Kiss Me (Townsend Legacy)

Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

T ania

“But all I have is a few bottles of wine and some signed photos of me.” I frown as I stare at the sad amount of gifts I have to share with the Townsend family.

Taehyun comes up behind me, places his hands on my shoulders, and kisses my temple. The move is so tender and comforting that I automatically lean back into his strong chest.

He wraps his arms around my waist.

“Trust me when I say that is more than enough. They don’t expect anything from you,” he tells me. “Besides, I’ve already added your name to the gifts I bought.”

Gasping, I spin to face him. “You what?”

He shrugs as if it’s no big deal. “I had everything gift wrapped a few days ago and put your name on the presents as well.”

I narrow my eyes. “I wasn’t even invited to their Christmas Eve gift-unwrapping then. That was before you asked me to join you.”

Yesterday, after the disappointing phone call with my dad, and telling Taehyun about my plans to open a snowboard camp, we spent the entire day watching more Christmas movies.

Sometime between our movies watching, cuddling, and yes, copious amounts of sex, he asked me to come with him to the Townsend family’s gift-unwrapping.

Apparently, it’s a tradition for all of the family members to get together on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts while the individual families spend Christmas morning together before all coming together again on Christmas night.

A smile tips the corners of my lips as I think about how wonderful it must be to have a family so large and still so close.

“Are you sure they won’t mind me being there?” I frown as the thought comes to my mind yet again.

He levels a look at me. “What did I tell you the five other times you asked that same question?”

I nudge him with my elbow. “I’m just making sure. It seems like they’re a family who takes their holiday traditions very serious. I don’t want to intrude.”

“If they don’t mind me crashing the party, they sure as hell won’t mind you being there. Besides, I’m sure just about all of the girls in that family are halfway in love with you already.”

I grin but peer down at the signed photos on the table. “I have to tell them the snowboards and gear I purchased for them will be at their houses once they get back home after vacation.”

Taehyun shakes his head. “Told you not to do that, but you don’t listen.”

I push him away. “I don’t listen to you. My mom always taught me never to show up as someone’s guest, empty handed.”

He groans but doesn’t say anything.

The distance from Taehyun’s cabin to the central location where the family’s celebration is held is about a mile away. So, we chose to drive.

“Not bringing the crutch?” Taehyun asks, eyeing the crutch in the backseat of his rented SUV.

I shake my head. “I can start telling people that it’s doing much better,” I say with confidence.

I only faked a grade one sprain. Given the amount of time it’s been, most people will believe that I’m doing much better now. I should still feel guilty about faking an injury, but the guilt isn’t nearly as prominent as it was days ago.

It’s given me the space and time I needed.

Then I glance down at my hand which is cradled in Taehyun’s. On instinct, I squeeze his hand. A smile splits his lips, making him look even more handsome than usual.

Which is saying a lot.

I’ve gotten so much more than I wanted this holiday season.

“Same here,” he says, bringing me to the realization that I’ve spoken my thoughts out loud.

“You finally made it!” Kennedy Townsend’s voice breaks the stare off between me and Taehyun.

Her husband, Taehyun’s cousin, Dae isn’t far behind his wife.

“We were just debating who gives the best gifts,” Kennedy continues, wrapping her arm around mine.

She starts to pull me away, but my hand is caught in a vice grip. I glance up at Taehyun, expecting him to let go.

Kennedy notices and laughs. “You wouldn’t believe what it takes for this guy to let my hand go. It’s kind of common around here.”

I don’t really understand what she means, but neither does she wait for my response.

“I promise I won’t run off with her,” she tells Taehyun. “Besides, it’s not like this guy won’t track me down if I tried.” She tilts her head to Dae who, as I’ve noted over the past week, is never far from his wife.

Taehyun slowly releases my hand.

“Don’t go far.”

“We’re literally in the same room,” I remind him. Yes, the room is almost the size of that of a ballroom, but still, the same room, nonetheless. It’s not like Kennedy or I can be out of these guys’ sight for too long.

“Your assistant isn’t with you?” Kennedy asks, looking around.

“No.” I shake my head. “Liza’s apparently occupied.” I give her a wink and a smirk.

Her expression changes to one of understanding, before we both laugh in unison. I’m not exactly certain of what happened between Liza and the red-haired waiter, but she and I spoke once this morning.

She, of course, asked if I needed anything. After reassuring her that things were fine with me and insisting she continue on her vacation, she reminded me that she wasn’t far without giving many details.

I did hear a man’s voice in the background.

“This is the time of year for love,” Kennedy says, leading me to a table with her sister-in-law, her mother, and a few of her aunts.

“She’s so cute,” I say of the baby, Kylie, in Riley Townsend’s lap.

“Not so cute when she’s crying at two in the morning,” Eve Townsend groans.

The other women laugh, including myself.

“Would you like to hold her?” Riley asks.

“Really?”

She nods. “Might as well before either her grandfather, father, or one of her umpteen uncles comes over and steals her away.”

“Again,” Kennedy’s mother says.

“I swear they’ve all had her more than I have this week. I started to think she’d forgotten what I looked like. If this little one didn’t need me to feed, she’d completely forget about me,” she teases at the same time she hands me little Kylie.

Before I know it, I’m holding a little, chubby-cheeked, baby girl in my arms. I bounce her on my lap, making her giggle. Even her drooling is adorable.

Honestly, I hadn’t thought much about having kids of my own. But looking into her sparkling gaze, I start to get the appeal. These little things are so cute.

“Yeah, until they have a poop explosion,” Riley groans.

Again, I must’ve stated my thoughts out loud.

“I don’t miss those,” Kayla Townsend adds, making a chorus of “me eithers” sound around the table from the older women.

I hear someone moan and glance across the table at the oldest among us, Deborah Townsend. She points at me with a grin on her face.

Her blue eyes sparkle with mischief. “See, that’s how they get you. Looking so cute, you don’t know how to resist just having another one.”

She clucks her tongue and shakes her head, then looks across the room. I follow her gaze to see she’s looking at her husband, Robert Townsend. He’s as handsome as the rest of the men in the room, especially with his pepper and gray hair.

“Cute babies aren’t the only reason you ended up with four sons,” someone says, making the table of women, including Deborah Townsend, crack up.

My laughter has me glancing around the room as well. My eyes collides with Taehyun’s. For some reason, I’m not at all surprised to find his gaze on me. A weird mix of pride and elation flows through me to know that without even trying I can capture his attention.

But it’s not this knowledge that steals my breath.

It’s the intense glint in his eyes as he watches me. His eyes slowly move from me to the baby still in my arms. I get the sense that he’s saying something without words.

I’m too frightened to even guess what that look means.

Taehyun and I haven’t discussed what, if anything, comes after this week. For my part, I’ve been too damn happy enjoying my favorite time of the year with someone completely unexpected.

I didn’t want to dream of asking for more.

Yet, as he watches me from across the room …

“Okay, let’s get this party started,” someone with a microphone says, breaking into my thoughts.

Riley’s husband, Kyle, eventually makes his way over, taking his daughter from me, just like his wife predicted.

A longing I've never felt before begins to bloom in my chest.

Taehyun’s name is on my mind as I search for his gaze again, but he’s no longer standing where I last saw him.

I look over at the door for some reason. But Taehyun isn’t there. However, before I can look away, Liza comes barreling through the door. With rounded eyes, she frantically searches the room until her eyes land on me.

She does her best to be discreet, I can tell, but she quickly makes her way through the sea of Townsends, over to me.

“We need to talk,” she whispers.

I’ve only seen Liza look somewhat troubled when she was present when I took that nasty spill that led to my ‘injury.’

“What’s wrong?” I rise as I ask her.

“Not here.” Her eyes dart around the room.

She grabs my arm and rushes us both from the room. Thankfully, the rest of the family members are so engaged in their gift exchange that they don’t notice us.

“Have you seen this?” Liza turns her phone so that I can see the screen, in the private stairwell she’s pulled me into.

My eyes go wide as I read the headline of the sports blog.

“Tania Casey Fakes Injury to Get Out of X Games!”

“What?” I screech.

“That’s what I said,” Liza tells me. “Who would write such a malicious lie?” She begins to pace back and forth.

My stomach twists in shame.

I clear my throat. “It’s just one blog. They probably don’t even have that many followers.”

“This is Tom Collander’s personal blog,” she counters. “He also does freelance work for the likes of Sports Daily . If this has made it to his personal blog, there’s a good chance it’ll be published on the major networks soon.”

“I …” I don’t know what to say. I read the blog to see that Collander has framed it to look like I’ve faked my ankle sprain as an excuse to pull out of the X Games in a few weeks since—according to him—at twenty-five I must be feeling the pressure of my age in a sport with so many up-and-coming younger athletes.

“Grandma?! Bastard,” I gripe.

“And you might as well forget seeing her in the next Winter Olympics,” Liza reads the last sentence. “He’s making you sound like a burnout. That son of a … Where does he get off?”

My assistant is furious on my behalf. While it does feel good knowing I have someone willing to defend me, it’s also a gut punch.

I have lied.

“Liza …”

“No. This will not stand. We can produce medical records to prove your injury.”

I flinch but she doesn’t notice. “Liza …”

“No, you’re right. That’s a complete invasion of your privacy. But we can sue the bastard.”

She starts dialing.

“Who are you calling?”

“Your father. He’ll know how to handle this. Tomorrow’s Christmas, but we can still have a lawyer on this within the next few days.” She stares at the phone.

“He’s not answering.” She frowns but I know he’s likely not answering because I asked him not to respond to her if she reaches out.

“Liza,” I say forcefully, snatching the phone from her. “We’re not suing anyone.”

She frowns. “Why not? He?—”

“Because it’s true,” I confess.

I sigh as I hold out my hand, offering her phone back to her. “I have no intentions of pulling out of the Games, but part of his story is true. I did fake my ankle sprain.”

Her forehead scrunches in confusion, making me feel like leftover gingerbread cookie crumbs dropped on the floor.

“Why would you do that?”

I tell her the truth.

“If you needed a break we could’ve taken some time on the calendar.”

“We both know that’s not true,” I tell her. “You’re a workaholic and I’m a people pleaser. We both want to please my dad, who goes non-stop. We can talk about my reasons later.”

“But …” She runs her hand across her forehead. “Wait, that doesn’t explain who did this.” She holds out her phone.

She’s right. Collander lives across the country. How did he even get this information? I run through the possibilities of people in my mind. The only people who knew the truth were me, my doctor, and one other person.

I automatically rule the doctor out because making it known that I paid him off to embellish my medical records could put his license in jeopardy, or at least his reputation.

That leaves …

My mind doesn’t even want to go there.

“I always get what I want.” The words Taehyun told me only days ago.

Without a word, I push through the door, exiting the stairwell. I do my best not to let my mind go to such a dark place immediately. What reason would Taehyun have following through on the threat he made almost a week ago now?

That couldn’t be the case. Someone else had to have done it. Maybe it was just a guess on Collander’s part?

I start toward the room where everyone is, to search for Taehyun, but before I can get there, I find him and Dae outside of the door, talking.

“And when are you going to tell her the only reason you’re with her is to get back at her for turning you down?” Dae asks.

I jut my head back because I must’ve heard him wrong.

“She didn’t turn me down, and she’ll never find out about that so drop it,” Taehyun replies, obviously not seeing me.

“Is that why you did it?” Both men spin to face me. “Is that why you sold me out?” I thrust my phone in his face.

“You son of a bitch!”