The Very Naughty List

10. Hailey

10

HAILEY

I blink up at Nick, my heart thumping.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting him to really want a “date” with me to begin with. In fact, I was pretty damn surprised when he stepped up at the bar and claimed that we were dating at all. He’s so antisocial and grumpy most of the time that I figured even though he said it in the moment to help me, he wouldn’t actually want to do any of the performative aspects of fake dating.

At most, I figured he would make an occasional appearance and let his brothers handle the rest of the showcasing.

Clearly, I was wrong.

“Um, okay,” I say. “Sure. I wasn’t really ready to go home anyway.”

Reid and Sebastian head out, looking like they’re begrudgingly conceding their time, and Nick is completely silent as he starts to walk down the street with me, his massive hand wrapped around mine. It’s not unusual for Nick to be silent, but I feel a bit awkward because I have no idea what to say to him. It just seems like it is so out of character for him to be doing this.

Is he enjoying it? I mean, why would he even be doing this if he didn’t want to? It’s not like he has to do the fake date parts. So why go all in?

Once again, my mind starts to wander down a rabbit hole of hopeful thinking, but it’s too much of a stretch to think that Nick would actually be into me. So I try to ease the awkwardness by filling in the silence between us.

The evening is cold, and there’s a gentle snow falling. Most of the little independent storefronts are decorated for the holidays with twinkling Christmas lights or those fake plastic candles that light up in the windows.

“Oh, look!” I grin. “MooMoo’s Ice Cream! I used to love their triple berry flavor. It was so good, I swear I could eat it every day and never get sick of it.”

I point at the window, which has a plastic cow decoration with a Santa hat on for the season. Nick glances, his expression unchanged. “I’ve never tried it.”

“You’ve never had MooMoo’s?” I demand, aghast. “They’ve been a staple of Chestnut Hill our whole lives!”

He shrugs. “I don’t really like ice cream.”

That seems like sacrilege to me, but I don’t say so, and we lapse into silence again as we keep walking.

I almost have to laugh as we meander down the sidewalk for several more minutes. Nearly every shop or restaurant we pass elicits an excited gasp from me as I bask in the happy nostalgia of being home—but Nick is almost the exact opposite, as unimpressed by all of it as I am thrilled.

“You don’t seem to like much of anything,” I tease after he grunts something about how the fancy lattes from Deja Brew are all too sweet.

Nick chuckles, the sound rumbling in his chest. “That’s not true. I like my family. I like your brother. I like my dog.” He stops walking, turning to face me as something shifts in his dark blue eyes. “And most of all, I like?—”

His voice cuts off, but his gaze stays fixed on mine.

I swallow hard, suddenly desperate to know how he was going to finish that sentence.

For a long moment, we just stare at each other in the gently falling snow. Little flakes collect on his dark hair and the close-cut scruff of his beard, and I watch them gather and then start to melt, my breath fogging the air in little puffs.

Then, without saying another word, he reaches out to take my hand and then turns to start walking again.

He falls quiet again as we continue on, almost as if that small exchange didn’t happen, and I feel even more off-balance than before. It’s not just awkward now, but also filled with a confusing sort of angst that swirls around me faster than the falling snow.

I can’t stand the hanging silence. My thoughts are so damn loud inside my head that I almost worry he’ll hear them in the quiet, so I talk to fill the space, trying to find a safer subject than the one we were just discussing.

“Um, how’s it going at the station?”

“It’s good.”

At first, I think that’s all he’s going to give me. It would be about par for the course for Nick, who often speaks in grunts rather than words and especially seems less inclined to talk to me than his brothers or Lucas. But then he surprises me by continuing on.

“Things are busy there,” he adds. “Thankfully not with devastating fires but with a lot of community outreach that the fire station has been doing lately. We’re in need of new equipment though. Most of the trucks are pretty old. Sebastian has actually helped out a lot by doing some work on them, but I feel like we need some new gear and maybe a new truck in order to be really prepared in the event of a large fire. Which obviously I hope will never happen. You can never be too sure or too careful though.”

I blink, stunned into momentary silence. That might be the most I’ve ever heard him say at once, and it’s nice to see him talking so enthusiastically about something. I can tell he’s passionate about what he does.

“One day, I want to be fire chief.” Nick rubs his free hand over his beard, brushing away a few of the gathering snowflakes. “I know I could be great in that role, and I already have a bunch of ideas that I want to implement at the station.”

“Wow. That’s great! I bet you’ll be an amazing fire chief.”

When I glance up, I think I actually see him flush a little at the encouraging compliment. It’s true though. I don’t doubt that Nick will achieve his goal. He’s one of the most focused, hardworking men I’ve ever met. In LA, there were a lot of guys that liked to talk big about their ambitions and achievements, but most of them wanted an easy path toward getting there, which would never actually amount to anything. Nick, on the other hand, is capable and driven. He’ll work toward being fire chief, and he’ll get it.

He glances down at his watch suddenly, his brow furrowing. “We’d better get going.”

“Oh. Okay.”

I thought we were actually heading toward a destination, a “date” somewhere, but I guess our short stroll was the date in its entirety.

When we get back to the bistro though, Nick walks me over to his car instead of mine.

“Hop in.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” A tiny smirk tilts the corners of his lips, and I can’t help feeling a flutter of excitement and curiosity. Maybe I was wrong, and we really are going somewhere else for a date.

I get in, and Nick drives us through town. The whole time, I keep peering out the window to see if I can figure out where he’s taking me. When we wind up in my neighborhood, I frown, and when he pulls into the driveway of my parents’ house, I glance over at him in surprise.

“What are we doing here?”

I definitely wasn’t expecting a trip to my parents’ house to be a date-worthy destination. Especially not if the goal was to be seen by the general public of Chestnut Hill. It seems to defeat the point of a public exhibition of romance, and I doubt my parents would understand this whole scheme I have going on with the Cooper brothers. We had to fill Lucas in on everything so he wouldn’t kill them, but I have no plans to tell my parents the truth.

Instead of answering, Nick comes around to open my door and then leads me up the walk. The sidewalk is iced over, so he keeps one arm wrapped carefully around my waist to catch me in case I slip.

For such a gruff and grumpy man, whose thick muscles I can feel even with just his arm around my waist, it’s really sweet.

Nick knocks on the door, and my face lights up when I see my grandmother open it. I’ve only seen her once since I got back, when I went over to my parents’ house before heading to The Old Oak, and it wasn’t nearly enough to make up for all the time I’ve been away.

“Grandma Dee!” I exclaim as my spry, gray-haired grandmother reaches out to give me a big hug.

“Hailey, baby.” She squeezes me in the way that only a grandma can, then welcomes Nick and me inside. “Your parents are at the diner working. Come on in, I’ve got a kettle on the stove.”

Grandma Dee is always making tea. It’s one of my fondest and most frequent memories of her. Have a cold? Echinacea tea it is. Feeling blue? A cup of mint to ease away stress. And then there’s my favorite—Grandma Dee has a “secret stash” of amaretto tea that she puts a drop or two of liquor in. That’s the tea that she always brews whenever I need just to sit in silence and think.

We walk inside and sit down at the table while Grandma Dee sets teacups down in front of us and then goes to get the kettle, which is already starting to whistle. I look over at Nick, suppressing a grin at the image of this burly, bearded firefighter sitting there with a dainty teacup set in front of him.

But I still don’t know why we’re here.

Sebastian’s date was a plunge in icy cold water, Reid’s date was a dinner out that wound up getting crashed by his brothers, and now Nick’s date is inside my childhood home with my grandma? It’s been a whirlwind of experiences so far, but honestly, I’ve enjoyed every one, so I don’t really expect this to be any different. That doesn’t stop me from being curious though.

“So catch me up, Dee. What did I miss?” Nick smiles up at her as she pours the tea, as if they have some sort of secret conversation going on.

And surprisingly, they do .

I sip my tea and listen as my grandmother catches Nick up on an episode of Shadow’s Edge , a show that they’ve apparently been watching together. The season finale episode aired earlier tonight, and Nick missed it when he came to the restaurant to find me and take me on a walk.

The two of them talk avidly, and he laughs when Grandma Dee makes a joke about one of the characters in the show. She goes on to tell him how excited she is about the next season of the show, and Nick nods in agreement.

“This strapping young man has been keeping me company through two television seasons already. I have to admit that if I were a whole lot younger, I’d think we were dating.”

She bursts into laughter, and Nick’s cheeks flush.

I look over at him, awed and a little stunned. I’m immensely touched by this hidden sweet side I didn’t know he had. All this time while I’ve been off in LA trying to run away from my past and piece together a future, he’s been here spending time with my elderly grandmother.

She looks at him with her soft brown eyes and gives him a wrinkled grin. I can tell by the way her entire face is lit up that what he’s doing means a lot to her. And funnily enough, it seems like Nick is enjoying the show they’re watching together just as much as she is.

“Do you want to see the season finale?” Grandma Dee asks me, clearly brimming with excitement. “I wouldn’t mind watching it again. Nick and I can fill you in on what’s happened up to this point in the show.”

“Sure!”

The three of us go to the living room, and I sit down on the couch beside Nick to watch the show with my grandmother. About halfway through, there’s a surprise reveal where the main character discovers that her long-lost sibling, believed to be dead, has been living under a different identity and is secretly involved in a major criminal organization. Nick’s jaw drops, and he nearly jumps off the couch, shock clear on his handsome face.

In the chair next to us, Grandma Dee is cracking up.

“Look at you!” she chortles. “You’d think you’d seen a ghost!”

“That’s because I had no idea that Lorenzo would be coming back.” Nick rubs at his chin, disheveling his beard as he looks at my grandmother with a teasingly accusatory glare. “You didn’t want to warn me?”

Grandma Dee is still laughing so hard that her second cup of tea is shaking in her hands, the liquid threatening to slosh over the rim.

“No spoilers,” she finally says, affixing a more serious look on her face, although her eyes still dance with amusement. “That’s our rule, remember? Besides, I had to keep some surprises for you to find out for yourself.”

I chuckle at both of them, completely entranced by how easily they seem to get along. Nick, who usually speaks only when absolutely necessary, banters easily with her as the show continues. I can’t resist joining in and teasing him a little.

“I’ve never seen you get so excited about anything before,” I point out, nudging him lightly. “Who knew that you were secretly a soapy TV show junkie? I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

My grandmother howls with laughter, and a flush works its way up from beneath Nick’s beard. He clears his throat, leaning back against the couch cushions and relaxing his expression. “It’s the first time I’ve done that. I don’t normally get so worked up over fictional characters.”

I’m pretty sure that’s a lie, given how obviously invested in the show he is. And even if it’s not, I make a secret goal to get him to do this more. I love seeing him so genuinely excited and not as stiff and withdrawn as he usually is.

Beside us, my grandmother snorts. “Oh, bullshit!”

“Grandma!” I laugh at her foul mouth.

“What?” She shrugs, taking a prim sip of her tea. “I’m old enough to have earned the right to curse like a sailor if I want to. And don’t let him fool you. Nick is always shouting at the television screen.”

“Ah hah! I knew it.” I shoot him a triumphant smirk, and his cheeks flush again.

I find myself loving this fake “date” so much more than I expected to. It’s absolutely wonderful, and I still can’t believe that Nick has been coming over to hang out with my grandma. Lucas has never mentioned it to me.

When the show ends, we get up off the couch and get ready to leave. Nick and I wait in the doorway while Grandma Dee puts the teacups in the kitchen sink before coming to see us off.

“Oh, look!” She points up at the ceiling over our heads.

I tilt my head up and realize that Nick and I are standing directly under the mistletoe.

“You know what that means.” Her grin is positively mischievous.

“Grandma, did you put that up after we got here?”

“Of course not.”

The innocent look on her face makes me suspicious. I can’t tell by her face if she’s telling me the truth or not, although she would’ve had to be pretty quick to do it in the time since we arrived. But it’s something I wouldn’t put past her.

I glance up at Nick, who’s standing as still as a statue, his broad shoulders filling up nearly the entire doorframe.

“It’s okay,” I murmur quickly. “We don’t have to.”

He clears his throat. “We are on a date.”

“Right.”

“So we should probably kiss. Under the mistletoe.”

“Okay.”

Despite our words, neither one of us moves for a moment. He’s the only one of the Cooper brothers I haven’t kissed yet, and my heart kicks against my ribs at the thought of his full lips against mine and the scruff of his beard against my skin. What would it feel like against my cheek? What would it feel like… against other places?

Heat instantly rises in my face, and I glance sideways at my grandmother, who’s still watching us expectantly.

Then Nick leans down and kisses me. The scent of sandalwood and clove fills my nostrils as his lips meet mine, the masculine scent wrapping around me like an embrace. But despite the fact that his smell alone is enough to have me practically panting, the kiss feels oddly formal. No hands around my waist or cradling my face, no sudden burst of heat, just a simple press of our lips.

“How romantic!” Grandma Dee claps her hands, sighing happily.

She doesn’t seem to notice at all how un romantic the kiss was as we break apart. On the contrary, she seems exceedingly pleased with herself that she somehow either strategically hung the mistletoe there in the doorway or orchestrated the two of us standing under it—or both.

We both give her hugs before leaving and heading out to the car. We’re silent as we approach Nick’s vehicle, and I miss the easy banter and camaraderie that we had going on inside the house.

Not wanting things to settle back into awkward silence, I bump my shoulder against his arm and joke, “Okay, so you can redeem points for that lame kiss by how much fun tonight was.”

I reach for the door handle on the car, but before I can open it, Nick grabs me by the waist and spins me around to face him.

He presses me up against the side of the car, his wide, sturdy body pinning me there. The suddenness of it shocks the air out of my lungs, and in the space between one breath and the next, Nick crushes his lips against mine to steal what little air is left.

His lips are hungry and fierce, like he’s been waiting a lifetime to do this, and for all I know, maybe he has. This is nothing like the restrained, G-rated kiss he did for Grandma Dee’s sake a few moments ago, and my body responds instinctively. I cling to his broad, powerful shoulders as his tongue sweeps inside my mouth like his life depends on it.

My entire body catches fire, starting with my cheeks and burning all the way down as he kisses me like he’s trying to devour me, to consume me whole.

Holy shit. This is what a kiss from Nick Cooper can be like?