Terms + Conditions (Strangers #3)

Chapter Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

THEN

December 2017

“JOSH, WHERE’S ELLIE?” FINN asks, stuffing a few barbecue meatballs in his mouth.

He showed up at Uncle Jim’s around the time I did. His parents didn’t exactly have your typical holiday traditions with family. Instead, they would host a dinner or luncheon of some sort a few days before and spend the actual holiday on some tropical island or at some fancy resort. Finn used to join them until we became friends after he was kicked out of The Hills Academy and transferred to Bridgeport High. When my parents heard about his family traditions, they invited him to join us if his parents would allow him, and he’s been with us every holiday since. This year, he had spent his obligated time at home a few days ago during the Sheffield Christmas party before his parents jetted off to the Caribbean.

“Oh.” I swallow a drink of beer. “She and Nina are having a girl’s day since the Villas are gone.”

I don’t miss the way Alex perks up hearing Nina’s name—that kid has had the biggest crush on her for as long as I can remember. Nick rolls his eyes at his little brother; he thinks Alex is ridiculous. You don’t even know her, Nick would often say. Maybe not, but we all knew the stories. Nina was known around town for being much more than just the daughter of the Villa family. If you looked up how to have fun in your early years, you’d find a photo of her next to it.

And after his brother was done chastising him about his dream girl, Alex would chime in with something like: Neither do you, but that doesn’t stop you from being a judgey-judgerson.

Alex always claimed there was more to Nina than being a spoiled heiress, but was never able to persuade his brother. That’s never stopped him from trying, especially when he found out that I was dating Elizabeth. Alex made sure to remind his brother who Elizabeth’s adoptive sister was. Truth be told, I was concerned Nick wouldn’t like Elizabeth since she and Nina are so closely related, but they took a liking to each other pretty quickly. Alex thought I’d be able to convince Nick to give Nina a chance, but I knew better. Nick was going to have to figure it out for himself.

“Nina could’ve come along,” Mom says, walking in from the kitchen.

“I told her.” I shrug. “But she’s going through a pretty bad breakup, so I think she just wanted some time.”

“Oh, that poor thing,” Mom coos.

“No one should be alone on Christmas,” Uncle Jim agrees.

“She’s not alone; she has Elizabeth,” I say. “I’ll go check on ‘em a little later.”

Elizabeth is probably grateful I’m not there, anyway. She was more than happy to stay back, even though Nina was practically pushing her out the door. Elizabeth wouldn’t budge.

We started dating (like dating dating, giving-it-a-real-shot dating) last October, the weekend of Nina’s twenty-second birthday. Elizabeth had come home on Friday after class for the birthday party on Saturday evening and instead of going straight to Nina’s, she came to my condo. We hadn’t seen each other since I had gone down to Savannah for the anniversary the month before. After I left that time, we started talking on the phone more often, and I could tell there had been a shift in our relationship. We spent time getting to know one another and becoming friends—real friends.

I was nervous to see her. I spent most of the day wondering how things would be once we were together in person. But the moment I saw her, the nerves disappeared. I walked out of the elevator lobby to my condo building’s garage and spotted her unloading the bags from her car. She had two suitcases—who needs two suitcases for a weekend trip?—and one large gift bag that read Happy Birthday in fancy script.

“What, are you moving in?” I called down to her, catching her attention.

She slammed the back of her Jeep. “I was thinking about it. You have room for one more?”

“Suppose I could get rid of the guest room, not like I get many guests anyway.”

“I was thinking the master,” Elizabeth said with a smirk as she approached me. Before I had a chance to respond, she stepped up, and without hesitation, kissed me.

“What was that for?” I asked, eyes still closed, when she pulled back.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too, Sugar.” I kissed her forehead, taking the bags from her. “C’mon, let’s get upstairs.”

“Wait, Josh,” Elizabeth said, her hand covering mine when I tried to take hold of her bags. “I have something I want to say.”

“You don’t want to do that upstairs where it’s a bit, I don’t know, warmer?” I chuckled.

“No, because if I don’t say it now, I don’t know if I will.”

Hearing the nerves woven into her words, I dropped my hold on the bag handle and brought my hand up to cradle her cheek. “What’s going on, Liz?”

Elizabeth rolled her shoulders back, standing a little straighter, before she looked up to meet my stare. “I want to do this. Us. I want to try…for real. And I know that may sound silly because now that I’m hearing myself say it, it does. But I want to know if there is something—”

I kissed her and she melted into my embrace. “Thank God,” I whispered against her. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

She smiled against me and I pecked her lips once…twice…three times before pulling away.

I opened the door to the lobby for her, following behind with her bags. “Let’s take this stuff upstairs and we can go get food.”

“Thank God, I’m starving. What’s for dinner?”

“Whatever you want, Sugar,” I said and scanned my resident card.

Things went well, really well, until about two months ago. We were one week out from our first anniversary and we had a small argument that turned into a big one that turned into a breakup. The difference is when we break up, we can’t break up . We’re still stuck with each other. Guess we didn’t think that one through. To this day, I still don’t understand what started the whole thing. I showed up in Savannah on Saturday morning and she was in a bad mood the moment she opened the door. Everything just seemed to escalate from there.

Now I get to spend time with my ex-girlfriend, pretending to be happy-go-lucky while wishing to be anywhere else…it’s not exactly my idea of a good time. The fact it happened around the holidays makes it that much harder. Any other time of year, we could’ve lived more separate lives, minus a few appearances here and there. But that’s not the only reason it’s been hard. The hardest part is wanting to touch her, hold her, and kiss her when she’s near, even though I know she wants me as far from her as possible.

Later came a lot sooner than I expected. Mom and Uncle Jim packed an entire smorgasbord of food to take back to Nina’s, despite my protests that we didn’t need that much food. Finn offered to join me, but I declined the offer. I’m sure it would be nice to have the company, but I don’t think Nina is in the mood to entertain any more than she already is with us.

Securing the to-go container in the backseat, I jump a little, not expecting someone to be there when I turn around. “Give a guy a heart attack, why don’t you?” I mumble.

Mom stands with her arms crossed, lips pulled into a thin line, and I can already tell I’m in for it. What about? I have no idea, but I’m sure I did or said something that was out of line. And she wasn’t about to let me have it in front of the rest of the family. She probably guised her disappearance as making sure I had everything for the girls before I came back in to tell the family goodbye. “Why didn’t Elizabeth come with you today?”

“I already told you.”

“You shouldn’t be leaving your soon-to-be bride alone on the holidays.”

“Can you not say that so loud?” I snap. She isn’t exactly the quietest person on the planet and our family is known for being nosy, especially one person in particular. The last thing I need is my sister overhearing this conversation.

“You better get your act together, Joshua. Fix whatever you’ve broken. We can’t afford for Elizabeth to decide to walk out on you before time is up.”

What she really means is she can’t afford for Elizabeth to walk away. If anyone has reaped the benefits of this relationship more than me, it would be my mother. Since Elizabeth and I started dating, Mom has been invited to more social gatherings in the elite society—the whole family has. And while the rest of us didn’t seem to care, to Mom it was everything.

“Josh,” she says with a gentle tone, reaching out to touch my cheek. “You’re a good boy, right? You don’t want to mess this up for yourself. You don’t want to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for, do you?”

I try to look away from her prying eyes, but she refuses to let me.

“I don’t care what happened between the two of you, fix it. Elizabeth doesn’t have to love you, but the two of you better start acting like it before the rest of the family gets suspicious.”

She’s right, just like always. Elizabeth and I don’t have to fall in love, we don’t even have to date, but I can’t let our petty argument get in the way of our contractual agreement. I should’ve pushed harder for her to come today, then the family wouldn’t have been asking so many questions.

“Clean this up, Josh. You can’t afford to lose her,” Mom says. “And get inside to tell everyone bye, you need to get back to Elizabeth.” She offers me her hand and a polite smile before tugging me to her side. She guides me inside without another word, pushing me in the direction of the rest of the family to say goodbye.

When I finally make it back outside after a goodbye that takes thirty minutes longer than it should, I close the door behind me, taking a long, deep breath. Things are only going to get more complicated from here…I can feel it.

The door opens again and I jump two feet ahead as Nick pops outside, closing the door behind him. “You, uh, want me to come along so you’re not outnumbered?”

My brow quirks so high I’m sure it’s almost in my hairline. Nick Davis is offering to come and spend time with Nina Villa willingly…that’s new. Of everyone here, he’s the last person I expected to offer. “ You want to go with me to Nina’s?”

“I mean…We can all go. Make a thing of it.” Nick crosses his arms over his chest, trying to act nonchalant about this entire conversation. Trying to act like he didn’t just suggest doing the one thing he’s been avoiding since Elizabeth and I got together.

Gut feeling tells me that I’m missing something.

“What is—”

He interrupts me. “No one should be alone on Christmas.”

“You know, it’s weird when you get all sappy.” I try to hide my smirk but fail miserably, even chuckling a little.

Nick rolls his eyes.

“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think Nin is in the mood for a lot of company right now,” I say. “I’ll send your condolences though.”

“What is that?” Nina asks when she opens the front door. She is still dressed in her pajamas, and her hair sits in a messy bun on top of her head, the same way I left her this morning. She watches in amusement as I haul the armload of leftovers before dropping them on the kitchen island.

“Thanks for the help,” I say, pulling off my jacket and earning a playful eye roll from her. She falls back on the couch next to Elizabeth, and they watch as I sort out the food across the marble countertop. Ham, prime rib, green bean casserole, yams, mac’n’cheese, mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing, cranberries, Brussels sprouts, carrots, asparagus, remnants of a fruit platter, rolls, Christmas tree-shaped pizzas, and a whole pumpkin pie. Honestly, there’s so much, we could probably eat off these for the next few days. “My family refused to let either of you go hungry or feel left out on this holiday.”

Nina jumps up from the couch, finally coming to inspect the spread. “Is that a Christmas tree pizza?” she asks, picking up one of the mini pepperoni pizzas.

“Michaela and my cousin, Alex, have been making those every year since we were kids. It’s not Christmas at the Davis house without them.”

“That’s sweet.”

“Everyone was sad you guys didn’t come, so they said sending food was the next best thing.”

“They would be right.” Nina pops a grape into her mouth and pulls plates from the cabinet. Setting them down, she rushes back down the hallway toward her bedroom, mumbling something that sounds like “be right back.”

“This was sweet,” Elizabeth says, joining me at the island.

“Yeah, well, you know how they are.”

She nods and offers a small smile. “Still, thank you. She’s been…Well, she’s trying to act okay, but this has been hard on her, and I just—I couldn’t leave her.”

“She could’ve come. You both could have.”

“But we both know she wouldn’t.” Elizabeth steps closer, placing her hands gently on my arm and standing on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek. “Thank you.”

Being this close to her, I don’t waste the opportunity. I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her close, burying my face in her neck. With a deep breath, I inhale the sweet scent of her, before pressing a light kiss to her skin. My lips linger against her skin and I whisper, “I can think of a way you can thank me.”

“Joshua Davis.” Elizabeth puts her hand to her chest in fake shock. “Are you trying to seduce me?”

“Is it working?”

She laughs and pushes me away. “No.”

The sound of someone clearing their throat catches our attention as we separate. Nina stands at the end of the hallway but hasn’t quite stepped into the kitchen. She looks between us. “Do you guys need a moment or…”

Elizabeth rolls her eyes and picks up a plate without saying a word.