Page 25 of Another Christmas from Hell

“I really hate you,” Cayley said, feeling her shoulders slump in defeat as she turned around and made her way to the kitchen sink and filled the pitcher with water.

“I know you do,” Sean murmured absently as he grabbed her iPad and dropped down on the couch with a satisfied sigh.

“You’re making a big deal out of nothing,” Cayley said, hoping that it would be enough to get him to drop this.

“Probably,” Sean said, swiping open her iPad. “Then again, you could just tell me what I want to know.”

“There’s honestly nothing to tell,” she said, making her way to the large Christmas tree and filled the stand with water.

“Then, explain Thanksgiving dinner,” Sean said, settling in more comfortably on the couch.

“I didn’t run fast enough,” Cayley said even as she had to admit that she was still wondering the same thing.

“That doesn’t explain why you attempted to make Thanksgiving dinner before my brother kidnapped you,” Sean said as she tossed the empty pitcher at him as she dropped down on the other end of the couch.

At her questioning look, Sean said, “I spotted the turkey that you incinerated in the trash when I broke in last night to see if Aunt Laura dropped any tasty treats off for me.”

“You broke into my apartment?” Cayley asked, frowning in confusion. “When?”

“This morning when you were beating the shit out of your alarm clock,” Sean said, shifting his attention back to her iPad.

“What the hell were you doing at my apartment at one in the morning?” Cayley asked, only to sigh when he laid down and propped his boots on her lap.

“I was hungry,” Sean said as she shoved his feet off her lap.

“Then grab something out of your own damn fridge and stop eating all my food, jackass,” Cayley snapped when he put his feet back.

“Your food tastes better,” Sean murmured absently as he shifted further down the couch and threw his legs over hers when she managed to shove them off again.

“What food? You keep eating everything,” Cayley said, moving to shove the large bastard’s legs off her only to realize that he had her pinned to the couch.

Oh, God, no…

“Back to this deeply disturbing list that you titled ‘One Month to Prove the Big Jerk Face Wrong’,” Sean said with a satisfied sigh as she struggled to shove his legs off her lap. “I’m assuming that I’m the big jerk face.”

“You assume correctly,” Cayley said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she watched Sean as he took his time reading through her list and when he was done, he read through it again with a quietly murmured, “Interesting.”

“What’s interesting?” Cayley asked, returning her attention to shoving the large bastard’s legs off her.

“I can’t promise that I can do all of this with you, but I should be able to do most of it,” Sean said, nodding at whatever disturbing thought was going on in his head as he tossed her iPad on the coffee table and focused on her.

“Umm, why would you need to do any of it?” Cayley couldn’t help but wonder.

“Because you need me,” Sean said with a solemn nod.

For a moment, Cayley gave up trying to shove his legs off her lap and pointed at the iPad as she said, “The whole point of that list is to prove that I don’t need you.”

When his eyes narrowed dangerously on her, Cayley decided that it would probably be in her best interest to make sure that she cleared up any misunderstandings that he might be harboring from the start.

“You’re not invited,” Cayley said firmly.

“And why is that?” Sean drawled as he folded his arms behind his head and got more comfortable while he watched her curiously.

Never a good sign.

“Because I’m proving you wrong,” Cayley said, throwing in a firm nod to make it crystal clear to the large bastard shifting his legs on her lap to get more comfortable that she didn’t need him.

“I’m never wrong,” Sean said, shrugging it off.

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