“What are you talking about, Blue?” he asks without looking up, hands still moving over the stove as he melts the cheese. That little voice in my head whispers he regrets the moment, and it hurts more than I want to admit.
I don’t answer. I just wait until he finally looks at me.
“You really think I’d just brush that off?” His voice drops, soft but sure. “Blue, if you need to hear it, I’ll say it out loud. I don’t regret that kiss or any of the others I’ve managed to steal this week.Ineeded a distraction before I said something I couldn’t take back.”
His words settle between us, warm and impossible to ignore. For a second, all I can do is stare at the one man who should be entirely off-limits.
“You shouldn’t say things like that if you don’t mean them,” I whisper, even though part of me already knows he means every word. If I’d listened over the last however many years, he has told me in his own way. Over and over again.
Reece gives a quiet huff of laughter, his emerald eyes softening as he steps around the counter. “Yeah, well…maybe it’s time I start saying what I mean.”
The tension in the air shifts. It still feels fragile, like one of us saying the wrong thing could ruin all of this. But, at the sametime, I don’t even notice I’ve stepped closer until the scent of cedar and soap fills my lungs.
“You always do this,” I murmur. “Say something sweet and then act like it didn’t wreck me.”
“Guess we’re both guilty then,” he says, voice rough around the edges.
“How so?”
“You ruin me every time those blue eyes of yours look at me like that.”
His words hang there, quiet but devastating, and neither of us moves to break the spell. His arm twitches like he might reach for me the way he did in the barn, but a knock on the door brings us back to reality.
Reece curses under his breath before dragging that same twitchy hand over his head and putting space between us.
“You expecting company?” I ask, still trying to settle my breathing.
“Nope.” The tick in his jaw gives away his irritation, and the smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “Stay here, Blue. I’ll get it.”
I watch as he crosses the room, the floorboards creaking under his bare feet. When he opens the door, the cool night air fills the small space as an all-too-familiar voice sounds.
“Well, what do we have here?” Jett sings as she dances through the door. “If it isn’t my two favorite people pretending they don’t have feelings.”
Noah steps through the door behind her, resignation all over his face. “Sorry, guys. I tried to talk her out of it, but you know how she is when she sets her mind to something,” he says as he scratches the back of his neck. “She was adamant you guys needed some sugar cookies to decorate at”—he glances at his watch— “eight-forty at night.”
The rigidity of Reece’s still-bare shoulders gives away his annoyance at the intrusion.
Me? I think this is what the beginnings of a panic attack feel like. My lungs have forgotten how to draw in oxygen, and my palms are sweaty even with the door still wide open.
“Close the door, Jett. You’re letting Kenna’s heat out.”
“Chill out, big brother,” my best friend says as she moves out of the way, Noah closing the door behind them. “I knew my Spidey senses were tingling. It’s Christmas Eve, and your tree still doesn’t have the first ornament.” She moves toward me, where I’m still planted in the kitchen, and laughs as she draws me in for a hug. “Don’t look so scared.”
Reece mutters something about perfect timing under his breath, but a hint of a smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. He might act all gruff and unbothered, but his little sister has him wrapped around her finger.
Jett sets a tin of cookies and icing on the counter, eyes darting between us like she can feel the earlier tension hanging in the air. “Did I interrupt something?” she asks with a smirk.
“Chaos,” Noah groans at the same time my stomach officially plummets.
“Absolutely not,” I say too quickly.
Reece raises a brow—half amused, half something else entirely—and I can only hope our earlier moment wasn’t a one-off. “Sis, you’re fishing for gossip.”
“Yes. Yes, I am.” She nods. “Now, give it to me while we decorate the tree.”
“I thought we were decorating cookies?”
“Oh, no. Those are just for tasty snacks and the only way I could convince Noah to let me bug you guys.”
