Chapter 49
“Valentina, you made it!”
The woman stood in front of Nicolas’s front door with gift bags in her hands. Emily greeted her with a friendly hug.
“Em, is Valentina finally here?” Nicolas came up from behind her.
“Yup, thanks for having me again.”
“Are you going to stand outside all day?” Emily grumbled, shivering from the cold wind.
Valentina wiggled her eyebrows playfully at her before stepping inside and closing the door.
“Why don’t we show you around? The last time you didn’t get a chance to see the place with all the chaos,” Nicolas offered but then the doorbell rang again. “On second thought…”
He held up a finger before going to check the camera to see who it was.
Chase slipped out of his foreign car and strutted to the front door after pulling out goody bags.
“It’s Chase,” Nicolas announced to the women before he went to open the door. He’d told Emily his best friend needed the company on this special day as well. She’d said the more, the merrier, excited to be having a real Christmas in a long time.
“Merry Christmas, Nick!” Chase screamed as soon as he came face-to-face with him.
Without so much as waiting for a reply, he invited himself in after thrusting the bags into Nicolas’s arms.
He paused in his tracks at the two beautiful ladies before him. “So…who’s the wife?” he asked, eyeing the both of them.
Nicolas rolled his eyes before shoving past him and slipping a hand around Emily’s waist. “Chase, this is Emily. Emily, meet the guy I have the misfortune of calling a friend.”
He took her hand quickly before whispering, “Don’t let his words fool you. He loves me.”
Emily smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you too—wait.” Chase’s hazel-green eyes zoomed in on her face. “Aren’t you that chick who starred in that sad movie four years ago? The one where the girl had a terminal illness and it hit it big at the box office?”
Now that Emily thought about it, she’d done an alarming number of tragic roles.
“That’s me.” She chuckled nervously.
“Cara, you married an actress?” His eyes flickered to Nicolas. “How befitting.”
“Shut up,” Nicolas snapped at him.
“She’s pretty cute though.” Chase smirked as he saw his friend’s eye twitch at the compliment. “I can see why you fell so hard for her.”
His gaze then settled onto Valentina, a spark lighting his eyes.
She raised an eyebrow at it.
“I’m Chase, by the way. Nice to meet you…” he trailed off for a name, his hand stretching toward her.
She accepted it. “Valentina Flores.”
“Beautiful name for a beautiful lady.” He brought her hand up to his lips and gave the back of it a kiss.
She pulled away immediately, flushing as the other two witnesses looked between them warily.
Nicolas cleared his throat, making it obvious he didn’t take well to Chase flirting with his wife’s friend, especially knowing the mess of a relationship she’d come out of. That he had.
Emily had given him the rundown about her situation. He’d also told her a bit about Chase’s past disappointment. Her eyes went to look at his friend.
Chase clearly found Valentina attractive and the way she took secret glances at his side profile gave her away too.
Maybe inviting the two of them over together wasn’t such a good idea…