Page 97 of Hold Me Today

But I looked—oh, how Ilooked—at the way her brow furrowed in her sleep, how she quietly huffed and puffed while she snored. And my chest fucking ached at the way she slept on her side, facing me, and her fingers were stretched out, as though daring me to take them within mine.

Ermione Pappas has been a thorn in my side. She’s driven me wild and made me want to haul her over my shoulder and spank her ass on more than one occasion, just to see her lips part in shock. But she snuck into my heart so many years ago that I don’t know what it’s like to live without her sewn into the fabric of my being.

Knowing that what I’m about to say is gonna shock the hell out of my parents, I square off my shoulders and add steel to my tone. “I love her. Mina, I love Mina.”

I don’t know what I’m expecting for a reaction but it’s not the one I’m given. My dad claps me on the back with awhoop!and there’s no hiding the tears that gather in my mom’s eyes as she whispers, “Oh,Niko, finally.”

That last word has my brows shooting up. “Finally?”

Sheepishly, she looks to my father. “Nick, you are not . . . you are not the best at pretending.”

Pretendingwhat? For me to get my shit together after all the years and realize I’ve had my head up my ass for just as long? “Ma,” I start, “I don’t know what you think—”

“Are we ready to go?”

At the sound of Mina’s suitcase wheels rolling over the tiled floor, I move toward her instinctively. Taking the suitcase handle from her grip, I frame her face with my other hand and claim her mouth with mine. She jolts under my touch, eyes going momentarily wide.

“They know,” I mutter under my breath when I pull back.

She glances around me to stare openly at my parents. “They do?”

Like they’re welcoming her into the family—even though she’s been one of us for decades—my mom and dad throw their arms around Mina, kissing her cheeks, pinching her chin. Poor Mina looks like she’s seconds away from crumpling to the ground in embarrassment.

“All right, everyone. We’ll see you when we get back.” I manage to disentangle her, and, without giving myyiayiatime to join the festivities and ruin it all, I usher Mina out the door to the car. I put her suitcase in the trunk along with mine, then climb into the driver’s seat.

Mina plops down in the passenger’s seat. “That was . . .”

“Fun.”

The look she sends my way is allare-you-kiddingincredulous. “I was going to say insane, but, sure, fun works too.”

I keep an eye on the road as I pull away from the curb and steer the car down the street. I know my mom wanted me to cool it and let Mina come to me, but I feel like she needs to know that I’m here. If she needs me.Fuck, I hope she does. “Mina, I—”

Her fingers curl into a fist in her lap, and I hear the gentle exhale of her breath. “When we get back, Nick, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. But I just want to have fun—no stress, no real life for all of two-and-a-half days. Can we do that?”

I bite back the words begging to be released. Words likeI love youandplease, take a chance on me, onus.“Yeah, sure.” I give a curt nod to show that all is well. “We can definitely do that.”

Or we can try, at least, however good that’ll be for us.

33

Nick

Bethel, Maine, is the quaintest, most picturesque New England town I’ve ever seen. There’s not much more to it than one main street—appropriately named “Main Street”—with Victorian houses and shops lining each side of the narrow road. The town sits at the foothill of the White Mountains, and everywhere I look are fog-tipped mountains, iced-over streams, and pickup trucks.

Looking at all the snow outside, I’m predicting a lot of time spent on my ass this weekend. Skiing is gonna prove to be a battle of the wills, and I’m not sure I’ll emerge victorious.

With Maine also comes Sophia.

Mina, Dom, and I haven’t been in the bed-and-breakfast lobby for more than five minutes before I hear her squealing from the stairwell. “Eeep, you guys arehere!”

“She’s never sounded so excited to see me in her life,” Mina mutters under her breath.

Whereas the three of us look like we’ve been traveling for hours, Sophia’s decked out in a slim dress with a furred collar and the same furry trim at her wrists. She whizzes right past Mina to clamp her arms around my neck for a tight hug, which I barely return, before turning to Dom.

Her grin is lethal—and not the good, sexy kind.

He looks ready to run for the mountains—literally.

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