Page 92 of The Naughty List Agreement

“I’ve mellowed. I mean, I’m still working all hours but I do take a small break now and then. Fliss, Hannah, and I have lunch most days. That’s your influence. Making me enjoy December.”

“I’m glad to hear that. December is a special month.”

“Growing up here, I can see why you think that,” she said. This neighborhood had an aura of magic to it.

“This place plays a huge part in who I am,” Nick said stopping at the top of the main street, pulling her up on the sidewalk in front of one of the shops. He kissed her long and deep. They started walking again and this time she felt like she was inside a snow globe. One of the ones that held those perfect towns. She and Nick were nestled in the center of this Christmasy world.

It was something she’d never thought she wanted. Christmas and Santa had started as something to be ignored, a season she had to get through, but Nick had changed her. Or rather, had shown her that she wasn’t really getting through December. She’d been hiding from it. But not anymore. She needed this holiday and she needed Nick Bari.

CHAPTER 24

Nick had led them to a private dining room. The walls were paneled in warm-toned wood, polished until it shone. It was inlaid with carvings of winter leaves, stars and winding branches. Every surface of his home felt intentional and part of Nick and it made her feel rosy inside. There were tapestries in this room, too, in muted reds and creams, hung on either side of a large arched window. She caught a glimpse of the lights of the village they’d walked through and the softly falling snow. There were heavy velvet curtains, lined with silver thread on either side.

His house was like something out of a dream. There were no distractions, like she’d find at her own place. Her phone didn’t ping. Why was that? Glancing down, she noticed she didn’t have signal.

Ambient light beckoned her to step closer to the solid oak dining table that was large enough to host his entire family but set only for two. Its surface gleamed as if it had been freshly waxed and polished. Down the center was an embroidered runner with a snowflake motif echoed in the tapestries. There were two high-back chairs waiting for them.

Nick motioned her forward and held out one for her. She noted the soft wool in a deep red color with his family crest stitched into it. Along one wall was a sideboard crafted from light-colored wood. There were neatly stacked plates, hand-thrown pottery bowls, and glasses etched with tiny stars that matched the ones on the place setting in front of her.

There was a small warming hearth set into the wall behind the sideboard that she noticed was keeping dishes hot. “I’ve prepared salmon en croute.”

“You made that?”

“I had a little help from the cooks in the kitchens, but I thought that would sound pretentious.” He was teasing her but there was an underlying tension to him that had her worried.

“I still can’t believe you grew up in a castle. What was that even like?” she asked. Tonight the noises from the hallways were louder than they had been before. Focusing on the environment and its differences was the only thing enabling her to keep her cool. She’d made up her mind to tell him that she loved him but now that the moment was at hand, she wasn’t sure she could.

“I don’t know how to answer that. I grew up here so it seems normal,” he said.

“Really? What about when you visited with Pete? I’m sure he lived in a regular house,” Cora said.

“Ah, no, he lives in a castle too,” Nick told her.

“This is the first time I’m realizing how different your lifestyle is to mine. I’m happy to call a bag of microwaved popcorn dinner.”

“I have that, too, sometimes.”

She doubted that but appreciated that he was attempting to put her at ease. The last time she’d been here it had seemed less like a castle and more Nick’s home, but being in this dining room … this wasn’t a guy who’d left his family behind at eighteen to carve out his own life. “Obviously I pair it with a glass of nice wine.”

“It’s a must. I have a bottle of white chilling as well.”

“You planned all this?” she asked.

“I asked you out so of course I did. This is a real date.”

A real date. This mattered to him. It did to her as well. “Don’t you count when you walked me home from Calvin’s?”

“Technically, I was on a date. With Hannah.”

“You might have started the night on a date with Hannah, but you ended it with me,” she said.

“Best decision I’ve ever made.”

She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. He’d given her an opening to tell him how she felt but she waited too long. He went to the sideboard and brought back plates for both of them.

They talked about the last week of the festival and all of the fun events that were still coming up, and about the FizzFridays, Cora revealing that she was slowly participating in the group chat more.

“This is nice,” Cora said after they’d finished dinner. She’d come here with a plan and now it was getting away from her. It would be easier to just let things continue as they had been between them. A part of her was sure that she didn’t need to tell him she loved him. He probably already knew. She was a coward, and no mistake.