She leans in to hug me goodbye. Her body slides up against mine, soft and perfect, arms around my middle. I wrap mine around her and breathe her in, and for a second, I don’t care if Mrs. Langley sees. I don’t care if the whole world sees.
“You’re so warm,” she mumbles into my coat.
“You smell like cookies,” I mutter into her hair.
She pulls back, eyes flicking to the porch. “I should go in before someone looks out.”
“Yeah.”
She hesitates, then rises on her toes and kisses my jaw. Quick, hot, gone before it can be evidence.
“Night, Cole.”
“Night, Hailey.”
She turns and hustles up the walk, boots leaving little prints in the new snow. Right before she reaches the porch, the lightflips on. She glances back at me over her shoulder, a quick secret smile with a blown kiss, and then she’s inside.
I stand there like an idiot in the snow, watching the door close behind her.
I make my way back to my parents’ house. I should be thinking about work. About the site I left, about invoices, about deadlines that don’t care it’s Christmas. But all I can see is Hailey in my mother’s kitchen, laughing with my family like she’s always belonged there.
I can’t remember the last time I wanted someone this bad and not just for the night. It hits me so hard I stop under the streetlight.
I’m in love with her.
This isI want you in my kitchen in Denver and at my mom’s table in Illinoiskind of love. Thelet’s run away and get lost in each otherlove. The love that turns into a family. I drag a hand down my face and let out a breath that fogs in front of me.
“Fuck.”
I knew I shouldn’t. I knew from the second she walked back into my life with those big eyes and that smart mouth that she was dangerous. That touching her would mean everything changes.
And I did it anyway.
Now I have to deal with the fallout. With Maddie. With the fact that Hailey’s just starting her life in Colorado, and I promised myself I wouldn’t get tangled up again. But as I head up the walk, snow settling on my shoulders, I already know the truth.
I’m not letting her go.
CHAPTER 18
Hailey
I’ve walked into this house a thousand times, sleepovers, prom photos, college-break movie nights, the year Maddie got her wisdom teeth out and I had to stop her from texting her ex, but never looking like this and never while secretly sleeping with her older brother.
Snowflakes cling to my hair as we step onto the porch, and I can already hear Marla’s Christmas playlist through the door. Same Bing Crosby, same laughter, same smell of cinnamon and roast beef. It’s so familiar my chest aches.
Maddie doesn’t even wait for a knock. She just swings the door open and yells, “Simpsons are here!”
My mom and dad embrace her in a hug as she ushers us inside the already packed house. The Bristols go hard for Christmas. There’s a garland on every banister, stockings on the half wall because there’s no room left on the mantel, mistletoe in two doorways because Marla is a menace. The tree in the corner is the same one I helped decorate in middle school, only now it’s a little more raggedy and a little more covered in tinsel.
“Hailey!” Marla appears from the kitchen, cheeks flushed, red apron on. “Oh, honey, you look beautiful.”
My heart squeezes. I hug her tight, breathing her in. “House looks amazing. I wasn’t sure it would get done in time before I left.”
“Doesn’t it? Maddie lit a fire under Cole’s ass and bossed him around.” She leans back to look at me again, eyes sparkling. “That dress. I love the red.”
“Thanks.” I smile nervously, suddenly feeling overdressed.
I slip out of my coat and hand it to Maddie, and that’s when I feel it, his steady gaze from across the room. I don’t look right away.
