“Elle—I am so, SO sorry.” Holly looked mortified. “I should have absolutely chatted to you before I’d jumped to all sorts of conclusions. Especially before trusting Woody over you.” She looked on the verge of tears. “Just the thought of Fred being on his own, and the whole mistletoe kiss thing for me, and then this message came through, and then…well. Sorry. That’s what I’m saying.”

I could tell she really meant it, so I was going to accept it—I hadn’t exactly made some great decisions myself. “Don’t worry, Hol—I guess a lot of it was my fault. Like the whole Logan thing all over again.”

Holly looked even more stumped. “Logan? As in boyfriend Logan?”

She shot Ruby a look, but Ruby looked as confused as her.

I had to laugh. “Logan as in a guy I’ve never met and probably never will after I told him to back off.”

But Holly and Ruby weren’t laughing—they looked kind of horrified. And did they just mouth Fred at each other? “Wait, you guys thought I was cheating on Logan…with Woody?”

Wow, they really had a high opinion of me. But as they both apologized and tried to explain, something else was gnawing at me. Something about the screenshot Holly had showed me of Woody’s message. “Hol, can you show me that picture again?”

I squinted at the screen.

What was it that wasn’t sitting right?

Screenshot of the message. Eleven per cent battery.

Camera roll underneath it.

A couple of photos back was one of Dominic.

And then…

“You’ve met Grams?!”

“Erm…” Holly’s whipped her phone out of view. “Well…”

Mom hadn’t mentioned anything?! But then it suddenly all clicked.

And it clicked HARD.

“Nick took you, didn’t he? That’s where he keeps going, isn’t it?! I knew it wasn’t band stuff, but wow…”

And although Holly didn’t say anything, we both knew I was right.

And so was she—Nick and I had some serious talking to do.

Chapter Twenty-One

Holly

I was such a mug. A massive Christmas mug, full of idiot tea.

Thank goodness Elle and Ruby had let me explain—and apologize.

Nick though, he’d fled the scene and was nowhere to be found. No wonder, after all the stuff I said about his sister—and him. So great that I’d said none of them were normal. Well done, me.

And now it was only a matter of time before he found out Elle knew about Dottie. He’d trusted me—and this is how I’d repaid him.