Page 44 of When Ivy Met Mr. Holiday
The ordeal would almost certainly traumatize Emma. And by the end of the night, Kaden and Graham would be wearing the Grinch hats of shame, paying for their crimes against Candy Land. Oh, yes—Mom kept a spare Grinch hat for such occasions.
I reached for Jack, reminding myself that I needed to behave more girlfriend-like so as not to give my family any room to believe Sienna. And I didn’t need any more uncomfortable questions from Paige, wondering why I wasn’t enjoying more of Jack.
She’d taken a moment to steal me away after we’d returned home from ice-skating. Once she was convinced Jack and I really were a couple after our very public display of affection, she’d thought maybe I needed a little sisterly talk or encouragement to be more myself around Jack. I’d basically had to tell her that being with Jack was just hard for me because of his fame and it had me doubting myself.
Which wasn’t entirely untrue, but all these fibs were making me feel icky. I so badly wanted to tell her the truth. The truth was, Jack’s kiss had affected me. So much. I wanted to kiss him again. And again. And again.
Hello? I was only human. It didn’t mean I wanted to be anything more than his friend. I just wanted to . . . I didn’t even know how to explain it. Jack’s kiss was indescribable. It had taken me to a place where only he and I existed. And so help me, I really liked it there.
But we couldn’t stay there forever. We lived in the real world, where Jack was Mr. Holiday. In that world, we needed to stay friends. It was the safest option.
Jack immediately took my hand, and my mom loosened her hold on him. He seized the opportunity and wrapped his arms around me.
“Hello, beautiful,” he whispered before his lips skimmed mine.
Oh, jingle hell. I liked it. A lot.
“Hi,” I responded breathily, biting my lip so I didn’t devour him.
What was wrong with me? I couldn’t even blame Jack for this. I’d told him to act more affectionate around my family. He was just following orders. For all I knew, this was grossing him out.
“Are you up for playing some games?” I asked.
Who was I kidding? We were already playing them. I just prayed we didn’t lose—especially each other.
“Sure,” Jack said, as suavely as ever.
“Can you pwease pway Candy Wand with me?” Emma flashed those big peepers at Jack from the couch, holding up her favorite character, Princess Lolly. The world was going to need to watch out for her.
“I would love to,” Jack said charmingly as he took my hand. “As long as your aunt plays with us.”
“Wait, we want Jack to play Exploding Kittens with us,” Kaden complained.
Poppy, Tyler, and Zach jumped in, begging for Jack to play UNO with them.
Jack smiled, pleased with the attention . . . because he didn’t get enough ofthatin his life.
Admittedly, I was a tad salty. The kiddos used to fight overme. I mean, hello, I was the aunt who always convinced my siblings to let their kids stay up way past their bedtimes. And let’s not forget all the awesome presents I’d already shipped here for them. I just needed to wrap them. I’d thought maybe Jack could help with that and we could say they were from the both of us, but now, I was rethinking that.
It wasn’t very Christmassy of me.
Jack, though, had me changing my tune when he said, “I have an idea. Let’s play all three together.”
I blinked.
Wait.
Had Jack just proposed combining UNO, Candy Land, and Exploding Kittens into one game? Since when did he even know how to playanyof those games, much less a mixed-up version of all three? Maybe he’d picked it up on the set of that movie, the one where he played the single dad. Or maybe he was just full of himself and thought he could do anything. Which wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Somehow, he had this unnatural ability to do just that—anything.
“I think that’s a precious idea,” Mom rang in, beaming with pride.
“Yes, so precious,” I teased Jack.
He kissed my cheek. “Watch and learn, Ivy. Watch and learn.”
And I did. I watched and learned as Jack had all the kids haul the games over to one of the card tables my dad had set up earlier.
Jack clapped his hands together. His captive audience of my nieces and nephews locked in.
