Page 44 of Say It Isn't Snow
I nod. “I can’t believe we might miss out. I’ve never been away from my family for Christmas. Even when I moved to Mayfield permanently after college, I’ve always gone home to spend it with them.”
“It was weird for me the first year I wasn’t home for the holidays. Since the regular season is a tight schedule, we only get a short break. I don’t always go back.”
I play with the dainty bows on the ends of my loose French braids. “I’m going to miss out on decorating with everyone. It’s one of our favorite family traditions. I could bake us a Christmas tree cake, I suppose, but it won’t be the same.”
He strokes his jaw with a twinkle in his eye. “You want a tree? I’ll get you a tree.”
I sit up. “You will?”
“Of course.” He pushes to his feet and stops by me to drop a kiss on the top of my head. “Wait here. I’ll be back with it in a bit.”
I twist around, gaping at him as he puts on his boots and coat. “Like, you’re going to go chop one down for me? A real tree?”
He winks. “Sure am. We’ll make our own holiday traditions.”
My heartbeat thuds hard. I lay a hand over it as he exits the cabin. An elated bout of laughter flies out of me.
I’m so excited, I feel like jumping around. I’ve never had a real tree before. My family uses a perfectly usable hand me down, but I’ve always wanted to decorate a real one. I never asked because I don’t like making a burden of myself.
Guilt pangs in my stomach when I get off the coach. I need to finish my emails, but I want to dig through all the stuff I overpacked to collect as many of my hair bows as possible to fill the tree. Leo’s managing things the best he can with Hazel and Leta’s extra help, but he’s still not me. He won’t be able to handle everything the way I do.
I’ll take a quick break, then I’ll get back to it.
As I’m collecting whatever I find around the cabin to go with my massive collection of bows, I finally check the text I missed from Layla. She messaged me early this morning while I was…otherwise occupied by her brother when he found the vibrator I stashed in one of my bags. He didn’t stop playing with me until I lost count of how many times I came and had turned into a quivering mess.
I really want to tell her what happened with Caleb because we tell each other everything. Except, I kept it a secret from her before when I first fell for her brother.
We’re older now. Sneaking around feels silly.
I stare at her text as uncertainty holds me back. I won't tell her without talking to Caleb about it first.
Layla
Have you made it through the movies we have stashed there?
Holly
Yup. We made a drinking game out of it.
Layla
Omg, I’m jealous. I want to play. Let’s go back to the cabin for New Year’s Eve instead of going out.
Holly
That might be too soon for me. We’ll see if I escape by then [laughing emoji]
Layla
Think about it! Bonus, we’ll save so much money. I need to scrounge every penny for my move to Mayfield [thinking emoji] Ok, but downside…no hot men to kiss at midnight and dick us down after.
Holly
Or girls [heart emoji] [rainbow emoji]
Layla
Yes. You know what? Probably better. Think we can convince Hana to join us? It’s been forever since the three of us got to hang together.
