Once Upon a Holiday by Claudia Burgoa

Author:Claudia Burgoa [Burgoa, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2019-11-06T18:30:00+00:00

When I go upstairs, she’s in my room pacing around and tapping her phone.

I lean on the doorframe and observe her. Suddenly, she stops and looks at me.

“Sorry for sounding ungrateful. It’s just that this makes it harder. I can hear my brothers demanding I marry you because when it comes to me, they behave as if we’re in the early nineteen hundreds and I should be a kept woman.”

I can’t help but laugh. She’s too independent to follow the rules of old society.

“What do you want?”

She shrugs. “In regards to?”

“Your future.”

She smiles and touches her flat belly. “Them. They talked about the possibilities of multiples and how the hormones might release more than one egg, but I need to rethink everything.”

“Why not enjoy it?”

“I will, soon. The house should be ready next week but maybe I should go back to San Francisco. Being a single mother of one seems like a lot of work but two? I’m sure Mom is going to help, and Dad.”

She smiles.

“Yeah, I have the entire family. This should be okay. Jeannette will help too.” Then, as if a new plan just popped in her head, she looks at me and says, “You can be as involved as you want. I just beg you, don’t hurt them. If you think this is too much—”

“Don’t hurt them or you?” I ask directly and walk toward her taking her hands. We’re not walking around each other without facing the big issues. “This is me telling you upfront that we’re in this together. Stop pushing me and telling me that you don’t need me around. Maybe you don’t, but they do. It’d be nice if you don’t take their choice of having me around away even before they’re born. Do we understand each other?”

With wide eyes, she nods.

“It’s just that you said it once, family isn’t for you. Being involved makes you part of the family even if it’s unconventional. We have to come up with rules.”

“June, why do I feel like you’re putting a wall between us?”

She looks at me and frowns. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Juniper, there’s an unspoken rule between us. We don’t bullshit each other. Be honest with me.”

“I like you, Sterling,” she pauses, looks at me from head to toe, and says, “a lot. Like, hmm, wouldn’t it be awesome if this was real and we had more than just great sex.”

Okay, so she’s scared and we’re two fucking frightened people who have been hurt so much they can’t see how this can work. Well, we’ll make this work. Fuck, this better be worth it.

“Thirty days around you sounded doable because as a fantasy it works. I know when it ends, and reality starts. I was going to pick up my things and leave with my new life. But now, you’re part of my future—even if I don’t want it. We need boundaries.”

“Boundaries,” I repeat. “So, you’re switching our dynamic.”

She nods. “It’s best if we keep our distance.”

“What if I tell

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