Free A Shade of Dragon by Bella Forrest Page B

group of girls with whom I had once shared a cheerleading troop, and was on the verge of approaching them when Michelle interrupted from behind.
    “Nell!” Michelle called down. “Nell, I want to see you. Hold on. Don’t go anywhere.” She ducked away from an interior balcony, hurried along a corridor of side steps and then came out directly behind me. She wore a layered maroon sweater with a white collared shirt, a navy blue pleated skirt, and thick gray tights. She looked, of course, adorable. Her hair wore its usual sloppy, proud style. “What took you guys so long—” She frowned and made a show of scanning the room. Somehow, I was sure she would’ve been able to see Theon entering the room from a pair of eyes in the back of her head. “Where’s Theon? Did he decide not to come?”
    “He couldn’t make it. A… business… thing.”
    Two of Michelle’s latest best friends—Erin and Shanice—approached with their drinks in hand: for Shanice, creamy apple cider with a stick of cinnamon, and for Erin, hot chocolate and a crust of melted marshmallows. Shanice was a willowy Caribbean with a sculpted afro and electric-blue lipstick, while Erin was a petite brunette with a cap of glossy hair, a leopard-print cardigan, and black leather pants.
    Shanice smirked and took a sip from her cider. “Mm. Shell got us all excited about meeting this hot new man. No show, huh, Nell?”
    Erin winked. “Happens to the best of us, girlfriend.”
    “He wasn’t a no-show. He had a business thing. A conference call. He couldn’t get out of it.” Augh. Why couldn’t I lie? You would expect for the child of a corporate lawyer and a business mogul to be one of the most proficient liars on the planet.
    “A business thing on Christmas Eve?” Michelle whispered to me. Shanice and Erin glanced at each other. “Are you sure that’s the story you want to go with?”
    I felt my cheeks flame. Damn this translucent Irish skin. “It’s the truth. It happened at the last minute. He wanted to come.”
    “But this just had to be the same night that Theon was supposed to take that deposit to the bank, and it never made it there,” Shanice chimed in gleefully.
    “Now he’s stuck on the phone with corporate, trying to figure out if they can legally fire him if he hasn’t had his third strike yet,” Erin added with a grin. “Am I right, Nell?”
    “You should use that detail,” Michelle insisted. “It makes the story sound much better.”
    “Um, Theon is real,” I informed them. “You met him yesterday. Where are the drinks?”
    Michelle guided our path, and Shanice and Erin swooped in, looping their arms through mine and pulling me along the hall, toward the kitchen.
    “I think somebody was just trying to put Andrew in his place.” Erin giggled.
    “You should know that whatever is going on with me and Andrew is totally relaxed, Nell,” Michelle called to me sweetly from over her shoulder. “So if you want to strike things up with him while you’re in town, I’m, like, ninety percent he’d be down.”
    “I’ll pass,” I replied, deadpan. “Like you saw yesterday… I met someone else.”
    Michelle turned on her heel and smirked at me. “Right.”
    “Let me just grab one of these drinks,” I said, scanning the selection and plucking a Styrofoam cup of fresh hot cocoa from the counter. “You know what? I think I will say hi to Andrew, and just let him know that there’s no hard feelings.” Smiling and nodding toward the three of them— Theon was right, we do have a harpy infestation —I turned and sipped at my cocoa, exiting the kitchen.
    I was sure Andrew was around here somewhere—probably sledding, skiing, or playing billiards—but I’d been lying. I wasn’t going to say anything to anyone. I was going to get the hell out of here, and quit trying to shoehorn myself into a social stratum where I just didn’t belong.

Chapter 17: Nell
    W hen I first arrived home , I thought that the whole house was