“Don’t.” I rolled my eyes before leaning in to kiss her cheek. “I’m doing a sisterly favor is all. Jan is on some weird cutesy kick this Christmas.”
“Uh, weird cutesy kick?” Jan appeared at our side. “We look fucking delightful.”
“Language!” Mum yelled across the room.
Jan’s eyes widened. “Her hearing is supernatural.”
“You do look adorable.” Beth leaned into Callan, who wrapped an arm around her waist. “But you also look like Christmas elves.”
Jan looked us up and down in consideration. “Crazy-hot Christmas elves,” she decided.
Callan and Beth grinned while I sighed in my best beleaguered big sister way.
“Anyway, I didn’t do it for me. I did it to inject some humor into Lily.” Jan patted my shoulder sympathetically. “Something happened to Lily that she won’t talk to us about. Maybe you’ll have a better chance getting it out of her so the rest of us can enjoy our Christmas.” On that, she flounced off to engage Belle in a tight hug.
I hadn’t seen Belle in ages and was glad to see Jo and Cam’s daughter was here without the boyfriend everyone hated.
“She dumped him,” Beth informed me.
“Huh?”
“Belle. She dumped the arsehole after she found out he was cheating on her.”
“I’m glad she got rid of him,” I murmured.
“Now, what’s this Jan is talking about?”
Callan cleared his throat and released Beth. “I think I’ll go grab another drink.”
She smiled gratefully at him, then turned to me as her boyfriend departed.
“Beth—”
My cousin took my arm before I could stop her and shuffled me out of the kitchen.
The Carmichaels’ townhouse was mammoth. The ground floor had a grand vestibule that led into a hallway with a wide, opulent curving stairwell. Three doors split off to the huge kitchen my aunt and uncle had renovated a few years ago, a TV room, a guest bedroom, a bathroom, and Uncle Braden’s office. On the next floor was the primary suite, a huge second living room, and Aunt Joss’s office. The top floor had been my cousins’ floor growing up. They each had a bedroom and shared a bathroom. When I was a wee kid, I thought my cousins lived in a palace.
Beth led me into the TV room and shut the door. They’d color drenched the room with a moody blue. The sofa was a sumptuous corner unit that could seat about ten people and was in a mustard-gold velvet that worked beautifully against the blue. Scatter cushions in blues and yellows and coppers made you want to dive on it so you could enjoy the enormous flat-screen TV on the opposite wall.
Beth sat down and I reluctantly followed suit.
“What’s going on?”
I shrugged unhappily. “I’m fine.”
“That was the least-soundingfineI’ve ever heard in my life. Why aren’t you telling Jan and/or your parents what’s up?”
“It’s Christmas and I don’t want to bring anyone down, okay.”
Beth raised an eyebrow. “Clearly, that plan is working great.”
“If they knew what was wrong, they’d watch me like a bird with a broken wing for the rest of Christmas break and I can’t stand the thought of that.”
“Then tellme. Maybe it’ll help. Has it got something to do with Sebastian?”
Groaning, I rested my face in my hands for a few seconds and then dropped them to meet Beth’s sympathetic stare. Maybe telling Beth would help me figure out my next move.
I told her about the last few months of very confusing signals from Sebastian. The Christmas gift he’d given me that was currently hidden in a drawer in the bedroom back at my flat. And without going into too much detail, the kisses we’d shared and the resultant aftermath.
