Page 9 of The Holiday Disaster

“I got it,” he gritted out. Instead of pulling it behind him, he picked it up with both hands before continuing to walk. I stayed close behind him, worried that the weight of the suitcase plus the slippery ground would cause him to fall.

The walk was slow going, but we eventually made it inside the small building. A pretty black-haired lady around our age sat behind the receptionist desk and smiled to us in greeting, “Welcome, how can I help you?”

“Hi, we’re with the airplane that had to make an emergency landing here. They called a couple hours ago and confirmed that you guys had some rooms available for the night?” I said as we walked up to the desk. Ethan stood beside me, still catching his breath.

“One moment please while I check.” She clicked something on her screen before frowning. That wasn’t a good sign. “I’m terribly sorry, but it looks like we don’t have any rooms available right now. The last two rooms were booked ten minutes ago.”

“What? You gave away our rooms?” Ethan’s panic made the sentence sound a bit high-pitched. I put a hand on his lower back to calm him down, and my touch seemed to work. “Sorry, it’s been a long day,” he muttered to the receptionist.

“No worries. I can understand your frustration. And again, I’m truly sorry. I just started my shift half an hour ago and didn’t see any reservations, nor was I made aware to expect your arrival. If you would like, I can call some other places to see if they have any availability?”

“That would be awesome, thank you,” I said, flashing her a smile. She returned it with her own shy one. I glanced at Ethan to make sure he was doing all right. He had a scowl on his face. “What’s wrong?” I asked, turning him so that he was facing me.

“Nothing,” he said as he pulled out of my reach. I shrugged to myself and left him alone. It had to be the stress of the day hitting him, which was understandable considering we were too young to have to deal with shit like an almost plane crash.

Ethan was only a year younger than me but two years behind me in school since he started a year late due to his birthday being after the cutoff date. So even though we had attended the same schools most of our lives, we never interacted much. Our grades had different lunch schedules, and even if we passed each other at school, he always pretended not to know me.

I was surprised when Elliott had told me that Ethan was attending my university. Sure, we had a good pre-veterinary program, but there were plenty of other universities with better programs that didn’t involve him having to move to the other side of the country away from all his friends and family. He had me there, but it wasn’t like he ever wanted me around.

Elliott asked me to take care of him, but that was a difficult task when Ethan was hell bent on avoiding me. So I did what I could, checking in on him without getting in his way.

“We had more tourists drive in this weekend than expected. I was able to find a single availability at the bed and breakfast on the edge of town. Here is their information.” The receptionist handed me a business card with the bed and breakfast’s contact info on the front. When our hands met, she flipped the card to the back to reveal a phone number written in a loopy font. “If you’re staying in town for the weekend, feel free to—”

“Kingsley, let’s go.” Ethan tugged my sleeve. His annoyed expression and glare at the receptionist had me thinking that he was jealous. Jealous over me? That thought made me giddy, but it couldn't possibly have been true. He was probably irritated by the wait. I could see the exhaustion etched on the poor man’s face. That must have been the reason why he stormed out of the building without another glance back.

“Thank you so much for all your help. Have a good night,” I called over my shoulder as I chased after Ethan. “Wait. Ethan, stop.” I grabbed his arm, and he finally stopped trying to run away. “What’s wrong? Why are you so angry?”

He slowly turned to me. The anger still shone in his eyes, but they softened when his gaze met mine. “It’s nothing,” he said with a sigh.

Oh how I wished I could delete that word from the English dictionary. I hated that he hid behind his “nothings” instead of telling me how he actually felt.

I cupped his face in my hands, tilting his head up to look at me. “It’s not nothing to me. I want to know what you’re really thinking. Stop hiding from me.”

He bit his lower lip and flicked his eyes away from my gaze. I slid my thumb down to release it from his teeth. The motion caused him to look back up at me.

Little white dots of snow floated around us, creating a perfect backdrop for this moment. My breath caught at how stunning he looked. His widened eyes stared back at me with shock. His plump lips—slightly parted and red from the earlier abuse—looked so delicious. I bit my cheek and reminded myself that he was Elliott’s younger brother before I gave in to desire and claimed a taste of his juicy mouth.

“I…” he spoke up, and just in time since my logical side was clearly gone for the night if I couldn’t see why Icouldn’tkiss him. For one, he was my best friend’s younger brother, and for another, it still felt like he barely tolerated me.

He hesitated again before making up his mind to speak. “I was jealous,” he mumbled.

I froze. That wasnotwhat I was expecting, but…the fluttering in my heart made me realize that I really enjoyed having him jealous over me.

He brought a hand to cover my own that was still clutching his cheek. His eyes rounded with emotion as they stared into my soul, capturing me. “Say something,” he whispered as if scared of breaking this silent calm.

I was scared too. Terrified of ruining this beautiful moment that I wished to engrave in my memory forever.

I was exhausted from the day and shivering from the cold weather and snow, but there wasn’t anywhere else I wanted to be than right here, staring into his warm brown eyes. My thumb stroked his soft bottom lip again. He sucked in a breath, a shiver going through him as he exhaled on a sigh, and his eyes fluttered closed.

All of a sudden, I couldn’t remember why it wouldn’t be a good idea to kiss Ethan Wang. It was a great idea. In fact, I was sure I might spontaneously combust if I didn’t kiss him right this moment.

I finally stopped resisting the magnetic pull he’d always had on me. I drew closer to him. My eyelids squeezed shut as I slowly leaned down. His face was right in front of mine, and I could feel the heat of his breath against my lips.

Time moved slowly, and as I was closing the final distance between us to get a taste of the lips I couldn’t keep my eyes off of, a shout had me jolting back, breaking the beautiful dream we’d been in.

There goes that perfect moment.

EIGHT

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