And I also don’t want to come between you and your sister.
Phoebe pulls her hands out of mine and places them against my cheeks, pulling me down and kissing me softly. “Piper already told me everything, Spence.”
I pull back in shock and stare down at her. My mouth opens and closes like a gaping fish because I have so much I want to say, but my mouth can’t seem to form the words.
“It’s okay. None of that matters to me now. I understand why you both lied to me, even if I hate that I spent years thinking I was just some backup version of Piper, thinking that you wanted her,” Phoebe says glumly, but with a small smile tugging on the corners of her mouth. “I want this. I want us. Whatever this is between us, it’s not just some quick lay to me. It means so much more than that, you mean more to me than that.”
She reaches up and caresses my cheek. “You are all I’ve ever wanted.”
“I never—I never wanted her, Phoebe. It’s always been you. It’sonlybeen you. I wanted to tell you the moment it happened, but I couldn’t stomach the idea of you and Piper being angry with each other. It was easier for you to be angry at me, because you still had her in your court. And she wasn’t ready to tell you, so I vowed that I would keep her secret until she was. I’m so sorry I lied to you this whole time. Not being able to tell you the truth when you finally asked the other day…that was one of the hardest moments of my life. I knew keeping her secret meant I was going to lose whatever this is between us, but I just couldn’t betray either of you like that,” I confess to her.
It feels amazing to get this off of my chest now. All these years of wondering what my life could be like if I could just tell Phoebe the truth…well, it was miserable. And now that she knows? I could die and go to Heaven right now, except I’m too selfish and I know a lifetime with her by my side wouldn’t be enough.
“Thank you for keeping her secret. Knowing that you did that for her, it means the world to me. I wish you guys would have found another way to do it, but I understand. I’m just so happy that this whole time we were hooking up you weren’t secretly pining after my freaking sister,” she laughs. “That was a real mind-fuck for me, Spence. I never want to feel that way again, and honestly I feel stupid for ever feeling that way in the first place. I guess I should have listened to one of the hundred times you told me that you wanted me, huh?”
Her embarrassed smile might just be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
“Do you believe me now when I say I’ve only ever had eyes for you?” I ask her with a shit -eating grin on my face that I can’t seem to contain.
“I’ll believe you if you kiss me, and never stop.” She takes a step closer to me and her hands grip the sides of my winter coat, pulling me down to her as she stands on her toes to reach me. “You only have about a half hour to do it before we have to go back and win our Mistletoe crowns. So, let’s hurry it up, handsome.”
“Yes ma’am,” I whisper, then I press my lips to hers softly and she molds herself to my body completely.
This should have been our first kiss. The kiss that should have been ours all those years ago.
But life doesn’t always work out the way you plan it, sometimes unknown obstacles throw themselves in the middle of those self-made plans and all you can do is hope that it’ll all work out in your favor still.
And sometimes, a girl with gingerbread earrings tells fate to go screw itself, and makes her own version of your plans work out even better than you could have ever hoped for.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Phoebe
SeeingSpencerdressedasa gingerbread man is seriously one of the best things in the world, and you best believe that I’ve already snapped a photo of him in his cute little onesie and set it as my phone background.
I can’t stop smiling and laughing while I toss out our little goodie bags during the parade. Spencer talked his Dad into driving the truck for us so that we could both be in the back with our little house. I haven’t let go of his hand since we got up here, and I can’t stop sneaking looks over at him during our slow journey through the streets of Noelsville.
My entire body is more than ready for this parade and contest to be over with so I can drag him back to his house and really have my way with him. I wasn’t exactly kidding when I told him I wanted to ditch this thing and spend the rest of the night tangled up in the Bed and Breakfast across the street, though, I’m also not upset that he talked some sense into me. My libido has been in overdrive since we finally confessed our true feelings to each other, and she’s not calming down anytime soon.
“Did you see the other floats?” Spencer asks me over the loud Christmas music that’s blasting over the town speakers. “Piper and Austin literally just decorated a tree and stuck it in the bed of their truck.”
I watch as Spencer points to one of the red trucks a few car lengths behind us.
I scoff loudly.
“Piper doesn’t really care to win this thing, does she? I can’t even find Phil and Kevin, I wonder if they’re somewhere ahead of us.” I look ahead of us and don’t see them.
Spencer squeezes my hand lightly, sending waves of fireworks throughout my body again. Everytime he touches me I want to explode into a billion little firecrackers of pure joy.
“I have it on good word that Kevin and Phillip have dropped out of this task,” he says smugly.
I knit my eyebrows at him in question and he laughs loudly.
“Kevin may or may not have accidentally backed your Dad’s truck up into the mailbox as they were leaving to go pick up a trailer,” he shrugs as if it’s no big deal and I can’t contain the gasp that escapes me.
“Please tell me he didn’t do it on purpose…Dad is going to strangle him.” As I say this, we see my parents, along with Spencer’s mom and Kevin hanging out on the side of the street, waving and cheering along as the floats drive by. Dad doesn’t seem too upset, but Phillip looks like a sullen child who got coal for Christmas.
When Dad sees us, he smiles wide and holds up the coveted Mistletoe crown and tosses it my way. Of course, I have the catching ability of a two year old, so it goes flying past me and I watch as Spencer grabs it out of the air like a pro. I look back at Dad and he’s clapping, along with the rest of the family.
