Page 31 of Mistletoe Meet Cute
Camden
It’s a one o’clock game, so I shouldn’t be too late.
Vixen
We’ll be here.
And why do those words threaten every fucking wall I’ve spent a lifetime building?
Because the idea of Holly and Sophie waiting for me at home just feels right in a way it has no business feeling.
“You okay, Monroe?” Luke asks as he slides into the dark leather booth across from me. “You’ve got a funny look.” He circles his face. “Funnier than normal.”
“I’ll show you funny, Chase,” I groan and pocket my phone, not ready to talk to him about Holly. Not like this.
“How’s my sister making out? How big of a tree did she make you get?” Apparently, Luke didn’t get thenot in the mood to talkmemo.
I laugh, remembering the look on her face when I told her to just get the damn ten-foot tree. “Big enough. What’s the deal with her and the douche, Anson?”
Luke sips a beer. “One of these years, Dad won’t bring him back,” he grumbles. “He and Holly dated in high school and college. They broke up a few years ago, and he still has a thing for her. He is a douche, but he’s a harmless douche. Why? Was he bothering her?”
“Just got a weird vibe.” I think back to that night. To the way she moved into my side. The way he looked at her. “I don’t know. I didn’t like him.”
“You getting protective of my sister?” Luke asks, not sounding thrilled with the idea.
“What if I am?” I push back, not sure I give a shit if it pisses him off.
Even less sure when Holly became more than a nanny.
When she became someone I think about constantly.
Someone I have to fight myself and my own willpower about all the damn time.
“I’d say don’t fuck around with my sister, Monroe. She doesn’t play games. She’s sweet and kind and has a big fucking heart. If you want to date her, date her. But don’t play with her. Don’t be that guy, and we won’t have a problem.”
I nod and look over at Maverick laughing with Murphy and remember a similar conversation I had with him about Emmie... But I’m not Mav, and I’m not sure what I have to give a woman like Holly Chase.
HOLLY
Ifinally get a super cranky Sophie down for the night what feels like hours after her normal bedtime, but in reality, isn’t quite that bad. I send a pic to Camden before adding a bath bomb to the tub.
Holly
Baby girl got her very first tooth!
The hot water feels like heaven as I slide into it and lay my head back against the bath pillow. The monitor is on, the alarm is set, and I have no doubt Madden is sleeping at the foot of Sophie’s crib. All is right in the world until my phone rings a few minutes later, and I nearly drop it in the water as I try to answer.
What the— I look at the screen and see a grinning Camden looking back at me. “Camden...”
His eyes practically glow green with heat, and I angle the phone, making sure he’s only seeing my face. “Are you in the tub, Holly?”
Oh wow. His voice is rough and growly and has my nipples puckering under the water.
“Yes. Why are you FaceTiming me?” I hiss, mortified.
“I was just calling. You answered with a FaceTime. Not that I don’t appreciate the view, vixen.”
Camden’s deep laugh rumbles through the phone, and my entire body heats under the already scalding water. He sounds like the Camden I met at the pharmacy. Not the brooding, quiet man I’ve spent weeks living with.
