Page 190 of The Casualty of Us
His fingers drop from my face to my collarbone, tracing along it while pressing gently once more. “That’s it?”
I nod against his chest with another yawn, mumbling through it. “That’s it.”
“Okay.” He presses a kiss to the top of my head, fingers running down the center of my chest before coming back up to trace the other side of my collarbone. “And thank you.”
I feel myself start to drift then, exhaustion pulling at me hard and making my body sink further into him, leaving me yawning again and trying to fight it when his arms squeeze around me with a soft reprimand. “You need to sleep.”
“Christmas—” I try to protest.
“I’ll move us to the bed when the water starts to cool and wake you up in a few hours so you don’t miss anything.” He hushes me with another kiss to the top of my head. “Sleep, Freckles, I’ve got you.”
And I pass out with only a few more breaths like part of me was just waiting for that.
Chapter Forty-Four
OPHELIA - DECEMBER 2013
I’m lyingin front of the fireplace with my head in Hayes’s lap and him propped up by some pillows piled behind us. Ollie is stretched out on his side a few feet from me, and the honey cake I ordered for myself is between us now. Sharing in the name of the holiday and all that as we both dig into the cake with only forks. A bottle of champagne set by its side that I convinced my mom to look the other way on as she was heading off to bed, and I’m all comfy in my pajamas with a blanket thrown over my lower half. Hayes’s gaze moves back and forth between us in amusement as we tease each other mercilessly. Pretty much having devolved back into toddlers since around the first eggnog this evening.
“No,” Ollie mumbles around the fork. “Not even a little bit of a hero complex.”
“It’s not a hero complex if the action is justified.” I roll my eyes, reaching for my glass and lifting up just enough to take a sip before adding, “Which it definitely was.”
“Flynn.” Ollie swallows the bite just as I set my glass down and reach for my fork. “Back me up here, you know I’m right.”
I shoot Hayes a warning glare while stabbing the cake a little harder than necessary, earning a lifted brow. “I think.” His eyesmove between me and Ollie a couple of times with a lift of his lips. “That you’re both animals.”
Ollie makes an irritated noise, and I pop the bite into my mouth victoriously as he grumbles. “Dude, you are so whipped.”
That earns a glare from me aimed his way this time, not liking the sudden note of something deeper to the words. I run my eyes over him carefully and see the same tension riding him as that day he snapped at me in the library. It has my brows falling and me not knowing whether to push it or not. The distance we’ve regrown since the kidnapping this year has left us both sorting out a few new boundaries and I don’t want to ruin Christmas but…I don’t want to leave him unhappy either.
Hayes steals the fork from my fingers, bringing me back as he tosses out with a short laugh, “Like I care.”
Ollie rolls his eyes at that, both of them going for a bite as I broach cautiously. “Ollie.” I wait until his eyes land on me to continue softly. “Did something happen between you and Marley?”
Because between him and the same distant vibe she’s been throwing me since around Halloween despite me asking her why…
Well, it doesn’t take a genius to put it together.
His face falls at the question before he stops it, gaze dropping back down to the cake as he clears his throat. “O—”
“I’ll leave it alone if you want,” I offer quickly, feeling Hayes tense beneath me and knowing he’s just abitsensitive to anything that might upset me right now. Or really anytime. “But just know I can see something’s bugging you, and I wish you would let me help.”
He snorts, eyes coming back to mine with dark humor. “Because you’re so good at that?”
“Hey.” A giggle bubbles past my lip as I steal my fork back from Hayes and wave it at Ollie. “Do as I say, not as I do.”
His lips lift with the start of a smile before they drop, brows quickly following as he goes silent for a long moment. “I messed up, O.”
Guilt flashes across his face with the quiet admission that has me feeling five years old for the second time today. A memory of that same expression flashes through my mind from when we were around that age. Him begging me to fix something he had broken before Mom found out…a music box, maybe.
His eyes drop back to the cake with a little flash of shame, and my own brows fall to match his because Ollie hasn’t ever done anything truly bad in his whole life. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s incapable of it, but the fact he thinks so has me softening my voice. “Hey, big brother.” I choose my words with care as his eyes rise back to mine. “There’s nothing we ever haven’t been able to fix together, right?”
He holds my gaze for a beat before giving me a tight nod. “Right.”
“And I mean, it can’t be that bad,” I snort, trying to ease some of the trepidation I can see on his face. “Unless you’re about to tell me that you too pretended to be Mom’s PA in order to steal from your trust.”
Hayes coughs up a short laugh behind me as Ollie curses, “Fuck,” shaking his head with a quick grin. “Still can’t believe you did that.”
