Chapter 16
Thankfully, the task was finished without further incident. Still, by the time the pair returned inside, it was already dusk.
“Brent, my dear, you’re an angel.”
Graham watched his mother wrap Brent in a squeeze that, even for her, seemed a bit forward. “Hey, I helped, too, you know!” Shedding his jacket, he hung it up in the coat closet.
Brent eyed him knowingly. “Yes, until you almost fell off the roof!”
“Graham!” His mother patted his sides as if checking for injury. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Mom.” He rolled his eyes like an embarrassed teenager.
“Don’t worry, Ms. Bartlett,” Brent inserted. “I made sure nothing happened to Mr. Graceful here.”
Graham tried to shrug it off, but there was definitely something about the tone in Brent’s voice just then that made his heart pitter-patter.
A sly grin twisted then upon Carol’s face. “Well, Graham, it appears you’re lucky indeed.” Her eyes flicked over to Brent in a display that made Graham’s heart rate pick up for a different reason.
He swallowed a lump in his throat. She couldn’t possibly suspect something between him and Brent…
“I insist you let me pay you for your troubles.” Graham watched as his mother offered Brent a wad of cash from her wallet.
Brent waved the bills away. “Not a chance, Carol. Trust me, it was no trouble at all.” He cracked a smile at Graham that simultaneously made him weak in his knees and panicked in his chest.
“Hey, I’ll take it,” he joked at his mom in an attempt at a diversion.
She leveled a look at him that said she wasn’t amused.
“In that case,” she continued, returning her attention to Brent, “allow me to repay you a different way.” A spark appeared in her eyes that Graham knew could only mean trouble.
“I’m feeling like a movie night tonight.
You must stay and join us—I’ve got popcorn! ”
Graham felt his stomach turn to lead. “Mom, don’t be pushy. I’m sure Brent already has plans tonight.” He said a silent prayer. Please let Brent have other plans tonight.
Unfortunately, Graham’s guardian angel must have already clocked out for the day, because the next words to come out of Brent’s mouth made his pulse take a nosedive.
“As a matter of fact, I’d love to stay for a movie.” He hesitated briefly. “That is, as long as Graham and Coco don’t mind.”
“Did someone say movie?” Coco materialized from across the house to join them. “What are we watching?”
A sinking feeling took hold inside Graham’s chest at the glee lighting up his mother’s face then. “Why, my favorite holiday movie, of course.”
Graham swallowed down hard. No doubt about where this was going.
“It’s an old, black-and-white classic,” Carol went on. “Perhaps you’ve heard of it.”
Yep, this was exactly what he’d feared.
“Holiday with the Wholesomes!”
The look on Coco’s face then couldn’t have been brighter if she’d had a pair of spotlights trained on her. “What a coincidence! That’s—”
The daggers in Graham’s eyes, though, zipped her lips tight.
“One of…my favorites…too.” She forced a smile that was anything but convincing, if the skepticism on Carol’s face then was any indication.
Still, Carol apparently had decided not to press the matter, at least not for now. “I knew there was something I liked about you, Coco.” She spread her arms wide to usher the group into the living room. “Come on, everyone. I’ll get it queued up.”
Thus held captive, the three young people allowed themselves to be herded along shoulder to shoulder. Ever so briefly, Graham felt himself brush against Brent. A wave of goosebumps rushed across his body.
Brent staying the evening was bound to turn out being either the best way this day could have ended…or the worst.
* * *
Much to his chagrin, Graham quickly found Holiday with the Wholesomes decidedly less terrible than he’d remembered. Perhaps his taste in movies had evolved over the years.
Then again, perhaps the reason he wasn’t currently tempted to gouge out his eyeballs had less to do with what he was watching and more to do with who he was watching it with.
He snuck a sidelong glance at Brent on the sofa beside him. With the four of them packed together, the leftover relic of the ’90s certainly didn’t afford much in the way of breathing room.
Not that he was complaining. Even being sandwiched against a sofa arm wasn’t so bad with Brent at his side.
Eyes fixed on the TV, Brent reached into the popcorn bowl cradled between him and Graham. As he chewed, the glow of the screen cast into sharp relief his high, angular cheekbones.
God, even eating junk food, Brent managed to look dreamy.
Graham shifted his attention back to the movie. On the screen, a young man and woman—the latter, of course, portrayed by none other than Coco’s grandmother, Iris—embraced each other before a roaring fireplace.
“Ah, young love,” Carol commentated with a sigh. “Isn’t it romantic?” The meaningful glance she flicked Graham and Brent’s way, though, went unnoticed as, transfixed, Graham fell back into the story.
“You know,” said the woman onscreen, leaning passionately into her lover, “I still don’t think I really, truly believe it.”
Absently, Graham reached his hand toward the popcorn bowl.
“Believe what, my dear?” the man replied, holding her.
Beside Graham, Brent also extended his hand toward the popcorn.
“The way fate brought us back together again,” answered the woman.
Graham’s fingers dug into the bowl.
“Almost,” the woman continued, “like it was meant to be.”
Simultaneously, Brent’s reach also entered the bowl.
“Like it happened for a reason.”
A sudden jolt of electricity sent a spark through Graham’s system then as, inside the popcorn bowl, he registered the touch of Brent’s hand.
A red hue rose instantly over the two men’s cheeks.
A display that did not go unnoticed by the others in the room.
Mortified, Graham yanked his hand from the bowl faster than Coco downing a double shot of tequila. He made an attempt to refocus on the movie.
The man onscreen had pulled himself away from his lover. “But this, too, is happening for a reason, my darling. You know the plan was never for me to stay.”
Carol wiped a tear from her eye. “Oh, I always hated this part.”
Iris’s character threw herself desperately back against the man. “But you don’t really have to go. Surely, you could work something out.”
Coco gave Carol’s arm a squeeze. “It’s hard, isn’t it, watching someone you care about sabotage their chance at happiness.” She leveled a glare at Graham.
“Can you imagine?” replied Carol, eyes still glued to the movie. “Especially when the person who makes him so happy is right there in front of him.” She sniffled audibly.
Graham felt himself about to boil over. Something about this felt mighty suspicious. He stood to his feet. “Coco, a word in the kitchen, please?”