Page 19 of Terms and Traditions

Emmett just shrugged and watched the standoff.

“The nature of my relationship with Steph will stay between the two of us,” I said firmly. “I’ll be meeting her family for Christmas, though, so I’ll be out of your hair.”

Oh boy. We hadn’t discussed talking about the complexity of our arrangement with our friends. This was something we definitely should have planned for. At least I should have, with my level of nosy friends. And yes, I said friends because Emmett was the biggest sap for gossip, even if his gruff and grumbly exterior dissuaded all manner of confidences.

Ryan’s eyes sparked with glee.

Yeah. This was definitely something we should have talked about.

“That’s not a no, and meeting the family already?” Ryan crowed, throwing his head back. “Dude, you’re so gone!”

Emmett smacked the back of Ryan’s head—something I sorely wanted to do myself at the moment—then fixed his steely grey eyes on me. “Christmas. With her family. Hiram Addams’s princess, yeah? Isn’t this all rather sudden?”

I had a sudden sympathy for all small animals being hunted by a deadly jungle cat. Wow, I did not think this through well enough. But neither was I expecting to be ambushed at work by my soon-to-be former best friends. As if I could get rid of them. “She’s not his princess,” I growled. From the moment Stephanie applied for the job, she’d been upfront about her father. The kingpin of the rival marketing company to my own, Genesis. Nova Designs and Hiram Addams were the equivalent of cuss words in the Genesis office.

Ryan perked up. “Yeah. On Friday you protested that she wasn’t even your crush, and you never said anything about a girlfriend. What gives?”

“Can’t a man have a few secrets?” I fiddled with the cuff of my navy dress shirt, wishing I had left my suit coat on in a power move, but alas, the thermostat was still on the fritz, and a suit coat would have been the sweaty death of me.

Emmett grunted. “Not in this group apparently.”

“Think about it this way,” I said. “You both get a Christmas free of a third wheel. Whatever will you do without Uncle Nash there to rile up your kids?”

Ryan nodded solemnly. “We owe Stephanie our thanks.” He tossed a teasing wink at me over his shoulder as he left the room.

Emmett hesitated at the door, clearly warring with himself on whether he wanted to say whatever was brewing in his mind.

With how long Emmett tended to deliberate over things, I’d be here till New Years if I left him to it without some encouragement. “Spit it out, Mitchell. I can take it.”

But Emmett didn’t smile. “You didn’t do this because of us, right? We didn’t make you feel unwelcome?”

The thoughtfulness—and uncertainty—in Emmett’s question surprised me. Ryan was a goof to his core but could be serious when the situation demanded it. Emmett though… He didn’t do feelings stuff if he could help it—which was particularly amusing to watch as he had three young daughters, one of them a preteen. That meant this really bothered him.

I offered him a half grin. “Nah, man. As much as I’d like to trade you in for new friends when you get on my back about Hallmark, I couldn’t ask for better ones. This is…” I hesitated, trying to find the words to explain it. “This is for me. For Steph. It’s been a long time coming.” As long as the week didn’t burn up any chance I had of convincing her to make this real.

Emmett studied me for any hint of a lie. But he must not have seen one because he relaxed. “She’s good for you. Better than Alexis ever was.” He dipped his chin slightly. “She sees you.”

Tension coiled my muscles, and my jaw clenched till it ached. But I forced myself to take a slow breath. “Yeah. Right.”

Emmett nodded apologetically before slipping from the room. It’d been years since either of them had mentioned the name of my ex-girlfriend-almost-fiancée from a decade ago. I hadn’t dated seriously since her, despite the guys’ attempts to wrangle me into blind dates on a handful of occasions. And she was the reason I’d started my company in the first place.

But when it came to Stephanie, I’d considered breaking my no-serious-dating rule. And I could only pray she wouldn’t break me like Alexis did. Whether it was real or not, despite all my past hang-ups and doubts… I was already in, my heart on the line.

Chapter nine

Stephanie

Sweet relief was palpable when I finished my last day of work on the 22nd. All week I’d been as nervous as a Christmas cracker ready to explode. Because even though Nash was my fake boyfriend as of tomorrow morning, he was also still my boss, and we had boundaries in our friendship. The only thing that had changed was the frequency of our off-work-hours texts. He had questions about the schedule and my family. I fired off as many warnings and cheat sheet items as I could, giving him a crash course in all things Addams family.

There are six siblings—Gabe, Zoe, Elijah, Veronica, Austin, and me. All of them are married or have significant others who will also be there.

Gabe and I are the only siblings who don’t work for Hiram.

All of my nieces and nephews are pranksters. Watch your shoes.

Nana, Hailey, Gabe, and Ivy are your only safe zones. Everyone else is a land mine.

In my last bit of office housecleaning, I powered down my computer and quickly scanned my office. It was snug but sleek, done up with a soft neutral colour palette and sage accents and boasting of just a desk and two chairs along with my filing cabinet. Nash’s office connected to the back of mine, our desks in each other’s line of sight when the doors were open. As I grabbed my purse, I heard his murmured undertones through the closed door. Must be a phone call.