From"tell Daddy Claus the real milk and cookies are in between your legs"to "enjoy the evening, you deserved it,"everythingwas covered. And names aside, it didn’t take rocket science to determine which text came from whom.
“You know what I couldn’t help but notice recently?” Audrey snaps me out of my thoughts, reverting my attention to the present moment.
I look over at her when she points to my left hand.
“How come you haven’t worn your ring the last couple of times you’ve been over for dinner?”
While a wide smirk grows on her face, mine loses all its color.
Margaret and Phil knew about everything that went down, but Nate still never told his family. We’d only been separated for a week, and decided it didn’t matter when we were back together. This time around, we were doing things right—no more ring, and no more lying (from now on).
“I—” The words get stuck in my throat.
Audrey laughs so hard it draws mother hen’s attention whose brows furrow at my shocked state.
“What’s so funny?” Natalia asks as she looks back and forth between us.
Audrey is still wheezing, face beet red. And somehow, from the dismissive shake of her hand and a look in Nate’s direction, Natalia catches on, finding herself in much the same state as her daughter.
A shaky hand lands on my shoulder. “We know, Vivienne. You don’t have to answer the question I asked you,” Audrey barely chokes out.
My mouth opens and closes.Know what?
Natalia clears the air for me. “Oh, honey, we knew the engagement was fake from the start. There’s no need to play along anymore.”
My heart sinks to the pit of my stomach as Natalia guffaws louder.She slips herself between Audrey and me, throwing an arm around each of our shoulders and pulling us close.
“A mother always knows what’s up with her kids. There’s never any need to voice it. We just know.”
Audrey nods in agreement, still cackling.
“Plus, Nate has never been that kind of guy,” Natalia continues. “We always knew what was going on in his life—his close friends, the problems he encountered. He kept his dating life private—not that he had one aside from my friend’s daughter—but that’s because he knew early on that things weren’t going to lead anywhere. He would have never gotten engaged to a woman without introducing her as a girlfriend first, so it was pretty obvious.”
I agree with her last sentence, but I really did believe that his family bought our charade.
“Then how come you went along with it?” I ask, genuinely baffled.
She shrugs with her signature smirk. “Thought it would be fun. You seemed like a nice girl, so I didn’t think it would be a bad idea to ship the two of you together. Plus, I have eyes. I saw the way you guys were looking at each other. The attraction was there, you were both just too hardheaded to cave.”
“I am so sorry,” I apologize on a sigh. “We should have been upfront from the start.”
“Don’t you dare apologize,” Natalia scolds. “I had the time of my life ruffling both your feathers. Plus, it doesn’t count anymore now that you’re really on your way to becoming my daughter-in-law. Look at the way he looks at you. That boy is smitten.”
At her mention, I look up and see exactly that—Santa whispering into Anya’s ear as she giggles her little heart out. The entire picture is perfect: his light green eyes, trained on me, are twinkling with so much love and wonder.
His moment is cut short, though, when Anya gasps, and realization dawns on her features. She points an accusatory finger in Nate’s direction. “Why do you sound like my uncle?”
The room goes silent.
Nate’s smile fades.
Audrey’s face goes red.
The adults in the room look worried for their own children, while Melanie, Adam, and Grayson double over in quiet laughter.
“Yeah, where is Nate, anyway?” Adam looks around the room, prompting all the kids to follow suit.
Audrey escapes from her mother’s embrace, clapping her hands to grab everyone’s attention. “Looks like it’s time for Santa Claus to go.” She grabs Nate by the wrist, pulling him in the direction of the staircase where he went down. “He’s got some other houses to tend to.”
