Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist (Mistletoe Romance #1)(3)

His mom grabbed a loaf of bread from the cupboard and Nick shook his head. “Really, Mom, you don’t need to go to the trouble.”

She waved away his protests as she went to the fridge and started pulling items out, lining them up across the counter.

“Noel, get in here. I have a bone to pick with you, young lady,” his mother warned.

Noel laughed, coming up along beside her. “It wasn’t my fault! He swore me to secrecy.”

“You aren’t supposed to keep secrets from me!” his mother responded, playfully smacking her with an oven mitt. “I don’t care who is doing the asking. I trump my son every time!”

Noel hugged Nick’s mother from behind and kissed her cheek. “Wasn’t it a good surprise, though?”

His mother patted Noel’s arms. “Yes, baby, it was. Thank you for picking him up.”

“My pleasure.”

“Now, get to cracking those eggs,” his mother ordered. “You can do with a bit of fattening up too. I know that hospital runs you ragged, helping all those pregnant moms.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

It shouldn’t surprise him that his mother treated Noel as if she were her own. Noel’s mother, Heather, and his mom had been best friends all their lives. More like sisters.

Although they’d grown up together, he wouldn’t exactly say that he held sisterly feelings for his best friend. Even when Noel teased him mercilessly, he never needed a break from her the way he did his siblings. In fact, not talking to Noel would drive him crazy. She’d been there for all of his ups and downs and vice versa.

Victoria wiped her hands on her robe. “I better go get my phone and call your sisters. They’ll be so glad to have you home.”

Nick pulled his own phone from his pants pocket. “You do that. I’m going to text Amber.”

His mother and Noel made identical faces and he groaned. “Mom! Not you too!”

A sheepish grin split his mother’s face. “I’m sorry, honey. I know you’ve been off and on since you were eighteen, but I don’t think she is right for you. She’s very…”

Noel opened her mouth, but Nick pointed his finger at her. “You hush it.”

“You ought to watch the way you speak to the woman cooking your breakfast.” Noel cracked an egg against the side of the counter without breaking eye contact and dropped the contents into a large mixing bowl. “Never know if she’ll add a little something extra.”

“Mom, you wouldn’t let her hurt me, would ya?”

His mom snapped her fingers, the cell phone cradled in her other hand against her ear. “Self-centered. That’s the word I’m looking for.”

“Mom, she is threatening your only son.”

His mom tilted the phone away from her mouth to respond. “Nick, I love you, but you better be nice to her. I’m not policing her cooking. Yes, good morning, sweetheart.” She turned her back on them to talk to one of his sisters, missing the childish face Noel made at him. “You will never guess who is home. Nick!”

Nick curled his lip and crossed his eyes at Noel, earning a chuckle. When Noel went back to egg cracking, Nick typed out a text to Amber.

Just got home. Would love to see you ASAP. I missed you.

He tucked his phone back into his pocket and leaned against the counter. Knowing Amber, it would be hours before she responded. She wasn’t a morning person.

If he was being completely honest with himself, there could be other reasons why she wouldn’t respond right away. Things were strained between them the last few months, but he figured it was just the distance getting to her. They’d started dating when he’d come back from boot camp and only had a few weeks before he left for his first tour. She’d wanted to stay with him despite the distance and the stress. Although they’d broken up and gotten back together several times over the years, he hoped once he got home for good that things would be better.

Lately their conversation always ended in a fight, usually with Amber hanging up on him. It drove him crazy. Most of the time, he’d call right back and they’d make up, but he’d been too exhausted to play the game last time. They hadn’t spoken in five days, but Nick hoped when she saw him, all the tension would dissipate and it would just be the two of them, ready to be together all the time.

As a couple, they had a lot in common. They’d spent years talking about their futures. They’d buy a decent-sized house with property. Three kids. Maybe a dog. He would have proposed years ago, but he hadn’t wanted their relationship to be a cliché. Now that he was home, if everything went the way he hoped, he’d ask Amber on one knee with his grandma’s ring.

“Hey,” Noel said.

He swirled around and met Noel’s contrite brown eyes. “I’m sorry. I know I give you a lot of crap about Amber, but it’s only because I love you and want what’s best for you. You know that, right?”

Nick walked over and pinched her straight nose, returning her smile. “I do. And I love you, too.”

“Good.” She leaned against him, the sweet scent of strawberries and vanilla tickling his nose. “I may pass out if I have to wait much longer for your mom to get off the phone and resume her culinary arts.”

“How about I hop in there and hurry things along?” he teased.