Bewildered, she looked up and met Kol’s gaze.What’s going on?she mouthed at him.
He shrugged but held up the elf, brushing a dead leaf off of it.Ask him.
Piper didn’t ask, she only handed off the basket to Holden and instructed the boys to find their dressiest clothes. They obliged her immediately. She gave Kol a long, suspicious look, but her duty won out. “You need to find something nice to wear too. We’re going to Brookhampton tonight to seeA Christmas Carol.”
“We are?” He tucked the elf up on top of the coat rack. “All of us?”
“I always get a few extra tickets in case there are more people than I expect like all of Russ’s kids. And now you too.” She gave him a smile that warmed the cold right out of his chest, thoughtful and just too damn well organized.
“How do you think of everything?”
“I just channel Mom’s energy.” And then she was off again, hurrying after everyone and keeping them to her schedule, organizing a babysitter for the littlest ones, and double-checking that every vehicle was gassed up. Kol followed after, helping where he could until their departure time loomed. Piper couldn’t get to everything, a pile of pans left in the sink, so after Kol changed, he started in on them, but then Doc scratched at his leg and yapped a request forOutside.
Kol returned from the pee-and-visit-the-fehszar break just as they were scheduled to leave. He slipped into the hall bathroom and pulled off his hat, running hands through his hair and straightening the knot at the nape of his neck. The whole point of keeping his hair long was for something like this, so he tucked the tips of his ears into the black strands and shoved his beanie into his coat pocket. When he stepped back out into the hall, the others were gathering around the front door, so he leaned into the corner and waited.
“We’ll be running late if we don’t leave in the next seven and a half minutes, so I hope everyone’s ready!” Piper came down the stairs with a quickness, and Kol wasn’t quite sure he’d ever seen so much of her at once. She was clad in sheer black tights that sculpted her legs all the way up to the hem of her skirt as it swept over her thighs. Dark plaid, the fabric moved with each of her harried steps but was pulled tight over rounded hips. Her sweater clung to her, form-fitting and black, and though he missed the way her baggy ones often exposed the gentle curve of a shoulder, every curve of Piper’s body highlighted in taut fabric more than made up for the lack of skin.
She reached the foot of the stairs and went right to him, thrusting her bag into his hands and tossing a wool coat over his shoulder before he realized she even knew he still existed. “Hold these, please,” she said as she gripped onto his arm for balance and slipped a tight-covered foot into one of her knee-high boots, so unlike the scuffed-up hiking ones she always wore.
Piper wobbled slightly as she put on the other. Kol held himself steady, watching as she bent at the waist, as she pointed her toe, as her fingers squeezed his arm. She zipped the boot and tipped her head up to him wearing one of those smiles he always had to work so hard for. “Ready to go?”
Kol was ready—ready to carry her back upstairs and meticulously peel off every stitch she’d put on until he finally had those curves completely exposed and could run his tongue over each one.
“I’ve been ready for hours!” called Grandma Tilda, and then it was a rush through the door and out into the many vehicles they would need to traverse the hour and a half to the theater.
Piper sat beside Kol, and with nothing to do in the car, she nestled herself into the backseat, grinning out at the brightly decorated homes they passed. She pointed out her favorites, naming the owners she knew, but Kol was taken by how the lights’ reflection danced over her face, pale in comparison to the brilliance of her smile.
“You’re excited,” he finally said, unable to tear his eyes away. “You’re actually having fun.”
Her giddy face reddened. “Well, I guess it’s okay every once in a while.”
They parked in a lot a few blocks from the theater, and Piper herded everyone along the sidewalk, doing a headcount twice as they went and then when they reached the entry, she walked down the row of MacLeans and handed out the tickets from one of the pockets of her planner. “You get to sit by me,” she said when she reached him at the end of the line and handed over his ticket.
Kol expected that, but an odd feeling still welled up inside him, heart thumping as if he had never really felt it beat before. It was so mundane, but he looked forward to sitting beside her in the dark and watching a show, indulging in something she cherished at her side.
“You’re going to love this theater.” Piper fit herself against him as she shoved her hands in her coat pockets and scrunched up her shoulders. It was frigid with the sun down and wind whipping along the road, but she was still grinning ear to ear. “The seats are red velvet, and the walls are covered in these gilded designs, and there’s thisgiantcrystal chandelier. The whole thing will be decorated for Christmas too, so it’ll smell like cinnamon and there will be garlands and these vintage angels, and it’s just so gorgeous.”
Kol slid his hand around her waist. “You’re gor—”
“Hey, Piper!” Presley poked his head out of the line and waved at her. “There’s a problem.”
She rolled her eyes. “I bet he lost his ticket already. Good thing I have backups on my phone.”
21
Guilt, The Gift That Keeps On Giving
No.” Piper shook her head, heart thumping wildly in her chest. “No, no, that’s not…that can’t be right. I know I…I double-checked. Triple-checked!” Despite the briskness in the air, her body was growing warmer by the second as she flipped through the tickets she’d printed, but they were all the same.
December twelfth.
Not a single one read the twenty-first.
Voices rose from the line behind her, and another freezing gust blew down the road.
“Okay, this is fine.” Piper scrambled around in her purse to pull out her debit card. “I’ll just get new ones, for tonight.”
The ticket taker shook their head and pointed to the sign in the window.
