Page 42 of Infatuated as They Come (Sinful Trilogy #2)

Sawyer

It was weird falling asleep in Holly’s house and actually staying there all night.

I had been in Holly’s bed—without her parents knowing—many, many times.

I liked to hold her until she fell asleep, keeping her close to my chest until her eyes were firmly shut and she was letting out soft, little breaths, but being allowed to wake up in her house was a funny feeling.

It was just after five, my body rested and my mind fresher after all that time I had spent behind the wheel.

I carefully took Holly’s gift out of my bag, running my hand across the top of the box.

It was all wrapped up, red bow and all. I grabbed the gifts I got her parents—a scarf and a tie—and made my way downstairs, putting them all under the giant tree.

The thing looked like it could have been twenty feet tall.

I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to do.

What did people do for Christmas? Whatever it was, I had never done any of that.

There was some noise in the kitchen and I wondered if it was Holly, but when I moved into the room, all I saw were her parents standing at the kitchen counter, a sparkling chandelier hanging above them.

Just like the rest of the house, it was a gigantic space I wasn’t used to, with white walls and an equally white counter and drawers.

“Oh, Sawyer, you’re awake!” Holly’s mom locked eyes with me, shooting me a big smile. “Did we wake you up? We were being a little loud down here.”

My head shook. “No, it’s cool. It was getting late, anyway. ”

“I’ve only just put dinner in the oven, so I hope you’re not too hungry. It shouldn’t be too long!”

“That’s fine. Do you need—” I stopped mid-sentence as Holly’s dad walked right past me, his shoulder colliding with mine before he made his way out of the room.

“Joe,” she said with a sharp breath before turning to me. “Don’t pay him any attention.”

“I’m used to it now, I think.”

Her eyes softened. “That’s awful. I don’t want you to feel that way and neither does Holly. Do you want me to wake her up? She’s still in bed.”

“That’s okay. She needs some time off too. She’s been working really hard this year.”

“And you too, apparently. She tells me all the fun things you’ve been up to.”

“Fun things?”

“All the art you’ve been working on. She sends me photos of all the things you paint.”

My brows rose. “You’re probably sick of seeing my paintings.”

“Don’t be silly, I love seeing your art. Anyway, you go sit down.” She shooed me away. “I was about to make some more cookies. I shouldn’t be too long.”

“Do you, uh, need any help in here?” I asked. She had a bunch of dough rolled out in front of her with a few cookie cutters scattered around it. It didn’t feel right leaving her all alone in the kitchen to cook by herself. “I’m not that good of a cook but I can try and help.”

“Oh, no. You’re our guest. Why don’t you relax in the living room?”

“I don’t mind helping.”

She hummed, tapping a finger against her chin. “If you’re sure. Your art skills might come in handy with the decorating if you want to do that.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”

We cut away at the large roll of dough, making small talk about the weather and my job and all the stuff I had painted.

We talked about how much she missed Holly and how weird it was not having her daughter in the house.

It was one of the longer conversations me and Holly’s mom had ever had.

We usually just shared some small talk when I was picking Holly up or dropping her off back home.

It was usually better for everyone if I just got out of there before her dad got all pissy.

“I know my husband makes you feel like you and Holly don’t belong together,” she said with a sigh, “but I really do think you guys are meant to be.”

That made me smile a little. “Yeah, I think so too.”

“I hope you pay him no mind. Holly loves you. I know how important you are to her, and that means you’re important to me. And I can tell she’s important to you too.”

“She is. And it means a lot to me that you guys, you know, trust her with me. I know I’m not the sort of guy you imagined her ending up with, but I just want to do everything I can to make sure she’s happy and looked after,” I said, and I frowned when I remembered how little I had seen of her lately.

I had fallen back into my old habits hard and fast. When was the last time we ate dinner together?

“You know, I never even really thought about that,” she said.

“I mean, I never really imagined what kind of boy she’d end up with.

I knew she’d find someone who was meant for her on her own.

I just want Holly to be with someone who loves her, and I know that’s you.

I’m very glad you two found one another. ”

So was I. And I was so lucky that I had her, that it was me that she had chosen, and I knew things needed to be different when we got back home. For her, for us, for the future that I so badly wanted us to have.

“I was going to make wreaths, trees, and stockings,” she said as she took all the trays out of the oven, placing them on the counter. “Your painting skills might come in handy for this. I usually like to make little reindeers too, but they always come out looking so funny. Do you want to do those?”

“I don’t know if I’ll be any better.” I chuckled. “But yeah, I’ll give it a shot.”

“You must be so bored in here making cookies with me.”

But I wasn’t bored. Not even a little bit. “No, I… I’m having fun,” I said. “I like doing, you know, mom stuff with you. Never really got the chance to do things like this with mine. So, if you ever wanna do other mom stuff, I’ll be happy to do it.”

Her eyes softened as she reached over, giving my hand a squeeze. “I might be organizing my scrapbooking boxes real soon. I’d love to have an extra pair of hands. I know it doesn’t sound exciting, but I find it very fun.”

“No, it sounds cool. Let’s do that.” I got started on the reindeers, picking up the brown icing and attempting to make something that looked as put together and professional as the Christmas trees she was working on.

“You guys are cute,” I heard Holly’s sleepy voice say from behind me after a little while.

I looked over my shoulder and watched Holly walk over to us. When she got close enough, she rested her head on my arm and let out a soft, little yawn.

“You should have woken me up,” Holly said. “It’s nearly six. I’m not gonna sleep all night now.”

“Your boyfriend insisted that we let you rest,” her mom said.

Holly hummed before taking a seat on one of the stools. “He just wanted first dibs on the cookies. They look so good.”

“Well, he’s much better than you at decorating. We’ll eat them after dinner. Hm, I need more piping bags.” Holly’s mom spun on her heels suddenly. “I’ll be back!”

“You guys did a really good job. They’re so pretty.” Holly dragged one of the cookies filled trays towards her. “Let me make at least one. I’ll contribute to the team.”

Holly took some of the leftover dough and used a knife to cut out…

something. I had no idea what the hell she was doing, but it was cute watching her slice away at the dough, her tongue stuck out that tiny bit before she grabbed some icing.

All I could think about was how nice it was to have a normal Christmas for once.

I was still half expecting my dad to appear out of nowhere and punch me in the stomach for having the audacity to decorate a Christmas cookie.

“There,” Holly said, dragging me out of my thoughts. “Isn’t she cute?”

My eyes landed on the little horse she had made, the eyes all big and a goofy smile on its face. “Hey, nice lookin’ horse.”

She gasped. “No. She’s a cat.”

“Oh.” I tilted my head. “Yeah, no, I can see it. Legs are kinda long, though.”

“She’s a tall cat. Don’t bully her.”

“I would never.”

“So, what should our new tradition be?” she asked. “We could get hot chocolate and drive around and see the lights, or go ice skating, or we could go to Grapevine and see their Christmas decorations, or we could just stay here and watch Christmas movies all day.”

“We’ll do whatever you want,” I said. “You pick, and we’ll do it.”

She stared up at me. “And then we can do it every year.”

“Yeah, princess, we can do it every year.”

“Found it!” Holly’s mom was back, peering over her daughter’s shoulder. “Such a cute horse, Holly.”

We ate dinner after that. Holly’s dad sat across from me at the big dining table, ignoring my eyes as all his attention went to his daughter.

We were never gonna be friends and that was okay with me.

He asked Holly about her classes and cheer and she seemed to bring me up every chance she got, telling him about my art and how hard I was working and how much she was enjoying living with me.

After the awkward dinner, Holly dragged me into the living room with hot chocolate and cookies, the fireplace roaring by the tree as she put that Muppets movie on. She rested her head on my chest as her parents joined us, and I was almost certain her dad scoffed a tiny bit when he got sight of us.

It was such a simple thing. Just me watching a movie with my girlfriend on Christmas, but God, I loved it. The fact had me holding Holly tighter as we watched the rest of the movie, chewing on her little half horse half cat cookie until it came to an end.

“You two should get some sleep,” Holly’s mom piped up. “You’ve had a long couple of days. Why don’t you both head on up? I’ll take care of this stuff.” She placed the empty mugs on a tray and whisked off in the direction of the kitchen .

“She’s right.” Her dad stood up, stretching his arms over his head. “You should get some sleep, Holly. I know you must be tired.”

“Sawyer especially,” Holly said as she turned to me. “He did all that driving, remember?”

“Right,” he said stiffly, eyes flickering over to mine for a quick second.