He stays pressed against me for a second, both of us shaking, before he pulls back. His hand falls from my mouth, thumb brushing my lower lip.
“You okay?” His voice is gentler now, hoarse.
I nod, still catching my breath. “I can’t believe we just had sex in your old bedroom.”
He grins, planting a gentle kiss to my temple. “Me neither.”
We both fall into quiet laughter when a floorboard creaks outside the door. Both of us freeze.
“Cole?” Maddie’s voice floats down the hall, getting closer. “Mom’s looking for you!”
Panic floods me. My dress is still bunched up around my hips, his pants undone.
He’s across the room in two strides, hand braced on the doorknob. “Be right there!” he calls, voice a full octave too casual. Then quieter, to me, he says, “Don’t. Move.”
I try not to laugh but it bursts out anyway, muffled behind my hand. My heart’s still hammering. Every nerve in my body is alive.
Maddie’s footsteps pause right outside. “You okay in there?”
“Yeah,” he says smoothly. “Just grabbing something.”
There’s a beat, then she hums. “You’re missing the reindeer game tournament.”
“Tell Mom I’ll be down in a sec.”
We both hold still until the creak of her steps fades down the hall. I exhale, shoulders sagging, adrenaline spiking all over again.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, collapsing back on the bed, chuckling. “We almost died.”
Cole turns, a smirk tugging at his mouth. “You almost got us killed. You don’t exactly whisper when you come.”
“You had your hand over my mouth!”
He steps closer, leaning over me, voice low enough to make me shiver. “And yet I fucked you so good, it still wasn’t enough.”
“Cocky,” I mutter, but my smile gives me away.
He tucks a stray curl behind my ear, the gesture tender enough to steal my breath. “Stay up here a few minutes, then come down. I’ll go first.”
I nod. “And if someone asks where you were?”
He flashes that slow grin. “I’ll tell them I was taking out the trash.”
I bite my lip, laughing quietly. The door clicks shut. I press my palm to my flushed cheek, still tasting him on my lips, knowing I’ll never hear “White Christmas” the same way again.
CHAPTER 19
Cole
Secrets don’t last in small houses. Especially this one, where the walls are basically gossip conduits and my mom can read me like she’s still checking for scraped knees.
The Bristol living room is in that after-party haze: half the lights off, TV on some holiday movie no one’s watching, empty cider mugs on coasters, a platter of gingerbread with one decapitated man left. The scent is almost overpowering at this point and the house has gotten too warm because Dad refuses to turn the thermostat down when we have “holiday company.”
It’s late. Most of the cousins have already bundled their kids and the chaos out the door. Maddie’s disappeared to walk Grandma to her car. Dad’s in the kitchen running the dishwasher like we didn’t all offer to help.
And Hailey… she’s across the room looking like an angel.
Her hair is still a little mussed from earlier, her cheeks still flushed from too much eggnog and maybe me. She’s helping my mom wrap up leftovers at the kitchen table, laughing at something Mom says, and for a minute I just stand in the archway and watch.
