She smirks like she’s enjoying herself. “—I need those boxes of tinsel from the hall closet. The church wants to do the banister too. And Cole? The heater, remember. Pastor Frank said it’s being finicky.”
“Yeah. We’ll go in a bit.”
She pats my arm, then Hailey’s. “You two are sweet together in the kitchen,” she says absently, and then she disappears again.
Hailey bites her lip to keep from laughing. “Sweet together.”
“She has no idea,” I mutter.
The rest of the day is one long test of my patience.
We hit the church after lunch, me, Dad, Maddie, and of course Hailey, because apparently, she’s part of every Bristol errand now. Pastor Frank meets us at the side door with a smile and a “bless you for doing this,” and I have to pretend I don’t have blasphemous thoughts about bending the woman next to me over a pew.
The basement smells like old hymnals and mothballs. The heater’s in the back room, still making that rattling noise it’s made since I was a kid and actually attended church.
“Just needs a little love,” Dad says, kneeling.
“Don’t we all,” Maddie chirps, hanging a poinsettia sign on the bulletin board.
Hailey snorts a laugh and covers it with a cough. I glance at her and she’s looking at me like she knows I’d give her a whole lot of “love” if we were alone.
I peel the panel off, check the pilot, basically do what I’ve done a few times for this thing over the years. “It’ll hold,” I tell Pastor Frank. “But you need a new unit.”
He nods, worried. “We’ll see what the board says.”
Back at my parents’ place, it turns into a full-blown cookie factory. My mom has every counter covered. Maddie’s dumping sprinkles. Bing has been replaced by Mariah Carey.
Every time I turn around, Hailey’s there. Passing me the tray, our fingers brushing. Grabbing the hot pan with mitts.
As I move in behind her to reach the cooling rack over her head, her back presses into my chest for half a second. I breathe her in, and then I have to step away before I do something stupid like kiss her neck in front of everyone.
“Cole!” Mom calls. “Tinsel!”
“Got it.” I drag the tinsel box in from the hall. The lid pops and silver spills everywhere.
“Ohhh,” Hailey whispers, scooping a handful, eyes wide like she’s ten. “This is dangerous.”
“Don’t even think about it,” I warn.
She grins. “You used to let Maddie wrap you in this.”
“Maddie was five.”
“So?” She flicks a strand at me. It lands on my flannel. I give her a look that saysI will pay you back for that.
Maddie walks over and eyes us both. “What’s going on over here?”
“Nothing,” we say at the same time.
Maddie arches a brow. “Mm-hmm.” Then she points at Hailey. “You’re with me in the dining room. We’re doing the centerpiece. Cole, go help Dad in the garage.”
I want to tell her no. I want to say I’m fine right here, stealing touches and glances. But I can’t.
I spend the next hour pretending I care about untangling extension cords while every laugh from the house makes me twitch. Every time the back door opens, I hope it’s her sneaking out to grab me. Every time it’s just Mom grabbing something from the extra fridge, I feel like a teenager again… horny, impatient, stuck under my parents’ roof.
By the time the sun dips, I’m wound so damn tight I might bust if Hailey just looks at me right.
“Okay, I have to get these to Grandma’s,” Mom announces. “Hailey dear, it’s getting slick. I’ll give you a ride back to your parents’.”
