Only Christmas

“Aspen,” a male voice calls. I turn around to see Jacob. He pulls the door closed, stepping out into the hallway with me. His hair is a bit disheveled.

“Morning.” I give him a smile.

I didn’t know he was staying here too. Thinking back, I do recall him saying he’s known the Hoffman family for years. I didn’t get the feeling Hunter cared for him much, but Hunter doesn’t care for a lot of people. He’s cold with most.

“Afternoon.” He smirks as he glances at his watch. My face starts to warm. I’m sure everyone knows why Hunter and I have been locked away in our room, but we are, after all, newlyweds.

“Right, I guess I lost track of time. I didn’t know your wife and you were staying here. Will you be here for Christmas tomorrow too?”

“We will be.” The door Jacob just came out of opens.

“Jacob, why did you…” Charlotte trails off when she sees me. Holy crap. She looks really surprised to see me. She’s not the only one since I was sure it was going to be Jacob’s wife coming out. “Aspen.” She gives me a tight smile.

“Hello.” I force a smile, hating being fake.

“Jacob, can you give Aspen and me a moment?”

“Of course.” He starts to walk away, but she snags his arm.

“You have something.” She reaches her hand up to wipe the lipstick off the side of his jaw.

“Thank you. I’ll see you ladies downstairs.” He gives me a nod. I want to call him back, not wanting to be alone with Charlotte, but it was bound to happen. I might as well get it over with.

“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Okay, she’s not going to be holding back, obviously. “I heard you didn’t sign a prenup. What are you doing here?”

“I don’t think—”

“What I think is you’re trying some con. If you don’t think the prenup is coming, you’ve lost your damn mind. Sophia and Marco are handling it since Hunter seems to have lost his damn mind and forgotten a few things.”

I swallow as the lump starts to form in my throat, but I refuse to cry in front of Charlotte. She won’t get that from me. I don’t know why it stings so much that Sophia is worried about a prenup, but it does. It’s stupid of course. I completely understand. I’m sure she wants to protect not only her son but what her deceased husband had built too. It was silly of me to think that in such a short time she would see that I’m not that type of girl. I think initially she was so happy that I’d married Hunter. Maybe now that she’s had time to think about it, she’s not so sure of my intentions. I’m not sure why I feel hurt, but I do.

“I’m not trying to con anything.”

“Then you’ll have no problem signing the papers when Marco gets them back from the lawyer.”

“I won’t.” Her brows lift in surprise.

“We’ll see when the time actually comes. You forget I know your mother and the kind of person she is.”

“What does that mean?”

“Don’t play stupid, Aspen. She slept with a lot of men that stayed at the hotel. Always using them to try to see what she could get. It seems you are following in her footsteps.”

“She got fired for not showing up to work.” I don’t know why I defend her. I’m sure my mother did sleep with men from the hotel. Especially if they had money. She would do a lot of things for money. Even screw her own daughter over.

“In the end, yes, that is why she was fired. I only meant I know what kind of women you two are.” That’s rich coming from her. Considering Jacob, who is on the board of the company she works for, just came out of her bedroom where they’d clearly been fooling around. Not that I care or plan on saying anything. It’s not my business. Especially after how I saw Jacob’s wife had been at the party last night.

“I said I’ll sign the papers, Charlotte.”

“You don’t really have a choice in the matter. Unless you want to make things more difficult for yourself. Sophia is already taking a liking to you. You wouldn’t want that to change, would you?”

“No. I’d like it if we could move past this too. We’re going to be in each other's lives. There is no need for us to be—”

“Save the bullshit for someone else, Aspen.” She rolls her eyes as she starts to walk off from me. “And Aspen.” She pauses when she gets to my side. “Don’t bank on sticking around. I know for a fact Marco suggested to Hunter that he should find a fake fiancée. I guess they thought a fake wife would be better.” Charlotte smirks. “You’re like your mother. You can lie to yourself all you want, but you sold yourself to be here.”