which just meant I was his touchdown waiting to happen.
Ty
IT’S FINALLY CHRISTMAS
“There's mistletoe,
Don't you know,
That I'm gonna kiss you.”
Performed by 33 Miles
Written by Lockwood / Cartee / Stoddard
I woke to someone pounding on my bedroom door. It wasn’t Ginny because she would have just stormed in, and even if she was home, Eliza avoided my room like the plague. Mom never ventured this way since the one time she’d come in when I was thirteen and had found me mid-stroke. She’d turned a thousand shades of red and green at the same time and ran.
Dad might knock, but I was pretty sure he was already in the studio. He, Uncle Lonnie, and Mayson had been working hard on the new album. It meant they were up before the ass-crack of dawn and were still awake long after midnight. Dad’s focus, when he was working on an album, was all one-way. It never seemed to bother Mom. It had never really bothered any of us, because we had enough grandparents, siblings, and cousins crawling around all the time if we needed someone’s attention.
My eyes drifted closed again. They were gritty with a lack of sleep. I’d finally coasted off somewhere in the wee hours with Aunt Cam’s notebook still on my chest. While I felt slightly guilty about reading it, it had been calling for me to pick it back up. It was full of words she’d basically written to Uncle Jake. For him. Through it, I’d gotten a good sense of him. He’d definitely been more Southern knight than I ever could stand to be. He’d been her protector. Her left arm. Her world.
It made me think a lot about Stephen and Khiley. How they’d been each other’s whole worlds since before they could talk.
The pounding on my door repeated.
“What?!” I yelled out, not bothering to move.
When the doorknob started to turn, I yelled, “I didn’t say to come in.”
The sun glared behind the person entering, but even cast in shadows, I knew who it was. The sun had turned her blonde hair into a glorious halo. Like the halo around the Madonna in all those paintings in Art 101. Maleena was a blonde-haired comet with eyes the color of golden stars, especially when she was eyeballing me—whether that eyeballing occurred while we were taking our clothes off or while fuming at me because I’d ticked her off.
As soon as it registered who it was, I wanted to jump up and haul her beautiful curves up against mine. I wanted to devour her lips until they were battered and bruised as punishment for ghosting me. But as she came farther into the room, I knew I didn’t dare.
She was full of fire and brimstone. Anger in her eyes that I knew she wanted to work out on me. Work out with me. That made me smile. My lazy smile, which just caused those eyes of hers to ignite more.
“You’re even a jerk to your family, I see,” she said.
“Close the door and get your ass over here,” I growled.
She did close the door, but she didn’t join me on the bed. Instead, she went to the desk chair. She sat in it, eyeing me as if I’d done something more than be my normal, arrogant self. Like I’d hurt her best friend or cheated on her, which I’d never do.
Ever since I’d seen her my freshman year, there hadn’t been anyone else. I hadn’t dicked around on her no matter how many panties had come flying my way. Just like my dad had never dicked around on my mom, even though he had wild fans stalking him at every concert and leaving PlayBabe-style notes at our front gate because of Dad’s past, growing up in the PlayBabe mansion.
I stared back at Maleena, languidly sliding my eyes over her tight sweater and skinny jeans accentuating every curve. She had plenty of them. Curves I liked to hold on to. The thought of them made my morning wood solidify, and I didn’t try to hide it.
“You’ve been ignoring me,” I told her.
She nodded, arms across her full chest. Like her father. Like me. Blocking the world. Putting a barrier between them and the us that could be broken if we let the world see the cracks.
“I needed a break from…well…you,” she tossed back.
“But not anymore?” I tried not to get my expectations up too high. She’d told me we were done, so I wasn’t exactly sure why she was here.
“I’m not here