Page 20 of Santa Baby

“So, Mason?” she said. “He’s such a handsome man. It’s so nice that you’re dating someone we’ve known for so long.”

I shot Colin another look, trying to burrow into his mind to silently ask him what the hell he was thinking.

“His family is catholic too, right?” Mom asked. “I think I remember his mother telling me about that when we were there for parents weekend.”

“That was fifteen years ago,” Colin said smoothly. “I doubt he still goes to services.”

“Still, that means you can get married in the church without any issues, Fia.” Mom nodded and looked relieved.

I groaned and ran my hand over my face, slouching in my seat.

“I only remember his dad being a real piece of work,” Dad grumbled. “No wonder Mason turned to whiskey.”

“Be nice, Andy,” Mom replied lightly, giving him a nudge on the arm.

“No, really. If this guy’s anything like his dad, there’s not going to be a wedding.”

Curiosity killed the cat, so to speak. I peeked at my dad through my fingers. “What about his dad?” I remembered the cold, older version of Mason well, even though we barely met the one time at Mason’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Dad leaned back in his chair with a sigh. I looked to Colin when Dad failed to sum up his feelings, and Colin met my eyes with an identical sigh that he obviously inherited from our father. “Mason’s dad⁠—”

“The whiskey thing has to be true,” Dad interrupted, waving his hand.

“What whiskey thing?” I asked.

Colin winced like whatever he started officially got out of hand. “Mason started making hooch in our dorm room, you know? Well, he had a recipe, and the recipe caused some major drama in his family, especially between him and Robert.”

I scanned the table, noticing my parents had been gone totally quiet.

Colin continued. “Mason’s grandma was pretty sick our sophomore year. Mason was planning on going to work for his dad’s hedge fund, rising through the ranks to eventually take over for him one day, but his grandma gave him something on her death bed and it changed everything. Their family is from Scotland, you know. They go way back—clan stuff. She had a whiskey recipe that was prized, I guess. A huge secret passed down from generation to generation, and she gave it to Mason.”

Something like dread numbed my senses but I couldn’t figure out why. “So?”

“So, he took that recipe and commercialized it, turning it into a multi-billion-dollar business, and he and his dad have had a really rocky relationship ever since.”

I zoned out as Colin and my parents went back to talking about Mason and our relationship like it was something real and meaningful. Eventually plates were cleared, and I was sitting in front of Colin at the formal dining table, sorting a box of old ornaments Mom kept, several of them handmade at school and brought home to her as gifts.

Was Mason’s reasoning for having a fake girlfriend something that had to do with his dad? Was that why he wouldn’t tell me?

Colin hummed along to the song playing on the radio in the kitchen while Mom cleaned up from dinner and Dad took his daily post-dinner snooze in the living room next door. I looked up at my brother, pulling myself out of the haze of questions clogging my brain. “Why’d you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Bring up Mason in front of our parents? This isn’t real, you know. I’m not actually dating him!”

“You guys looked pretty cozy at the auction.” He arched a brow, smiling as he unwrapped another ornament.

“I’m supposed to⁠—”

“Mason’s a good guy, Fia. You’re lucky, honestly.” He shifted his weight, his eyes meeting mine. “We had a luncheon today, and he was talking about you to some of our business partners, mentioning your keen eye for detail. You’re going to have some jobs lined up real soon, I bet.”

Something cracked in my heart. Something that spread, cold and utterly unexpected. I signed up for this because Colin was right—I needed to do more. I needed more money, more opportunities, and being a part of their world was the only way I was going to make a name for myself in this industry. Now, that had a chance of happening.

Why did I feel so gutted that Mason had been talking me up in a business sense and not a personal one?

10

MASON