A Little Christmas Romance Read Free

outside, wearing a santa costume. “Brookie! Nice elf ears.”
    “Bite me.”
    Rachel is still needling me. “So, are you guys a thing? Have you seen his thing?” She giggles and sloshes the contents of her red plastic cup, as I try to push the screen out of the window. Jimmy makes a face and the screen falls.
    “Nope and no plans to, but if he’s lucky Nick is probably hitting on him right now.”
    Rachel giggles, “Or Au nt Chrissy. God, she’s a slut and he’s fresh meat. Both of them are going to be all over him since you walked away.”
    Smirking, I turn and look at her. “I know.”
    “You’re so mean.” Rachel looks at the window. “What the hell is taking so long? Where’s Jimmy?”
    We both stick our heads out the window to look for him , and get treated to a face full of snow. Have I told you that my relatives are asses? We both sputter, wiping the snow off our faces, and pull our heads back inside.
    “You little shit!” Rachel screams at her brother and points at her sweater. “This is cashmere! It can’t get wet.”
    Jabbing my thumbs at my elf garb, I say, “Polyester. I’m pretty sure this thing could survive the Apocalypse.” I brush the snow off the shoulder of her outfit. “There, it’s fine. No harm.”
    “He’s still a buttface.”
    “Nice. That’ll show him.” Before I can say another word, Rach tosses herself through the window and lands with an oof on the frozen ground. Jimmy laughs like a hyena and runs. I watch from the window as Rachel manages to slam into her brother and knock him to the ground.
    The bedroom door opens behind me and Chris rushes through with Aunt Chrissy behind him. There are hot pink lipstick smears on his collar that match Aunt Chrissy’s mouth. Chris’s eyes are wide with that panicked look that men get when they realize that my aunt is insane.
    “Brooke,” he squeaks and rushes over to me. “Tell your aunt that we’re an item.” He has a pleading look that is completely hysterical.
    “We used to be, but he just can’t get over me. You can have him.” I gesture for her to take him and look back out the window.
    Chris’s voice jumps an octave as he rushes at me. “She’s just teasing!”
    I’m laughing at him. “You said you wanted to come.”
    “I didn’t know they were all crazy.”
    At that moment we look out at my two cousins in time to see Jimmy slip on a patch of ice and go sailing across the lawn, and smack face first into a tree. He falls on his ass and sits there for a second before trying to get up. He’s laughing like he drank a box of wine before he showed up, and wails when he tries to put weight on his leg.
    Rachel wanders over to him outside, scolding as she walks. “Shut up! You’re too damn loud!” Her whisper-yell could wake the dead. The drink in her hand sloshes out of the plastic cup, leaving a trail in her wake.
    God, they’re so mental. Rachel looks back at me, offers an exasperated face, and points to the ground next to her. Shaking my head, I stay at the sill. “Yeah, I don’t think so. You deal with it and I’ll keep anyone else from jumping out the window.”
    Rach glares at me. “Wimp.”
    “Yeah, that’s it.”
    Chris is standing next to me, watching Jimmy try to stand up with Rachel’s help. When he puts weight on his leg, he yelps and falls over, pulling Rach down with him. I try not to laugh, and notice that Chris is suppressing a smile next to me.
    He leans in, we’re shoulder to shoulder at the window, leaning on the ledge and looking out. “So, your aunt really needs a door in here.” I’m about to reply when Chris yelps and spins around to see Aunt Chrissy right behind him with a grin on her pink lips. I’m pretty sure she pinched his butt.
    She rolls her eyes like we’re all stupid. “Get the santa suit and get on with it. The kids can’t see Santa hobbling around and then notice Jimmy with a broken ankle. It’ll ruin the whole thing and we’ll have a ton of kids crying their