Niko continued smiling. “If you’re feeling froggy, hop.”
“Fuck you!”
Niko’s face was split in half, his smile was so wide.
“Brock, it’s fine.” G touched his arm as she gave Niko a pleading look. She knew why Niko was smiling, she’d heard his theory on more than one occasion that if you drop an F bomb in the defensive, your opponent knows you are in a winning position. Dropping two, it was check. A fuck you, and it was checkmate. “Let’s go find your mom and sister. We’re supposed to meet them by the bookstore.”
Brock jerked his arm away from G. His action nearly caused him to elbow her in the chin. If that had happened, Niko would have knocked Brock on his ass. As it was, Niko’s hands were twitching, his fingers were curling up into his palms, but he forced them to relax.
“Happy holidays, Hope Falls! I am Mayor Walker. Welcome to the annual downtown tree lighting ceremony!”
A swell of cheers built around them as the crowd applauded and whistled. Niko concentrated on the stage and stepped behind Tiana, putting his arms around her and pulling her against him, ignoring Brock altogether.
The mayor went on to speak a little bit, and Niko leaned down and whispered against Tiana’s ear as he tightened his hold around her waist. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
“Do you want to leave?” he asked.
She shook her head and tilted it back so she could speak into his ear. He leaned down.
“I promised Karina I’d stay for her song and the lighting.”
“Okay.”
Niko did his best to continue to ignore Brock and concentrate fully on his connection with Tiana. Their relationship may technically be “fake,” but his feelings were anything but. He cared about the woman whom he held in his arms. He cared about her a lot. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe because he’d admired her from afar for so many years.
He used to tell himself his gravitational pull to her was because his very first crush was Zoë Kravitz, and she bore a striking resemblance to the actress. Then he said it was because she was with his arch nemesis in college, so she was forbidden fruit. But now that he’d spent even just a little bit of time with her, he knew it was more than that. Much more.
Karina came on stage, and the first thing she did was give a shout out to Tiana and her classes by blaming her for being so sore, she was the reason she would not be dancing, then joked and said it had nothing to do with the fact that she was now in her thirties which made her ancient for a pop star. Karina then introduced her husband, Ryan, who joined her with his guitar, and the couple sang a beautiful duet with lyrics of fresh starts and soulmates.
As soon as the song was finished, Karina and Ryan did a countdown and lit the tree. Everyone cheered, and the crowds began pushing forward trying to get in peak positions for Instagramable photos in front of the tree.
“Are you ready to go?” Niko whispered against Tiana’s ear, and he felt her body shiver again.
He noticed every time he whispered against her ear, she trembled, and he loved that reaction. It made him want to find out what else he could do to make her body react.
She nodded.
“Okay, I’ll give you a ride.”
He’d noticed that she didn’t have a car. He hadn’t asked her about it, but his plan for the next five weeks was he was going to be Tiana’s personal Uber.
Her eyes widened slightly in panic. “Oh, that’s okay. I’ll walk, I want to walk.”
Or not. It seemed personal Uber driver was not on the table.
“Okay, I’ll walk you.”
“No.” She shook her head and placed her hand on his chest. “You don’t have to do that.”
Niko could see there was a slight hint of panic in her eyes. He glanced around, making sure no one could hear him, then covered her hand with his and leaned down. “I promise I won’t ask to come in, but there’s no way I’m letting you walk out of here alone.”
Tiana bit the inside of her lip, and he could see that she was leaning towards a hard no, but then something caught her eye over his shoulder, and she nodded in agreement. “Fine, yeah, okay.”
Relief washed over him that she’d agreed, but as he headed out with her, he glanced over his shoulder and saw the reason she had. Brock was staring at them.
Niko wasn’t sure what his deal was or what his plan was, but he was going to find out and make sure no one he cared about got hurt.
