“Don’t swear, dear, it’s not becoming for a bride. And don’t treat me like an old lady who doesn’t understand how the world works anymore. With age comes wisdom, and I can see a lot more than you think.”

“I don’t know. I’m not convinced. Have you even seen them kiss, like, ever?”

“Maybe they’re just private people. Look how cute they are… they’re building a snowman. When did you ever see Nikki build a snowman?”

I can’t see what my mom’s doing, but I can imagine her pointing out the kitchen window to the backyard.

“Where’s Nikki?” Julia asks, alarmed.

With the speed of the best undercover agents, I quickly backtrack to the rear door, slam it shut with a loud bang, and call, “Mom? Are you inside?”

“In the kitchen, baby,” she shouts back.

I walk in, plastering a big, fake smile on my lips. My heart is still beating super fast. “Can you gals spare a carrot?” I say, struggling to keep my voice even. “We need a nose for our frosty man.”

“Sure, honey,” she says a bit over-brightly. “You want it peeled?”

“No, I’m sure Frosty won’t mind.”

Despite my best efforts, I can’t bring myself to meet Julia’s eyes. I take the carrot from Mom and hurry back outside as quickly as I can.

“Here’s your carrot,” I snap to Diego.

“Whoa, what happened to you?” He stops leveling the main body snowball and gets up from his crouch. “You went inside a cute, hopping bunny and came out a roaring tiger.”

“My stupid sister is putting weird ideas into my mom’s head.”

He sticks the carrot in the middle of the head ball, making our masterpiece complete. “What weird ideas?”

“Like we’re not together, and you’re really just a friend doing me a favor pretending to be my boyfriend.”

Diego flashes me his impossibly sexy grin. “How absurd.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch two heads staring from the kitchen window. Panicking, I quickly grab Diego by the hips and pull him toward me.

“And what’s happening now?” he asks, the smile never leaving his face.

“They’re spying on us from inside the house. We need to appear… mmm… affectionate.”

“Mmm, boss, is it just me?” Diego taunts me. “Or are you taking the opportunity to discretely grope my assets?”

Accurate, unfortunately. My hands are wrapped around his lower back, well within ass-groping territory.

“Sorry,” I say. “Emergency situations call for extreme measures.”

“In that case…”

And with a devilish sparkle in his eyes, he lowers his hands on my back to return the favor.

I scowl, although I’m not at all convinced I don’t like the close contact.

“Want to know what I think, boss?”

“No.”

“I think there’s a much better way of convincing your mom and sister we’re legit than discreetly groping each other’s assets in the backyard.”

“What way?”

“You should kiss me.”

If the cold hasn’t turned my cheeks bright red already, they sure are now. “I-I should… what?”