Page 26 of Theirs for the Holidays

“Yeah,” Lennox echoes.

“Thank you for cooking,” I add.

Her eyes are bright as she smiles at us, and she looks so happy as she takes her own bite of pasta. She chews thoughtfully for a while and then has another bite, like she needs to be sure. Then she puts her fork down and sighs, looking at the three of us in turn.

“It’s terrible, isn’t it?”

For a second it seems like we might try to convince her otherwise, but Lennox breaks first. “Sorry, Violet, but it’s… not good.”

“Kind of terrible,” Rhett agrees.

She looks to me and I shrug a shoulder. “They’re right.”

“What I want to know,” Sawyer says, gesturing with his fork. “Is how you can be so good at baking and so bad at this. Is this just an off night or what?”

Lennox stifles a snicker, and I have to cover my mouth to hide my own, but Violet laughs, slumping in her chair. She doesn’t seem upset, so that’s something, at least.

“I don’t know, honestly. I really tried to follow the recipe, but all the instincts I have for baking just don’t seem to translate to cooking. It’s like a completely different beast.” She sighs, pushing her plate away from her. “Pizza?”

We all agree to that, gratefully.

Violet gets up to grab her phone, but as she passes my chair, her sweater snags on the arm of it, and she’s pulled back, stumbling.

She loses her footing a bit and ends up falling right into my lap.

There’s a yelp of surprise, and my body reacts almost instantly to the feeling of hers against mine. She squirms a little, and I can almost feel the heat radiating from her blush, clearly embarrassed about the situation.

But her squirming just makes her plush ass grind against my cock, and that has me getting hard in a second. I feel a flash of worry that she’s going to feel it and be weirded out, so I stand up quickly, practically dumping her on her feet.

“I should check on the fire,” I mutter, sliding past her to stride out of the room.

10

VIOLET

I watch Rhett go,embarrassment coursing through me in waves.

God, why am I so awkward? I can’t even walk around a table without doing something stupid like that, and all I can think about is how I can’t believe that happened.

I wouldn’t blame Rhett for being upset about it. He’s famously particular about his personal space, and prefers to be alone most of the time, and I went and put myself in his lap with no warning.

Sawyer and Lennox are still at the table, and I glance at them. “Would you mind handling the pizza?” I ask them.

“Sure,” Lennox replies, pulling out his phone. He gives me a look, but I can’t interpret it, so I just slip away to find Rhett so I can apologize before the awkwardness can fester.

He’s in the living room, crouched down by the fireplace. He adds another log on top, arranging the others better so the new one will catch.

I walk over and put a hand on his shoulder, and he jerks a little, like he wants to be away from me. I pull my hand back quickly, curling my fingers against my palm. The last thing Iwant is to make this worse, but it stings, knowing he doesn’t want me to touch him.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m just clumsy, but I didn’t mean to invade your personal space like that and make it weird.”

“It’s fine,” he says, the words coming out gruff.

He adds another log to the fire and then stands up slowly, blowing out a breath.

I make a face, looking at the fireplace as the flames roar higher when they catch on the newest log. “My mom always used to say I was like a bull in a China shop. Isabelle got all the grace, and I’m left with this.” I gesture at myself, like that explains everything.

And maybe it does.