Chapter 15
HOLLY
The only thing that makes life better when you’re snowed in alone with your best friend’s brother is falling in love with him again and having him bang your brains out all over the family cabin.
The unlimited orgasms? Mind-blowing. But the next time I visit the cabin with Layla or the rest of his family, I won’t be able to look any of them in the eye.
“Have more water,” Caleb insists.
“If I drink anymore, I’ll have to pee, like, ten times in the next hour,” I reply with a huff.
“You need to hydrate. It’s important,” he scolds, plopping the water bottle back in my hands.
“Fine.”
The attitude is just for show.
In reality, a tingling, happy thrill shoots through me in response to his caretaking. After our first round in bed, he carried me to the shower and washed me with dedicated gentleness. Then he devoted himself to making me fall apart all over again. He hasn’t stopped since.
“What?” I ask him when I down half the water, quenching the thirst I’d been ignoring as I caught up on my emails.
He braces his hands on the back of the couch where I’m laying and stares at my mouth. “I want to kiss you.”
I giggle, taking another sip of water. “So kiss me.”
He grunts. “If I do, I won’t be able to stop myself. I’m not trying to wear you out.”
“Who’s complaining?”
I trap my tongue between my teeth with a wicked smile, drawing my bare leg up to peek from the blanket. The only thing I have on is his old Heston U college hoodie, and not another scrap of clothing.
I really need to finish answering my emails, but…he’s too tempting. I haven’t gone more than five minutes without wanting him since we kissed in the hot tub, not counting all the years he secretly stayed tethered to my heart.
“You know I’m ready for you under here. All I have on is your hoodie. No panties. Wet and waiting for you to slip it in,” I croon with a coy tilt of my head.
I have no idea where this confident vixen has sprung from, but I like it. I’ve always felt assured in my sexuality, yet I’ve never been this bold. He’s inspired a side of myself I never knew.
“Fucking hell,” he grumbles into his hands as he scrubs his face. “You’re going to be the death of me, woman.”
“And what a sweet, oh-so-delicious way to go,” I agree with a blissful sigh. “Okay, you’re right. We need a breather. I have to get this work done. Leo and Hazel don’t know how to answer them without asking me questions. They’re piling up, so it’s easier for everyone if I do it myself.”
“Deal.” He sprawls on one of the armchairs by the fireplace and studies me with a crooked smile that makes my heart skip a beat.
I bite my lip, glancing at the date on my phone. Five more days until Christmas. Last night when we finally came up for air after being wrapped up in each other, we found out road crews were beginning to clear the residential roads on the mountain.
“Do you think they’re going to get to our section of roads before Christmas? Or do you think we’ll be stuck here still?” I ask.
“It depends on which side they started with and how much the roads have iced over. But if we are, we can call your family and mine on Christmas Day on FaceTime so you can still see them,” he suggests.
I nod. “I can’t believe we might miss out. I’ve never been away from my family for Christmas. Even when I moved to Mayfield permanently after college, I’ve always gone home to spend it with them.”
“It was weird for me the first year I wasn’t home for the holidays. Since the regular season is a tight schedule, we only get a short break. I don’t always go back.”
I play with the dainty bows on the ends of my loose French braids. “I’m going to miss out on decorating with everyone. It’s one of our favorite family traditions. I could bake us a Christmas tree cake, I suppose, but it won’t be the same.”
He strokes his jaw with a twinkle in his eye. “You want a tree? I’ll get you a tree.”
I sit up. “You will?”
“Of course.” He pushes to his feet and stops by me to drop a kiss on the top of my head. “Wait here. I’ll be back with it in a bit.”
I twist around, gaping at him as he puts on his boots and coat. “Like, you’re going to go chop one down for me? A real tree?”
He winks. “Sure am. We’ll make our own holiday traditions.”
My heartbeat thuds hard. I lay a hand over it as he exits the cabin. An elated bout of laughter flies out of me.
I’m so excited, I feel like jumping around. I’ve never had a real tree before. My family uses a perfectly usable hand me down, but I’ve always wanted to decorate a real one. I never asked because I don’t like making a burden of myself.
Guilt pangs in my stomach when I get off the coach.
I need to finish my emails, but I want to dig through all the stuff I overpacked to collect as many of my hair bows as possible to fill the tree.
Leo’s managing things the best he can with Hazel and Leta’s extra help, but he’s still not me.
He won’t be able to handle everything the way I do.
I’ll take a quick break, then I’ll get back to it.
As I’m collecting whatever I find around the cabin to go with my massive collection of bows, I finally check the text I missed from Layla.
She messaged me early this morning while I was…
otherwise occupied by her brother when he found the vibrator I stashed in one of my bags.
He didn’t stop playing with me until I lost count of how many times I came and had turned into a quivering mess.
I really want to tell her what happened with Caleb because we tell each other everything. Except, I kept it a secret from her before when I first fell for her brother.
We’re older now. Sneaking around feels silly.
I stare at her text as uncertainty holds me back. I won't tell her without talking to Caleb about it first.
Layla
Have you made it through the movies we have stashed there?
Holly
Yup. We made a drinking game out of it.
Layla
Omg, I’m jealous. I want to play. Let’s go back to the cabin for New Year’s Eve instead of going out.
Holly
That might be too soon for me. We’ll see if I escape by then [laughing emoji]
Layla
Think about it! Bonus, we’ll save so much money. I need to scrounge every penny for my move to Mayfield [thinking emoji] Ok, but downside…no hot men to kiss at midnight and dick us down after.
Holly
Or girls [heart emoji] [rainbow emoji]
Layla
Yes. You know what? Probably better. Think we can convince Hana to join us? It’s been forever since the three of us got to hang together.
Holly
This definitely is the solid start to our New Year’s plan.
Layla
Just me and my bestie girls! We don’t need anyone but each other.
My lips twist wryly at the long string of heart emojis she sends me. I send her just as many back.
I adore her. While I share her sentiment, there is someone else I need.
By the time I’ve gathered all my potential decorations in a pile on the coffee table, changed into a cute satin disco ball sleep set with my embroidered bow slippers, and powered through the rest of my emails, Caleb returns.
I beam, holding the door open for him as he hoists the tree he chopped down for me onto the porch. “Oh my god, it’s beautiful!”
“Picked the best one for you.” He shoots me a heart-stopping dimpled smile.
“I love it!”
He props it against the house, shaking off the excess snow from the branches. Once he’s satisfied, he grabs a tree stand from the shed and makes space in the sitting room inside.
“How’s here by the window?” he asks.
“Perfect.”
He gets everything set up while I supervise. I’m barely able to contain my amazement. We haven’t done anything to the tree yet and it already looks fantastic.
I inhale deeply, eyelashes fluttering. “It smells so nice.”
“My grandma’s always had the same thought. Grandpa always went out without fail when we spent our holidays here and brought her back the biggest, prettiest trees he could find,” he says.
I select a thin white ribbon with a scalloped lace edge and tie a bow on one of the branches. I light up, adding another until the middle section is dotted with the bows I usually use to tie up my hair. When I reach for the next one, I find him watching me with a tender expression.
“Will you help me decorate?” I tie a bow and offer it to him.
He accepts it, leaning in to brush a kiss against my lips. “Tell me where you want it.”
“Up high where I can’t reach.” I point to an ideal sprig.
The corner of his mouth quirks. Grasping my waist, he boosts me up in a smooth show of strength and perches me on his shoulder.
“Show off.” I fight a smile.
His thumb strokes my thigh. “For you? Always. Find a good spot for that bow.”
We get the top of the tree filled in with ribbons and the other odds and ends I collected from around the house, including wooden napkin holders with winter motifs, a set of woodland creatures made from pinecones, extra dried orange slices I brought for my mulled wine recipe, and some of my two-toned baking twine.
To top it off, I add my biggest bow hair clip as the topper.
Once the upper half of the tree is complete, he sets me down. We work on the bottom section together. I set a snow globe on the mantel next to the tree as the finishing touch.
“Where’d you find that?”
I trace the carved trees on the base. “On top of a cabinet in the kitchen while I was raiding it for the napkin rings.”
The rustic cabin inside the glass is a close match for the one we’re in.
“It feels like we’re inside the snow globe right now,” I murmur. “Our private bubble away from the world.”
His hand rests at the small of my back. “The tree looks great.”
“It does,” I agree warmly. “Thank you for doing this.”
“Of course.” He curls his fingers around my hip and kisses my temple.
“I used to love looking at this when I was here in the winter.” I gesture to the snow globe.
“Yeah?”
I nod. “I love snow globes. When I was little, I collected them. I even wished I could be inside one.”
“Did you think they were pretty and made of magic?”
“Yes, but also because this is what my head has always felt like.”
He hums inquisitively, waiting patiently for me to explain myself. I shake it so the snow flies everywhere and show him.
“All the snow swirling around me is the chaos I exist in and I’m the only one who knows how to handle it all. When it’s storming, it’s a lot to manage. But there’s peace in there too when I’ve weathered the storm.”
“Alone?” he clarifies with a frown. “You’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself.”
I shrug. “I thrive under pressure.”
“But you don’t have to without someone else to help you ease it. I don’t want you to be in your head alone,” he says softly. “I want to be in the snow globe with you, sugar.”
A lump forms in my throat at him wanting to be my support, making it difficult to speak. I melt against him, tucking my head beneath his chin. He holds me tight in his embrace.
A million worries constantly flit through my head.
Yet none of them matter to me right now. Caleb’s presence chases everything away until it’s just the two of us together.