A Hot Holiday Collection

Chapter 3

3

OLIVIA

A fter the stress of finals and making the trek to my hometown, I would’ve loved nothing more than to sleep in until noon—preferably cuddled up naked in bed with Leland. Unfortunately, neither of those things was possible in my parents’ house. My mom was an early-morning person, which meant we all got up before eight, even on weekends and during vacations.

Dragging in a deep breath through my nose, the scent of bacon filled my nostrils. At least I was going to get a home-cooked meal with my favorite dishes as a reward for dragging my butt out of bed so early.

I tossed on a sweatshirt and pulled a pair of fuzzy socks over my feet before rushing out of my bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen. My mom was at the counter, cutting up some fruit, and my dad was cooking bacon on the stove. “Good morning.”

My mom’s smile of greeting widened when she noticed the word “taken” stretched across my chest in all capital letters. “Nice sweatshirt.”

“That boy.” My dad shook his head even as his lips curved up at the edges.

My mom glanced at him over her shoulder. “You’re just mad that he came up with the idea first.”

“Yeah, Dad,” I agreed with a grin as I padded across the tile floor, rounding the counter to give each of them a kiss on the cheek. “You have to admit you’d be totally fine with Mom wearing one just like this any time she leaves the house without you.”

“There you two go, ganging up against me like always.” He heaved an exaggerated sigh. “If we’d had a boy, then I wouldn’t be outnumbered all the time.”

I didn’t take offense to what he said since I knew he was only teasing. My dad had never given me any reason to think he’d truly wished he’d had a son instead of a daughter. I’d been his princess growing up, and he still doted on me. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to dish it right back at him. “The numbers are actually even right now since Leland is here. Unless you forgot because you’re getting up there in age? They say memory is the first thing to go.”

“I didn’t forget he was here,” my dad grumbled.

“How could you when you spent the entire night listening for the sound of his footsteps on the stairs?” my mom teased.

Thinking about what we’d done in the guest bedroom after I’d crept down those stairs, I felt my cheeks start to heat. I needed to make a quick exit before they figured out why I was embarrassed, and my boyfriend was the perfect excuse. “I’ll go make sure Leland is up and getting ready for breakfast.”

My dad pointed the tongs he was using to flip the bacon at me. “No hanky-panky while you’re in there.”

“The guest bedroom is just down the hall,” my mom reminded him with a roll of her eyes. “They’re not going to do anything they’d want us to be able to hear when we’re in the kitchen.”

“Definitely not,” I agreed as I moved toward the door.

My dad set the tongs on the paper towel lined plate next to the stove and crossed his arms as he leaned a hip against the counter. “Whether we can hear them or not doesn’t matter. That boy better not try anything with my baby girl while he’s under my roof, period.”

I pressed my lips together in a firm line to stop myself from confessing all my sins as I hurried out of the kitchen. Not that I actually felt guilty about anything Leland and I did together. But my dad would’ve been sorely tempted to kick my boyfriend’s ass if he ever found out we’d had sex in his house. And it would have been all my fault since I’m the one who always went looking for Leland.

He respected my dad too much to come creeping upstairs to my room, but I knew he would never turn me away. The chemistry between us was too strong to resist, rooted in our deep love for each other.

My lips curved into a satisfied smile as I neared the guest bedroom, the low murmur of Leland’s voice reaching my ears before I got to the door. I assumed he’d called his parents, but I realized I was wrong as I neared the room and could understand what he was saying.

“Merry fuckmas! Get it? Because it’s not Christmas, and you’re probably fucking your girl nonstop.”

No way would he say that to his mom, dad, or even his older brother who’d gotten married a year ago.

“I’d still be prettier than you, Holland.”

Ah, that solved the mystery of who he was talking to. He must’ve called his best friend, although I was surprised by the “fucking your girl” part of the conversation since Danny never dated anyone, much to my best friend’s chagrin. Delia had sworn off men toward the end of our sophomore year, a little while after I’d started dating Leland, but she’d had a crush on Danny for a long time. I’d tried to get him to hang out with us about a million times in the hope that I’d get to play matchmaker for the two of them, but he was always too busy studying to do anything fun.

“I’m an awesome person and a god in bed.”

I couldn’t make out what Danny had said, but my smile widened at Leland’s matter-of-fact reply. As the only woman who benefited from his skills in bed, I could confirm that he wasn’t just bragging and could back up what he was saying.

“I need a favor.”

I wrapped my hand around the doorknob, but I didn’t open the door. I was too curious about what Leland was going to ask his best friend to do for him. Pressing my ear against the hard surface, I was able to make out what Danny said, too.

“Name it.”

He really was such a great guy. I needed to try harder to hook him and Delia up.

“There was?—”

Whatever else Leland said was drowned out by my dad yelling, “Don’t forget I can come in there any time I want!”

I was irritated with him for beating a dead horse and making me miss whatever the favor was, but that ended up being the least of my concerns when Danny said, “Done. I owe you for hooking up with Olivia to keep tabs on Delia.”

The last thing I expected was for Leland to confirm the bombshell Danny had just dropped by saying, “Exactly.”

“And what a hardship that’s been.”

Being with me was a hardship for the man I loved with all of my heart?

“You know me. Always willing to sacrifice for a friend.”

Leland sounded as though he was joking, but I didn’t find anything funny about what they were saying. Not when my world was crumbling around me, and his best friend had been basically stalking mine for the past two years.

“I’m hanging up now.”

“The twenty-seventh!” Leland shouted, reminding me of the favor he wanted and confusing me even more.

None of this made any sense. Had he been pretending to be in love with me all this time? Would he really take the whole charade far enough to propose to me?

I wanted to yell and throw things, but that wasn’t an option. Not with my parents in the kitchen. My dad would never forgive him if he found out that our relationship had started on a lie. I wasn’t even sure I could, but I loved him so much, and deep down inside, I knew my feelings were returned.

I couldn’t picture my future without him in it and hoped with every fiber of my being that we would be able to move past this. But Leland had a heck of a lot of explaining to do before that could happen.

Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I pushed the door open. There was no hiding how devastated I felt, so I didn't even try. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I met Leland’s gaze, my stomach in knots over what was going to happen next. Horror and regret filled his gorgeous blue eyes before he squeezed them shut and muttered, “Fuck.”

I had to swallow the lump in my throat to whisper, “Yeah, you can say that again.”

“How much of that did you hear?”

I shut the door behind me and hoped like heck my parents were too occupied with making breakfast to come looking for us anytime soon. “Enough to know that you helped Danny stalk my best friend, and they somehow hooked up after we left. And you’ve apparently been dating me for two years so you could keep an eye on her for him. Did I miss any other life-shattering tidbits? Are there more lies you’d like to share with me, so we get them all out in the open at once? Or was that it, you lying sack of crap?”