Chapter 2
Stella throws her head back and laughs after I tell her about my interaction with Teddy. The party died out and everyone who isn’t staying here went home, leaving me and Stella alone with Felix and his teammates.
She glances over to where Teddy and the guys are tossing a football in the front yard. “I think it’s great he’s here. You will have a chance to hang out with him more.”
“Oh, yeah. Another chance for him to not notice me.” I don’t even try to hide the defeat that spills out with my words. I have had a crush on Teddy since the moment I met him.
Felix is fifteen months older than me and Stella. He went off to Valley U while we were still in high school. I’ll never forget the first time Felix introduced Teddy to us. It was after a home game. We’d all come down to watch Felix play.
It wasn’t anything Teddy said or did. It was in all the things he didn’t say or do. He is quieter and sweeter than the rest of Felix’s friends. He smiled with those dimples, looked me in the eye and repeated my name like he was committing it to memory. That was all it took. I was smitten.
And every interaction, everything I’ve learned about him since, just makes me fall harder.
“Oh please, he totally notices you. How else did he see that necklace?” She lifts her chin and drops her gaze to it.
“He notices me, of course he does, I’m his best friend’s sister, but he doesn’t notice me. There’s a difference.”
“He was checking you out.”
“I don’t think that’s what he was doing.” My face heats.
“He’s a straight, very hot-blooded college guy. He checked you out. He probably just thinks you’re not interested because your default mode around him is to hide or barely say two words back to him.”
It’s true. I tend to freeze up around him. Teddy makes me nervous. When he talks to me, or anyone really, he gives his undivided attention. And all that attentiveness from a guy that already makes my insides feel like goo is overwhelming.
And okay, it isn’t fair to say he doesn’t notice me; Teddy is always friendly, but he doesn’t see me the way I see him. I know, because he treats Stella the same way, like he’s looking out for us because it’s his obligation as Felix’s best friend.
“Felix and Teddy are staying until the twenty-third.”
Three nights longer than Stella and I planned.
“You want to stay?”
“Don’t you? Teddy is here!”
I shush her, but my face remains hot.
“He isn’t listening,” she says with a small laugh.
“What about all our plans? We were going to do holiday stuff, like bake cookies and watch Home Alone.”
“I know.” She turns, so her body is angled toward me, her eyes pleading with me. “But if we stay, we can do all that and ski and hang out with Felix. What are we going to do at home by ourselves that we can’t do here?”
I hesitate. The answer is nothing, but I’m still torn.
“Please?”
“Okay,” I relent.
She squeals and her smile gets bigger.
“But we’re getting a tree for the cabin, and you have to go with me on the bunny hill.”
“Whatever you want,” she says and hugs me. “This is going to be so much fun!”
Her phone pings, and she pulls back quickly to look at the screen. A goofy grin lights up her face. The kind of grin that can only mean a text from one person.
“Is he done for the semester too?”
“Yeah. He finished yesterday and flew home today.”
Stella met a guy last month at the airport.
She’s a diver and was traveling with the Valley U Swim and Dive Team.
Serendipitously, she ended up sitting next to Beau at the gate before her flight.
He goes to college out of state, but is originally from the Phoenix area like us.
Even so, I didn’t really think anything would come of their happenstance meeting, but they’ve been talking all day, every day ever since.
“When do I get to meet this guy?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “He’s only home for two weeks, and he has plans with his family.”
Stella gets lost in her phone, and I go back to watching the guys. Felix throws the football to Lucas and calls, “I’m out. My nipples could cut glass.”
He jogs up the front porch steps and heads inside. I follow after him.
“Beer?” he asks.
“No, but will you grab me a soda?”
He does and then cracks open his beer and starts toward the master bedroom.
“Wait.” I walk with him, entering the messy room. It’s decorated exactly as you’d expect from grandparents. Elementary school pictures of Felix, Stella, and me in all the awkward phases are framed on the dresser, and it has a smell that’s a mixture of Icy Hot and floral potpourri.
“Stella and I are going to stay.”
“Awesome.”
“You’re really not pissed we’re crashing your entire week of partying?”
His blue eyes crinkle at the corners as he smiles. “Nah, but I hope you’re prepared to sleep on the living room floor. At least until Sunday. Emmett is leaving then. After that, you are welcome to the lumpy couch.”
He sets his beer on the dresser and pulls out clean clothes from his bag on the floor.
“Not necessary. Teddy already gave up his room.” I smile smugly as I sit on the edge of his unmade bed.
“That Teddy.” He shakes his head as his voice takes on a taunting edge. “I’m going to have to talk to him about being so nice to my annoying sisters.”
“Teddy is nice to everyone.”
“True,” he says and then flicks on the bathroom light.
“What’s the plan for tonight anyway?”
“Lots of drinking, then who knows. Wherever the night takes us.”
Felix takes his beer and disappears into the bathroom. A second later, the shower turns on. I get up to leave, but pause in the doorway and say, “We should get a tree.”
“A tree?” he calls over the running water.
“Yeah. You know, those things you decorate at Christmastime.”
“Uh, yeah, maybe. I’m not sure how much room we have for that.”
He’s right. The cabin is not spacious, but our parents already said the only tree we’re doing at home this year is the small artificial one mom puts up in the kitchen and decorates with Santa ornaments.
She usually puts up at least five artificial trees throughout the house—ranging in size and color and theme, but my favorite is always the real one that goes up in the living room.
I love going to pick it out, the way it smells and the way it looks all lit up at night.
Stella and I planned to get one this weekend and surprise everyone, but then we decided to come here instead.
All the good ones will be picked over before we get back.
“We’ll make room,” I tell him.
I only get a grunt in acceptance, but it’s good enough for me. One small, Christmassy win.