Page 32 of Home for the Holidays

“This is my boyfriend, Shaun.” He pointed to Shaun, who waved from his position on the floor next to the fireplace. Nora was on his lap, and she wasn’t about to stop watching whatever show he had allowed her to pull up on his phone.

Oscar was next to welcome Evan with a firm handshake and a pat on the arm. “Man, you sure beefed up. What have you been doing?”

“Oh, I work out, like, six days a week.”

Heidi was watching Zac’s reaction, which was exactly as she had hoped. He was still just as enamored with Evan as he had been all those years ago. When Zac finally pulled his gaze away from his former friend, he shook his head and looked around, seemingly to make sure no one saw him. He never made eye contact with her, though. She so wished he would have because she would have tried her hardest to convey how okay it was.

“Hey, Zac,” Evan said as he walked over to the chair next to him. “You look great.”

The smile that spread across Zac’s lips was enough for Heidi to know she had done the right thing. She mentally patted herself on the back as she watched the two of them start to talk. If she could have leaped for joy, she would have.

“Ma?”

Heidi jumped. “What?”

Oscar laughed. “Where the heck are you? I’ve been saying Ma for the past ten seconds. The timer on the oven is going off.”

“Oh, shit,” she said as she flew back into the kitchen and over to the oven. The apple pie she had thrown together was done. She pulled it out and breathed in the scent of the cinnamon and apples. If there was one thing she loved more than anything in this world, it was apple pie.

“That smells amazing.”

Heidi glanced across the kitchen to the breakfast nook, where Iris was sitting. It struck her then how unfair it was that she had met Iris how she did. Or maybe not how she had met her but how she was connected to her. In any other world, she wouldn’t be waiting to see where a relationship with her would go. She would be knee-deep in finding out everything about her. She would be asking her on a date. She would be doing so much more than holding herself back. “Thank you,” she finally said.

“I was going to take it out for you, but I heard Oscar trying to get your attention.”

“Why are you in here and not in there with everyone else?”

Iris tilted her head. There was something there, something Iris wanted to tell her; it was right beneath the surface, and Heidi wanted to know so badly what it was. “Just giving them time to catch up.”

“Oh.”

“They need it.” Iris’s left eyebrow quirked upward the tiniest of amounts.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Heidi had made her way over to the breakfast nook now, and when she leaned down, her hands on the table, her hair fell over her shoulder, and she noticed immediately how Iris bit down on her lip. “Because it feels like you’re not telling me something.”

Iris shook her head. “Just that I can’t stop thinking about this morning.” She licked her lips. “And, apparently, I shouldn’t be.”

God, Heidi hoped to everything holy that her innate Mom Intuition was right about Zac. If it wasn’t, what she did next would be so frowned upon. “Oh yeah? Which part?”

“The part where I pressed you against the wall of the bathroom.” Iris stood from the bench and ran her fingers along the table until she was touching Heidi’s left pinky. “And how good it felt when you came.” She traced the edge of Heidi’s pinky to her palm, her wrist, before she said, “But I shouldn’t be thinking about that, should I?”

Heidi stood upright. Iris was so close she could have easily leaned in and kissed her. And, god, it would have been the perfect ending to the entire conversation. Iris’s eyes were so blue with the light reflecting off the snow and through the kitchen windows. Everything about her was exactly what Heidi had always loved about women. Her freckles, her beautiful skin, her adorable nose, her sky-blue eyes, her kissable lips. “Neither of us should be thinking about that… yet…”

“You want to do it again, don’t you?”

“More than you know.” Heidi’s voice shocked her—the tone, the huskiness of it, the desire dripping from it.

“But I’m hisgirlfriend.”

Heidi gulped.

“Of course… you did just invite his boyfriend over.” Iris smiled. “I mean, his friend who is a boy.”

“Iris, get in here!” Zac’s voice ripped through the moment.

“I’d better go mingle,” Iris said softly as she turned and left.

Heidi reached for the table to support her very weak knees. What did she think she was doing? She was a mess. A very hot, very turned-on mess.

---