Page 16 of The Holiday Disaster

Quickly putting on my own boots, I grabbed my red scarf from my luggage before stopping in front of Ethan. My shirt hung low on him and displayed his sexy, well-defined collar bone.

I cast him a gentle smile as I wrapped my scarf around his neck. He stared up at me with his doe eyes and a slight blush heating his cheeks. I was half-tempted to ditch taking it slow to steal a kiss now and watch how flustered he’d get. Instead, my hand landed on the soft hairs on his nape before raising to ruffle his head again.

I’d gain instant gratification taking it fast but would run the risk of scaring him away. Like a frog slowly being boiled, I had to take my time and creep under his skin until he didn’t even know that he’d already been caught.

TWELVE

ETHAN

I followed Kingsley to the breakfast area on the first floor. The room was located in the back of the building. There were a few tables nestled in the middle with buffet style food trays lining the walls.

We browsed through the selection of breakfast items before grabbing the plates. As I was loading up on toast and bacon, Kingsley came up to stand next to me.

“Here,” he said. He placed a cup of yogurt on my plate like it was the most natural thing to do before turning to fill up the rest of his plate with eggs and bacon.

I dazedly watched him as a thousand questions flowed through me. Did he know I always had yogurt for breakfast or was it a coincidence? I couldn’t muster up the courage to ask, so the questions remained unanswered as I followed him to an empty table by the window. I could faintly see the slopes and tiny figures sliding down them in the distance. That should be the snow tubing Kingsley had mentioned.

We ate in silence. I tried to keep my eyes on my food, but they would drift up to Kingsley every so often. I felt like a schoolboy sneaking peeks at his crush. What made it worse was that every single time I looked up, Kingsley shot me a smile as if he were waiting to catch me staring.

This time, I kept his gaze, refusing to back down. I waited for him to speak, to explain himself about what he had said last night and his affectionate actions this morning, but he stayed infuriatingly silent. His smile deepened when he noticed that my gaze didn’t move from him, but he continued eating without speaking.

I gritted my teeth. I was going to explode from all the unanswered questions that revolved around him. Couldn’t he see that?

Apparently not since he continued to munch on his scrambled egg covered toast. His eyes never left mine as he took one bite, then another until his breakfast was finished. Even then, he continued to watch me with great intent.

The tortuous silence was killing me. I pushed my half-eaten plate away. There was no way I could eat in peace with him watching me. As I opened my mouth to speak, his phone rang with the boring factory setting ringtone.

I closed my mouth again and nodded for him to get it. His gaze finally broke from mine as he pulled his phone out of his coat pocket that was hanging behind his chair. He turned to face the window and looked outside as he answered it. I tried not to eavesdrop on his conversation and focused back on finishing my breakfast. It was pretty easy since Kingsley was mostly giving whoever was on the other side of the line one-worded affirmative replies.

Okay. Sure. Thanks. Yes. I’ll let him know.

My ears perked up at that. Were they talking about me?

It was seconds later when he hung up the phone, and I hadn’t the slightest hint on what the conversation was about or who it was with. From his side profile, I could see that his expression had stayed neutral throughout the entire phone call, so I couldn’t tell if it went good or bad.

He shoved the phone into his coat pocket again, his gaze landing on me. I looked at him expectantly and waited for him to at least tell me who it was. That was what people did when they answered a call in the presence of others, was it not?

However, he continued to stay silent. He brought his elbows on the table, intertwined his fingers, and rested his chin on them. The sly smile he wore as he returned my gaze told me he knew exactly what he was doing.

The fucker was doing this on purpose. He knew I was curious about the call and intentionally chose not to hand over the information. That made me wonder if he was intentionally staying silent about what had happened yesterday as well.

“Do you like teasing me that much?” I asked through gritted teeth. His widened smile was my only reply. I could feel my head throb with annoyance, and I very much wanted to wipe that smug look off of his face.

My expression must have clued him in as his smile turned softer as he reached for one of my hands. Despite being irritated at him, I still allowed him to take it. His thumb gently rubbing the back of my hand soothed my ruffled emotions.

“All right, I’ll stop teasing you. That was the airline. They said they’re having trouble getting the part they need here since the roads are blocked by snow. And finding an available plane to fly here during the holidays is almost impossible. So we’ll be stuck here till at least tomorrow or Monday. I was also tasked with notifying you since they knew we were together.”

The smile getting wider at the last word had me mentally on guard. When we landed in this snow covered town, I’d accepted that this little pit stop was going to be a disaster, but I didn’t expect it to last the entire weekend.

“Why do you seem happy about this?” I asked. He chose to ignore my question, as I should have known he would. I narrowed my eyes at him, and his toothy grin had somehow become even wider still. The glint in his eyes shone of something more profound than I was able to grasp.

“If you’re finished, let’s go. There’s fun to be had,” he said before I could come to any kind of conclusion. He grabbed both our plates and deposited them in the dish bin before returning to put on his coat.

“Thanks,” I muttered as I stood and did the same. “Where are we going?”

He nodded outside the window we’d been sitting by. There were a few more people than earlier playing on the hills, either dragging their snow tubes up the slopes or sliding down them at what looked like impossible speeds.

I’d never been a huge fan of roller coasters. The wholebeing unable to control my own life or deaththing had never appealed to me. While I’d never tried snow tubing before, it looked like it fit into that unpredictable category. “I don’t know… It doesn’t look very safe.”

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