Page 8 of Wrecked for the Holidays

He stopped a moment and scrolled through his text messages. It looked like a good amount if his scrolling was anything to go by.

“Do you need to call them and let them know everything is all right?”

Jakob’s relationship with his parents seemed complicated. While I didn’t live on Almstead Island, like my twin and parents, we talked a few times a week, even if it was no more than a quick check-in. I took the ferry over at least once a month for Sunday dinner at my parents’ house. It was definitely not the tense relationship Jakob seemed to have with his parents.

Jakob tapped his pursed lips before answering. “I’ll text them and then turn off my phone. If I call, it will turn into a long conversation about why I need to return home and do things their way.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what do they want from you that you don’t want to do?”

“If it was up to them, I’d spend every waking minute in the lab or writing articles. They’ve always said my brain is a gift and to throw it away for foolishness isn’t fair. So everything has always been about that and nothing, and I do mean nothing, else. I don’t want my intellect to be the only thing that matters about me anymore,” Jakob said with a shrug.

“Fair enough. If you’re not ready to sleep, how about we check something off your list?”

“Oh, yay, yay, yay!” Jakob did the cutest butt-wiggle dance on the couch. “What can we check off?”

“How about the movieThe Muppet Christmas Carol? The singing mice are my favorite. My mom loves it, and we watched it a bunch of times every Christmas when we were kids, but I haven’t watched it in forever. I’m pretty sure I have some hot chocolate and whipped cream. I don’t have a tree, but we can get some holiday vibes.”

Obviously, a kid-centric movie wasn’t the only clue about little-hood, but the joy that lit up his eyes was a dead giveaway.

“I’d like that a lot.”

Chapter 5

Jakob

There was one thing on my list I hadn’t shared with Reed.

I wanted a romance.

It was a vague idea until I met Reed. And then, suddenly, it wasn’t abstract at all. It was all very real and perfectly focused on the man who’d taken the time to be kind to me after I ran into his truck. He didn’t have to come to see me at the hospital, so that meant something. I knew next to nothing about people, but I knew that no one was that nice. When he jumped in with that roommate comment, I knew my instincts had to be on the right track. He was interested.Maybe.If I had any experience, it would be easier, but I’d never even kissed a guy.

Did last night’s movie night qualify as a date? I wished I had someone to ask, but I literally had no one, like,no oneto ask. My parents had ensured I was isolated so I wouldn’t be distracted from my studies. It was now up to me to figure it out. I grabbed my phone and powered it back on to dictate a pro-con list. Text messages could be ignored because they’d only be more of the same and a potential distraction.

All right, for the pro list: he sat near me during the movie. He could have chosen to sit in any of the other chairs, but he chose the couch with me and not even as far away from me as possible. He’d been correct about how amazing the movie was, but I’d been tired. At one point, my eyes drooped, and he grabbed a throw pillow, placed it against his thigh, and invited me to lie down. On the con list: once I was settled, his hand didn’t touch me once. Instead, his arm remained onthe back of the couch the entire time. It was a disappointment. However, he called me love a few times, which was clearly going in the pro column. He apologized for it, though, so that was a con entry.

The second issue was Reed’s Papa likelihood. On a probability scale, I’d put the odds of him being a Papa at about seventy-five percent. I mean, the man had a sippy cup without children and hadn’t mentioned toddler relatives who might drop by. It was a strong clue but not enough to fully confirm it. Being a Papa would be firmly in the pro column, but without confirmation, it had to stay in the middle.

When the movie ended, Reed had asked if I wanted to get a tree to replace the one that got messed up. That felt promising, but I wasn’t ready to decide which side of the list to place it on. But none of it would matter if I didn’t get a move on. I pushed down the covers, jumped into the shower, and was washed and dry within ten minutes.

That gave me more time to agonize over my clothing options. The first night in my temporary hotel home, I ordered some cute outfits my parents would have freaked out about, so I did have some choices. After much back and forth, I settled on a pair of black joggers and an ugly Christmas sweatshirt that wasn’t ugly at all. The elves drinking hot chocolate in the workshop image was adorable. The real question was whether to wear the training pants I’d also ordered. I kinda sort of loved how they hugged my junk and made my mind immediately drift to little space. What I really wanted to try was diapers, but I hadn’t worked up my nerve yet. Before my mind drifted too far, I forced myself to decide. Yes, training pants were happening today.

Outfit complete, I let myself out of my bedroom. If anyone caught me, my excuse to have lingered outside Reed’s room was to tie my shoes and definitely, absolutely not because I wanted to see his bedroom. Unlike my space, his bore no resemblance to a disaster zone. His blue ombre comforter was pulled up properly and no piles of clothes covered his dresser or the sitting area that overlooked the backyard and the Sound beyond it. With my hand, it was hard to get a tight pull on the laces, but I did my best.

Reed was already downstairs and working in the kitchen. From the looks of it, we were having pancakes with chopped fruit this morning. I was beginning to think he ate significantly more fruits and veggies than I did. Kinda boo. His back was to me, and I could admire him without having to keep my sneaky looks hidden. His body was beautiful. He wasn’t a gym bunny, but he was trim with amostly flat tummy. His butt was delicious in the jeans he wore. His long-sleeved T-shirt was stretched tight across his shoulders, and the urge to wrap my arms around him was strong. Sadly, we weren’t there yet.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.”

Shit. He caught me.

“Caught you doing what?”

“I said that out loud?”

“You did, and you haven’t answered the question.” Reed smirked. “Good boys answer questions when they’re asked.” Reed kept looking at me as he waited for me to answer. How he expected me to answer when all the blood in my body had pooled in one very specific spot that was not my brain was beyond me. The mischievous twinkle in his eye nudged the odds of Reed’s Papa-hood a little higher.

“I was, umm, wondering, umm, well thinking, uhh…” Words failed me, and my voice just trailed off. If there was an answer that didn’t make me look like a creeper, it wasn’t coming to mind.

“Jakob, I’d very much like to know.” Reed’s voice gentled and went soft.

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