Page 87 of Mistlefoe
I hum from deep in my throat. “Bebé? That’s how you say it in Spanish, right?”
She shifts her head until she’s looking up at me. “Did you Google that in advance?”
“I may or may not have downloaded Duolingo after our first kiss in the hopes that I could ask you out in Spanish.”
Sierra shakes her head. “You are a danger to society, Mahoney. I’m so glad to be the one taking you out of commission.”
Grinning, I extricate myself out of her hold and offer just my hand. As she takes it, I lead us for a leisurely skate along the boards so Sierra can grab onto them as well. “So, your grandma arrives next week to spend Christmas with your family thanks to the bonus. Now that you’re receiving a promotion, does that mean you’ll be moving into your own place like you mentioned?”
“Why?” She cocks an eyebrow at me. “Do you have a particular interest in me living on my own?”
“A curiosity, more like.”
“I’m thinking I’ll save money for a while,” she says in a breezy voice. “Maybe splurge on some dates with my boyfriend and see where that takes us.”
“Sounds like a great plan to me.” I lift her hand to my lips. “Ready to hit the booths?”
“Oh yeah, let’s see who can collect more tickets for the ball pit.”
I smirk. “You’re on.”
We make a stop to change back into our shoes and I tuck away our skates. Gramps knows where they are and he’ll get them tomorrow after the dust clears.
Sierra and I race around the booths, heckling the shit out of each other like we would’ve done months ago. I try to sabotage her ornament pitches by hugging her from behind, but she somehow still manages to land more ornaments on the velcro tree than I do. She tries to take revenge while I’m throwing axes at gingerbread cookies, and I don’t know how I manage tonot drop an ax on my foot while I have her curves pressed up against my back. We even turn eating churros into a competition even though there are no tickets being handed out at the food both, and then make a pit stop to make out under the mistletoe while our mouths still taste of sugar and cinnamon.
And then, we finally make it to the ball pit. “After you,” I say, standing in line beside Sierra. We spent big dime on this inflatable ball pit guaranteed to be ten times stronger than average, but I don’t really trust it.
“Don’t tell me ax throwing doesn’t scare you but this does.” Sierra tilts her head.
“I’m not scared, woman, but it’d really suck if my weight deflates it.”
“Listen, if a hundred people didn’t burst it before you, you won’t.” Sierra offers her hand, palm raised up. “Let’s go together.”
“You’re making it sound like we’re about to bungee jump or something.”
“Oh, Conor. I didn’t know you were such a scaredy cat.” She pouts cutely.
I roll my eyes and grab her hand. “Fine, let’s go.”
I clench my jaw tight as we climb the unstable ramp, ready to catch Sierra the moment this thing goes. But it doesn’t. We make it to the entrance without incident and seeing the massive pool of plastic balls tears a laugh out of me.
“See? It’s fun.” Sierra’s eyes shine with joy as she swings my arm. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Let’s go!”
We jump together. I’m too tall for how deep it is so I immediately bounce once my feet connect with the bottom. Meanwhile, Sierra sinks all the way in as if she were a child. I’m still cracking up as she resurfaces with an exaggerated gasp, and Idon’t know if my eggnog was extra spiked or if I’m the one who’s spiked now because I can’t stop giggling.
Neither of us are interested in the gifts, so we just toss balls at each other and wade around, pretending that we’re swimming, until Sierra finds me sitting in a corner and comes to join me. I find her hips and shift her around until she sits between my legs, her back resting against my chest.
She sighs as I hug her tighter. “It’s finally over.”
I push her curls away with my face until I find her neck and kiss it softly. “Almost.”
“But not us,” she says, angling away to give me more access. While I take advantage of it, she runs her hands up and down my outer thighs as if mapping them.
“Not us,” I murmur against her skin. “We’re just getting started.”
