Page 63 of The Christmas Cookie Crush

None of this behavior seems normal to me. Not how she’s been with me, anyway.

“Like what?” I ask softly, reaching over to turn off the faucet. We could fit more water in here, but I want us to be able to speak without having to talk over the roar of the water or worry about it distorting our words. It’s deep enough.

One of her shoulders rises and falls, causing a small series of ripples in the bath.

I reach under the bubbles and find the leg that’s pressed against my thigh, caressing her calf and squeezing her hips with my feet where they rest alongside her. “You can talk to me, Nora. Is it your family? School?”

Her head tilts back, resting on the edge of the bathtub, and she stares up at the ceiling. “Yes? Sort of. That’s part of it.”

“Well,” I say slowly, letting my fingers drift up and down her leg, hoping the touch helps her as much as it does me, “start with thefirst one. What’s going on with your family? Did your mom give you grief about spending two nights in a row with me?”

Her head moves side to side. “No, actually. She just smiled at me and told me to be safe, which is what she’s said both of the other times too.” She makes a gagging noise. “As though I want mymomto remind me about condoms. Gross.”

That makes me chuckle. “Yeah. I can’t say I’d want my mom talking to me about safe sex, either. That fell to my dad when I was in high school, though it was fortunately brief and only one conversation.”

That has her lifting her head, a small smile playing over her lips. “Oh yeah? How’d that go?”

Chuckling, I remember my dad knocking on my bedroom door and awkwardly putting a box of condoms on my dresser. “It was before I went on my first date in high school, which happened my sophomore year after I got my license.”

She arches an eyebrow. “You didn’t have a girlfriend until then?”

“Well,” I hedge, “I had a couple of ‘girlfriends’“—I make air quotes around the word—”before that, but we mostly just held hands in the hall and ate lunch together. Once I had a license, I could take a girl out without my parents’ being along, you know?” At her nod, I continue. “Anyway, he came in a little while before I was supposed to pick her up, gave me a box of condoms, and told me it was my job to make sure I didn’t get anyone pregnant or pick up any diseases. He also said he’d help me out and support me if something happened, but that responsibility is important, and if I’m old enough to drive and take a girl out, I’m old enough to make sure I don’t ruin a girl’s life.”

She chuckles. “Wow.”

I arch an eyebrow. “What was your safe sex talk like?”

She shakes her head. “Not like that. Ty and Sarah told me more than my parents did, though when I had my first boyfriend that I was spending time with alone, my mom sat me down one night and told me she wanted to make sure I was making good choices.” She smirks, her gaze going abstract as she stares at the water and shakes her head at the memory. “I was disgusted and rolled my eyes. I wasn’t ready for sex at that point. I’d heard enough horror stories that I was fine with waiting.” She shakes her head again, her expression turning sour. “Not that people really believed that. Even my brother thinks I slept my way through high school, despite the fact that I didn’t have sex for the first time until halfway through my junior year.”

My brows pull together. “Which brother?”

She gives me aduhlook. “Dylan. Who else?”

“What’s his problem with you?”

Another shrug. Another series of ripples across the water. “I’m his dumb little sister. What other problem does he need?”

She turns pensive, her expression serious, her brow knotted in the center of her forehead like she’s puzzling through a thorny problem.

“Is he the one giving you shit?”

A heavy sigh, and she crosses her arms, her chin nearly resting on her chest as she slumps farther down into the water.

I assume that’s a yes. “What’d he say?”

Shaking her head, she brings a hand up to wipe her face, and I can’t handle the fact that she’s crying.

“Hey,” I cajole, reaching for her. “Come here.” When she doesn’t immediately respond, I run a hand up her arm. “Please. Just turn around. Come here and let me hold you. I can’t stand to see you upset.”

With a deep breath, she shifts around, letting me help her so she’s cradled between my thighs, my arms wrapped around her. I drop a kiss behind her ear. “Tell me what happened,” I whisper, hoping she will but also wondering if me knowing what Dylan said will make things better or worse.

At this point, though, knowing he’s upsetting her is enough to make me want to confront him. Better I know what he said first.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Nora

Austin’s armsaround me make me feel immensely better and infinitely worse. Because it’s clear that Dylan’s right in his assessment of the situation. Austin has strong feelings for me. Yes, we’ve only known each other a short time—because the time we knew each other as kids doesn’t really count in my opinion—but that amount of time is long enough for him to get very firmly attached.

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