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Chapter Fifteen
Katie
Me: Bring wine with you. Lots of it. Today’s going to get ugly.
Nolan: I’m scared now.
Me: Competitions in my family are vicious. Be careful or Kyle will challenge you to a fistfight to defend his honor, or something else ridiculously stupid.
Nolan: We’re talking about board games, right?
Me: Or card games. But yes, it’s that bad. And if anyone spots a cheater, watch out.
Nolan: Maybe me being there will calm things down.
Me: Sam had this boyfriend once, he had Thanksgiving with us, and he actually snuck off and broke up with my sister before dinner.
Nolan: Sounds like a loser, then.
Me: Be serious, Nolan.
Nolan: I won’t run away, baby. I promise.
Me: You say that now….
Nolan: If nothing else, know that I always keep my word. I won’t leave you, baby. Even if I have to fight your brother in a duel.
Me: What century is this?
Nolan: I can be from any century. It’s kind of my job.
Me (typed but deleted): I wouldn’t mind if you were a Highlander, tossed me over your shoulder, and whisked me off to your castle. Where you’d do extremely dirty things to me.
Me (actual reply instead): Just don’t be late.
I’d been a coward.
I had wanted to stay with Nolan another day. He’d offered to look after me, fetch whatever I needed from my parents’ place, and do his best not to interrupt my beauty sleep.
But the better I’d felt, the harder it’d been to keep my distance from him and not do something stupid, like ask him to cuddle.
So I’d asked to go home. My family would be back later the day he dropped me off, and I really did feel better.
The distance also gave me time to reinforce my heart and my lady parts. Nolan Wolfe was off limits. I needed to remember that.
Now it was Christmas Day, I was at about ninety-eight percent healthy and no longer infectious, and I currently held together a turkey butt while my mom stitched it together.
She’d been nattering on about weddings, and I’d kind of tuned her out. However, I caught her saying, “Maybe I should come move in with you for a few weeks after the wedding, to get you settled.”
I loved my mother. But no matter how much—or even the fact Nolan and I would never marry—I wasn’t about to let her think staying during a honeymoon was okay. “No, Mom. I mean, would you have wanted Grandma to stay with you right after you were married?”
“She came a few days after, in fact.”
“And how did that go? For you and for Dad?”
“Well, your dad wasn’t keen on it. But it made us rather creative when it came to sneaking off to have sex.”
Since I was holding a raw turkey together, I couldn’t plug my ears. “La, la, la, la, la, LA.”
