Nice Until Proven Naughty

I blink past the snowflakes frozen onto my lashes, and when they still don’t go away, I brush them off my face.

I blink and then blink again as I take in Lucas Dahlenberg in all of his hunky glory. He’s standing in the doorway, his bulging arms crossed against his chest, stretching the navy blue Henley tight around his body. His faded jeans hang a little low on the hips and his bare feet peek out of the bottom.

Holy Grinch, he’s sexy.

I suck in a shuddery breath and try for my best smile, which is difficult because my face is frozen.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“Caroling.”

“You cal

l that singing?”

I narrow my eyes. He might be sexy, but he’s a scrooge. “Yes. I know I don’t have the best voice, but it’s the gesture that counts.”

“It’s freezing out.”

“I’m aware,” I say through chattering teeth.

“And there’s another snowstorm coming through.”

“I’m aware of that too.”

“And you’re out here trying to sing.”

“I wasn’t trying to sing, I was singing.”

“That’s debatable, and I want you to stop.”

“You used to be nice. What happened to you?”

“Life,” he says, right before he slams the door in my face.

I stand frozen, staring at his door. The Naughty part of me wants to bang on the wood, demand an apology, and call him out for being a complete dickwad right before Christmas. But then I remember I’m turning over a new leaf and all that shit I really don’t care about while I stand here and enter a state of hypothermia.

It’s none of my business.

He is none of my business, and his crabbiness will not take away from the good deed I tried to do.

Channeling my inner Nice, I turn around and shuffle back to the car. The snow is falling so fast that the tracks I followed on my way up are almost completely covered.

Home.

I just need to get home where I can forget all about grumpy Lucas and his sexy body.

5

Lucas

Samantha Kringle.

Or Naughty, as some like to call her.

Damn, I haven’t seen her in years, although I had a pretty good idea of how kind the years have been to her based on the way her twin sister looks.

But Samantha—whom I always found to be the prettier twin—looks even better than I’d expected.