Page 25 of Forced to Share
“So what are we doing today?” The question was simple enough, and it was enough to snap Austin out of whatever spell I’d apparently put him under.
He chuckled before he helped me sit next to him on the bed. “Well, we have a few Christmas Eve traditions. Leah and I used to love walking around the neighborhood and looking at all the houses decorated. Then we’d come home and Mom would have hot cocoa.That was when we’d make the garland you helped with the other day.”
“But you didn’t wait to make the garland this year?”
He shrugged. “Leah hasn’t made it home the last few years, and it hasn’t felt like Christmas without it or her. So I wanted to make sure it happened this year.”
And that made me feel horrible all over again. He’d been dying for his sister to come home, and when she finally did, I dragged a whole bunch of drama right along with me.
“Well, if you aren’t doing the garland, maybe there’s still something we can do. You guys can still go for that walk.”
Austin gave me another noncommittal shrug. “We could. But I’m not leaving you behind in order to do that. I think you should come along.”
My face heated, the blush quickly spreading down my neck. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Positive. After my talk with Leah this morning, I think it’ll be more than okay.”
I stood from the bed and grabbed some clothes for the day. If we were going to be outside at all, I needed to dress warmly. My jeans were always a good bet, and thankfully I had a thick Henley that I’d packed. My hoodie probably wouldn’t cut it with the wind chill, but maybe Austin would have something I could borrow, even if I had to layer things a bit.
Unlike the first few times, I didn’t feel as strange getting changed in front of him now. Weird how one night of thigh-fucking had done that for me. After I’d gotten cleaned up last night, I’d switched into a regular pair of briefs, but I still felt the heat of Austin’s stare as I pushed down my pajama pants and pulled my jeans on.
When I turned to face him, he gave me a playful smirk before he climbed from the bed himself and gathered his own clothes.
My mind wanted to wander back to last night. How tricky it had been to get cleaned up afterward. While it had been fun and sexy as hell, neither of us had accounted for the mess it would make. Austin was the least messy and had pulled on his underwear long enough to sneak down the hallway to get a damp washcloth to help wipe me down. The washcloth was still sitting haphazardly on the edge of the laundry hamper. It was a steady reminder of how much we had broken the rules last night. How much we still intended to break them.
By the time we were dressed and headed down the stairs it was late afternoon with the sun just reaching the horizon. Leah was standing in the entry waiting for us. My eyes widened at the sight of her. For the first time in two days, she looked a little more put-together. Her hair was up in a neat ponytail, and she wore thick leggings with a heavy wool sweater that I’d gotten her last year for Christmas. Something about that made me realize maybe Austin was right. We were on the right path after all.
Little flurries blew past my cheeks as I shoved my hands deeper into my pockets. I wanted more than anything to reach up and cover my ears. When Austin had offered me a hat, I’d waved it off and thought it wouldn’t be needed, but with the way my ears were on fire, bitten raw by the cold, I should have listened to him.
“Do you think the Murphys went all out again?” Leah asked excitedly as she bounced ahead.
Austin looked back at me and laughed. “You see, when we were little, there was this family down the road that always went over the top with their decorations. The entire house would be completely covered, and they’d be set to music. People would drive by, but you know... us and our walk.”
I grinned. “Well, we better go see if they’re still at it then, shouldn’t we?”
Leah giggled as she sprinted down the snow-covered sidewalk, the white frost crunching beneath her boots as she went.
Things were pleasant so far. While she hadn’t addressed me directly, the hostility that was there before had vanished. It was better than nothing, and I was able to relax enough to go on the walk with them.
Most of the houses had gone all out on the decorating, which was different from the neighborhood I’d grown upin. Mom and Dad used to have to look up where the neighborhoods were, and we’d have to drive a bit to find them. Maybe that was just a California thing, like neighborhoods got together and planned it all out. There were always one or two houses that didn’t participate, but Austin and Leah’s neighborhood was a whole Christmas village. I’d never seen so many lights in one place before.
Maybe the Midwest just knew how to do it up a bit better? Something to do with actually getting to experience that White Christmas you always hear about in the songs but never see. Not as a kid growing up in California, anyway. I’d finally gotten to see my first one when I’d moved to New York, it was so exciting. Leah acted like it was totally normal, another way we’d been so different. She couldn’t appreciate that it was something special and new to me.
Not that she made me feel bad about it. No, she’d actually never done that. It just wasn’t anything unique. And that was okay, but I wanted to go out and have fun, and she’d treated it like it was any other day. It was the fact that I wanted to go out and have fun, do something exciting. She thought that was weird and didn’t understand how I could think it was anything significant.
Seeing it firsthand, in New York, and now seeing it in their hometown, I now understood where she was coming from. If I ever came to Chicago again, I’d have to plan myattire better. While it may have only been thirty degrees out, the wind chill made it ten. I’d never experienced temperatures so cold in my life. I’d be okay if I never experienced them again, but if I thought I was going to have anything long lasting with Austin, there was a chance I would have to do it again.
Up ahead there was a house that was so overloaded with lights that you could see it from space. There wasn’t an inch of the house that wasn’t covered. Or the yard, for that matter. Leah had stopped in front of it and was bouncing and clapping her hands. That must have been the Murphy house, and it lived up to the expectations.
“Can you believe it, Austin! After all these years, they still do this. I think the year they stop I’ll die of depression.”
Austin laughed at his sister’s antics and then grabbed my elbow, pulling me in closer to look at the house with them. The thing was gaudy as hell. I’d never seen anything like it. There were inflatables all over the yard, lights in any place you could think to stick one, music played from a speaker system that must have been in the trees in the yard covered in an absurd amount of lights making them all twinkle in beat with the music.
I’d never have the patience to set up anything like it.
“How old are the Murphys?” I found myself asking.
Austin answered me. “They were in their early thirties when Leah and I were kids, so they’ll be around for a bit yet, I think.”
