Page 38 of His Secret Santa
Did they know it?
Did the truth of the moment even occur to them?
Holden didn’t think so.
• • •
Jamie was hanging out with Abby at the pizza parlor having a perfectly pleasant time when McKenna Peterson and some of her group showed up to ruin it.
Checking the time on her phone, Abby whispered, “Shouldn’t they be at Lincoln’s party?”
“I would have thought so,” Jamie murmured. He’d invited Holden to join them at the pizza parlor, but he never showed up. Of course, Holden hadn’t said for sure he would be there. Now, Jamie was kind of glad he hadn’t shown. The last thing he needed right now was more exposure to McKenna and her brood.
“Lincoln isn’t with them,” Abby noted.
Jamie scoured the small group and saw she was right. Troy was there, and Greg, and some of the other guys from the team. McKenna, Tonya, and a few others from her squad. But no Lincoln.
“That seems strange, don’t you think?” Abby said quietly. “I mean, it’s his birthday and even his girlfriend isn’t with him?”
“Does seem odd.”
McKenna and her group took over a large portion of the pizza parlor.
“Do you want to go?” Abby asked.
Jamie nodded. “Yeah.”
The two left their table and headed for the door. Not soon enough.
“Hey, Dayton,” Troy called. “Hold up.”
Jamie groaned and turned around.
The other senior didn’t look very happy. “Thank your little butt buddy for ruining Lincoln’s party. We oughta kick his ass.” His friends wandered closer, as well as McKenna.
Alarms went off inside Jamie; what the hell was he talking about? How could Holden have ruined their party? Jamie frowned, uneasy. “What do you mean?”
“Yeah,” McKenna chimed in, looking a tad pissed. “He didn’t just ruin the party—he ruined my relationship with Lincoln.” She nudged Troy. “You should kick his ass.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jamie asked, suddenly very worried about his best friend. “Holden wasn’t even at the party. How could he—”
“Oh, he was there.” McKenna snorted. “And we tried to make him feel welcome, but he couldn’t take a joke and ruined everything.”
Holden was at the party? No… that wasn’t possible. Why would he go there? After the incident in the parking lot, Holden didn’t want to go anywhere near the party or Lincoln.
“What do you mean he was there?” Jamie demanded. “He wouldn’t go to the party.”
“He did,” McKenna said. “And after we so nicely invited him, he goes and fucks things up. Ungrateful little faggot.”
Jamie glanced at Abby who looked as worried as he felt. “Where is he now?” Jamie asked McKenna. “What did you do?”
“We didn’t do anything but include him in the fun. He’s the one who overreacted because of a stupid joke.”
“Joke?” Jamie stared at her warily. “What kind of joke?”
She shrugged and smirked.
“Where is he now?”