Chapter Ten
Valli
Noa waltzes into the bathroom as I’m brushing my teeth and smiles at me. It’s bigger than normal, and he is practically buzzing with excitement.
“Spill,” I say after removing the toothbrush from my mouth.
“My family is coming for Christmas.” I look at him in the mirror and continue brushing my teeth. “And Cipher’s parents.” I stop brushing. “Just for a few days. Nixie organized extra rooms for them. It’s going to be great, and everyone is going to love you . . . Why are you looking at me like that?”
I rinse, then put the toothbrush down. “Your parents are coming?”
“Just my mom. I only have a mom, as I grew up with a deadbeat dad. But she’s amazing, you wait and see.”
I’m not exactly worried about meeting their parents, but . . . “Do they know about our situation?”
Noa opens his mouth and closes it, confirming just as I thought—they don’t know that he shares me. “My family knows I’m happy and that there is someone I want them to meet,” he finally says.
“Does your mother know you are sharing a girlfriend with two other men?”
There is a pause, and he makes a sound as if all the air has left his lungs at once. “Did you just say girlfriend?”
“That is not the point of what I said.”
“I think it is—this is huge. Say it again, Valli.”
“No.”
He steps further into the bathroom, no longer lingering at the door. “Just once more, for me.”
“I am not saying it again.”
“You called yourself our girlfriend, of your own free will.”
“Noa, focus.”
He winces. “Sorry, she knows I love you, and she knows Cipher loves you. She also knows Cave is coming home soon, and that he is very important to you. The specifics of our relationship are no one’s business, but if they ask, we can tell them in person.”
I give him a look that says his words don’t make me feel better.
“Has anyone told you today how beautiful you are?”
I snort. “Get out of the bathroom.”
He laughs as he leaves the bathroom, and I can’t believe meeting their families has just been sprung on me. I head out to the main area of the shed in search of Cipher, finding him at his workbench with his back turned to me.
“Did you know your parents were coming for Christmas?”
He looks up. “Yes.”
“Do they know about me?”
“Yes.”
“Do they know about our situation?”
He puts his tools down and holds out his hand, so I step closer and take it. “My mother knows I am in a relationship that is not conventional. She knows I am with you and Cave. She is not concerned, so long as I am happy. Besides, I message her daily about us.”
“You do?”
He nods. “And don’t worry about Noa’s mom—she will love you. That woman loves everyone Noa loves.”
He holds my gaze, and I see there is more he wants to say.
“My father will take a little longer. He won’t make you feel unwelcome, but he just doesn’t understand how it all works and doesn’t need to know the finer details.”
“I have never met a boyfriend’s parents before. I didn’t exactly have a life that left room for relationships. Rowan made sure of that.”
“You will be fine, and if at any point you’re not, tell me and I will deal with it.”
“When do they arrive?”
“A couple of days before Christmas.”
Thankfully, that gives me a few days to get used to the idea and get my mini freak-out under control. I squeeze Cipher’s hand. “Okay, let’s talk about something else before I spiral.”
As if some twisted Christmas spirit with a warped sense of humor heard my words, Leni rushes into the shed with Khodi hot on her heels, looking panicked. “Does anyone answer their phones around here? We have an issue and I need Noa.”
“What’s happening?” he says from the sofa, popping his head up.
“What’s happening is you ordered a thousand Christmas trees, and they can’t take any back.”
Noa jumps up from the sofa. “I only ordered a hundred.”
Khodi laughs. “Add an extra zero at the end.”
“Shit, shit, shit,” Noa says in a panic.
“The delivery drivers need to know where to put them.”
Noa scratches his chin. “The cornfield. Cave might kill me, but it’s the only open space we have available. Any that won’t fit will have to be moved into the paintball zone.”
Khodi pulls out his radio. “Unload into the cornfield.”
“Do you have a death wish, loser?” Vesper’s voice comes over the radio.
“No, Noa does. This one is on him. I will hide behind his girlfriend’s sister—there is no way Cave will touch her.”
“If anyone is using the sister as a shield, it’s me. I will gut the rest of you,” the reply crackles back.
“She speaks to my cold, dead heart,” the Jester’s voice chimes in.
“Ignore the decorative idiot. I will get them to unload the trees there, but this better not come back on me.” With that, Vesper’s voice vanishes.
“We better make sure this is sorted. Do you want to come?” I ask Cipher.
“No, I’ll stay here.”
I nod and lean down to place a kiss on his lips, then we head out.
As we walk toward the main path, I fill Leni in on the family situation, which she thinks is hilarious.
Neither of us really knows how to deal with parental figures since we lost ours so young, and neither of us has really ever been in a serious relationship before, as Rowan was not someone you wanted people around.
The Jester is near the cornfield when we arrive, watching the men unload trucks of trees. He appears to be teaching a group of guests a card trick. He spots me over the head of a woman in a Christmas jumper and gives me a wave.
I wave back, and he extracts himself from the group with a bow and bounces over, his bells jingling with every step. “You look worried,” he says. “Is it Cave? Do we need to move to Plan B? Because I have been thinking a lot about it, and I think I can pull it off easily.”
“I don’t doubt you could, but Cave is fine. I’m just processing some news.”
“What news? Good or bad?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Oh, that’s the best kind. I love complicated things. Well, you know where to find me if you need Plan B, C, or even D.”
I laugh. “Thank you.”
He winks and bounces back toward the guests.
The men unloading the trees seem to be doing a good job, so I leave Noa to micromanage them; he really can’t mess it up any worse than he has so far.
Leni and Khodi follow me to Ares’s Bar, as I need hot coffee fast, since I feel like my face is about to freeze.
Kayla is at the bar, sitting on a stool and watching Vero hang some tinsel, while Brawley stands beside him pointing to something, looking frustrated.
“Hey,” Kayla says when she sees me. “You doing okay? You look a little . . .”
“Stressed,” Leni says helpfully.
“I’m meeting the parents.”
Kayla laughs. “Me too. It will be fine.”
“Valli is not fine.” Leni giggles.
“I’m working on it,” I say when Vero appears at my side, a ball of tinsel in his hands. “What are we working on? Is it a scheme? I love schemes. Brawley says I’m not allowed to, but Brawley isn’t the boss of me.”
“Do you want me to show them how I can make you drop to your knees and call me boss?” Brawley growls.
Vero nods. “Yes, please.”
We all laugh. Vero is excitable all the time, more so than Noa, and can be funny to watch.
“I take it you’re here to get a coffee,” Kayla says, and I nod.
She jumps over the counter, and Ares pops his head out from the back and warns her to be careful, to which she just rolls her eyes. Leni gets a call from Noa and says she’s going to meet him outside. As she leaves, Khodi follows behind her like an obedient puppy.
I wait for Kayla to make my coffee order, and when it’s ready, she tells me not to worry about meeting the parents. That if all else fails, it’s only for a few days. She puts all my coffees in a tray, and I head back outside to find Noa and my sister.
When I locate them, Noa is standing beside Leni, with Khodi on her other side, so close that their arms are practically touching. Nails stands in front of them, looking a little embarrassed.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Nails protests.
“How did you mean it differently?” Noa asks.
“I was trying to say she looked nice. It was a compliment.” Nails’s face turns a little redder.
“What’s going on?” I ask, handing Leni her coffee.
“Nails told your sister that she was”—he pauses for dramatic effect—“and I want to get this right: ‘The most beautiful woman to set foot on the island since the last beautiful woman to set foot on the island.’ And that if she ever wanted someone to show her around, he would be honored to be at her service.”
Leni puts her hand over her mouth to hide her laughter.
“And then, Khodi appeared from behind that tree over there.”
“You were just lingering behind a tree?” I ask Khodi.
“Yes.”
“Anyway,” Noa continues. “Khodi came over all puffed up, looking threatening.”
“I have the utmost respect for you,” Nails says to Khodi. “I didn’t know she was with you.”
“He isn’t with her,” Noa states. “Leni is a free woman. Maybe you should fight for her—first blood loses.”
Leni laughs.
“Absolutely not,” I interject. “No one is fighting anyone. If my sister wants to talk to Rhett, she can. Now, how about everyone gets back to work before Nixie spots you standing around doing nothing?”
Nails needs no further instruction and disappears as fast as he can, while Khodi stays where he is and stares at me.
“The trees are being unloaded fast, so it shouldn’t take too much longer.”
“Thank you,” I say to Khodi, and he nods once, then glances at my sister before walking away.
Noa watches as he leaves, a smirk slowly forming.
“Not a word,” Leni warns him.
Noa holds up his hands. “I said nothing.”
“You were about to.”
“I might have been, I have so many things to say, but they are locked inside me.”
Leni looks at me, then back at Noa, who is vibrating from keeping the words inside. I’m sure I will hear them all later.
“I can’t wait for Cave to see this,” he says, instead of blurting whatever his thoughts are about the Leni-Khodi situation.
“Do you think he will hate the trees in his space?” I ask.
Noa shakes his head. “I don’t think so. There are no corn stalks for him to chase anyone through, but now he has Christmas trees.
We could get you a cute little elf costume and chase you instead.
We’d tie you up with Christmas lights to the new post. I was trying to wait for Cave, but I’ve made him a new one—that’s what Nails has been helping me build. Come and look.”
Noa takes my hand and pulls me into the cornfield that is now unrecognizable; a thousand Fraser firs have turned it into a makeshift forest.
“He is going to hate the Santa costume I purchased for him, but tell me he wouldn’t look hot in it.”
“I won’t argue with that,” I mutter as he takes me to the center of the field where a new post stands, and I’m lost for words—it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
Noa has gone all out for this post. It’s not just a few pieces of wood slapped together; this is carved with obvious care.
It looks so well done, carvings covering the length of the upright post with the same pattern.
Yet it’s the symbols that have silent tears forming in the corners of my eyes.
There are three of them on the crossbeam, one at each end and another in the center, connected by an infinity symbol.
On the left is a gear, so perfectly done it almost looks real.
The one on the right is a little shovel which makes me smile, and in the center where the upright meets the crossbeam is a flower rendered into the wood.
It is almost identical to the flower Cave gave me, the one made from corn husks.
“I cried when Nails first showed me. I thought I was crazy and the idea wouldn’t work, but it is so much better than I imagined.”
“It’s perfect.” Reaching out, I run my fingers over the carvings.
Noa wraps his arms around me from behind while I imagine Cave coming home and Noa showing him this. Cave is only twelve days away from his release date, and Vincent is working around the clock to get him home before Christmas. All we can do is hope for a Christmas miracle.