Page 164

THIRTY-EIGHT

CALLY

The rhythmic swishing motion of the windshield wipers might have lulled me to sleep if I wasn’t so on edge about what was about to befall us, but knowing Bell, there’d be glitter involved, and I fucking hated glitter.

In the driver’s seat beside me, Mikey had a big grin on his face, his head bopping merrily along to Zooey Deschanel crooning something about baking cookies while cards and ribbons were everywhere.

Whatever version of Christmas that was, it was unlike any I’d ever known. I wasn’t sure my mom even knew how to use the oven.

We turned onto Bell and Ethan’s property at four o’clock on the dot as instructed to find each of the trees and bushes that lined the long driveway festooned in multi-colored Christmas lights. In between each one stood a giant skeleton dressed as Santa or one of his many elves. There were several life-sized animatronic reindeer scattered about, as well as …

“Is that Nakatomi Plaza?” I asked, my voice pitching high, as we rolled past a twenty-foot-tall structure with a bright orange “explosion” lighting up the top of it.

“Looks like,” Mikey murmured.

“I know Bell can be a little bit extra, but this is⁠—”

“Holy fuck.” Mikey cackled as, up ahead, several giant inflatable unicorns seemed to be … farting rainbows.

Mikey slammed on the brakes and turned to me, his eyes bright with laughter. “You have to tell me right now—when you called this ‘Bell’s Big Gay Christmas Spectacular’ earlier, did you know about all this?”

I felt a laugh bubble up from my chest, my eyes crinkling as it overtook me. “I really didn’t,” I said with an emphatic shake of my head.

Mikey’s laughter faded, and he slumped back against his seat, the panoply of color surrounding us reflecting off his face. “This is all going to be okay, right?”

I unclipped my seatbelt and spun to face him, my back pressed flat against the door panel behind me. “I want to say yes, but …” I shrugged.

I honestly had no clue, and I really didn’t want to lie to him.

Mikey’s warm brown eyes flicked slowly over my face before he dragged his gaze away to study our technicolor surroundings. “Do you think he decorates like this every year?”

“Probably. The only thing Bell loves more than Ethan is reminding people that he’s queer.”

“I kind of love how unapologetic he is, you know?” Mikey said, his voice filled with admiration.

“It takes balls, that’s for sure. I’m not sure I have that level of ‘fuck you’ in me.”

“You do,” he surprised me by saying. “I’m sure of it.”

“We’ll see,” I murmured, thinking about the days ahead and what we were about to do.

I truly hoped I had the guts to stand up for myself, though I hadn’t always been good at that.

Mikey was a different story, though. I didn’t know if it was the family he’d grown up in or just a natural part of his personality, but he marched to the beat of his own drum. Hell, he was the whole goddamn band. I could totally see Mikey making rainbows his entire personality just to fuck with people.

Outside the windshield, a light clicked on. “I think we’ve been spotted.” I tilted my head toward the porch.

Mikey reached across the cabin to slide his hand around the back of my neck, his thumb brushing up into my hairline. “You ready?”

“No,” I admitted.

“We don’t have to do this, you know.”

“Yeah we do.” I turned to meet his gaze.

He nodded once, dragging his hand away. “All right then. Let’s do this,” he said, reaching for the door handle.

I blew out a breath and did the same.