Christmasland - Anne-Marie Meyer Page 0,41

to admit, if he wanted to be with Scarlet, I could move aside enough for him to test those waters.

Ethan took in a deep breath. I could feel his hesitance as he stood next to me. “We can probably meet for a few minutes later,” he said.

Scarlet looked relieved as she nodded. “Perfect. And really, it won’t take long. Plus, I’m staying at the North Pole, too. So we can just pop outside and chat.”

Cue Ethan tensing once more. “You’re what?”

Scarlet’s expression was a tad too innocent as she shrugged. “What? You always said we needed to come here for the holidays someday. So I’m here.” Her smile made me sick, and for a moment, I contemplated grabbing the nearby half-eaten trifle and dumping it over her head.

But then realizing that it would embarrass Ethan even more, I refrained from doing so. Instead, I resorted to glaring at her.

“Let’s go,” Ethan said as he leaned close, tightened his grip, and pulled me away from Scarlet. I could tell that she had more to say, but we were out of earshot before she could get the words out.

When we got to the car, Em and Porter were waiting for us, leaning against the doors and talking. They seemed inseparable, and even though Em was trying to convince me that this was just a fun relationship, I was starting to wonder if she had feelings for Porter.

I still couldn’t quite figure out what his angle was. After all, he said he was rich, but I never saw him on the phone or sneaking away to work. I wanted to think that he was genuine, but who knew in this town. As much as I hated that Em’s analysis of Christmasland was starting to rub off on me, I couldn’t help but feel critical of every experience. Was it real? Was it fake?

The unknown made my stomach flip.

“You guys okay?” Em asked as Ethan passed by her.

He was not trying to hide his feelings. They were as apparent as the nose on his face.

“Ethan ran into someone,” I whispered as we waited for him to unlock the doors. I wanted to sit in the front passenger seat so I could be next to him, but Porter beat me to it.

So I got to sit next to Em, like we had on the way here. She leaned in closer to me. “Someone?” she asked.

I peeked over at Ethan, who looked as if he were going to strangle the steering wheel as he drove. “I think his ex-girlfriend came to visit.”

When Em didn’t respond, I glanced over to see that her lips were pinched as she tried to fight a smile. I narrowed my eyes. “What?”

“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head.

It wasn’t nothing. I had a sinking suspicion that I knew why she was smiling. Her tagline response to everything since we got here was “It’s starting.” But I wanted to believe that Ethan was actually affected by this and not just creating an experience for me to go through.

That would be completely unfair to me. Especially since I was beginning to care for him.

Only a jerk would manipulate me like that.

For once, I wanted to believe that at least one man cared enough about me to treat me well. That at least one man wouldn’t be the jerk that I feared he would be.

Ethan was different.

At least, that was what I was going to tell myself until he gave me a reason to believe otherwise.

15

Ethan

I drove in silence back to the North Pole. Thankfully, Porter was distracted by some game on his phone, and Bea and Emilia were whispering in the back seat. I glanced back in the rearview mirror a few times, trying to figure out what they were talking about. But they didn’t speak loud enough for me to overhear, and there was no way I could read their lips when their heads were tipped together.

So I was left with my own thoughts and feelings about my first interaction with Scarlet after our breakup.

And it wasn’t good.

My stomach churned every time I thought about how I stood there, stunned. Thankfully, Bea was there to make up for my loser reaction. She picked up my slack, and I owed her a debt of gratitude.

To top it off, she helped me save face by telling Scarlet that she was my girlfriend. That wasn’t what I wanted, but it did help lessen the sting I felt from standing there looking like a complete loser.

After all,