Page 24 of A Kiss For The Holidays

Dalton

Fucking hell, my neck aches. Why did no one wake me and tell me to go to bed? Sleeping on this sofa is a thousand times more uncomfortable than that mattress I had on the floor with Asher.

My eyes fly open and I sit up, rubbing away the ache in my neck. Groaning as I stand and stretch, I'm startled by Suzie who is watching me from an oversized armchair in the corner of the room.

“The fuck? Creepy much, Suzie Q? What are you doing?” I reach for a glass of water on the coffee table, taking a large gulp to wash away the fuzzy feeling in my mouth.

“Oh, just watching an idiot sleep. It’s great entertainment.” She smirks and I feign laughter.

“Rude, Suzie.”

“Just saying what I see, Dalty-boy.”

I ignore her snark, not sure what pissed on her parade, then turn to leave the room and find Asher. I have so much to say to him - so much I should have said yesterday but never had a chance. Maybe we can get our parents alone for a moment today and tell them.

“If you’re looking for Ash, he left.” I spin around too fast, knocking the glass with my knee and it falls onto the rug beneath the table, cold water landing on my bare feet.

“What do you mean he left? Like to get coffee?” I hope he just went to get coffee.Or pastries. Or even to sit in the cafe and read. Just anything that isn’t what I am pretty sure the reality is.

“Lane had to leave early for a job interview and Asher went with him. They should be back in London soon.” There's an angry beast in my belly and he’s possessive and tearing to get out, hearing that Asher left with Lane.

“With Lane? Why?” I grit my teeth so hard, my jaw aches and I release the tension then rub my hand over it, meeting the stubble I’ve still not shaved off.

“You fucked up, Dalton. He loves you, and somehow, I don’t know how or why, but you fucked up. It was written all over his face yesterday.”

Flopping back down on the sofa, I bury my head in my hands and shake it, though I am not disagreeing with Suzie. My eyes burn as I looked back up at her. “You knew? That he’s in love with me?”

She laughs but it’s without humour. “I’ve always known. I’m pretty sure everyone in this house has always known. Except you of course. You’ve been the oblivious best friend for as long as I can remember.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Not for the first time, I wish I had known. I wish I had had the opportunity to do things differently.

“It wasn’t our place to tell you. You were either going to work it out for yourself, he was going to tell you, or nothing was going to happen. By the way he looked at you yesterday, those puppy dog eyes and the hearts shooting your way, and then the disappointment written all over him, I guessed something had changed.”

Rubbing at my eyes, I take a moment to gather my thoughts before telling Suzie the honest truth.

“I’m in love with him. I think I have been for a long time, but I confused it for friendship because I just presumed everyone felt that way about their best friend. But when I kissed him, it’s like time stood still and a million colours exploded around us and all I saw was him and all I knew was that I never wanted to stop kissing him. And I don’t think that’s what you think about your friends.”

Suzie’s smile is warm, her blue eyes full of affection, as she gets up and pats me on the head. “I’m glad you finally worked it out.”

My heart trips over itself then, when I remember that Asher left. He ran away from me.

“It doesn’t matter now though, does it? He left with your brother. And I know how your brother feels about him. He’s probably over there making moves on…” Onmyman. Mine.

Suzie laughs but it comes out more like a cackle. “My brother can try his luck -I know he has before - but Asher has eyes for only you. That isn’t going to change overnight. So, stop feeling sorry for yourself, get up,” she bats me on the shoulder and I flinch with how hard she smacked me. “And go make things right.”

She leaves the room and I hurry to get up and get myself ready. Thirty minutes later, I’m flying down the stairs with my bags when I run into my dad.

“Woah, Dalt.” He holds his hands up. “What’s the rush?” My mum comes around the corner carrying two mugs of tea and hands one to him. He blows at the steam but doesn’t take his eyes off me.

“I’m in love with Asher. We’re together. Or we should be and I need him to know that. That he’s mine and I love him. And it's real, it's not something I'm trying out, or another one of my ‘phases’, as you've always called them. I'm serious about him. More serious than I've ever been about anything.” My words come out in one breath and I scramble to pull out my phone, remembering that I can’t take one of the cars we arrived in. “I need to get a cab, I need to get to him.”

My dad doesn’t move, nor does he say anything when my hands still and I look up at him. He’s wearing a smirk and the smile on my mother’s face looks like she just won the lotto.

“It’s about bloody time,” she says and I raise a brow at her. “It’s not a surprise to us, Dalton. You’ve loved that boy for as long as I can remember. You’ve barely spent a day apart, you talk to him and about him constantly, and I won’t get started on how you glue yourself to him as though he's an extension of you.”

My dad pipes in then. “We know you've always had wild ideas, and a lust for life that means you take on anything you can, and we've indulged you every time you came to us with a new passion. Be that as it may, where Asher is concerned, you've never wavered on your loyalty to him. On your love for him.”

“How did everyone know but me?” I really am an idiot.

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