Page 152 of A Very Merry Enemy
I run my fingers through her hair, feeling the tension slowly drain from her body. Her breathing evens out and deepens, and I think she might be falling asleep.
“Lucas?”
“Yeah, Peaches?”
“Thank you. For not judging me. For still loving me after everything.”
I press a kiss to the top of her head, breathing her in. “There’s nothing you could tell me that would make me stop loving you. Nothing. You understand? You could tell me you robbed a bank or joined the circus or decided you hate Christmas. Wouldn’t matter.”
She laughs, and I start to relax along with her.
“I don’t hate Christmas,” she whispers.
“Good. Because that might actually be a deal-breaker.”
She shifts closer, her fingers twisting into the hem of my shirt. “I’m scared about Saturday. About seeing him again. About what he might do if I don’t comply with his demands.”
“I know. But I’ll be right there beside you the entire time.” I tighten my arms around her. “And if he tries anything—if he so much as looks at you wrong—he’s going to have to deal with me.”
“You’re my hero,” she says, but there’s affection in her voice rather than mockery.
“I’m all yours,” I confess.
Outside, Christmas lights twinkle through her window,casting red and green shadows across the walls. Downstairs, her parents’ TV hums faintly through the floorboards. Inside this room, we’re wrapped up in each other.
“Is there anything else I should know?” I ask.
“No,” she tells me. “That’s the only skeleton in my closet.”
The contest is in six days, and Dominic is a bigger threat than he was before. There are a thousand things we still need to figure out, but mostly how to protect her from what he might do next.
Nothing will come between us because we have each other. We have the truth between us. We have our love. And that’s more than enough.
Holiday’s breathing deepens and evens out, and I know she’s finally asleep.
I stay awake longer, listening to the old house settle around us, feeling the weight of her in my arms, as I stare up at the glowing green plastic stars on her ceiling. My childhood memories are full of moments in this room—sneaking in through the window, stolen kisses while her parents watched TV downstairs, whispered conversations about the future we thought we’d have together.
We lost that future once, and I’ll be damned if I lose it again.
I close my eyes and let myself drift off with Holiday safe in my arms, and I sleep without dreaming about what I lost. Because we’ve found each other again.
CHAPTER 31
HOLIDAY
Iwake up at three forty-five in the morning, and for a moment, I don’t know where I am.
My childhood bedroom comes into focus slowly. I see the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling that Lucas put up when we were sixteen. I reach for my phone on the nightstand, and the light from the screen hurts my eyes.
Friday, December 13th.
Spooky.
Tomorrow is the contest, the day I’ve been counting down to for weeks.
My stomach turns itself inside out, and I have to breathe through my nose to keep from getting sick. Tomorrow, I’ll stand in front of hundreds of people and bake while Dominic Laurent watches my every move. The entire town will see if I’m as good as everyone believes me to be. Tomorrow, everything I’ve worked for over the past decade will come down to those three hours. Because, while this contest is in Merryville, the entire world is watching my relationship with Lucas unfold.
They even discussed live streaming it. It’s something I didn’t learn about until yesterday. I’m not ready for this level of exposure, and the thought makes me sick.
