Page 33 of Enticing

“Okay. I hear ya,” I laugh, fucking jealous as hell of my big brother and his kick-ass doctor fiancée. She’s pretty awesome, and she makes him happy as hell. “Dude, do you have ribbons?”

“I don’t think so.” Callen’s face pales. “Fuck.”

“Kenzie got hers from that place right off Main Street. You think they’re still open?” Nix straightens the wreath and looks at us all like we should know the answer to that.

I look up the hours on my phone, then hold it up. “For another hour.”

“Let’s roll, men.” Killian pulls out his keys.

It takes the four of us two hours, a shit ton of ribbon, lights, and green garland later, but by the time we’re done, the house looks like something in one of those Christmas movies our grandma likes to watch. The bows aren’t great. We got the ribbons, and they’re tied intosomething, but I’m pretty sure Izzy could tie better bows than we managed.

Hopefully, it’s the thought that counts.

As the last extension cord gets plugged in, the four of us stand back and admire our handiwork.

Not too bad.

Nix picks up a roll of unused red velvet ribbon and tosses it to Killian. “Don’t say I never gave you anything.”

“Hey, man,” I bitch, kidding. “What about me?”

“Pretty sure you’ve got to have a woman around long enough to trust you for her to let you tie her up, little brother. And you... you don’t like to keep them around,” Nix argues. “What’s the matter, Leo? Cat got your tongue? No smart-ass answer?”

“Never found anyone worth keeping around before,” I grumble.

“Yeah well, when you do, don’t fuck it up like I did.” Callen shakes his head as he picks up the trash around us, and I consider telling them about Addie but ultimately decide against it.

Adelaide

“And then what?” Coraline asks from the other end of the couch we’ve been glued to for the past few hours, a glass of wine in one hand and a chocolate chip cookiein the other—because Caitlin swears baking fixes everything, and I’m content to reap that reward.

“And then nothing.” Cait runs her finger through the whipped cream topping off her hot cocoa. Apparently, she’s over talking about Callen and her shitty day. “I left and came here. I’ve been here since.”

“And then she baked,” I giggle as I take another sip of wine. Cori convinced me to pump and dump tonight so I could indulge with her in a bottle of wine. Well... one bottle may have turned into two. Don’t judge. It’s really tasty. “Where do you think the cookies came from?” I ask my sister and dump leftover chocolate chips in my warm bowl of popcorn, ignoring the way Coraline almost spits out her wine.

“Not from you. That’s for sure. These are actually good.”

I stick my tongue out at my sister. “Brat.”

“Speaker of the truth,” she defends herself as she studies the cookie, like figuring it out is the key to unearthing the answer to all our problems. “Your mom owns the bakery in town, right?”

Caitlin nods and dips her cookie in a glass of milk sitting on the coffee table. I was told the milk is for dunking and the cocoa is for drinking. I wasn’t about to argue with a clearly pissed-off, emotional, pregnant friend, so I went with it and got her big mugs of each.

I toss another piece of popcorn in my mouth, then lick the melted chocolate from my fingertips. “Her family owns everything in town. You’ll get used to it.”

“Do you guys own The Busy Bee? I put in an application there today. They legit have the best strawberry shake I’ve ever had.”

I tilt my head, studying my sister.

Why the hell would she put in an application here when her school is five hours and five states north of us?

“Right? They really do,” Caitlin answers Cori before my slightly sluggish brain has a chance to interrogate my sister.“And no, well not exactly. My uncle’s wife’s grandfather owns it, but someone else runs it for him now.” She eyes my popcorn, but when I hold it up, she waves me off. “I need your opinion, ladies. Am I allowed to send Callen out on cravings runs?”

“Why wouldn’t you be?” Coraline asks as she sips her wine, confused, because of course she is.

I may or may not toss a piece of popcorn at her head.

Okay... yeah. That was more like a handful, and none of it actually hit her head.

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