Page 15 of A Very Bossy Christmas

Her husband really was wonderful.

I pause by her front door and wait for her to unlock it. “You really don’t have to worry about me. I’ve got my hands full with work right now.”

“Pah! You know what your hands should be full of on weekend. Come. I have borscht and sausage for you. Come.”

“I’m really fine,” I protest. “I just bought groceries—but thank you.”

“You let me put more fat on bones, and good manvillcome for you. Youvillsee I’m right.”

Twenty minutes later, I’m in my kitchen, biting into Mrs. Pavlovsky’s reheated sausage and definitely not thinking about anyone else’s sausage when my phone vibrates, and my heart starts racing. Because I’m hoping it’snotDeclan. And it’s definitely not a sigh of disappointment when I see that it’s my sister calling me. It’s a sigh of relief. Because my sister Bex is my best friend and exactly the kind of person I should be talking to on a Saturday. Not my boss.

“I was totally just going to call you,” I say as soon as I answer.

“What are you eating?”

“A delicious sausage.”

“Interesting,” she says in a singsong voice. “That’s exactly why I’m calling you.” I can hear her collapsing onto a bed. “So, I’m tidying up Piper’s room because she’s out. And one of her notebooks just happened to fall on the floor.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And you know how I discovered a few months ago that she writes fanfiction?”

“You mean how you discovered it by making her notebooksaccidentallyfall open on the floor?”

“I’m very clumsy. It can’t be helped. Anyway. Last time she was writing a very PG-13Stranger Thingsfanfic story. Now she’s working on something about Maddie and Declan.”

Whaaaaat?

“Who is Declan, and why does your niece think you should be kissing him?”

“I have no idea, because I know for a fact that I shouldnotbe kissing him.” I scoff, very convincingly. “She met Declan the other day. He’s my asshole boss.”

“Really?Because he doesn’t sound like an asshole to me.”

“Let me guess—does he sound like a man with a perfect butt?”

“Yes, but he also gazes at you longingly with his beautiful amber eyes.”

“That is definitely fictional. You know for a fact that Piper has a hyperactive imagination.”

“There has to be something there, or she wouldn’t be shopping you.”

“Shopping us?”

“Rooting for the two of you to succeed in a romantic relationship.Maclan.”

I have to laugh at that. “You meanshipping.She’s shipping us. You know I love that girl, but she is absolutely flooded with hormones right now. She would root for two pigeons to succeed in a romantic relationship if she saw them sitting together.”

“She’s actually very perceptive.”

“Yeah. She’s extremely perceptive about boys’ butts. You do realize we’re talking about the man who’s making me work on Christmas Day?”

“Oh yeah. That’s still happening, huh?”

“Yeah. Still happening.”

“But you’ll be at Aunt Mel’s for dinner?”