My eyes sweep the room again, grimacing at the Christmas explosion before coming back to her. “What in the hell happened in here?”
The fuzziness in her eyes clears, and irritation flashes over her beautiful features. She puts her hands on her hips and doesn’t bother to answer my question, instead saying, “I’m Veronica, by the way.”
My tone is droll. “I sort of figured that one out on my own.”
Her eyes flash again, more than just irritation at my response, and for some odd reason, I find a subtle gratification in pissing her off.
I don’t know why poking at her gives me perverse pleasure, but I’ll chalk it up to the fact that I’m exhausted and completely caught off guard.
Veronica’s voice is saccharine sweet, laced with biting sarcasm. “Well, it’s an absolute pleasure to meet you. You must be Riggs, Janelle’s brother.”
I don’t bother giving her affirmation of something she clearly knows to be true and instead sweep my hand toward the tree, the most obvious representation of all that is wrong in my house at this moment. “I ask again… what the hell happened in here?”
Her features transform, and it’s not mere irritation marring her lovely expression but flat-out fury. It’s most definitely not something that gives me perverse pleasure because, by the look on her face, I fear I may have poked a very dangerous beast.
She takes one bold step forward and points a finger right at me. “I took it upon myself to decorate because you have a seventeen-year-old sister who deserves a good Christmas. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, for fuck’s sake, and you didn’t even have a damn Christmas candle in this place. You sure know how to make the holidays special, Mr. Nadeau.”
I jerk—her words have an absolute physical force to them. But how dare she cast judgment when she doesn’t know me, and she sure as shit doesn’t know my sister the way I do? “Why the fuck do you assume my sister wants this?”
Once again, she smiles, and it seems sweet, but I suspect if she had a hockey stick in her hand, she’d smack me upside the head with it. “Because I expect I’ve talked to her more in the past couple of days than you have in the past six months.”
She bats her eyelashes at me to punctuate her snark, boiling my blood.
“What’s going on?” Janelle says from the end of the hallway, and my eyes snap to her while Veronica wheels around.
Drowsy with sleep, Janelle rubs at her eyes before focusing on me. “Why are you home? I thought you weren’t coming in until around noon?”
I want to ask her how in the hell she and this Veronica woman managed to buy all this stuff and when they had time to decorate. I want to know why Veronica is wearing one of my T-shirts and sleeping on my couch. I even want to know how I misjudged my sister and what she needs so badly that I let Christmas pretty much escape unnoticed.
I need to know how bad of a fucking job I’m doing take care of my sister.
But admitting my faults that seem to have been put under a harsh spotlight is not something I want to do right now, so I merely say, “The team decided to leave after the game in Pittsburgh. I didn’t bother calling or texting because I assumed you were staying at Veronica’s.”
There’s no hiding the tinge of accusation in my voice not that Janelle is here, but that she let this stranger mess with my house. But she doesn’t appear chagrined.
Instead, she rushes across the room, marches straight up to me, and takes my hand.
I’m jerked forward, and she drags me to the Christmas tree. “Isn’t this great? Look at all the ornaments we got.”
Janelle proceeds to explain every single ornament that she picked out for the tree. Each one has meaning attached to it, and I’m shocked she put so much thought into these purchases. She leads me around the entire living area and points out every single decoration. She doesn’t notice, but I do as Veronica slips down the hallway, leaving us alone.
I can’t help but notice given my T-shirt might cover up a lot but not those long legs of hers. While I am decidedly not liking her, I’m also a guy and will appreciate a sexy woman from the backside.
When she’s gone, I interrupt Janelle’s gushing presentation of our newly decorated condo, and ask, “Why are y’all here? Why is she wearing my T-shirt? How did you buy all this stuff?”
Janelle’s face, previously filled with joy, crumbles as she murmurs, “Because she wanted me to have a nice Christmas.”
“Fuck.” I rumble an apologetic curse and immediately jerk my sister into a hard hug. She gasps at the sudden motion and intense display of affection.
I press my lips to the top of her head before reassuring her. “I’m an asshole. I should have done something to decorate for you.”
That mollifies her, and she’s back to gushing. “Veronica is super cool. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
I shake my head. “Of course, I don’t mind,” I say and pull her into another hug. “The place looks great. I’ll reimburse her.”
“Don’t bother,” Veronica says coolly from behind us, and we both turn to face her, my arms falling away from my sister. Veronica’s not wearing my T-shirt anymore but rather a very nice dress. Her hair isn’t nearly as knotted, and I’m guessing she’s run her fingers through it. She’s holding a pair of high heels and while smiling fondly at Janelle, she uses a hand on the edge of the couch for balance and slips into one high heel, then the other.
Christ. She really does have great legs.
Janelle gives me a sharp elbow in the ribs, and it spurs me to say grudgingly, “The place looks great.”
Veronica’s smile is bland and doesn’t reach her eyes. “Thank you.”
And it’s clear from this exchange, we don’t like each other one bit.
No matter, I’m not looking to make friends. At least not outside of my team, which definitely has to be a priority.
Veronica moves to my sister and pulls her in for a hug. When she steps back, she leaves her hands on Janelle’s shoulders and looks her directly in the eye. “We’ll do cookies some other time, okay?”
Janelle nods and smiles.
“I’ll see you at work the day after Christmas. If you need a ride, call me.”
Janelle nods again. “I will.”
“I’ll be able to take her into work,” I say, feeling that I’m intentionally being left out of this conversation.
Veronica doesn’t acknowledge what I said but rather skirts around me to the foyer. She picks up a purse I hadn’t noticed before, looks over her shoulder once more at Janelle, and blows her a kiss. “See you later, kiddo. Go back to sleep.”
And fuck if her concern and care of my sister doesn’t piss me off. And I don’t understand why that is because I should never begrudge Janelle anyone’s care or affection.
Perhaps it’s because this woman is behaving in a way that I should be toward my sister.
That spotlight glare is shining superhot on me right now.
Regardless, I definitely do not like that woman, and I’m glad she’s gone.
CHAPTER 7
Veronica
The bells above the door tinkle, and I grin broadly as I see Janelle rushing through. She’s got her hair pulled into a high ponytail that swings jauntily as she says, “Sorry I’m almost late. We’ll blame that on my brother.”