Page 34 of Teach Me to Laugh

“What?”

“If we rent a cabin, will you come?”

Always the downer, I pointed out the only saving grace I could think of to get myself out of this new predicament. “I sincerely doubt you’ll be able to book anything this late. Most everything is reserved for Christmas already.”

“Actually, that’s not entirely true.” I caught a weird look between Beckett and Kai, but didn’t have time to analyze it before he embarked on an explanation. “My parents bought a cabin a few years back. It’s more like a house, but they call it their summer cabin. Anyway, I talked to them and they said we could take it for as long as we wanted.”

“Your parents have a cabin?” I asked stupidly. “I thought they didn’t like skiing?”

“They don’t. Theydolike to relax on a big deck, entertain, and be complimented on the luxury their lifetime accomplishments have bought them, though.”

“Oh,”

“Anyway, we can use their cabin, but it only has four bedrooms.”

“Well, that’s enough, isn’t it?” Kai asked.

Beckett shrugged. “Maybe.”

“How wouldn’t it be enough?” Maddy asked, but I was already there.

Raina and Kaiden would share a room. Maddy needed one. I needed one and Beckett needed one. Where would the parents go?

“If the parent’s come, there might not be enough space.”

“I’ll take the couch.” Maddy proposed.

Raina’s lips stretched into the slowest, most worrisome grin I’d ever seen to date. Then she waggled her brows at me and it was all I could do to keep from scoffing, “And if you two bunk together, there would be enough rooms.”

By you two, I knew she meant me and Beckett.That was so not happening.

“You’re joking, right?”

“Think about it.” Raina beamed, naming herself as Cupid’s minion once again. “It would be perfect.”

I wasn’t sure who or what I hated more in this moment. Beckett, my friends, or Christmas.

“I’ll think about it.” I mumbled, when in reality what I really meant was—not a chance in hell.

“Great!” Raina clapped. “I’m so excited! This will be awesome!”

That right there decided it. I hated my friends.

But I must love them more, because even though my heart felt like it was tearing through my chest it was racing so fast, I knew I’d do it.

And I prayed I didn’t regret it.

After the whole Christmas cabin proposition, I started drinking a little heavier. I wasn’t sure if I felt the urge to quench my thirst because I was so bloody hot from feeling Beckett’s warm hand on my shoulder, with the way his thumb caressed my skin back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, or if it was more to do with the fact that my nerves were strung so tight they needed liquid to keep them from snapping in two like a dry rubber band.

Either way, I did as Beckett propositioned earlier in that deep rumbling voice of his. I let go. I let go and trusted that the man who claimed to care for me, would do just that. I trusted that he’dcarefor me.

I tossed in my cards and for the first time in a very long time, I trusted in a man.

So now as Beckett guided my fumbling body into the back seat of the taxi behind Maddy, I moaned. “How could you let me do this?”

Maddy giggled. “It was fun.”

“I’m going to be sick tomorrow. I jusssssst—I know it.” I slurred. I knew it, but I just didn’t have it in me to care at the moment. Go figure.

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