“Okay, well, you might be right about all that, but why the hell hasn’t she mentioned you?”
“Maybe she has,” said Kol, angrier now more than ever, “and you just weren’t listening.”
Presley’s jaw tightened, and he sat forward. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, you think you care about her, but you haven’t been doing any caring at all until now, and you’re still doing a piss poor job of it.”
Presley was a big man, his sheer presence intimidating. “Look, Piper hasn’t brought a guy around since before mom died, and that was a shit show. She’s smart, but she makes stupid decisions—”
“Like letting you push her around and waiting on you hand and foot—”
“She doesn’tletme do anything, she never has.” Presley snorted. “You only think you love her, but she’s been my sister my entire life—I actually do love her.”
“Thenactlike it.” Kol stood, anger pumping through every part of him. “And would it kill you to find your mother’s Christmas village and bring it upstairs? It’s the only thing she’s asked for.”
He swept away from Presley and back into the range. The sounds were muffled even without ear protection on, blood rushing through his head, and he passed up the shooting stalls for the far wall where other ranged weapons were stored. In any other state, Kol would have absolutely cringed at himself for even considering it, but rage could really do a lot to a man and elf both, and he stomped up to the longbows at the rack’s end.
Before he knew it, he’d let fly five arrows, and each hit its mark, grouped up and buried into a bag target at the end of the range. It had been too fast for the others to see the magic he pumped into the wooden bow and exhausted with the repeated drawing of the string, but he hadn’t thought to care, he just needed to flush out the anger, and he did.
“Why didn’t you say you were such a wicked shot, son?”
Kol’s grip on the longbow loosened, vision blurring.Son?
Piper’s father slapped his back, jostling him, and he was smiling crookedly from ear to ear.
Kol mumbled something about his grandfather and then got caught up in Luis asking to be shown how to use the bow. It was difficult to explain a thing that had been drilled into him in early childhood, but he managed, and even Presley came around to watch Kol take another volley of shots.
It was late when they finally left the range, let out onto one of the streets in the heart of Hiberhaven. They had to make a long trek back to the van with parking at a minimum, but Kol was glad for it when he spied a familiar shop, making a quick detour inside and then hurrying to catch up. Presley was still shooting him disapproving glares, but Jim was going on about how impressive Kol’s skills were, so things had turned out well, in the end. By the time the sun was set, he was relieved to be headed back home.
Er, to the MacLeans’.
15
Much Thicker Than A Candy Cane
Ooo, is that one for your boyfriend?” Aunt Deb came around the kitchen island, empty wine glass in one hand and a spoonful of chocolate chip cookie batter in the other.
Piper bit her lip, grinning down at the shortbread cut out in the shape of a tree. Frosted green, she was just finishing up piping little red hearts all over it. No—it wasn’t for Kol, it wasn’t for anybody, really, but her heart skipped at the thought of giving it to him.
“Itis.” Her aunt bumped her hip against Piper’s, her tipsy laugh even shriller than normal though it grew increasingly endearing as the evening went on. “I bet it’s good to finally be getting some, huh?”
“Debra,” Aunt Susan snapped, folding hands over Michaela’s ears.
Piper only laughed. If a couple of kisses counted as “some,”—and with Kol, it certainly felt like it—she had to admit, it really was good.
“Unless you want to spill,” Susan’s wife interjected, reaching around Deb to grab a piping bag of yellow frosting, “because I am all ears.”
Piper shoved an undecorated cookie into her mouth and shrugged.
The women snickered, and Piper went redder than the bowl of M&Ms on the counter. She’d been evading their questions all day, but indulged her aunts and cousins a few times—after all, she had to play the part.
“Yes, I know, his eyesaregorgeous, aren’t they?” which was a safe thing to say because it was just objectively true, and, “He is supportive, isn’t he?” which was also safe because she wasn’t the only one who had noticed how helpful Kol always was to her.
Itwasall an act, of course, but with the questions pouring in and the wine Aunt Deb kept pouring into her glass, it felt all too easy to pretend to have someone. And it was especially easy when Kol was that someone.
“Do you like Kol?” she eventually asked Michaela while the two pulled the last tray of cookies from the oven.
The girl thought hard like she did about everything, and then she shrugged. “He’s okay. Hereallylikes you though—he gets heart eyes when he looks at you.”
