Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Hollie
I was expecting this Christmas Eve to be my worst. It’s now lining up to be my best by a long stretch.
Better than that Christmas Eve I woke up convinced I’d caught sight of Santa rustling around in my stocking.
Better than the Christmas Eve I woke up in the middle of night, unwrapped all my presents, and found Princess Celestial with her sparkly wings and rainbow-colored mane sitting in my stocking.
Better than the Christmas Eve I kissed my high school crush under the mistletoe.
It may only be the early hours of Christmas Day, but we’ve already exchanged gifts with one another over and over again. I’ve sucked their cocks, they’ve eaten my pussy, they’ve fucked me and licked me and fingered me and had me every way I think is possible.
And then there are the words they said to me last night, asking me to stay, to be theirs forever.
We’ve talked about it some more and I don’t know if I’ve completely lost my mind, if the grief and everything else that has happened has warped all my common sense, but I’m seriously tempted.
First things first, though, we’re going to start with dating. Long-distance dating.
If I think I’m going to enjoy this moment and make it stretch all the way into Christmas, though, then I’m given a rude awakening by the blast of a 5 a.m. alarm.
“What the heck?” I say, nearly tumbling straight out of the bed.
“Time to get up, sweetheart,” Tucker says, as the three of them leap out of bed elegantly, not even attempting to snooze their alarm or draw the blankets over their heads.
“But it’s so early.”
“It’s morning,” Clay says.
“And Christmas Day,” I point out.
“Happy Christmas, Hollie,” he says, helping to pull me up and right me on my feet, pressing a kiss to the crown of my head.
“Can’t we snuggle?”
“The cattle need checking on,” he tells me, “and the horses. And we left Dolly and Kenny overnight. I need to check on them too.”
“It’s so early,” I continue to protest, but they ignore me, and soon I’m wrapped up in all my winter layers again, a plate of freshly cooked eggs shoved underneath my nose.
I attempt to sulk about the situation, but it’s hard when I’m being fed by alphas, cuddled by alphas, snuggled by alphas, and kissed by alphas.
And soon I’m outside. It’s still dark, the morning winter sun only just crawling toward the horizon.
But it must have stopped snowing hours ago.
Everything is still and silent and perfect outside, the snow fresh and crisp and undisturbed.
I have the very big desire to go stomping through it or to drop down onto my back and make snow angels, but Tucker has me back on Storm and soon we ride toward the big house as the sun’s rays creep across the untouched snow.
They drop me off with instructions to check on Dolly and Kenny and promising they’ll be back after they’ve checked on the cattle and horses.
I make a half-hearted attempt to argue that I want to come with them again, but after I nearly froze to death yesterday, I’m pretty glad when they refuse to let me join them.
Dolly and Kenny are extremely pleased to see me, although both sniff at me for an incredibly long amount of time.
“Okay, guys,” I say to them as I shake out food into Dolly’s bowl and slice up carrots for Kenny. “So you worked out what happened. Just don’t go blabbing to Annie. Not yet, anyway.”
Because there’s just one big flaw in this potentially happy-ever-after plan, and it isn’t Ted the goldfish.
Annie.
She said the idea of me and her brother together was gross.
It definitely goes against some of the fundamental rules of Girl Code.
You shouldn’t look at your best friend’s brother.
You definitely shouldn’t kiss him. And there’s no way you should end up in his bed along with his packmates.
But it’s a bit too late for regrets now.
I spend the next little while tidying up downstairs and – as if thinking about my best friend conjures her from thin air – my cell phone starts to ring, when I glance at the screen I find my best friend is calling.
“Happy Christmas, Hollie!” Annie squeals at me down the line when I answer. “I’ve got the best news.”
“Happy Christmas,” I squeak back, really hoping the guilt isn’t obvious in my voice. “What news?”
“Old Samuel – he has a snow plow, and he heard about the fact you’re stuck at the ranch without us on Christmas Day, and he’s clearing the path for us. We’re nearly home. About five minutes away.”
“Five minutes?” I gulp. I wasn’t expecting my best friend home today. I was expecting more time to work out in my head what I was going to tell her. To come up with a plan and a story and possibly some self-defense moves in case she decides to attack me.
“So what have you been up to? What have you been doing?”
“What have I been doing?” I repeat.
“Yeah,” she says, “while I’ve been gone.”
Panic spirals through my body and my brain completely blanks. The only seriously unhelpful thing that springs to mind is – your brother, I’ve been doing your brother. Not helpful one bit. I squeeze my eyes and try to think of something else.
Think of an excuse. Think of an excuse quickly, Hollie.
But nothing comes to mind. Nothing at all. So I do what any sensible 30-year-old would do in this situation: I pretend the line has gone dead and hang up the phone. My arms shake as I stare at the screen, which lights up almost immediately and starts buzzing again.
“Shit,” I mutter. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.”
It’s at this moment that the three very hot alphas come strolling inside the house.
“What’s wrong?” Clay asks.
“Annie!” I screech, shaking the phone in his direction.
“Why don’t you answer it?” Nash says.
“She wants to know what I’ve been doing since she’s been gone. And I can’t tell her – not over the phone anyway. Although maybe that might be safer considering she’s going to kill me. Ahhhh. What should I do?”
“Give the phone to me,” Clay says.
“Oh my God.” I clutch it to my chest. “What are you going to do? What are you going to tell her? She’s going to hate me. She’s going to disown me as her best friend. And it’s Christmas too.”
“She’s not going to disown you, Hollie.”
“I’ve broken Girl Code. Of course she’s going to disown me.”
Clay ignores my panic, holds out his hand, giving me a stern look – all raised eyebrows and set jaw.
He’s pretty irresistible that way. I’d do anything he said, including sinking to my knees and sucking on his cock.
But I think what he wants right now is my cell phone, so I hand it over.
He answers it and brings it up to his ear.
“Hello, Annie. Happy Christmas.” Silence. “We brought her back to the cabin. We thought it would be best that she wasn’t on her own during the snowstorm.”
I can hear Annie’s rambling voice from the other end of the phone. High-pitched, hyper, and real damn fast. That probably means she isn’t buying this.
“We’ll see you soon,” he says, and then he hangs up.
“She knows,” I say.
“She doesn’t know,” Clay says.
“But you’re going to tell her, right?” Nash asks.
“Oh God!” I tumble down onto the nearest armchair, bring my knees up to my chest, wrap my arms around my legs, and bury my head in my lap.
“Are you having second thoughts?” Clay asks.
“No,” I mutter.
“Regrets?” Tucker asks.
“No.”
“Remorse?” Nash asks.
“No. I will tell her. Just not right away. I need time to think about how I’m going to break this news to her. It’s Christmas Day and…”
They’re all looking at me.
“Don’t stand around, staring at me like that,” I say. “She’s going to be home in five minutes. We need to look natural.”
“You’re the one curled up in a ball, rocking side to side, sweetheart,” Tucker points out unhelpfully.
“You’re right,” I say. I snap down my legs and lean back in the chair, trying to look natural and relaxed – not like a girl who spent all of her afternoon, evening and night messing around with her best friend’s brother and his packmates.
Tucker laughs. “It looks like someone shoved a stick up your backside.”
I raise an eyebrow at him because there were no sticks involved last night, but Tucker Parker certainly pressed his finger inside my ass just as I was coming.
“Oh my God, she’s going to know, isn’t she?” I press my hands to my cheeks; they’re probably still glowing manically. And my hair – it probably looks like bed hair. “Son of a nutcracker! Your parents, they’re gonna know too, aren’t they?”
“Hollie,” Clay tells me, “breathe. It’s going to be okay.”
“No one’s a mind reader,” Nash adds. “They’re not going to know unless we tell them.”
But Nash seriously underestimates the powers of best friends and women in general.
Because, as my best friend Annie comes bursting through the door, trailing snowy wet footsteps behind her, she takes one look at me waiting for her in the hallway – trying my best to look casual, relaxed, and not like I’ve spent the evening behaving like some sex goddess – and comes to a skidding halt.
“Something’s happened,” she says, narrowing her eyes at me.
I gulp. She pulls off her boots, grabs my hand, and yanks me up the steps. Behind us, Mr. J calls out, “Happy Christmas, Hollie!”
“Happy Christmas!” I murmur back.
“Gonna start on that Christmas breakfast.”
“We’ll be right back,” Annie says. “Me and Hollie need to talk first.”
She narrows her eyes even more aggressively at me, and I swear my heart’s beating so loudly Annie must be able to hear it.
Once we’re in the safety of her room with the door securely shut, she rounds on me.
“Out with it,” she demands.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say as nonchalantly as I can muster.
“I know your guilty face, Hollie Bright,” she tells me. “In fact, you may as well have ‘guilt’ written right across your forehead.”
I stare right back.
She narrows her eyes even further.
I keep staring. She stares some more.
I stare. She stares.
And I’m the first to blink.
“Okay. Okay,” I admit. “Something happened.”
“I knew it,” Annie says, stamping her foot. “Did you unwrap your present? Did you knock over the Christmas tree? Did you eat all the Christmas chocolates? Did you–”
“I slept with your brother,” I blurt out, because the secret is killing me inside. And actually, I find I can’t lie to my best friend.
I scrunch up my eyes, waiting for her to slap me or push me, or strangle me with tinsel. Instead, I’m met with stony silence, and I wonder if that’s worse. I peel open my eyes and gaze over at her. She looks – she looks remarkably calm. In fact, there’s a smile hovering at the edges of her lips.
“Just my brother?” she asks.
“No,” I confess very quickly. “NashandTuckertoo.”
“Parden me, I didn’t quite catch that.” She cups her hand to her ear.
“Nash and Tucker too.”
“Oh, you little Christmas ho ho ho.” Annie slaps her hands together. “I knew this would happen.”
I gape at my best friend. “You what?”
“I knew this would happen. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist each other.”
I shake my head. Did I hear that right? “What nonsense is this?”
“You’re just perfect for one another. You always have been. I just can’t believe it’s taken you so long to work it out.”
“Annie, don’t get excited. We’re just dating. It’s not like they’re claiming me and we’re having babies.”
“Obviously,” she says, winking at me. “That totally isn’t going to happen.”
“Annie,” I say, as the pieces all start to fall into place in my mind. “Did you plan this whole entire thing? Did you invite me here under false pretenses?” I examine her shrewdly. “Have you set me up?”
Annie jumps right at me, flings her arms around my neck, and gives me one of her biggest squeeziest hugs.
“Of course I did, silly!” she mutters into my ear. “Happy Christmas, Hollie Bright!”