The Christmas Bet by Carrie Thorne

Author:Carrie Thorne [Carrie Thorne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thorny Books
Published: 2023-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

Quake at the sight

December 14

Well. So far so fucked. Why in the hell had Pike thought he could pull off a fake relationship, when he couldn’t manage a real one?

He hadn’t caught a wink of sleep before driving up the mountain with Devon yesterday, so he chugged coffee at breakfast this morning, and his conversation skills oscillated between delayed and zippy. Alexei always ragged on him for having so much cream in his coffee, but it wasn’t just his tastebuds that preferred it that way. Cold enough to chug quickly, and instead of buzzing after a cup, he reached more of a steady state as he refilled throughout the day.

He had skills. He could be charming, sort of.

There were more than a few people who described him as attractive, and not just the creepy thirst messages from his few followers that engaged with his lame social media posts. Although, he was pretty sure most of the comments were spam.

This whole mess was his fault. He’d fucked it up. If he’d resisted the damn Christmas spirit to compete with his cousin, he might have stood a chance with Devon. Instead, this whole fake relationship put intolerable pressure on what otherwise had the potential to be a smooth, casual start to something.

It was still early as fuck by the time he got home from the disastrous breakfast, clicked open the garage, cranked the wheel, and backed Alexei’s truck into its snow-free parking spot in the garage. See? This is the shit he got for competing with his cousin. Eternally doomed to park in the driveway when the whole family was here.

As soon as he shut off the engine, he clicked the garage door closed and slammed his forehead into the steering wheel, releasing a pent-up groan from deep in his throat. At the far side of the four-car garage, in his peripheral, he caught the next group of skiers ready to depart. Hell. Even his parents and aunts were all energy and ready to hit the slopes.

Pike swung open the truck door and puffed a chill breath. As he came around the back of the truck, he pasted on a wakeful smile and strolled toward them. “Should I alert ski patrol that a rowdy bunch is heading up to take over the mountain?”

His dad grinned wide, his lower lip pulled between his teeth as he walked over and nudged Pike. “Bummer your knee isn't healed enough. I was hoping to convince you to try snowboarding with me this year.”

“What? Hell no,” he said, nudging his dad back. “Humans were built with two legs that face forward.”

“How’s that working for your MCL?” A wicked gleam in his look, Kyle tucked that lip further between his teeth.

“Fuck off,” Pike said with an eyeroll and backed up to let them pass. Knowing damn well his mom would stay behind and try to get to the bottom of what was bothering him, he lifted a playful grin and kept the negativity tucked out of sight. “Next year, old man.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.