Page 30 of Another Christmas from Hell

Cringed when she heard it.

“Oooops!”came the taunting voice of a little girl that had her slowly, ever so slowly, turning around and-

“Oh, no.”

-realized that this wasn’t going to end well.

CHAPTER16

“Idon’t want to talk about it,” the small woman that hadn’t been able to look him in the eye since he’d been forced to take matters into his own hands said.

“They had it coming,” Sean said with a firm nod, drawing Cayley’s attention as she looked up at her best friend in horror and-

“You made them cry,” Cayley said, making Bryce bite back a wince even though he was still like ninety percent sure that the little bullies had been faking.

“They knew what they were doing,” Sean said with a firm nod as he took a sip of the overpriced hot cocoa that their sister made them buy before adding, “Oh, did they fucking know.”

“They were five,” Cayley said, looking completely lost for words, something that he noticed happened quite a bit when Sean was around.

“They should have known better than to touch our snowman,” Bryce said, watching as Cayley looked between him and Sean before her shoulders slumped in defeat and she forced herself to look away with a sad shake of her head and a mumbled, “I give up.”

“They really should have,” Sean murmured in agreement as they watched Cayley make her way back to the seats that Rory saved for them and-

“Are you going to tell me what you’re up to?” Sean asked as he took a bite of the large gingerbread man that he stole from Cayley when she made the mistake of putting it down so that she could pull her mittens on.

“The same as you,” Bryce said, taking in the outdoor movie theatre the town set up to raise money to build a new playground, from the inflatable movie screen playing some shitty Christmas movie to the snow tubes set up in front of it in lieu of chairs where most of the town’s people willing to fork over twenty bucks a head sat snuggled beneath a pile of blankets, to the venders lined up selling overpriced hot cocoa that was more water than cocoa, before shifting his attention back to his sister sharing an oversized snow tube with her husband and two children and-

Forced himself to look away.

“Something tells me that you’re not here to enjoy the Christmas festivities,” Sean murmured, sending him a questioning look that had Bryce glaring down at the little bastard.

“I’m here because you’re an asshole,” Bryce reminded him.

“Why would you say something so hurtful?” Sean asked, blinking up at him.

“You told Rory that you found me struggling to hold back tears because I was upset that no one invited me to join in all the Christmas bullshit last year and she fucking cried until I gave in and promised to join them for all the Christmas bullshit this year,” Bryce bit out with a glare for the little bastard that had truly fucked him over.

“She does good work,” Sean said, nodding solemnly.

“You want to tell me why you fucked me over?” Bryce asked, biting back a curse when he spotted their father making his way towards them.

God, he didn’t fucking need this tonight.

“I like to be entertained,” Sean said, shrugging it off as a thought occurred to him.

“It doesn’t explain why you’re here,” Bryce said, folding his arms over his chest as he glared at his brother, knowing that there was no way in hell that he would willingly subject himself to this bullshit without a good reason.

“My duty,” Sean said with a pointed look at Cayley as they watched her get in line for snacks only to mumble, “She better be getting me something tasty.”

“I thought the whole point of this was so that the stubborn little pain in the ass could prove you wrong,” Bryce drawled as he watched her move up in line.

“She told you about her asinine plan?” Sean asked, sounding surprised.

“Yes,” Bryce muttered absently as he watched the last person that he’d expected to see here step in line next to Cayley, who looked just as surprised as he was to see her ex-fiancé.

“She doesn’t know what she wants,” Sean said while Bryce stood there, telling himself that it was none of his business as he watched Cayley.

“And you do?” Bryce asked, swallowing hard as he watched Cayley shake her head at something that Kevin was saying to her as she stepped away, only to have the asshole follow her.

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