Chapter Twelve Noelle #2
‘Ain’t that the truth,’ a voice says from off-screen. Eve scowls and then flips her camera over, putting me face to face with her fiancé, Nathan. He’s also wearing a Santa hat and there’s a tipsy glint in his eye.
‘Hey, Noelle. How’s it going?’
I give my future brother-in-law a wave. ‘I’ve been better.’
He winces and I realise I’m probably not doing a great job at masking my bitterness. ‘Yeah. Eve filled me in on everything. How’s SC?’
‘Don’t you start calling him that too.’
Nathan shrugs, his lips curling at the corners. ‘Eve still hasn’t told me his name.’
‘It’s Alex,’ I mutter, because having my brother-in-law refer to Hoxton as Sexy Client might just be what finally does me in. ‘Alexander, actually. And yeah, things aren’t going great.’
The camera blurs suddenly as Eve flips it back towards her without warning. When her face comes into view again, she’s staring at me with a strange intensity. ‘What did you just say?’
Except she’s slurring a little and it sounds more like ‘whayoudjussay?’ It’s a testament to our twin telepathy that I even understand her at all.
‘Things aren’t going great,’ I repeat, my shoulders sagging a little. ‘He’s been avoiding me for—’
‘Not that,’ Eve says, rolling her eyes like I’m purposely misunderstanding her. ‘Before that. You told Nathan what SC’s name is.’
I frown at my sister. Maybe she’s drunker than I thought. ‘Yeah. Alex.’
Her eyes light up and she pulls the camera a little closer to her face. ‘Alex. Not Hoxton.’
My frown deepens. ‘Not sure what you’re getting at. That is literally his name.’
‘Not once,’ Eve declares, her voice rising with each syllable, ‘not once over the last two years have you ever called that man Alex. It’s always “Hoxton this” or “Hoxton that” or “Hoxton’s a miserable prick”.
’ She tilts the camera down a little so it’s hitting her face at an awkward angle.
‘Never Alex.’ She takes another swig of her drink, a wicked glint in her eye.
‘But now you’re dropping his name like it’s all natural, like you guys are on a first-name basis or something.
Like you’re friends.’ She gives me a self-satisfied smirk. ‘What gives? What’s changed?’
We are, I realise with a jolt, technically on a first-name basis now. Hoxton’s been calling me Noelle for the last forty-eight hours and, apparently, I’m happy to call him by his first name too.
When did that happen?
My mind floods with the memory of Hoxton deftly squeezing my ass, my fingers fisting against the fabric of his sweatshirt. The sound of his deep groans mixing with my moans and the word ‘Alex’ falling from my lips just before he pulled away.
Ah. So that was it.
‘You guys fucked, didn’t you?’ Eve says suddenly, still looking irritatingly smug. Outside of the camera frame I hear Nathan groan and chide her gently, ‘Babe, the kids are still running around’ and Eve shoots him an apologetic grin.
‘Sorry,’ she says in a dramatic stage whisper, the best her drunken self can do with dropping her voice. ‘But you did.’ She turns her attention back to me. ‘Didn’t you?’
‘No!’
Eve purses her lips, clearly unconvinced.
‘We didn’t,’ I insist, my face warming with each passing second. ‘We just… well. We did kiss. A little bit.’
A whole lot.
Eve squeals. ‘I knew it! I knew it.’
‘Technically, you didn’t,’ I point out at the exact same time Nathan does.
Eve scowls at the two of us in turn. ‘I knew something happened. I could tell.’
‘How?’ Nathan and I ask, again at the same time.
‘Twin telepathy,’ Eve says sagely. ‘I felt it. A disturbance in the air.’ She raises a brow, clearly impressed with her own drunken explanation.
I can’t help but laugh. ‘That’s insane. You’re insane.’
‘And drunk,’ Nathan chimes in cheerfully.
‘And drunk,’ I agree.
Eve isn’t bothered by my dismissal. ‘Either way, you guys kissed and now you’re calling him Alex.’
She’s got a point there.
‘And now you say he’s avoiding you?’
My thoughts circle back to Hoxton. The memory of his lips on my mine, his hands leaving a scorching trail over every inch of skin he touched, makes my stomach twist in the most delicious kind of way.
How the hell has one kiss managed to turn my entire world upside down like this?
‘Right,’ I confirm for Eve before she gets irritated. ‘We kissed—’
‘Was it good?’
I don’t want to answer – I want to keep something for myself – but I suppose the look on my face gives me away because Eve cheers loudly.
I roll my eyes and continue, explaining, as briefly as I can, the odd situation I’ve found myself in.
Hoxton is avoiding me, and I don’t know if it’s because he’s afraid of the repercussions that might come with us leaning into this sudden attraction we’ve found ourselves in, or if he’s dealing with his own world of chaos that he keeps hidden from me.
Maybe it’s a bit of both.
When I finish speaking, I let out a deep breath, feeling drained from spilling all the details to Eve – and Nathan, I suppose. She tightens her lips and swallows hard before taking another big gulp from her drink.
‘Okay,’ she starts slowly, sieving through her thoughts to gather the right words. ‘First things first, what do you want from this?’
I don’t even have to think about my answer. ‘I don’t want things to be awkward between us. We’re stuck together in this house for God knows how much longer, so it’d be nice if I didn’t feel like I was alone.’
Eve looks disappointed. ‘That’s it?’
I snort and roll my eyes because I know exactly what she’s getting at, but I’m under no delusion here. ‘There’s nothing between me and Ale— Hoxton,’ I correct myself quickly. ‘Nothing but a little bit of cabin fever.’
And I’ll keep telling myself that. Never mind that I can still feel Hoxton’s touch ghosting over me like a persistent shadow, or the fact that I’ve committed the taste of him to memory – one that I’ll no doubt replay on lonely nights if I ever get out of here.
Cabin fever. That’s all it is.
Eve purses her lips, looking like she wants to say something, but something seems to catch her eye outside of my line of vision. I watch, slightly amused, as Eve and Nathan engage in a silent conversation consisting of raised eyebrows and the puckering of lips.
‘Fine,’ Eve huffs after several seconds of wiggling her brows at her fiancé. I have no idea what silent conclusion they’ve come to, but when Eve looks at me again, I’m sure I see a hint of something mischievous dancing in her eyes. ‘Let’s say it is cabin fever.’
‘Which it is.’
‘You’re right. You two shouldn’t be avoiding each other. The longer this storm goes on, the less likely it is you’ll make it here for Christmas and I will not have my sister spending Christmas alone.’
That pang of longing from earlier hits me again, as Eve reminds me of everything I’m about to miss this year.
‘So you guys need to get it together,’ Eve continues. ‘I’m going back to my first suggestion.’
I frown, trying to wrack my brain and remember what Eve’s first suggestion even was.
‘Like I said yesterday, maybe you’re here so you can let some of your Christmas spirit rub off on him.’
That is definitely not the answer I was expecting, and I can’t help but scoff. ‘Haven’t we been through this? Ale— Hoxton is a Grinch through and through. There’s a better chance of this storm breaking in the next ten seconds, than Alexander Hoxton getting in the Christmas spirit.’