The Stocking Was Hung(19)

Fuck being heartbroken, jobless, and homeless. I don’t even care about that shit anymore. Everything will suck even worse if Sam decides he’s had enough and leaves.

Sam removes his hands from cradling his dick and slowly turns to face me while I brace myself for him to announce this charade is over and he’s done.

“I’ll forget this ever happened if you dress up like a nurse and kiss my pain away,” he tells me softly, the corner of his mouth tipping up in a smirk.

I smack him in the arm and turn in a huff to walk toward the front door. I can’t believe I just got all worked up and sad thinking that he was going to leave.

His footsteps smack against the hardwood floor, and before I can make it to the door, his arms wrap around me from behind as he pulls me back against his chest. Right away I feel something hard poking into my ass and turn my head to look over my shoulder at him.

“Sorry, I was thinking about you in a naughty nurse outfit and he just popped up out of nowhere.” Sam shrugs, tightening his arms around me. “At least we know it’s not broken, so there’s that.”

All I can think about as he holds me close with his non-broken penis poking into my ass is that if Logan were here right now, an ambulance would be on its way and he’d probably have his lawyer on the line threatening to sue my brother for his ball injury.

“Come on, my special patient. Let’s get you home and put some frozen peas on your junk,” I snicker, stepping out of his embrace and grabbing his hand to pull him out onto the front porch and back toward the van where my family waits. My family who, no matter what they do, can’t seem to scare Sam off, which puts me right on the precarious edge of falling for the guy…and that just can’t happen.





Chapter 8




Sam




“Would you rather drink nothing but spoiled eggnog for a year or eat moldy Christmas cookies?” Nicholas asks me.

“MOLDY COOKIES! MOLDY COOKIES!” I quickly shout, glancing at Noel’s dad just to make sure he didn’t sneak the BB gun home from that house and is pointing it at my face, ready to shoot if I answer incorrectly.

After the tour, we all came back to her parents’ place and settled into the living room to watch the movie about the house we toured. I complained to Noel about how the entire thing is nothing but whining, screaming, crying kids and it was making my ears bleed, but to be honest, it was kind of funny. Watching her and her brother recite all of the lines back and forth through the movie made my chest ache with the realization of just how lucky Noel was to have grown up with something like this. With people like these. Sure, they’re insane and inappropriate, but they clearly love each other. They actually like spending time together, and all I can do is watch them together and wish I had even a tiny bit of this life growing up.

During the movie, Noel’s mom kept us stuffed full of homemade Christmas cookies and hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows and kept replacing the bag of frozen vegetables on my lap whenever one would lose its chill. So far, I’ve been through two bags of peas and three bags of corn. I don’t want to tell her my balls are no longer in pain because she seems so damn happy each time she rushes back from the kitchen with a new frozen bag. It’s so…motherly. Something that is completely strange to me, yet I’m enjoying every minute of it. Have I ever had someone take care of me like this in my entire life? Not only am I getting attached to Noel, I’m getting attached to her family and it’s probably not a very good idea. In a few days, I’ll go back to my sad, lonely house in the middle of bum-f*ck nowhere while Noel will fly back home to Seattle and maybe even make up with that dumb shit, Logan. I can’t afford to get attached to something that will slip from my fingers in the blink of an eye, but there’s nothing I can do to stop it either.

Noel is currently curled up next to me on the couch with her legs tucked under her, nestled against my side. With my arm flung over the back of the couch behind her, I’ve been twirling strands of her hair between my fingers while we all sit around playing this Would You Rather game—Christmas edition. The fire is roaring, the Christmas tree is lit in the corner, and I didn’t even want to stab anyone when Dominic the Donkey started playing on the radio.

Yep, I’m getting way too comfortable and attached.

“Would you rather have sex with Santa or one of his elves?” Nicholas asks, turning his attention to Aunt Bobbie.

“That’s a tough one,” she muses, taking a drink of her hot chocolate that I’m pretty sure has been spiked with vodka based on the way she keeps teetering back and forth in her chair and has almost fallen out of it a few times.

“Santa’s got more cushion for the pushin’, but those elves are tiny and can fit in small spaces,” she adds. “And I really feel those pointy ears could be used for good instead of evil.”

Everyone winces and I hear Noel groan in disgust from next to me.

“So, Logan, I have to say, I really thought my daughter would come home with a ring on her finger,” Noel’s mother suddenly says, interrupting the game.

“Mom!” Noel protests, shifting uncomfortably on the couch next to me.

My fingers stop playing with her hair and I move my hand to her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Really, Leon, it’s time for you to settle down. I mean, look at your brother and how happy he is. Don’t you want that for yourself?” her mother implores. “You flit from one job to the next and one boyfriend to another, and I just assumed since Logan here lasted for more than a few weeks, that you two were serious. You’re not getting any younger, honey.”