Page 86 of Silent Count
“Oh, for sure.”
We walk out of my room, hand in hand.
Brooke looks over at us as we come into the room. “Nice of you guys to join us. Now, can we open presents?” she asks Charlie.
“Y’all have ruined all my plans for tonight, so do whatever you want to do. But I want it on the record that I had an amazing night planned for us. And I’m not cleaning the kitchen, so, Griffith boys, you’re both on dish duty after presents.” She points at them.
“Wait, why do we have to do it?” Ace asks.
Aston rolls his eyes. “No problem, Charlie. We got it.”
Silas raises his hand. “Even though I helped with food prep, I’ll help too.”
The guys look at me, and I look at Charlie. “I made the appetizers.”
“Bo, you get a pass tonight so you and your girl can make up.” She winks at me.
Silas stands up and walks over to the tree. “Who wants to go first?”
All the girls, except mine, yell, “Me!”
After presents, we ate and watchedElf. Casey and Noelle ducked out before the movie started though. And Arbor, Lily, and the twins just left. Then Charlie went into her room. But Brooke is asleep on the couch, next to Silas, who is also asleep.
“Do you think we should wake them?” Chelsea asks, tilting her head to see me.
“Nah, I’m sure he’ll wake up soon and go to his room. And Brooke won’t leave this late. She’ll probably just go into Charlie’s room. You ready for bed?” I kiss the tip of her nose.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” She wraps her arms around my neck as I start to stand.
I carry her bridal-style down the hallway toward my room. “You need to go to the bathroom or anything?”
“Actually, yeah. You didn’t throw away my toothbrush, did you?” She winces. “I probably should have brought a little bag with me, I guess.”
I bark out a laugh. “No, I didn’t throw away your toothbrush.” I set her down in the bathroom. “I had to believe I would get you to come back to me.” I give her a peck on the lips.
She grabs my shirt and pulls me down to her face again. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“Chelsea, I will never give up on you. I will always stand by you; you just have to let me.” I cup her face and kiss her again, deeper this time.
She pulls away first. “Let me brush my teeth, and then we can talk?”
“Can I brush mine too, or do you want privacy?” I smirk at her.
She nods. “I think we can brush our teeth together.”
We both prepare our brushes with toothpaste.
I watch her in the mirror and smile. “I know you’re gonna tell me I’m cheesy, but I love doing life things with you. Brushing ourteeth together is a little thing and probably weird, but it’s also pretty personal, and I like doing it with you.”
She smiles around her toothbrush. “That is cheesy, but I love it.”
When we finish, I leave the bathroom so she can finish doing what she needs to do in private. Chelsea said we’re not quite at the stage where we can pee in front of each other. She said we need to have a little mystery, and we both laughed.
I take off my shirt as I walk into my room, then pull the covers back on the bed. I sit on the edge of the bed and take my socks off, then climb in, leaving the covers off for now. I’ll get too hot in these pants. But also, I’m dying to get my hands on her, but I’ll let her set the pace. We do need to talk. I want to understand where her head is, but I also want to know that she’s not going to change her mind about us.
She walks in a few minutes later and closes the door behind her. Chelsea never gets nervous, but she seems a bit timid or something about getting into bed with me, so I pat the spot next to me and smile at her.
“I won’t bite. Well, unless you tell me to.” I wink at her to try to make her laugh and ease her nerves, and it works.
