Chapter Twenty-Four
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
SEBASTIAN
“ H ey Colt, you need a ride?” Jace asks as we’re leaving the restaurant.
“Ah, no thanks, Jace. I left my helicopter on their roof,” Colton says, jabbing a thumb toward the three of us who actually live there. Everyone stops to stare at him, except for me. I’m just glaring. This man is so fucking ridiculous.
Colton keeps walking, then notices the silence, and turns back to the group.
“What?” He smirks. I roll my eyes and keep walking, brushing past him.
Leena stops to hug everyone goodbye, and I give the group a little wave, so I don’t get shit from Luke later about not being nice.
As I pull out onto the street, the people in my car are silent. That’s not fucking normal.
I look in the rearview mirror to find Colton clenching his jaw as he glowers out the window, not doubt discontented by this latest op. I get that.
Then my eyes trail over to Leena who is leaning up against the window, staring out. It looks like she’s about to fucking cry. I don’t like that.
I look over to Luke, he doesn’t look happy either.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.” I run a hand over my face. “I think I preferred your goddamn singing,” I grumble, not sure what I’m supposed to do about this, but knowing I don’t like it. Luke glances back at Leena, just now noticing the pained look on her face.
“Leena? You doing alright, baby girl?” he whispers, urging her to speak. I hear her sniffle. Okay, I really don’t like that.
“I just… this will be the first Christmas that… that…” She sniffles again. Fuck. “That I don’t see Kat. We don’t really get along, but still. We always see each other on Christmas.” Her voice is barely a whisper. I run a hand over my mouth, my jaw tight.
I never got along with my sister Savannah either, but then I went and fucking left her behind, throwing away any chance at seeing her again. Not Christmas, not birthdays… never. That was my fault. But none of this is Leena’s. She shouldn’t have to go through this. The woman I love shouldn’t be sad on Christmas.
I have to fix this.
“We’ll get her back. You know we will. No more tears, darling. What do you want to do for Christmas Eve?” I reach back, placing a hand on her knee. She thinks for a moment.
“I don’t know, what do you guys normally do?” she asks softly.
“Seb and I have never done anything in particular, we just go to my parents’ for a couple days, then come home,” Luke says, shrugging as he glances at me.
He’s right, we’ve never been good at holidays. We’ve never even given each other a present. It just felt… weird to do that before.
“What about you?” she asks Colton.
“I’m… I was going to… um. Sit at home, watch TV?” he says. And I realize how pathetic it sounds when he fucking says it.
Maybe we should do something.
“Okay, that’s it. We’re doing something,” I grumble. Luke’s eyes shoot to me, and I give him a sideways glance. Yeah, I know, I know, I roll my eyes.
This woman is making me soft.
I glance in the mirror, and find Leena’s big, hopeful eyes staring at me, a little smile on her lips. It makes me all warm knowing that maybe I put it there.
Fucking soft as shit.
“What do you want to do?” she asks quietly, sitting up straight in her seat.
Luke and I glance at each other and the two of us smile like it’s already Christmas morning. Because I can think of several things the two of us want to do with her.
Colton notices the exchange and snickers.
Leena must notice too. “Okay, aside from the two of you fucking me until I can hardly walk. What else?”
My eyes quickly find Colton in the mirror, and I smile at the wide-eyed shock on his face as he looks over at her. She’s never spoken that openly about our relationship in front of him and it clearly caught him off guard.
It’s fucking hilarious.
I decide that Leena being this comfortable around him is either coming from the second glass of wine she had at dinner, or the fact that he’s practically moved in with us. It’s not like we asked him to stay, or leave, we just keep working late downstairs at the office, then getting him too fucked up to fly or drive home.
I guess we could have dumped his drunk ass in an Uber or something days ago.
I wonder why none of us thought about that.
I just figure that as soon as he gets tired of hearing the three of us fucking through the wall, he’ll wander off all on his own.
We’re not even trying to be quiet anymore. Not sure how quiet we were to begin with.
But I guess he’s used to it, considering where he spends the nights he’s not with us. And I have to admit, sneaking around and shoving Luke and Leena into dark corners of the house when Colton isn’t looking is kind of fun.
I shift in my seat.
“Colt? Do you have any ideas?” Leena says, and hearing her get excited over something makes me smile.
“Me? Don’t ask me, I’m not part of this.” He chuckles.
“Yes you fucking are. Did you buy me a present?” she asks.
“Well, yeah, but–”
“Then I have to open it at some point, and it’s Christmas Eve! Do you have it with you?” she urges.
“It’s… in the chopper… but I don’t want to intrude,” he says, glancing up toward us for some backup on this.
Luke looks at me with his eyebrow cocked, and I give him a shrug that says I’m okay with it. I really couldn’t give two shits actually, and it seems like it would make Leena happy. I know how worried she is about her sister, maybe the three of us can take her mind off it for the night.
“Colton, the intrusion started ten days ago. We’re not kicking you out on Christmas,” Luke jokes, and I can’t help but catch the look on Colton’s face in the mirror. I don’t like that either.
It’s all emotional and shit.
“So you’ll stay?” Leena beams at him, looking hopeful. I thought the three of us would drive her insane with all our bullshit, but apparently not.
This woman just keeps surprising me. And having Colton in the house definitely keeps us all entertained. Even if I’m annoyed as hell with him most of the time.
Am I actually annoyed? I wonder.
“I’ll stay,” he says, his tone… soft. And that’s fucking weird too.
“What if we got drunk and opened presents tonight?” I suggest, because I don’t like whatever the fuck this is.
There are too many emotions in this car.
It’s making me itchy.
“We were probably going to wind up doing that anyway.” Luke chuckles.
“What if we got out the go-bag?” Colton suggests and I nearly run off the road as I glare back at him. “Oh, not that go-bag,” he chides, then barks out a laugh when he sees the look on Leena’s face. “The one you guys have with all your silly games.”
Luke and I both chuckle and I shake my head, knowing we’re going to get shit from Leena later over the fact that Colton even knows what the other go-bag is.
“Well, Leena? What do you think?” Luke turns back to her.
“I think game night and presents is a great idea,” she says, and I smile.
It sounds good to me too.