Page 7 of The Holiday Disaster

“Hold on tight,” Austin yelled while still completely focused on the road.

The car swerved, the shaking jolting Kingsley awake. “Wha—?” he mumbled, obviously still half asleep. But he quickly shook awake when he realized the situation we were in.

I squeezed my eyes shut, my hands still balled up in my lap. A warm hand wrapping around my tight fists had me forcing my eyelids open. I followed the strong, tan hand and found Kingsley staring at me with worry. “It’s going to be okay.” He whispered the same words on the plane, and that worked to calm my thrumming heart. We did survive the plane’s failed engine, so why wouldn’t we survive this?

I nodded and shot him a grateful smile. My hands flipped over and threaded between his thick fingers—without my permission, I might add. He squeezed my hand as he flashed me a comforting smile. I was once again filled with gratitude that I had him here with me, despite how much we couldn’t stand each other normally. But this wasn’t normal circumstances, and we could go back to hating one another once we made it back home safe and sound.

Snow was piled on both sides of the road, so the car made a slow stop in the middle of the highway. “You folks okay?” Austin asked, turning to the backseat to look at us.

I nodded, still too shocked to say anything. Kingsley squeezed my hand again before speaking, “We’re fine. A bit shaken, but we’re all in one piece.”

“Sorry ’bout that. Let me check on the situation,” Austin said as he unbuckled and got out of the car. The biting winds invaded our toasty cab for a couple seconds before being shut back out.

“You okay?” I turned at the sound of Kingsley’s voice. He undid his seat belt and scooted closer to me. He pulled me close to him without waiting for an answer. One arm wrapped around my waist as the other guided my head to his chest.

I could only mumble that I was fine into his pecs. His racing heartbeat sounded loud against my ear. We stayed like that for a few minutes, Kingsley holding me as the soothing sounds of his thumps overshadowed all my other senses.

“One of the back tires blew. Looks like we’re stuck here. You guys…oh.” Austin slipped back into the car, catching us in our moment. I struggled out of Kingsley’s arms, but he wouldn’t release me.

“It’s not what it looks like,” I started but was at a loss for words. Lots of people didn’t take too kindly to people like us… I mean people like me. Kingsley was straight, and it would do me a lot of good to remember that.

Yet…he still refused to let me go. “Is there going to be a problem?” There was an edge to Kingsley’s voice that I wasn’t used to. I glanced up from his arms and found his eyebrows furrowed in a deep frown.

“No problem. Not at all. Our town is very accepting of people like us,” Austin said, giving us the first genuine smile I’d seen on him.

People like us…

I could feel the tension slide off of Kingsley as he finally released me. I expected him to say something, to correct Austin and tell him that he wasn’t likeus, but he didn’t.

Instead, he pulled my hand over the middle seat as he settled back into his own. It didn’t look like he had any intention of letting my hand go. His actions and lack of words had me all shades of confused, and I didn’t know what to do with that.

“Let me call the tow company and see if they can get anyone out here,” Austin said as he pulled out his phone.

I glanced down at my captive hand where Kingsley was lightly stroking his thumb over my skin. I peeked a glance at him to catch him looking back at me with a smile. That had me jumping and flicking my gaze to the front again.

“No answer. The sudden snow is probably keeping them busy,” Austin said as he continued tapping on his phone.

“What are we going to do?” I asked. I might have gone into a full on panic if Kingsley wasn’t grounding me with his touch.

“Let me try someone else.” Fortunately, the second person he called picked up. They spoke for a few moments before Austin hung up and looked back at us with a grin. “My roommate’s gonna come rescue us.” He eyed our connected hands. “You guys make a cute couple.”

“We, we’re not…” My words trailed off as I looked to Kingsley to set him right. He continued to stay quiet and still refused to release my hand. My heart was so confused at this point. It didn’t know whether to be happy or annoyed, so I ignored it and hung my head to look at my lap. If Kingsley wasn’t going to correct the man, neither would I.

“Anyway, you folks came at the right time. Don’t know how long your stay is, but there will be plenty to do in town this weekend. Plus, most of our winter visitors haven’t arrived yet, so you lucked out. Our hotels are usually completely occupied when our festival is in full swing.”

Our lack of reply must have clued Austin in that we didn’t want to talk about whatever was happening between us, so he smartly changed the topic. He went on to describe how Wintertown basically had a festival every weekend of December. There would be booths, sleigh rides, ice competitions, and even a party they hosted on Sunday nights with lots of live music and dancing.

It didn’t snow back home on the West Coast, so I’d never had the chance to get the full winter experience. The circumstances were shitty, but I was kinda getting excited about the festival.

I asked Austin more questions about the town, and he patiently answered each one. Before I knew it, a truck pulled up beside us and the driver honked.

A handsome man with sharp features got out of the black truck and knocked on the window. “Heard you guys needed saving,” he said when Austin opened the door. I was so immersed in the conversation that I hadn’t even noticed the time, and I’d even almost forgotten about the warmth that still clung to my hand.

“Ethan, Kingsley, this is Jim. Our knight waiting to sweep us away in his black monstrosity.”

“Hey! Mymonstrosityis saving your butt. Show some respect,” Jim grumbled, which only made Austin chuckle. “Let’s get you two in the truck, and Austin and I will get his cab hooked up.”

Kingsley and I both exited from my side of the car. Jim held the backseat door open for us as we lugged our suitcases into the truck. I held my stiff fingers in front of the tiny heaters to warm them, but Kingsley covered them with his own as he rubbed his hands.

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