In the picturesque town of Winter Grove, the tenacious Alicia Whittaker faces off against her best friend's snobbish brother, Zeke Brighton, when his disapproval of his sister's boyfriend threatens to upend their Christmas.
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Tenacious college stud...
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Zeke
Torn from a nightmare, Zeke lurched forward in bed.
In his dream, he'd been trying to escape his penthouse apartment in the city, but he kept hitting dead ends. He was trapped, with no way out, and it was the last place in the world he wanted to be...
But now, as he blinked and returned to reality, he thought that Winter Grove came in a close second place.
He ran his hand over his face and squeezed his eyes shut. A pair of dark doe eyes rose in the darkness in his memory.
Alicia.
Her threat from last night rang out in his head.
"...And who's going to make me?"
"Me."
If he were to try to tell someone, say it aloud, it would sound ridiculous. My little sister's best friend is threatening me to spend time with my sister's deadbeat boyfriend. It was ridiculous. But for some reason, he couldn't shake the worry that had taken root in his stomach. But there was something about the fierceness he'd seen in Alicia's eyes last night that haunted him.
Her threat, as ridiculous as it was, was credible.
Alicia was going to be trouble, he was sure of it.
He threw off the covers and got out of bed, shaking out his tense muscles, wound tight from his bad dream. He tried to talk sense to his worries. This problem was not insurmountable. He had no idea what Alicia might be planning for him, but whatever it was, he was sure he could find some way to get out of it.
She may be stubborn, but so was he.
His phone buzzed on the nightstand. He reached for it. A new message was waiting for him on the screen. It was from his mom in the family group chat.
MOM: Are you up?
DAD: He better be at this hour.
Zeke shook his head and tapped out a quick reply.
ZEKE: I'm up.
MOM: Good. We're out for brunch at the diner down the street. We'd appreciate it if you came and joined us. We need to talk about last night.
Zeke groaned and fell back onto the bed. The fluffy duvet puffed up around him as though he was floating on a heavenly cloud, but this place felt more like somewhere much lower.
For a minute, he was worried that this sinister brunch was somehow Alicia's doing, but he quickly dismissed the idea. That was giving her too much credit. She couldn't work that fast.
Could she?
His head throbbed. He was still slightly hungover from last night. After being turned out of The Snowball's Chance and with the hotel bar still closed for a private event, he ended up back in his room, raiding the mini-bar. It would likely cost him a small fortune, but he could afford it.
