The Very Naughty List

16. Hailey

16

HAILEY

When I wake up, there’s something hard and warm beneath my cheek. I blink my eyes open slowly, realizing that the ‘pillow’ I’m using is Nick’s thick thigh. I must’ve been sleeping on him this entire time, curled against him with my head nestled on his lap.

I yawn and turn my head, looking up at his chiseled, bearded jaw. He’s definitely awake, his posture a bit stiff as if he’s afraid of disturbing me if he moves too much.

“How long was I out?” I murmur, sitting up and rubbing my eyes as I look around the room. Neither of the other two men are still here.

“An hour or so.”

My heart swells, a little lump of emotion welling in my throat. It means a lot to me that he sat here like this the whole time I was sleeping, like a silent, watchful protector—especially since he was also serving as a human pillow. I quickly glance down at his leg to make sure I didn’t leave a drool spot or anything, then shift my gaze back up to his face.

“Didn’t you have to finish up your shift at the station?”

“I called in and got someone to cover for me.”

Sebastian and Reid walk back into the living room as he speaks, and I glance over at them, startled. When I didn’t see them when I woke up, I assumed it was because they had both headed back to the garage and the workshop respectively.

“None of you guys went back to work?”

“Nah, we all wanted to stick around and make sure you were okay.” Reid brushes it off casually, as if it’s nothing. But it’s definitely something to me. They didn’t need to do that, especially since I was physically unharmed and mostly just freaking out. It’s not like they needed to sit with me to make sure I didn’t die or anything.

But they stuck close by me anyway, without me even asking.

I’m trying to figure out a way to say ‘thanks’ that will sound different than the dozen other times I’ve thanked them since I came back to town, but my thoughts are interrupted by something wet touching my hand.

I jerk in surprise, almost flailing a little to fling whatever it is off—but I restrain myself when I realize it’s Bruno. He must have been lying near the side of the couch, where I didn’t see him when I first woke up. Now he’s standing in front of me with his nose pressed to my hand. As I look down at him, he drags his tongue over my hand in a long lick.

It tickles slightly, and I can’t help but grin.

“Hey, look! I think I’m making progress on becoming friends with him.”

“He must have known you were scared. Dogs can sense when you need comforting.” Nick leans down and gives him a pet and some praise for being a good boy.

“Maybe.” I grin as Bruno flops back down on the floor. “Or maybe he’s just happy that I let him win the panty raid.”

“The panty raid?” Reid’s curiosity is visibly piqued.

“Oh, do tell.” Sebastian chuckles. “This sounds good.”

I fill the guys in on how Bruno stole my panties before I left for the Santa’s Workshop fiasco, and how I ran all around the living room chasing him before finally giving up and letting the dog keep them.

Nick flushes deeply, and I can’t help but laugh at his embarrassment over Bruno’s behavior. It’s not like it’s his fault his dog stole my panties.

Unless…

I turn to face the muscled firefighter, giving him my best ‘come clean’ look.

“Did you train him to do that?” I demand.

“What? No, of course not!” Nick straightens, his shoulders going stiff. He looks like he’s about to panic almost as badly as I did until he catches the expression on my face and realizes I’m just teasing.

Sebastian and Reid break into laugher.

“Still, it’s like I said.” Sebastian shoots me a wink. “Dogs often start to take after their owners, don’t they? So if you didn’t train him to do it, maybe it’s just a habit he picked up from you. Come on, Nick. You’re in a safe space, you can admit it. Do you have a panty stealing problem?”

“Fuck off.”

Nick flips him off, and that makes me laugh. I feel so much better than I did when Sebastian pulled me out of that confined space, almost back to my usual self.

“You guys really don’t need to stay here with me,” I reiterate, not wanting them to feel like they have to babysit me all day. “I’m fine now. You can go back to work or do whatever you need to do.”

“Nope. Fuck that.” Sebastian claps his hands together, grinning down at me. “We’re all taking the day off, so I say we do something fun to make the most of it.”

“Agreed.” Reid nods, then gestures to an empty space on one side of the living room. “Want to help us decorate our Christmas tree? We were planning on getting one soon anyway, and there’s nothing like a little holiday spirit to forget about the damn Divas.”

I don’t even bother trying to give them another out, because the truth is, I much prefer the idea of decorating a tree with them all to hanging out in this big house by myself. So I just nod enthusiastically. I feel like I haven’t properly celebrated Christmas in two years, and it used to be my favorite season. I like the magical feeling of it, the coziness of the lights and decorations, and the fun of staying indoors on cold, blustery days, all warm and snug in thick socks.

I love Christmas, and I’m starting to really love spending time with these three too.

“All right. I’ll go put on my boots and get my ax.” Nick is the last of the brothers to get to his feet, and when he does, Bruno starts to bark in excitement, clearly reading the vibe in the room and realizing that a romp outdoors might be in his future.

“Your ax?” I ask, frowning. “What for?”

“How else am I going to chop down a tree?”

My eyes widen with excitement. “Oh! I didn’t know we’d be getting a real, live tree. Although this is Montana and not LA. I guess it’s easier to do here than it would be there.”

Sebastian rolls his eyes, huffing a laugh. “I bet all the Christmas trees in LA are plastic or some shit like that.”

“They’re probably pink or silver too,” Reid adds with a smirk.

The funny thing is, they’re not exactly wrong. And as a born and bred Montana girl, I definitely never got over the incongruity of seeing Christmas trees right next to palm trees or hearing Christmas carols in seventy degree weather.

The winter seasons that I spent in LA were lonely and underwhelming. There’s nothing like a Montana winter, especially during the holiday.

“Hell yes, let’s cut down a tree.” I push up from the couch, excitement bubbling through me.

Nick gets his boots and ax, and Sebastian pulls a winter hat over his messy dark hair, tugging it down on his forehead so far that it mostly obscures the scar through his eyebrow. Reid digs out the Christmas tree stand and decorations from the basement while I try to keep Bruno entertained. The big mutt is practically beside himself with anticipation, eager to be let out so he can play in the winter wonderland.

Since I don’t have thick enough outer layers—I got rid of the really heavy stuff when I moved to LA, since I’d never need it out there—all three of the guys bundle me up, handing me scarves and gloves and a hat, and enough jackets for three people to wear.

“Wait, wait! It’s not that cold out. Did you guys forget that I still have Montana blood in my veins?” I laugh at their overly generous efforts to keep me warm.

“I was just afraid that you were going to try marching out there in the snow in that hot pink bikini again,” Sebastian teases.

He gives me a wink, and when his brothers glance between the two of us burning curiosity, he ends up telling them the whole story as we head out the door and drive about thirty minutes out of town. We tromp through the woods until we find what I declare to be the perfect tree, and then Bruno and I watch as the three of them work together to chop it down.

Nick and Reid strap it to the roof of the car, bitching at Sebastian the entire time as he flirts shamelessly with me instead of helping.

Honestly, I don’t mind one bit.

Once we get back home and have peeled off all of our winter gear and gotten the tree into the stand, it’s time to decorate.

“How about Christmas music?” Reid suggests. “Any favorites?”

I nod and walk over to help Nick pick out some remixes of Christmas carols to play, and in a matter of minutes, the whole house is practically bursting with holiday spirit. Even Bruno, who’s now lying contentedly in front of the fireplace after all that gamboling through the snow, starts to howl along a little.

I look over to see Reid standing with an armful of string lights in his hands. He must’ve been testing to make sure they work—which they do—and now it looks like he’s holding an entire galaxy of blinking stars in his arms as he starts to untangle them.

“Hey, come help me with this,” he says when he notices me watching him, lifting his chin to summon me closer. I go, and the two of us manage to untangle all the lights, laying them out carefully so they’ll be ready when we need them.

As Nick opens a box filled with ornaments, Sebastian emerges from the kitchen, where he disappeared a few minutes ago. He’s got two glasses in each hand, a finger or so of whiskey in each.

“No tree decorating party would be complete without this.”

He passes the glasses around, and we all clink them together in a little cheers before sipping the spicy, smoky drink. The whiskey burns down my throat in the best way, warming me from the inside out, and I let out a small, contented sigh.

“See?” Sebastian nods in approval. “Aren’t you glad to be home?”

“Yeah,” I say honestly. “I really am.”

We work together to wind the lights around the tree, and when that’s done, we start hanging ornaments. Before I know it, the whiskey in my glass is gone—but almost as soon as I realize that, it’s full again, thanks to a top-off from Reid, who grabbed the bottle from the kitchen.

All of us are getting a little tipsy by the time we run out of ornaments to hang on the fir tree’s branches. The whiskey seems to be helping Nick loosen up a bit, or maybe he’s just finally starting to hold back less around me, because he’s more talkative than I’ve ever seen him.

“I have to admit, the town’s been pretty dull since you left,” he says as he puts a few stray pieces of packing paper back into the box that once housed the ornaments. “Chestnut Hill wasn’t the same without you here.”

I grin, unable to help myself. Then my smiles fades a little as I remember all the reasons I left in the first place. “I’m sure not everyone missed me.”

Reid snorts. “Eh, if you’re talking about that little prick, Dylan, I wouldn’t give him a moment of your thought.”

“That asshat and his family have been expanding their influence here at a record fucking pace,” Sebastian mutters as he sticks the star on top of the tree. “They’ve been buying up real estate and making deals with various businesses in town, trying to monopolize their hold on property in Chestnut Hill. I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like it either, but it’s not like we can do anything about it.” Nick frowns. It’s clear that he doesn’t like feeling powerless about anything. “They’re not doing anything illegal—that we know of, anyway. Dylan is just a rich, smarmy scumbag, and that’s that.”

It’s very clear that none of them have any love for Dylan Montgomery, and the open disgust in their voices is like a balm to the old wound inside me. Honestly, I’m embarrassed that I ever loved Dylan. I’m not even sure I actually ever did.

Thank god I didn’t marry him.

Even if he hadn’t cheated on me, I can’t see how we would’ve lasted. And if we did manage to stay together, I can’t imagine how I could’ve been happy.

Maybe it’s the whiskey cutting down on my brain-to-mouth filter, or maybe my boldness comes from feeling more comfortable around the Cooper brothers than I ever have before. But either way, I blurt my next words without thinking.

“Well, he might be well-endowed in terms of money, but let me tell you, that’s about all he’s got going for him.” I snort a laugh, shaking my head. “My sex life with Dylan sucked.”

All three triplets instantly stop what they’re doing and look over at me with intrigued expressions.

“Oh? What do you mean it sucked?” Reid asks.

I shrug, my face heating a little as I realize I’m actually talking about my sex life with the triplets.

“It was… boring,” I admit. “There were things I wanted to try, but he was never into any of it. He would make me feel like a freak if I asked for anything even vaguely kinky.”

“Oh really?” Sebastian polishes off the last sip of whiskey in his glass and sets it down.

All three men are still looking at me, and I can feel the atmosphere in the room shift a little. I should probably try to find a way to steer the conversation into safer territory, but…

Fuck it .

I’m feeling loose and reckless, and this is the most fun I can remember having in a very long time. So instead of zipping my lips or changing the subject, I admit to the one thing that almost no one else in the world knows.

“I made a bucket list after I left Dylan,” I say, my voice dropping a little. “Of things I wanted to do… in bed. Every dirty, filthy thing I could think of.”

My cheeks burn, and I wait for one of them to make some sort of teasing remark—but instead, the room goes quiet.