Page 13 of Merrily You

I nodded. “Yeah. You should be good to drive in another hour or so.” I didn’t want to ask her to leave, but I kind of wanted to ask her to leave. Let me deal with all these thoughts and confusing feelings by myself. It was too hard to think with her in such close proximity.

“Oh. Right.” She glanced down at her lap and when she looked up, she had a smile on her face. “Although getting tipsy on eggnog and passing out under the tree has its appeal.”

I tried to match her smile. “You did that two years ago. I had to drag your ass in here. And then you punched me.”

Holiday stood up. “Did you drag me? I don’t remember.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I know.”

We seemed to be back to our regular banter, but the ground didn’t feel solid beneath my feet yet. I wish I could blame it on the eggnog, but I hadn’t had that much. I’d mostly been sticking to soda.

Holiday put her hands on my shoulders and I jumped. “Take a deep breath with me.” I did and then she smiled.

“Let’s go. Your family probably thinks we’re fucking in here.”

I choked on a breath that turned into a cough as Holiday laughed and made her way back toward the living room to cheers.

Chapter Seven

Holiday

Danny was weird after the kiss, even though she said she was fine. She was lying, but I didn’t know why. Was the second kiss bad? I’d never asked anyone I’d kissed if I was good at it, but I assumed that when they kept kissing you that was as good an endorsement as any.

What if it was bad and she just didn’t want to hurt my feelings? I’d kept my mouth closed and hadn’t used any tongue or too much pressure, but you never knew. I’d even gone to the bathroom and chugged some mouthwash just in case we might have to kiss again later, and I had bad breath. Maybe it was the rum? I wanted to ask her, but then I didn’t want to know the answer. So I kept a smile on my face and kept singing at the top of my lungs and sat next to Danny until I knew it was time to go home. My parents would be wanting to have a late-night talk with me. I’d inherited my night owl tendencies from both my parents. So many times I remembered when I was a kid they’d come into my room and surprise me with a late-night ice cream run or dessert at a local restaurant in my pajamas.

Danny had been smart to cut me off from the eggnog because I was sober enough for the short drive. She walked me to the door and there were quite a few eyes on us.

I leaned close and spoke in her ear. “We’re going to need to kiss goodbye.”

She reeled back from me, her eyes wide before she glanced back at everyone in the living room.

Turning back to me, she nodded and leaned forward, giving me a quick peck like our first kiss that we’d had earlier. Reaching my hand up, I grabbed the back of her neck to pull her closer and kissed her again. No one would believe that brief little kiss.

“See you tomorrow,” I said when I pulled back and stroked her neck once.

“Drive safe,” she said, watching me walk to my car.

I almost senther a message asking if I was a bad kisser, but I deleted the message as soon as I typed it out. I sat in the driveway of my parents’ house and shook my head at myself. I was probably just paranoid. Danny was just weirded out by kissing me because we were friends. That had to be it. Kissing in theory was different than kissing in reality. Would she want to call things off now? We’d already told her family and mine was next.

My thoughts were jumbled as I walked into the house and found my parents sitting on the couch and talking. All of the other relatives had left, and the lights were low.

“How was it at the Romanos?” Mom asked as I shucked off my boots and my coat and hat.

“Loud,” I said, leaning my head on her shoulder.

Mom laughed. “Well, that’s just how it goes. You ready for tomorrow night?” I wasn’t, but that didn’t matter. It was happening anyway. I’d already decided to wear the dress that Danny had packed for me. It was blue velvet and was a little sexy for a family party, but I wanted to wear it.

The party would be a little more formal than our Christmas morning celebrations, when we’d mostly be in our matching silk pajamas that Mom made us wear every year. There were several sets in different colors and I wasn’t a big fan of them, but she wanted us to get pictures wearing them so I sucked it up. The three of us would spend a little time opening presents and then throw ourselves into making a huge brunch that everyone would kind of drop in on. The rest of the day was spent opening presents and eating in one long celebration. I’d dip out to go to Danny’s celebration in the afternoon and then come back for more. It was a marathon, not a sprint, and I was already tired.

That cabin I’d talked about with Danny was looking pretty good right now. I wanted to lay down and eat too much and listen to music and watch fun movies. There was just so much social pressure involved. So much talking. More than one year I’d actually lost my voice.

“Want to watch Rudolph?” Mom asked. I was tired, but I wasn’t going to turn down a classic.

“Sure,” I said, snuggling into the couch. Dad got us more hot chocolate and served it to us, including enough marshmallows for me.

The three of us watched the classic movie and quoted our favorite parts and it was nice to have it just be the three of us. Even if I couldn’t stop thinking about Danny and the kiss fiasco. Things were going to be weird tomorrow if we couldn’t get our act together under the mistletoe. I needed to talk to her tomorrow and figure this out. Even if it turned out I was a bad kisser. She could give me some pointers or something.

The next dayI woke up late, as usual, but grumpy. I hadn’t talked or sent any messages to Danny and found a few waiting for me when I checked my phone.

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