Page 84 of Santa Baby

“You did this to us!” My voice cracked over the words. “You told me I owed you, and this was how I could repay you for messing up your friend’s wedding! You made me do this!” I looked at Mason with pleading eyes. “Mason, I just found out about the job offer. I hadn’t decided on anything yet.”

Mason just looked at me like he didn’t recognize me, which gutted me.

“Mason—”

“Go back inside, Fia,” he said calmly, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. “Please.”

“No.”

“This is between me and Colin.” He took a tentative step toward me, and I shocked myself by backing away.

“No. It’s not between you and Colin. This is between you and me.” I tore my gaze from Mason’s drawn face and glared at my brother, shaking my head. “You’re drunk.”

“I’m not.”

“You just embarrassed all three of us in front of the entire family. You did this a few weeks ago when you brought Mason up at dinner, remember?” I sniffled, wiping my freezing cold nose on the back of my hand. “You announced to our parents that I was dating your friend. You didn’t say anything about it being fake, about it being a business arrangement. You put me in a position to lie to our mom and dad and now you call us out for it? On Christmas Eve? In front of the entire family?”

Mason clenched his jaw. I could feel his gaze boring into the side of my face as I kept my eyes firmly planted on Colin.

“This is not the kind of guy you need.”

“You don’t get to decide that for me,” I said.

“Did you not learn anything the past few weeks?” Colin raised his voice, gesturing wildly to Mason, who was just standing there and taking it. “We’re not a part of their world, Fia. Do you know what people say about me? In the circles I run in? Why do you think I got dumped right before Thanksgiving, huh? We are not like them.”

“Colin, that’s enough,” Mason practically growled, but Colin pressed forward, not skipping a beat.

“You’re always going to be a middle-class nobody from Brooklyn, just like me.” He turned his attention to Mason. “I’m not letting you do this to her. Having her on your arm for the events this season was one thing. She got what she needed to get out of that, and now she can go to LA⁠—”

“Stop it!” I was two steps away from grabbing my brother and trying to shake some sense into him.

“Fia, please,” Mason said coolly. “Go back inside.”

My eyes watered as I looked at him. Whether from the cold or the emotions flaring through my body, I wasn’t sure. But I was sure of one thing. He looked bored. Indifferent. “You told me you’d talk to him about this and you didn’t.”

“I didn’t have a chance.”

“Then do it now.” I barely recognized my own voice, and I hated it. The pleading, begging whine that came from me sounded like exactly the type of women I had promised myself I would never be. Mason showed up. He made me feel wanted. He made me believe that this was real. Realer than real.

Like we were meant to be together.

Until right now.

I’d accidentally called myself his girlfriend earlier. It wasn’t a conversation we’d had, not really. We hadn’t put a label on it because he wanted to talk to Colin first.

Mason tucked his hands in the pockets of his pants and turned to Colin, but he didn’t say anything. He just looked him up and down and shook his head before turning to face the road.

“Mason?” I bit out, shocked.

“Yeah, walk away,” Colin scolded, puffed up and obviously two glasses too deep with wine.

Mason stopped walking and turned around, running his tongue along his lower teeth before stalking in Colin’s direction. I’d never seen someone move so swiftly and purposefully before, and suddenly, for the first time since I met him, I saw him as the man Colin has described him as. Cold. Unmovable. Emotionless and driven. “We’re not having this conversation while you’re wasted, and not in front of Fia. She doesn’t deserve that.”

“You don’t get to tell me what she deserves⁠—”

“I’ve spent the last several weeks doing everything in my power to give her just that, Colin.” Mason’s eyes flicked to mine, his expression unreadable as he turned back to Colin. “You know me, which is the worst part about this. You know me, Colin, probably better than anyone.”

He took a step away from Colin and my brother looked like he’d just been slapped in the face.