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“I’m gonna check the bedrooms, you might want to really get that fire going in case we lose power.” Gabe got to his feet and pushed past me, heading for the bedrooms. His footfalls were incredibly heavy, and you could hear them all throughout the house.
I turned to look at the fireplace. I’d never built a fire in my life. Dad had always done it, and he taught Dean while Mom and I made sugar cookies in the kitchen. In hindsight, I’d always wanted to learn but never asked him to teach me.
But how hard could it be?
I stacked a few logs in the fire and looked around for something to light them with. On the mantle sat a bottle of lighter fluid, and I reached for it, feeling grateful the tools were readily available.
I gave the fluid a few squirts, then closed the bottle and reached for the lighter that sat next to a few Christmas candles. This was a snap. No need to have a lesson when it’s this—
The fire flared out at me the second I clicked the lighter, and I screamed, bringing Gabe running.
“What is it?” he asked with real concern.
“The fire flared out at me,” I said in shock.
Gabe came to my side and looked around at the things I’d used. “Did you put this on the fire?” he asked, holding up the lighter fluid.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m not an—”
“Neveruse lighter fluid for an indoor fire. That’s suicide. You’ll burn the whole damn place down.”
My cheeks flushed and I looked away. I had tried my best and he was treating me like a naughty child. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “I didn’t know.”
Gabe prodded the fire with a poker and took the lighter fluid to the kitchen, away from the fireplace. He gave me a long look and shook his head, then returned to his search of the bedrooms.
I was extremely embarrassed, but that only lasted a few seconds when I realized he’d just gone intomyroom, wheremybed was covered in lingerie. I scrambled across the kitchen and down the hall, hoping to scoop them up before he saw.
But I was too late. I walked in to find Gabe holding up a pair of crotchless panties and studying them. He turned to see me, but didn’t look ashamed or embarrassed.
“What in the world were you planning on using these for?” he asked. “Planning to wear them around the Christmas tree?
If I had been pink before, I was crimson now.
I wasn’t sure if it was him holding the panties, or him envisioning me in them, or the idea that I would pack something like that for a family trip that embarrassed me more. The truth was, that I wanted to be prepared in case Dean brought someone superhot. I couldn’t exactly think of a better present than some Christmas sex, particularly when I was having the dry spell I was. But I'd be dead before I admitted that to Grinchy Gabe.
“They’re Lexi’s,” I lied, blurting out the words so fast they essentially ran together. “She was showing them to me.”
“And Lexi was planning to wear them around the tree?” He made a face of approval and nodded. “She’s cute.”
“Don’t be disgusting,” I said, reaching out to smack him on the arm and then thinking better of it and withdrawing.
“I’m only joking,” he said. “This underwear would be very impractical for present opening, and it looks like you’ve got a lot of them.” He looked around the room where Lexi's and my piles were stacked high.
“She brought them to show me what she bought the last time she went shopping. She wasn’t planning on wearing them at all.”
Gabe looked at me like he didn't believe me, but set the lingerie down on the bed once more. He then leaned forward and pulled something off the bedside table and held it up to me. It was a portable radio.
“I guess next to the place you're sleeping is where it is,” he said in an unreadable tone. “Now you know.”
Chapter Six
Gabe
Ihaddamnnearbegged Dean not to leave me alone with his irritating sister. When he and Lexi started to leave, I followed him outside into the quickly deteriorating weather.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I had asked him, looking up at the sky. “It looks bad.”
“Look,” he said as the snow whipped around us. “I’m only going to be gone for like an hour or two at the most.”
