When I can’t stand it any longer, I burst out with, “Are you mad at me?”

Diego doesn’t turn his head toward me. He just keeps staring at the wall, arms crossed over his chest. “I don’t know; should I be mad at you?”

“No, why would you?”

“I feel like I don’t have all the info here.”

“What info?” I ask innocently.

He finally meets my eyes. “Mmm, for example… Let’s see…” He scrunches his face in a mock-interrogative expression. “How long have you been in love with your soon-to-be brother-in-law?”

I’m so busted. “Paul and I have been friends since college. That’s all.”

Diego throws me such a seething, don’t-bullshit-me stare, that I’m compelled to admit, “I thought I had feelings for him for the longest time, but I’m past that now.”

“Is that why you went to such trouble to get him the perfect Christmas present? I checked the author’s website. It’s almost impossible to get a signed copy of a Liam Grady book. The only way is to attend one of his book events and queue in line for hours, and his New York gigs are always the busiest.”

True. True. And True.

With no intelligent reply to offer, I get petty. “So what?”

“You bought everybody else’s presents with barely a week to go before Christmas, not giving two cents about what you were getting, but for Paul, you just happened to stumble across the release event and… what? You decided waiting in line for hours to get a signed book for your sister’s fiancé was a good way to spend the afternoon? Do you go through all that trouble for all your ex-crushes?”

“No, but—”

“Is that why I’m really here?” Diego interrupts me. “To make Paul jealous?”

“No, of course not.”

Diego keeps staring at me, clearly unsatisfied with my answer. Taking a deep breath, I try to explain the big mess I’ve gotten myself into. “Okay, fine, I used to have a crush on him. That’s why I worked so hard on his gift.” I cringe at how easily I’m now downgrading my previous obsession with Paul to a silly crush, but that’s really all it feels like now. “And yes, he was a big part of the reason why it was so difficult for me to come home alone this year. Julia had just announced the engagement, and that she was bringing Paul home for the holidays, and I thought I still liked him, and that Julia had sort of stolen him from me, and it was too much to handle on my own as the spinster sister.”

I watch Diego as he tries to digest all this new information.

“But now you’re over him?” he asks.

“Yes. One hundred percent.”

“Is there anything else you haven’t told me?”

“No,” I say.

Diego keeps quiet next to me for the longest time, and I have no idea what’s passing through his mind as he stares down at the comforter. When he finally lifts his gaze again, his eyes are burning. “When did you stop liking him?”