Page 129 of Naughty & Nice

Iwalk into the living room to find Noelle and Hendrix cuddled up on the couch, watching reruns of an old sitcom they’ve always loved.

The thought of spending a quiet night watching the TV doesn’t sit well with me. I was meant to be having the vacation of a lifetime with my boys right now, not being third wheel to my brother and his girl.

I hesitate for a few seconds before inspiration strikes.

Bingo.

I march across the room without any doubts over what I’m about to do.

“What the hell?” Noelle barks the second I plunge us into darkness. Only the brightness from the screen illuminates the room.

“Turn it off,” I demand as I connect my cell to the speaker and hit play on one of my favorite playlists.

“No, we’re watching it. You can’t just?—”

“Turn it off,” I say again. There’s no room for question in my voice, and after a second, Hendrix reaches for the remote, sensing that I’m not messing about.

“I’m not spending another night sitting in the dark,” Noelle complains. “Not when we could be—” Her words falter as I light the candles littered around the room, giving us a warm, soft glow.

My skin tingles with awareness as I move around the cabin, but I don’t explain myself. Not yet.

Finally, I come to stand in front of them.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to come on this vacation,” I start.

“Oh, you should have mentioned,” Noelle deadpans.

“But, I didn’t want to spend the holidays alone. The holidays suck. You both know that as well as I do.”

“That’s not fair,” Hendrix interrupts. “Lori has made them good.”

I raise a brow.

“As good as she was able to.”

Shaking my head, I continue with my point.

“Without her making it bearable, I didn’t want to be a part of it. And then my plans went to shit, and the thought of enduring it alone was unthinkable.

“But… I’m really glad I gatecrashed. I know you’re probably not. I know you’d have preferred to do this without me, but I’m grateful you let me tag along.”

“Wilder—”

“Let me finish,” I say when Hendrix tries to interrupt again. “I know things have been… different, and there’s every chance you’ll look back and regret what we’ve done here, but I really hope you don’t. I hope that after we’ve returned to normal life, you’re able to see this for what it was. A bit of fun and the beginning of you two building your life together. You deserve it. Both of you. More than anyone else I know. All I want is for you to be happy, and for that to happen, you need to be together. I was just getting to the point where I wasn’t sure either of you was going to figure it out.”

Silence follows my confession, and I instantly regret opening up. Sure, it’s easier in the dark, but it’s still a weird thing for me to do.

“We don’t regret it,” Hendrix finally says. “Or at least, I don’t.”

“I don’t either. It’s been… memorable.”

Both Rix and I laugh at her choice of word.

Memorable.

“As touching as this has been, why are we sitting in the dark for it?” Rix asks.

I let out a heavy breath and comb my hair back from my brow, suddenly uneasy about the proposition I came over here with.

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