Page 79 of Holiday Interference
“And I only want to do it if it’s with you.”
For a beat, he doesn’t move.
Then his bag hits the pavement.
His hands come up—big, warm, a little rough as they cup my jaw—and suddenly his mouth is on mine like the past week never happened.
Like I didn’t leave. Like he never let me go.
He kisses me like I’m his now.
And I kiss him like I never want to be anything else.
His mouth breaks from mine too fast, like it costs him to stop.
But he does. Pulls back just enough to look at me.
And I see it then—all of it.
The ache. The hesitation. The storm behind his steady eyes.
His hands stay on my jaw, thumbs brushing slow across my cheeks.
“I didn’t know how to find you,” he says, voice low, rougher than before. “Didn’t know if I even had the right to try.”
My chest twists.
“I wanted to.” His breath leaves in a shudder. “So damn bad. I almost asked one of the staff. I even thought about calling Sloane. But it felt…selfish.”
He shakes his head, lips pressing tight.
“Because if you wanted to be found, you’d have stayed.”
The words hit like a bruise I gave him without meaning to.
“I watched you leave,” he says. “Stood there like a goddamn idiot hoping you’d turn around. But you didn’t. And I told myself not to be stupid. Told myself it was just one weekend, that it didn’t mean anything.”
His eyes close for half a second, his jaw tense with restraint.
“But it did. It meant everything.”
I don’t move.
Because if I do, I’ll fall apart right here.
Cal keeps going, voice low and raw and devastating.
“You crawled inside my head, Noelle. And you didn’t even try. You just…you saw me. You heard me. And no one ever does that. Not really.”
His fingers slide into my hair.
“And when you left, I felt like I’d lost something I never had the guts to claim.”
Tears burn the backs of my eyes, but I blink them back.
Because this isn’t about breaking.
It’s about beginning.
