Page 38 of The Holiday Disaster

I studied his expression, the earnestness on his face told me the question was important to him, so I took it seriously as well. I thought it over. If Ethan and I had grown up as friends…

The idea of dating him should have been weird. I wouldn’t date Elliott if he had been the last person on Earth since he was like my brother, but it was different for Ethan. Sure, he was my best friend’s younger brother, but I never saw him as mine.

I’d always been drawn to him in a different way. And even if I couldn’t distinguish the exact emotions I had felt for him when I was younger, a part of me always knew that he was special.

“Yes,” I answered with full confidence. “I wished the misunderstanding between us never existed. We could have been childhood sweethearts and had so much more time together.”

A huge smile bloomed on his face at my words, but I wasn’t done.

“Instead of Valerie, I would have been the one helping you chase your pets so that you could play vet. And when we ultimately failed to catch any of them, I would have gladly acted as the patient while you probed me with your instruments.”

He laughed and nudged me with his elbow. There was so much warmth in his eyes that it had my heart squeezing.

“You could have openly gone to my games and sat on the bleachers instead of sitting all alone at the picnic table.”

“You knew?” he asked, his eyes wide with shock as heat crept up his neck.

“I have a built-in Ethan sensor. Plus, the trees don’t keep you hidden nearly as well as you thought they did.” I chuckled and kissed the warmth on his cheeks.

He let out a huff and crossed his arms, but the smile never left his face. “We’d walk home from school together, and I’d make sure to sneak Pocky out for you even though you had a cavity problem, but I’d still do it because you loved them and it would be the boyfriend thing to do.”

I did have a cavity problem, and I sure loved my Pocky. I’d always sneakily eat some when I was at the Wang house, but I’d always get caught. Mom would scold me for hours, nagging that I had a sugar addiction that would eventually make all my teeth fall out. Well, she was wrong. I still had all my pearly whites.

There was no changing the past, but it was comforting describing a made up childhood where we’d connected with each other much sooner. It was nice knowing that even if we hadn’t been directly involved in each other’s lives back then, we were still a part of it.

“And I could have gone to prom with you instead of that brunette on your wall,” he said, his shoulders deflating.

“Brunette on my wall? What?” I asked, genuinely confused at what he was talking about.

“The picture of you and Elliott with your prom dates. It’s hanging on your staircase wall,” he muttered with a slight pout.

“Wait. Are you jealous about a photo that I don’t even remember?”

His red ears were all the reply I needed. I jumped out of bed and ran to the pile of clothes on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Ethan called behind me, but instead of answering, I came back with my phone.

“Let’s take a photo I’ll actually remember. Come here.” I wrapped an arm around Ethan and held the hand with the phone out. Before he could react, I plopped a smooch on his cheek and clicked the button to take the photo.

Once the picture was taken, I fiddled with my phone before showing my lock screen to Ethan. “There, now that’s a picture I’ll never forget.”

He peered at it. The him in the photo had his eyes wide with surprise as I sat shirtless beside him and pressed my lips to his cheeks. “I look stupid,” he grumbled as he crawled into my lap, his head in the nook of my neck as he pressed his entire body against mine.

Chuckling again, I raised my phone to snap another photo. “Hey! No more pictures,” Ethan said as he reached to grab my phone. I pulled it out of his reach before placing it on the bedside table.

I fell back on the bed with Ethan still in my arms. He went with me, his arms landing on both sides of my face as his head floated above mine. His brown eyes were fixed on me, and they shone with the same emotions that had consumed me.

“I love you,” he whispered. His words were so sweet that I was going to get addicted to them. It didn’t matter how many cavities I’d get, I’d always want more.

“I love you too. I think I always have.” I’d been captured the first time he laid his expressive doe eyes on me and had never been able to escape. But then again, I’d never wanted to in the first place.

His smile was bright enough to melt snow even on the coldest day. As he leaned down to seal our declaration of love, I could taste the happiness on his lips, and it had to be the best flavor in this world.

TWENTY-FIVE

KINGSLEY

We spent the rest of the afternoon snuggled under the covers and in each other’s arms. The B&B had streaming services hooked up to the TV, so we put on an animated movie about a girl who had turned into a cat.

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