Page 25 of Pucking Snowed In With My Ex

“Are you sure you still want to go with him going, too?” Cal whispered. I didn’t look over my shoulder but knew Alex was standing near the car.

“Cal, for the last time, just forget it.” I couldn’t imagine what he’d be like if he knew what happened. He didn’t know and was already turning into an overprotective bear. He’d always been like this, but the time apart had dulled my memory of just how persistent and growly he could be.

His jaw twitched, and I raised my eyebrow. We were in a stand-off.

“Fuck. Fine. Tyler is with you, but if you come back upset for any reason, even if he ran over your toe with the shopping cart, I will….” He took a deep breath and plastered the fakest smile I’d ever seen on his face. “I will behave. That’s what I will do until you tell me otherwise.”

“Wow, that was the worst I’ve ever seen you lie. Not even the bird in that tree believes you.” He looked over at the red-tailed hawk perched in the tree, giving us all a suspicious look.

“Hmm. I am who I am, and I know you don’t want to hear that, but….” I cupped his face to stop the building rant.

“I love that you want to know. I love that you don’t think the worst of me anymore, but I’m begging you to please stop for now. It’s Christmas Eve and our first holiday together in three years. I consider this a gift. So let’s not ruin it with…you know what.”

“You drive a hard bargain, but my threat stands,” he said, impressing me when he didn’t glare at Alex. I would be shocked if he hadn’t forced me to tell him the whole story by the end of tomorrow. And then what? I could already feel the anger rolling off him in waves. This was such a mess.

“I can come, just say the word.”

“No, you said you had something you wanted to do here, so do that. We only need a few supplies, and the store will be closed if we don’t leave now.” Kissing him, I didn’t let him argue and walked to the car. Tyler, Alex, and Nathan stood waiting, but Tyler was adamant that I sit in the front with him.

The roads looked like they’d been plowed once but were still covered in a thick layer of slush. Luckily, Tyler’s truck carved through without a problem.

“Earth to Skye,” Tyler said, and I jumped at the sound of my name. I was so lost in thought that I hadn’t even noticed we parked at the store. The guys were already out of the vehicle as Tyler stared at me from the open driver’s side door. “You good?”

Undoing my seatbelt, I quickly hopped out. “Yeah, sorry. I was in my own little world.”

“That’s different from any other time how,” Alex asked and laughed, but no one else did.

“Ignore him. He’s just butt sore that he got put on shopping duty,” Tyler said, glaring at Alex.

As we walked across the parking lot, I tore the list into four parts. “Here you go. This will go much faster if we split up.” Grabbing a basket, I wandered away from the guys and smiled at an older woman picking out a poinsettia. Her snow-white hair reminded me of my grandma. She had passed away when I was ten, but I still remembered her vividly. Every year, we went to her house on Christmas Day, and it always smelled like heaven. The mouthwatering scent of fresh cookies and a turkey in the oven never faded, but it was her giving heart and laugh that I remembered the most.

The woman gave me a little grin as I continued on my way, collecting three of the five things on my list. I turned down the last aisle as I hunted for the chocolate sauce and frozen toaster pastries. Why did grocery stores have items grouped differently?

I yanked open the freezer door and was rummaging around to grab the requested flavor when something thudded on the glass. Startled, I jerked slightly and looked at the frosty door to see a glowing phone.

My mood shifted in an instant. I didn’t need to see Alex’s face clearly to know it was him.

“Can’t stay away,” I asked sarcastically. We were in a grocery store with cameras in every corner, so I almost welcomed Alex trying to do something stupid like grab at me.

“Oh, I know you wish. I remember you moaning.” My hand tightened on the raspberry pastries, denting the cardboard.

“Now you’re the one who is dreaming. If I moaned, it was because you finally left me alone.” I turned and faced the glass but refused to close the door. If he wanted to be a dick, he could walk around it and threaten me. “Look at it,” he growled.

I didn’t want to. It wasn’t going to be anything good. I tentatively wiped away the frost, and it took every bit of willpower I had not to lose it and slam the glass door into his face. The instantaneous rage burned so bright that I could picture jumping on him and strangling him with my bare hands. It didn’t matter whether I was strong enough or not. I hated him that much.

“You see that? I want you to remember that image every time your cunt mouth thinks about saying a single word to Cal or anyone else. Do you understand?”

“Go, fuck yourself,” I said and grabbed two more boxes of the pastries before slamming the door shut and glaring at Alex. The lewd look in his eyes and smirk curling his lip made the visual of violence so much more intense.

“I love it when you talk about fucking,” he said, still holding the picture of my sister up.

Unable to help myself, I smacked the phone from his hand, and his eyes darkened. “Do it, I dare you,” I said.

“You were and still are a cock tease and got exactly what you were begging for.”

I shook my head at him. “If that were true, you wouldn’t need to threaten me, would you?” I started to walk away as he bent to grab his phone, but I stopped and looked over my shoulder. “I can’t believe I used to call you a friend. You disgust me.”

That image of my baby sister would never leave my head. Shaking with rage, I knew I needed a new tactic. I’d planned on having him arrested until he started blackmailing me, but maybe I could get his devices taken away, and locked up before he destroyed Sammie’s life? No, it was to risky.