Unwrapping Holly

Cole grabbed his jacket and zipped the front before disappearing down the hall and then outside. The muffled conversation was loud enough for her to hear bits and pieces. Something about a Christmas tree. They’d brought him a tree!

Holly snagged her jeans and shoved her legs inside. Wiggled her hips to pull them on. The front door opened and shut, Cole appearing in the hallway alone.

She didn’t give him time to speak. “I heard,” she said. “They brought you a tree. I have to go. I’m hurrying.” She bent down to pick up her socks.

“They’re putting it in the garage,” he said, crossing the room.

Holly straightened as he reached her side. “No!” She pointed to the door. “Go get them. Tell them to bring it inside. I’m leaving.”

She bent down and grabbed her socks and sat down in the chair. Cole knelt beside her. “Holly, I’m sorry about this. Abe ran into one of our mother’s close friends, and she talked a lot about Mom and how she would be worried about us. How she would roll over in her grave if she found out her boys hadn’t had a tree since she’d passed. So Abe rounded up Jacob and we now have a tree.”

Holly’s heart squeezed with that news and she touched his cheek. “I think the tree is a great thing,” she said. “And I wouldn’t dream of ruining that for you.” Even in her mode of panic, Holly could see this was part of Abe’s healing process.

“Then stay,” Cole insisted. “Help us decorate it. It needs a woman’s touch.”

Holly’s heart swelled. How had a wild night of fantasy sex turned into decorating a Christmas tree with his family? “I . . . I don’t know. I . . . What about your brothers?”

He grabbed her hand and kissed her palm, peered at her with a plea in those chocolate brown eyes. “Stay, Holly. Help us decorate the tree, and then later”—he grinned—“I’ll wrap you up and put you under the tree.”

She laughed. “Wrap me in what?”

He wiggled an eyebrow. “Me.”

***

TWO HOURS LATER, LAUGHTER FOLLOWED Holly into Cole’s kitchen of shiny black-and-gray granite. Cole had gone for firewood while his brothers playfully argued over who deserved the honor of placing the topper on the tree. Smiling at the silliness of Cole’s brothers, she thought of her own siblings with longing. Another week, and Rachel, the middle sister, would be the first to arrive home. Rachel was now a big-time advertising executive in New York City, which felt worlds away from Texas. Holly couldn’t wait to give her a big hug and hear what was happening in her life.

Warmed by that thought, Holly filled her glass with ice and Coca-Cola and crossed to the door. But then she hesitated when she heard her name, knowing she shouldn’t eavesdrop, but finding it impossible not to.

“I like Holly,” Abe said. “Cole must, too, since he never brings his women home.”

Jacob snorted. “Holly’s going to go back to Houston. She’s safe. Not that Holly isn’t cool and all. I’m just saying. You know how Cole is.”

How Cole is. Holly swallowed hard against the discomfort the words caused. She inhaled deeply and tried to understand why that bothered her. She’d not come here with the expectation of anything but a hot escape with Cole. It shouldn’t surprise her that he would see her in the same way—a hot holiday escape that ended when she went back home. Her gut twisted a little. But Cole was no longer a nameless one-night stand. And she had never been simply an out-of-town girl leaving soon. She was thinking of moving home.

She turned back to the counter and set her glass on top, holding the cold surface with a steely grip. What was she doing? If she moved back here, things could be awkward with her and Cole. If she didn’t—painful to leave. She didn’t want to feel like her long-term decisions were influenced by a fantasy, and she feared that was where this was headed. She needed to talk to him, to figure this out.

Cole’s voice sounded on the other side of the door a minute before he was suddenly there in the kitchen with her, leaving her no time to analyze her feelings or get a grip on them. Holly turned as he closed in on her; his legs framed hers, his arms outstretched to hold the cabinet on either side of her.

“Hey,” he said as if they hadn’t seen each other five minutes ago and she wasn’t standing in his kitchen.

Holly found herself laughing, the coil of tension inside her fading quickly. “Hey.”

He wiggled his brows. “I hear you’re using me for my body?”

She grinned at the repeated words she’d spoken a few minutes ago to his brother Jacob. “I like your tree, too,” she teased, feeling lighter by the moment. Cole was just so damn good at making her forget to be stressed—even when she should be. He was easy to be with. Easy to have fun with, she thought, as she added, “And it’s a good thing.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Because I can’t even manage to get your pants off.”