The team has a game in St. Louis the day after tomorrow, and Cam’s mom is originally from there, so he left early with her and his kids to spend Christmas with his aunts and uncles, and then he’s going straight from St. Louis to the next away game in Seattle. I’m skipping this stretch of away games to spend Christmas and New Year’s with my family, so it’ll be over a week until I see him again.
I kind of hoped he would stay around for Christmas so I could drop a casual invite to our Very Rachel Parker Christmas. It would have been a blast to spend Christmas with Riley and Ethan and to steal a little surreptitious, non-work time with Cam, but I’m here and he’s there and that sucks a little.
So to distract myself, I’m baking cookies. And burning them.
There is something to be said for tradition.
“Set the timer,” Oliver says as I slide the baking sheets into the oven.
“I was going to,” I grumble, mainly because I was not, in fact, going to. “Don’t you have a hockey game to play or something?”
Oliver slides past me, running his finger around the side of the mixing bowl and then sticking the batter in his mouth as he sits back down in his stool at the counter. “We got the good schedule this year,” he says around a mouthful of cookie dough and M&M’s. “No games until two days after Christmas.”
Grabbing two spoons out of a drawer, I plop down across from him and set the bowl of cookie dough in between us, taking my own bite. “Fuck, that’s good,” I mumble. “Chocolate chips are for amateurs. M&M’s are where it’s at.”
“Seriously,” he says while grabbing another spoonful. “Thanks for letting me stay here this week, by the way. My building is so creepy and quiet with everyone leaving for the holiday. It’s, like, totally deserted.”
“AfraidThe Shiningtwins will get you in your sleep?” I ask a little wickedly.
“Fuck yeah, I am.” He shudders, and I laugh at his long-standing fear of those creepy twins. All horror movies, really. Oliver may be a hotshot hockey player, but put on a horror movie and ten out of ten times he’s hiding under a blanket with his ears plugged and his eyes covered.
“It’s cool. I’m happy for the company. It’ll be weird this year with Gracie not coming home.” Our youngest sister opted to stay in England for the holidays and do some traveling with a few new friends in her program instead of coming home.
Oliver rolls his eyes. “Why do you think I’m here and not at Mom and Dad’s? I couldn’t listen to him bemoan the too quick passage of time and wonder how it’s possible his baby girl is old enough to be traveling in Europe all alone. He needs to get a grip.”
I laugh because, fat chance. One thing about Jeremy Wright is that he never misses an opportunity to be overbearing about his kids. But before I can answer Oliver, my phone rings. I pull it out, and when I see it’s a video call from Cam, I shove it back in my pocket, standing up. “Take the cookies out of the oven when the timer goes off. I need to take this.”
“What, you can’t take a phone call with me around? Do you have a secret boyfriend or something?” he asks as I walk out of the kitchen.
If only you knew, I think, with a secret grin.
“Don’t be such a younger brother,” I yell back. “Not everything is about you.”
“If it’s not, it should be!” he calls after me.
Chuckling at his aggrieved groan, I run up the stairs and straight into my bedroom. I flop on my bed against my mound of pillows and answer the call.
“Hey there, handsome,” I say with a grin.
“Hey, Wildcat.” Cam’s easy smile has butterflies swarming in my stomach. With his messy hair and navy-blue Henley that makes his eyes an even deeper blue, he looks goddamn edible. As in, I literally want to lick every inch of him. There’s probably something wrong with me. I’m fine with it. “Burn the cookies yet?”
I laugh, drawing my legs up and resting my chin on my knees, holding the phone out in front of me. “Forgot to set the timer.”
“Hockey dad videos again?”
I grin at him. “You know me so well.”
“I like to think I do,” he says, his eyes intense as they lock on mine. “And anything I don’t know, I would really like to learn. I want to know everything about you.”
“IsI want to know everything about youa cousin toI want everything with you?”
Now it’s Cam’s turn to laugh, and the sound sends warmth careening through me. “I think they’re both in theI’m fucking crazy about you, and I wish we were spending Christmas togetherfamily.” His eyes go soft. “Next year.”
His hopeful tone sends my thoughts spinning straight to next year. Christmas with my family. Me and Cam. Riley and Ethan. No hiding and no secrets. I want it so much. “Next year.”
“Is that Maddy?” I hear Riley’s voice a second before the phone wobbles and then her face appears in the frame. “Hi!”
“Hey, Ry, how’s St. Louis?”
