Page 74 of Holiday Unscripted
“I want you to stay where I told you to stay.” I point to her and she laughs again, closing the door as I watch her walk away from the door, my heart clenching in my chest. “It’s her,” I declare out to the dark quiet night, “it’s always been fucking her.” There, in the cold, dark night, with a few stars blinking in the sky, I realize I’ve been holding back over the last seven years for one reason and one reason only. Her.
CHAPTER 29
Elizabeth
WINTER SONG
December 24th
Wedding Day
“Do you have everything you need?” I ask Nate as he walks out of his closet with the black garment bag in his hand.
“I have the tux.” He holds up his hand. “The shoes are…” He looks around the room. “Wherever I threw them last night.” He chuckles as he puts the garment bag on the bed next to me, picking up the white shirt he wore last night that he threw over his shoulder before he banged me against his door. “Here’s one,” he says, picking up his pants and tossing them on the unmade bed.
I curl one of my feet under my leg, as I take a sip of the coffee he just brought up to me as I got dressed in my jogging outfit. My hair is washed and piled on top of my head, ready to be styled for the day. “Where the fuck is the other one?” he asks me like I know.
“This is what happens when you pivot the plan and instead of banging me against the door downstairs, you ordered me upstairs.”
“I tried to do you against the door twice”—he walks toward the chair in the corner—“and each time Whiskey thought we were play fighting.”
I laugh at the memory because he really thought we were, and at one point he barked at us. “I mean we were play fighting.” He looks over at me and I wink at him. “I definitely wanted to play with your toy.”
“My dick is not a toy.” He shakes his head.
“Um.” I put the mug in front of my mouth to hide the smirk I have on my face. “It’s kind of like a jack-in-the-box if you think of it. You wind it up and eventually it pops right up.”
“Jesus, Elizabeth.” He chuckles. “Found it,” he says, tossing my dress, landing on his pants.
“Just pointing out the fact,” I explain and his phone rings and he groans.
“It’s your brother.”
“Shocking,” I deadpan as he slides his finger across the screen.
“Good morning, Joshua,” he greets. “Merry Christmas Eve.”
“Yeah,” he replies. “Where are you?”
“We just landed on the moon,” I tease. “We should be coming back into orbit in a bit.”
“Not today,” he hisses out, “you cannot fuck with me today.”
“So tomorrow I can fuck with you?” I ask and Nate comes over to sit on the bed beside me. My knee is on his thigh as he leans over and softly kisses my exposed neck. “Good to know.” I smile at Nate.
“You are supposed to be at my parents’ house in thirty minutes,” he reminds Nate. “Elizabeth has to be dropped off before you come here.”
“Joshua,” Nate says in a calm voice, “relax, buddy, it’s going to be okay.”
“Yeah,” I agree with Nate. “Besides, the only person you have to worry about showing up today is Macy.”
“Stop saying that,” he hisses and then the phone goes dead.
“Did he hang up on me?” I ask, grabbing the phone out of his hand and calling him back.
“What?” he growls instead of saying hello.
“You hung up on me.” I gawk at him. “The audacity.”
