ordered pizza for an early dinner before finally, she was ready to get to work. She had a lot to do in the next month, Cayley reminded herself as she went to grab her bag so that she could grab the list that she’d been working on, only to remember that someone stole it the other night while she was dancing with Bryce.

The reminder, unfortunately, led to her sitting on her couch, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she found herself thinking about how much she liked being in his arms, something that Cayley was determined to pretend never happened. He was her best friend’s brother and the man that-

She couldn’t stop thinking about, which considering their history and the fact that he thought that she was in love with him, wasn’t a good idea. Biting back a sigh, Cayley reached over and grabbed her iPad and after selecting her favorite productivity app, she created a new project and began adding everything that she remembered from the last list only to add a few more after a quick internet search for local Christmas activities.

Once she was done, Cayley looked over the list, and made a few tweaks, until finally, she had the perfect to-do list for Christmas. Deciding that the best place to start was decorating her apartment, she threw on a pair of slippers, made her way downstairs to the basement and searched through her storage closet. It took her ten trips, but she managed to carry everything that she’d saved over the years, including the fake Christmas tree that she bought at a yard sale a few years ago, up to her apartment.

It took her longer than she thought it would, but she was finally able to get the Christmas tree up, only to find herself wondering why it was missing most of its limbs. That led to another search through her storage unit, several grumbles, and after contemplating decorating the tree anyway with the hope that enough ornaments and tinsel would make a difference, Cayley reluctantly took down the fake tree that she’d wasted ten dollars on and dragged it outside where she spent another ten minutes struggling to throw it in the dumpster thanks to all the snow that had fallen sometime during the night.

Knowing that she really didn’t have a choice, not if she wanted to do this right, Cayley went back inside, grabbed her winter coat, a scarf, and her favorite gloves and headed back outside, deciding that she needed a real tree this year if she wanted to do this right. That led to her worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she took in all the snow covering her car and blocking her in and quickly deciding that a walk through the snow sounded like a lovely idea, mostly because she didn’t want to spend the next half-hour shoveling snow.

For a moment, Cayley considered calling Sean and asking him for help, but since she was avoiding him at the moment, she decided that the best course of action was to continue ignoring him. It was either that or deal with all those questions that she’d rather not answer. With that in mind, she turned around and made her way towards the sidewalk just as Bryce’s truck pulled into his parking spot and-

“Is there a reason why my brother is asking me what I did with your body?” Bryce asked as he climbed out of his truck, not bothering to look at her as he grabbed his bag.

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