Page 22 of Silent Night

“Oh? Why?”

“Not sure.” It’s not something I really want to dissect right now either. My gaze lands on the nearest present, with a tag markedFrom Dean.Presumably her stepfather.

She notices me watching but incorrectly guesses what’s in my head. “You can take it if you’d like. It’s a gift to my mom. Not like she needs more junk.”

If I was smart, I’d take her up on her offer. Hell, if I was really smart, I’d send her on her way to get cleaned up and clear everything out from beneath the tree. But I’d already gotten what I came for, and taking anything more right after fucking her feels…wrong. I don’t have many morals but cheapening sex with the only woman to make my heart skip a beat isn’t how I want this to end.

“It’s fine. Is Dean your stepdad?” She nods, and I add, “Do you like him?”

“He’s alright,” she replies with a shrug against my chest. “He’s nice, but I’m tired of my mom hopping between husbands.”

Her comment reminds me of our first meeting four years ago, when her parents followed her out of the house. I always wondered what caused the drama, but was also very grateful for the reason. Either way, back then, they were still together, which means Hayley’s had plenty of family turmoil in the past few years.

“What happened between your parents?”

“Mom cheated on him with the man who later became my first stepfather. The day I met you, the fight you saw, it was because a text on Mom’s phone revealed what she’d been doing behind my dad’s back. It led into a massive argument—rightly so…but all I wanted was for them to stop. To have a Christmas full of cheer and all that. They wouldn’t stop yelling so I took off.” She smirks up at me. “I didn’t have great emotional regulation back then. Anyway, by New Year’s, a divorce settlement was signed. By the following June, Mom remarried, and Dad took off totour the world in a midlife crisis or something. That marriage lasted a year before Mom decided he wasn’t financially well-off enough, and then got with Dean.” She snorts, shaking her head. “And when I say stable, I mean uber rich.” She waves her hand to the room. “It’s a bit much, isn’t it? Mom is, and yes I’ll say this about my own mother, a gold-digger.”

So much about Hayley’s personality just came out within that speech. So much a part of me knew from night one, but didn’t totally understand it either. “That isn’t who you are.”

“My goal is to be stable enough in my career to afford life because unfortunately, money is how the world turns. Beyond that, I don’t really care. I don’t want to be like her.”

“Chasing money?”

She sighs. “That…and everything else. She cheated on Dad, and I never forgave her for ruining our family. I haven’t had a good Christmas since I was seventeen. Honestly, there’s so much, but I’d be here all night.”

I could easily listen to her recount everything of her childhood to me, all night long. Hell, I want it—to know everything there is about her. But I respect why she doesn’t want to go down that path.

I consider her words. How, for a long time, my wish was to have a family, but Hayley, in that single story, has proved having a home like the one we’re in, a family like what she has, isn’t always the happy ending we like to think it is. People have secrets and shit backgrounds.

“This has been the best Christmas in a long time,” she murmurs suddenly, and my chest warms.

“I’m glad, Hayley.” I rub a palm down her arm, revelling in being able to touch her so freely. “For me too.” It’s been myonlygood holiday. The only birthday I’ve been content to be alive for. “If you could wish for anything in the world, what would it be?”

She’s silent for a while, almost to the point I think she’s ignoring me. Finally, her answer comes in the quietest voice I’ve heard from her yet. “I don’t know.”

A part of me is thrilled to hear her say that

Another part of me is fucking terrified.

I need to get out of here before I take one more item from this house.

Her.

TEN

HAYLEY

Saint gets strangelyquiet after I finish talking, his stare locked on the tree instead of me. I feel him pulling away and try to remind myself this is positive because my stranger in the night can’t be permanent. Not when I’m returning to school in two days and he’s going…somewhere.

“Even though I can’t keep you, you’re mine now, and I protect what little I can call mine.”

As messed-up as it may be, I have become his in the past twenty-four hours. A part of me will always belong to my dark thief. He was the Christmas miracle I didn’t realize I was waiting on.

“Ifanyone, your stepbrother or otherwise, evenconsidersharming you, I’ll hunt them the fuck down, Hayley. I don’t care if I have to travel from one end of the country to you, I’ll always protect you. Even though I can’t keep you, you’re mine now, and I protect what little I can call mine.”

Those aren’t words from someone who doesn’t care.

Abruptly, Saint stands, pulling on his jeans and then his shirt before silently walking away from me. Tears prick my eyes, but I bite my tongue and gather my clothes, redressing in case Bentley returns from wherever he disappeared to. I won’t cry yet. Won’t allow myself tofeelany of this.

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