Santa Lessons: Christmas Falls by Layla Rogue

Author:Layla Rogue [Rogue, Layla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five: Holly

Nikolaus swore under his breath as we walked behind Max’s Mechanics, and we saw several men smoking in the back alley, including Max.

“Nikolaus!” Several shouted. “You survived!”

He tried pulling her through them to get to the stairs leading up to the apartment.

“Hey, let him through. He’s got his woman with him.”

I wasn’t sure I liked that label, but the crowd shuffled off, except for one man who joined us in going upstairs.

“Jeremy.” Nikolaus nodded at him. “Holly, this is Jeremy, the next oldest after me.”

His face looked familiar. Elise looked more like this man, with her light colored hair and freckles. Despite getting close enough to kiss him, I still couldn’t tell if Nikolaus had freckles under his beard.

“Hi.”

“Are you his woman?”

Nikolaus sighed while his brother laughed. “Jeremy and his partner Adrian have five-year-old twin girls. Where are my nieces now?”

“Last day of kindergarten before holiday break. I dropped them but have to go back and help with their party. Thought I would drop in on my family.”

“How nice,” I said.

“It’s not nice. He came by to spy. You’re not in the MC anymore, brother.”

“No, it’s hard to carry twins on a bike, that’s true, but I do help with charitable events, and am on the committee for this year’s party. I was worried about you when I saw the group text.”

“I’m fine, as you can see.” Nikolaus unlocked his dead bolt and ushered us inside.

It did not really surprise me to see that his studio was pretty neat. His bed was made in the corner, and laundry was in a hamper. There was a desk that had some clutter of papers and books, and an armchair with a tablet on a table.

The tiny kitchen also looked pretty clean, with only a coffee cup next to the sink.

“I’ll be out soon, Holly, and you’re welcome to make coffee or tea. Jeremy, you could go back downstairs.”

When Nikolaus took some clothes into the bathroom, I laughed when Jeremy set up the coffee machine. “Do you want some?” He asked, going through Nikolaus’ cabinets as if he’d done it many times.

“Maybe we should wait downstairs,” I said.

“No,” Jeremy said, sitting in Nikolaus’s desk chair and looking at his papers. “Then how would I get to know you? Plus, Max’s waiting room stinks. He doesn’t want people waiting there long.”

As I did with Elise, and the little I knew of Max so far, I liked Nikolaus’s siblings.

“I’d love to see a picture of your girls,” I said. “Do you have any of your entire family?”

He pulled out his phone, and I kept him talking about himself. He taught ESL courses at night at the community college and his husband was an accountant with another sister in a neighboring town.

When Nikolaus came out, he sighed at the sight of his brother sitting while I looked at his phone standing next to him.

“Jer, why are you still here?”

“I wanted to get to know Holly, but then she asked me about the girls and Adrian.

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