Chapter 10
One Week Before Christmas
Nick couldn’t breathe.
Caught in the hazy middle between sleep and reality, he flapped his hand at the snow pressing against his face. So cold. So…plastic?
He turned his face to the side, but it didn’t help. The white pressed in. He mumbled, words stuck in his dry throat. So tired. He should wake up though. Did he smell coffee?
He opened his eyes, but the popcorn ceiling he’d stared at the past two nights from his media room foldout couch didn’t come into view. Just snow. So much snow.
No…He blinked. Not snow. He reached up to rub his face but the white—The White, because now he was panicking—covered his entire body. He batted at it, and with a thump, The White bobbed sideways and rotated slightly before hovering once again over his bed.
The White had eyes.
With a yell, Nick scrambled backward, pressing into the cushion of the couch. The support bar beneath the mattress jammed into his thighs and he released a wild kick. The White retreated long enough for him to fully awake.
Was that a…carrot? He leaned forward and squinted.
Yes, a carrot nose. On a snowman. A giant inflatable snowman, whose black top hat skimmed the ceiling as it bobbed to an upright position and then fell face forward toward his bed.
This time, he was ready with a growl and a punch.
“Violence is never the answer.”
Another yelp escaped before he could censor it. Which was silly. Snowmen couldn’t talk.
But…wasn’t that the entire point of Frosty’s song? The thing came to life? He made another fist.
A giggle cleared the last of the sleep fog and he leaned forward, craning his neck to see around the giant inflatable.
Holly stood in the doorway of the media room, one hip resting against the frame as she sipped from a mug with a candy cane handle. Her hair was tossed on top of her head in a messy ponytail, her oversized gray sweatshirt nearly swallowing her petite stature.
Grinning like someone who definitely didn’t hate Christmas.
Or maybe she just hated him.
“Um, good morning?” His statement stumbled out more like a question. He pulled the covers up by instinct, even though he’d slept in sweatpants and a T-shirt. Why was his room so cold? His bare feet felt like bricks beneath the sheets. Axel had to be freezing on the air mattress on the floor.
Assuming he was down there. Nick couldn’t see. Maybe Frosty consumed him.
“Sleep well?” Holly calmly took another sip. So he had smelled coffee. He wasn’t completely delusional. But maybe she was, because why else was she just standing there while he slept, drinking coffee as if there weren’t an elephant—snowman—in the room?
Frosty bobbed toward him again and Nick fought back a shiver. “What’s going on?” The media room didn’t have a window, but if it had, he’d expect it to be wide open with real snow pouring in. “Why is it so cold?”
“The heater is on the fritz.” Holly briefly disappeared as the snowman inserted itself between them with another lazy bob.
He pushed it back, probably harder than necessary.
“You don’t say.” Frosty’s hat wedged against the ceiling, holding him in place and sparing Nick the temptation of another punch.
He stared up at its mischievous painted-on grin.
“I uh—I suppose this is the missing yard ornament everyone was so worked up about?”
“Yep. Found him. Not that he could really hide in the first place.” Holly huddled inside her sweatshirt, clutching her mug to her chest with a serene smile. “I thought, why let him go to waste on the front lawn when he could bring the ultimate level of festiveness right here to your room?”
“Why, indeed.” Festiveness. Was that even a word? Nick ran a hand through his hair. It was a good thing he’d decided he wasn’t interested in Holly, because otherwise, he’d feel pretty vulnerable right now with his pajamas and cold feet, trapped in bed by a nine-foot snowman.
After last night’s property walk with Thomas, he’d yet again remembered he was there for a greater purpose than whatever Holly had up her sleeve, a purpose that was far more important than her reindeer games.
Though, man, she looked cute with that bed head—a fact that was even more annoying pre-caffeine.
Nick scrubbed his hands down his face as the snowman’s hat loosened its hold against the ceiling with a slow scrape. He needed to keep his clarity. He needed coffee.
The carrot nose bounced onto his leg.
He needed to stab Frosty with a straight pin.
“Where’s Axel?”
Holly shrugged. “The air mattress was empty when I snuck in here—I mean, when Frosty decided to bunk with you guys.”
Ah. The kid was probably in full retriever mode, sleeping outside Chloe’s door. “I should probably go find him before your dad does.” Nick started to push back the covers, but Holly didn’t budge from her post.
“He’s with Dad already, messing with the heater.”
While Nick slept the morning away? That wasn’t a responsible look. He worked to keep his tone even despite his rising panic. “I should get ready then and go help. Maybe find some of that coffee you’ve got there.”
“Actually, this was the last cup.” She took another slow slip, briefly closing her eyes to savor it. “Dad finished off the grounds working on the heater.”
So she’d drunk the last of the coffee and booby-trapped his room with a bigger-than-life-sized Christmas song. And then had the audacity to stand there and revel in it.
Fine.
He tossed back the covers and stood in his pajamas. Suddenly, Frosty’s theme song blared through his room. He peered around the inflatable. Holly held up her phone like a lighter at a concert, singing along with the vintage tune. “ Thumpety, thump thump …”
With a growl, he moved toward his suitcase.
Surely she’d take the hint now and leave him alone to get dressed.
He raised his voice to be heard over the obnoxious music.
As if it didn’t bother him at all. As if she didn’t bother him at all.
“Guess I’ll just take my truck into town and get coffee then. ”
Still leaning against the doorframe, Holly blessedly turned down the volume. “Good luck finding anything this early in Point Bluff. Most stores don’t open until ten during the holiday season.”
Then she cranked the music back up. Clearly, she wasn’t going anywhere until his torture was complete. He narrowed his eyes.
Two could play at this game.
He moved toward his suitcase and wrenched his T-shirt off over his head. Maybe he flexed a little as he did, maybe not.
On second thought, he must have, because Holly scurried from the room like it was on fire. Strains of Frosty drifted in her wake.
Nick grinned as he reached for a fresh shirt, suddenly not at all minding the snowman bumping his shoulder.
I wasn’t sure how many pieces of red and green construction paper it was going to take to rid my mind’s eye of Nick’s abs.
Apparently, more than seven.
I cut another strip of green, then reached for the tape. I’d make a chain for Janie too. And Mason. Heck, maybe the whole family would get one at this point.
Whatever it took to be free of the most welcomed unwelcome image I’d ever encountered.
“Okay, what gives?” Olivia flopped onto the couch next to me, wearing a plaid scarf and beanie despite the fireplace sizzling across the room. Dad hadn’t fixed the heater yet, as evidenced by my cold toes tucked inside my house shoes.
And yet my chest still felt flushed.
“What do you mean?” I picked up my scissors, careful to resist eye contact. Big sisters saw all. “You know how old that heater is. I’m sure it needs a part or something.”
Kat piped up from the armchair where she lazily braided my rejected strips of paper. “Last I saw, Dad was bent over that old clunker while Ryan, Nick, and Axel all scratched their heads. It’ll be a while.”
“Not with the heater.” Olivia tapped my sweatpants-clad thigh. “With you and Nick. ”
Kat looked up with a suspicious grin. “Wait. You and Nick?”
“There is no me and Nick.” I calmly cut another strip. I mean, seriously, did the man work out every day?
“Holly and Nick?” Chloe gasped with delight as she hurried into the room, still chewing a piece of toast. Of course she’d meander into the living room at that exact moment. If big sisters saw all, little sisters interrupted all.
She settled on the hearth in front of the fire, tucking her fur-lined boots up under her. “What’d I miss? Spill the tea.”
Kat frowned. “You don’t even like tea.”
“Oh, don’t pretend like you’re too mature for Gen Z slang.” Chloe stuck out her tongue. “You’re not even five years older than me.”
“And yet in maturity, it might as well be decades.”
Chloe glared. “We could also go by dog years—”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Kat waved one hand in the air. “That math would wreck your brain.”
Chloe bristled. “For the record, I have a 3.0 at school. Not that it matters any—” She clamped her hand over her mouth.
Olivia straightened next to me. I could practically feel her big-sister radar pulsing. “What do you mean, ‘not that it matters’?”
“I mean, I might be…transferring.” Chloe shifted on the hearth.
“Grades still matter when you transfer.” Olivia squinted.
Chloe waved her hand. “That’s not important right now. We’re talking about Holly’s love life.”
I fought back a sigh. “Holly doesn’t have a love life.” Then I remembered the reason Nick was there. “Well, I have a date for Mom’s block party. But that’s all.” Assuming I didn’t run Nick off by then, anyway. I grinned. My Frosty idea had been pretty genius. And Nick’s reaction, priceless.
Though I couldn’t help but feel he’d gotten the last laugh.
“It’s super obvious.” Chloe’s eyes glowed as she munched the rest of her toast.
“What is? Besides your lack of manners.” Kat wrinkled her nose at her.
Chloe ignored her, though she did swipe the crumbs on her cheek with the back of her hand. “Holly and Nick like each other.”
“He’s Ryan’s co-worker and friend. Everyone likes him.” I carefully lined my scissors up for the next cut, holding my breath in case Olivia’s radar pulsed my way.