That meant nothing to Presley, and he showed perhaps even less recognition when Kol righted himself and offered his hand.
“You weren’t there,” she said, remembering the onslaught of introductions with the rest of the family. “But you remember—I told you my boyfriend was coming to Christmas this year. We talked about it in the truck this morning. This is him. That Kol. My boyfriend. Who I invited to Christmas. From Canada.”
It wasn’t fair, she thought, watching her brother try to recall a conversation that definitely hadn’t happened, but she was due one, finally using the forgetfulness that seemed to plague the men in her family against them instead of the other way around.
Presley gave up before he burst a blood vessel, shrugging and shaking Kol’s hand, though he didn’t look pleased about it. “Well, good thing I went overboard at Sonny’s. This isn’t even half of it.”
Piper’s eyes dropped to the greasy paper bags he was carrying. “You got burgers? But I made mom’s lasagna.”
“Yeah, I thought that was kinda weird since you asked me to make dinner. Come on, I bet you’re starving.”
“We always have lasagna the first night,” she said to the back of him, but he was already calling to the others to come and eat. Piper stood in the doorway listening to her family gather, exclamations of being starved and already ripping into the bags Presley brought, and then she turned abruptly to be met with Kol’s form. “Move,” she growled, shouldering past him.
“Whoa, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m cleaning up. Go have a burger and make my brother like you.” She banged around with the pots a little harder than she meant, but it wasn’t like anyone would hear her—they would all share the takeout in the living room and den, and she would be finding wadded-up burger wrappers stuffed in the couch cushions for weeks afterward. Kol’s form flitted at the corner of her eye, not leaving like she’d told him, instead shuffling through the silverware she’d laid out. “What areyoudoing?”
“What does it look like?” His tone was mocking as he found a fork, and before she could shoo him away, proceeded to plunge it into one of the lasagnas.
She pursed her lips and leaned against the counter, not bothering to warn him that the inside of the oven had been a lot hotter than the inside of anybody’s mouth.
“It’s pretty good,” he said around the bite, clearly in pain from the heat and fanning at his face.
But she couldn’t let him suffer, offering him a paper towel. “Spit it out before all your taste buds turn to ash.”
He refused it. “No, no. It’s too good to spit out. Really good, actually.” He took a second bite.
Piper’s face went as warm as the steaming dish looked, and she didn’t even bother to complain that he shouldn’t double dip. “Okay, well, the rest of it is off limits. Go be charming to Presley, I got this.” She snatched away his fork, and she busied herself with the rest of the mess.
Winter in Hiberhaven meant the sun set so early it always felt much later than it was, and by the time the kitchen was clean and every belly was full, the weary travelers were ready to turn in. Piper directed everyone to the rooms she prepared in the previous week, guest beds and blow-up mattresses and the fold-out couch in the basement all fitted with clean linens and plenty of extra fuzzy blankets. Uncle Russ’s boys would have to share the living room as she’d planned for only one of them, but when she remembered tucking away a few extra blankets and pillows upstairs and suggested they build themselves a fort with the couch cushions, they were thrilled.
Piper didn’t feel her own exhaustion until she climbed the stairs a final time and stretched on the landing to look down at the tree in the living room below. Still undecorated, it stood healthy and full, perhaps even more beautifully than in the wood, and for a moment she thought she could see it, not a shimmery glow of magic, but something deeper that brightened it from within.
“They aren’t going to fuck with it, are they?”
Piper jumped, somehow forgetting about the elf while so focused on getting everyone tucked into where they belonged for the night. Kol was frowning down over the railing at her cousins as they pulled a fitted sheet from the arm of one chair to another. Too taut, it sprang off and swept a stack of books off an end table as it went. “They might use the tree as a support beam, but they probably won’t knock it over.” When he scowled deeper, she gestured to the floor. “You’re welcome to sleep right here to keep an eye on them, if you like.”
“I have room in here.” Presley was leaning against the doorway of the first room off the hall, a small study that only fit a twin.
She grinned, pleased her brother had also somehow been charmed by her fake partner. “I don’t think it’s fair to subject Kol to your snoring.”
“Well, he’s not going in there.” Presley wore an even deeper scowl than Kol, gesturing with his chin across the landing. The other side of the upstairs had a much shorter hall that led to the laundry room, a bathroom, and Piper’s bedroom.
She crossed her own arms, and all three of them simply stood there, annoyed. So, Presley hadn’t been charmed at all, but why was he choosingnowto start acting like a concerned brother when there had been a million better times? “Don’t be weird about this.”
“I’m not being weird,” he said in exactly the same way he used to when he was eight and was most definitely being weird. “You just shouldn’t…”
“Shouldn’t what? Share a room like you and Holly used to?” When he mumbled about that being different, she huffed with a firmness. She could put up with being expected to take care of everything, but she wasnotgoing to simultaneously be treated like a child when it suited someone else. “This isn’t up for debate. I haven’t been a virgin since that summer Oliver got hit by a car anyway.”
“Oh, gross.” He screwed up his face, and then his brow went all furrowed. “Wait, sincewhen?”
Piper turned on her heel and took Kol by the elbow, dragging him away. The one thing she wouldn’t give up when people came to stay was her own room, and shutting herself up inside it blocked out the chaos. Unfortunately, when she fell against the closed door with a sigh, the relief only lasted a split second as she’d shut Kol inside the room with her.
“Who’s Oliver?”
She pushed off the door and paced over to the laundry bin. A pair of underwear hung precariously over the edge, and she stuffed them deep under everything else. “Family cat.” When she turned, Kol was smirking.Why did it have to be the pink ones?
“And when was Oliver’s accident?”
