“You’re my friend, too, remember? And as far as I’m concerned we’re more than friends now.”

Veronica froze as she pushed the front door open and glanced back at him. Their eyes locked and then he added, “we’re like family now.”

She let out a slow breath and stepped in the door with Noah behind her.

“I mean it makes sense right? You don’t have anyone and I don’t either but we have each other. If you wanna stay home Christmas Eve then we’ll stay home but I won’t leave you alone.”

She exhaled as she walked toward the dining room. He wasn’t going to give her a choice. Staying home was not an option. She wouldn’t keep him from yet another one of his holiday traditions. She’d have to bite the bullet sooner or later. If they were going to continue to be roommates—friends, then she may as well get it over with. Seeing him with other women was inevitable and like it or not, something she was going to have to get used to.

Placing her purse on the table, she gave him a little smile. “I’ll have to make something to take. I won’t go empty handed.”

He grinned at her satisfied. “I’ll help you make it. You’re not getting all the credit.”

Her smile felt a little more genuine this time even though the idea of being around Noah and Rita made her more anxious than she’d ever admit.

A couple of things had been confirmed tonight. First of all Noah had this friends-with-benefits thing down to an art. Everyone there assumed Veronica and Noah had something going on. Yet Rita hadn’t seemed bothered by it at all. Something Veronica knew she could never do. At first, she thought it was an age thing but Veronica was certain even at twenty she would not have been able to handle seeing the guy she’d just slept with a few weeks prior walk in with another girl and be so amicable about it. It just took a certain personality and Veronica didn’t have it. Period.

Second, most of the guys there didn’t even make an effort to be discreet about the way they gawked at Rita’s bust. They were so obvious it was almost funny. Veronica’s delusional theory that Noah was just protective of his friends, especially girls and that’s why he acted the way he had with the Edward guy at the gym had been squashed. Veronica had watched as the guys openly flirted with Rita and Noah hadn’t so much as flinched. He didn’t seem bothered by it in the least. Leading her to her final confirmation—one she’d suspected for weeks. Young and impressionable Noah had begun to fall for her and in the process was becoming territorial. Something she really needed to discourage. Yet every time she said she was going to, she took one step backwards. Possibly encouraging him further.

First, his employee Christmas dinner. Now Christmas Eve again with his friends whom he considered closer than family. So much for pulling back.

***

Noah had succeeded in turning Veronica into a believer. Anytime they went somewhere together now she made him drive so she could play with his phone.

“I told you I’d sell you on it,” he said with that handsome grin of his.

Just then the only thing she hadn’t quite gotten a grasp on about his phone happened. A text came through and she pressed something that had it pop wide open for her to read. She hated for him to think she was being nosey but it was impossible not to read the text before she could figure out what happened.

“Oh! You got a text,” she said shoving it in his direction so he’d know she wasn’t trying to read it though she already had. It was from Gio telling him he better not be flaking tonight.

Noah read it as he came to a stop at the red light and smiled. He pushed something then spoke into his phone. “I’m around the corner.”

Veronica giggled about the insanity of it.

“Really? You don’t even have to text anymore?”

“Nope.” he said handing it back to her.

She played with it again until another text popped up that she tried not to read but she did catch something about the guys making bets about whether he’d show or not. Veronica frowned knowing she was the reason they were betting he wouldn’t show. She set the phone down as they pulled up in front of an overly decorated home. The kind where the decorations have no rhyme or reason and there’s big, small, multi-colored and white lighting going on. As if they just threw every decoration they’ve collected in the past twenty years onto the front lawn. “Is this his house?

Noah chuckled s he got out of the car. “Yep. This is the famous Bravo Christmas fiasco. It gets worse… uh better every year.”

They hadn’t been kidding about Christmas Eve at Gio’s. For starters his family was huge. Noah told Veronica about Gio’s dad passing a few years ago but that his side of the family, the Mexican half was still very much in touch and a lot of them were here tonight. But then there was his mom’s side of the family—the Italian side who it seemed were all here tonight and the place was packed. Between Gio’s dad’s side of the family bringing all the tamales and a bunch of other Mexican dishes and his mother’s side who Noah had mentioned several times before were known for going overboard on food even when it wasn’t a holiday, there was an endless amount of food.

The two loaves of zucchini bread Noah and Veronica had baked together were quickly lost on the buffet table where they were told to set them. Most of the younger crowd—cousins and friends around Gio’s age and younger spent the majority of the evening in the back yard. It seemed there were three main generations here. The older generation in their forties and up—uncles, aunts, grandparents etc.