The Twelve Dates of Christmas Read Online Free

vocabulary words. Want to join in?”
    â€œSure.” He shrugged. “Might take my mind off—well, you know.”
    â€œThat’s true,” Allie said. “I have a theory about that, actually; I’m calling it the Broody Brain Theory. The idea is that if you’re filling your mind with new knowledge, you won’t have any brain cells left for moping over your love life or whatever.”
    I laughed. Normally Nick would’ve joined in. He loves making fun of Allie’s theories almost as much as I do.
    But not today. He just sighed deeply and picked at the edge of the table. “It’ll take more than a few vocabulary words to take my mind off Rachel,” he mumbled.
    I winced.
Pathetic
used to be the last word anyone would ever use to describe Nick. But these days, sadly, it fit him perfectly. I wished there was something I could do to help him snap out of it, but so far he only seemed interested in wallowing.
    That brought my mind back to Cam again. It had been bad enough thinking about breaking things off with him before. I hadn’t been sure I’d have the heart—or the guts—to actually ever go through with it. If I did, I knew it would take some real finesse. Even if we weren’t meant to be a couple, I knew for certain that I always wanted us to be friends. Besides, I didn’t want to mess up our tight little group—Allie and Nick would never forgive me if I did. I’d never forgive myself.
    But now, watching Nick brood over his ex, the idea of breaking up with Cam seemed even harder to imagine. Nick wasreally devastated; who knew how long it would take him to get over Rachel? And he wasn’t anywhere near as sweet and sensitive as Cam. How could I possibly put Cam through that kind of heartbreak? How would I ever be able to stand watching him go through that?
    â€œLexi, are you even listening to me?” Allie’s annoyed voice broke into my thoughts. “Because I really didn’t think that
ruminate
was that hard a word.”
    â€œSorry. Um,
ruminate
means to think something over.”
    â€œRight,” Allie said.
    Nick glanced over at me. “Way to ruminate your way through that one, science geekette,” he said, once again sounding almost like his old self for a second. “Maybe you’ll be able to get that verbal score within two hundred points of the math one after all.”
    I laughed, doing my best to push all ruminations about Cam out of my head, at least for the moment. What was the hurry, anyway? This wasn’t a bio lab with a time limit. Just because I’d identified a possible problem didn’t mean I had to rush out and solve it right away.

    One afternoon a couple of weeks later, Cam came over to help me prep for my Simpson Scholarship interview, which was scheduled for the following day. I have to admit, I was a little tense about it. Verging on hysterical.
    â€œWhat if I screw this up?” I asked him for about the tenth time, pacing back and forth across my living room. “What if I don’t get the scholarship?”
    He was splayed out on the big squishy beige couch. My parents were both out, so we had the place to ourselves aside from Blitzen, the family cat, who was sleeping on the couch beside Cam. Sitting up carefully to avoid jostling the cat—she could be cranky when awakened suddenly—Cam gave me that easy smile that always made me feel a little calmer.
    â€œChill out, Lexi,” he said. “You’re going to do great tomorrow. Mrs. Simpson will love you.”
    â€œBut what if she doesn’t?” I argued, still pacing. “I might, you know, forget myself and accidentally blurt out the F-word or something.”
    He laughed out loud at that. “Right,”he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I’m sure that’s really likely to happen.”
    â€œOkay, maybe not.” I sighed and ran both hands through my hair, even though I knew