Artificial Sweethearts (North Pole, Minnesota) by Julie Hammerle

Author:Julie Hammerle [Hammerle, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Entangled, Crush, Teen, Teen romance, YA, YA romance, Romance, Julie Hammerle, North Pole, Minnesota, series, Kasie West, Huntley Fitzpatrick, fake relationship, boy next door, best friend romance, summer love
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (Crush)
Published: 2017-07-10T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Jane held up an emerald green, ombré-patterned dress. “I’m telling you, Tinka, that was the hottest kiss I’ve ever seen. You two.” She touched Tinka’s shoulder and yanked her hand back quickly. “Scorching.” She blew on her burned finger.

“Mmm-hmm.” Tinka was rummaging through another rack at Mrs. Claus’s Closet, the premier dress emporium in North Pole, Minnesota. Not all of the dresses were Christmas themed, thank goodness, but none of them registered in Tinka’s brain either. They were all amorphous blocks of color after color with no shape or style.

Jane put the green dress back. “To have a guy look at me the way Sam looks at you, that’s my life goal.”

Tinka blushed and focused hard on the dresses in front of her. The kiss had been hot. Sam was hot. It was way more than that, though. When she was with Sam, it was like the first time Tinka’d ever baked a batch of cookies. There was a moment of calm and a feeling of “This. This is why I’ve been put on the planet.” At least that’s how it had been for Tinka. Sam had been putting on a show, and he’d fooled Tinka—worldly, experienced Tinka.

Karen stepped out of the dressing room, wearing a flowing blue maxi dress with an empire waist. She spun around, her shoulders hunched up to her ears.

“You look amazing.” Jane pushed down Karen’s shoulders. “Own it.”

“Whatever.” But Karen tried to shimmy herself into a more relaxed position.

“Tell me about your night,” Tinka said. Anything to move the subject away from Sam Anderson and the way he turned her into a blubbering mess. “You’ve both been suspiciously quiet.”

The two girls shared a glance.

“What happened?” This wasn’t good.

“Nothing.” Karen shrugged and stepped over to the shoe and accessories wall.

Tinka shifted focus to Jane.

“Like Karen said.” Jane, too, shrugged and shook her head.

“I’m going to need more information.”

“It was fun,” Karen said. “We ended up watching movies with people in the cabana.”

“Okay.” Tinka narrowed her eyes. They weren’t telling her the whole story. “I guess what I want to know is whether or not you had the fun you’d been expecting to have.”

“Yeah, sure,” Karen said.

“So, you two had your flings.”

“Yup.”

Jane pulled out the green dress again and examined it.

“Who’d you hook up with, Jane?” Tinka asked. “Brian from the cafe?”

Jane shook her head.

“Someone else?”

Jane shoved the dress back on the rack and turned toward Tinka. Tears flooded her eyes.

Tinka shouldn’t have left them down by the cabana. She shouldn’t have ditched them to hide out in Sam’s house. She’d abandoned her friends and they’d gotten hurt. “Obviously something happened. Tell me.” She put her hand on Jane’s shoulder and glanced over at Karen, who was about to chew her lower lip off.

Jane snuck a look at Karen, then she turned to Tinka. “Literally nothing happened.”

Tinka opened her mouth to protest.

“Jane isn’t kidding,” Karen said. “Nothing happened.”

“I’d been chatting with this guy down by the pier,” Jane said.

“And I was talking to this dude who liked Christmas sweaters way too much.

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