Secrets and Stolen Kisses

24

The smile wouldn't leave my face as I picked my bag up and practically dragged Nate outside. We even ran into my brother on the way out and I dangled the key fob in front of his face, sticking my tongue out. He wanted to drive Nate's car just as much as I did, and he almost ripped my hand off when he realized what it meant when that was in my hand. Had Nate not stepped between us, I might've been heading to the hospital instead of the marina.

"You didn't have to taunt him like that," Nate chuckled, slipping into the passenger's seat of the car. "Poor guy."

"Are you kidding? Of course I had to," I got into the driver's seat, buzzing with excitement. "I'm finally driving your car, and he isn't."

He shook his head in disbelief, laughing, as if he didn't know how my twin brother and I were with each other. "Sure, whatever you say, birthday girl. Now, time to drive."

My face lit up, and I started the car, quickly figuring everything out and beginning to drive.

Even if it was supposed to be our day, Nate was caught up with a few things at the hotel, and he asked me if it would be okay if we stopped by to help decorate for Christmas, since it was behind schedule at the Long Beach location, before we went to the boat. Being the holiday-loving girl I was, I said yes.

After parking, I giddily got out of the car and refused to let go of the key fob, stuffing it into my bag. Nate took my hand as we met in front of the car, and we walked together to the entrance.

"Decorate, lunch, then to the boat," he told me. "Thanks for doing this for me, Mimi."

"As long as I get to spend time with you, I don't care what we're doing," I smiled at him.

We got busy right away once we found ourselves at the lobby. Nate said all this decorating ideally should've been done on the first of December and at night or early morning when most of the guests were in their rooms, but there was a mix-up with the decorations, and it just so happened that the day after my birthday was the earliest they could set everything up. It was already delayed, and they couldn't push it back any further, especially since the other Clarke hotels were already decorated.

I was on Christmas tree duty, helping out with placing the ornaments on the big tree in the middle of the lobby and setting up little one-foot tall trees all around.

It was almost noon when I saw a little boy trip. Actually, I heard him first. He was probably a hundred feet away, but I could already hear his excited screams, followed by light padding footsteps as he ran through the lobby. When he got closer, I heard a soft thud that made me turn around. I was holding a box of ornaments to help out this guy putting them up on the really tall tree.

I excused myself, handing the box to another one of the workers, before I made my way over to the little boy and helped him up. He honestly reminded me a lot of a younger Jake.

"You okay?" I asked him gently, looking for any scratches or bruises. Fortunately, he was fine. "You shouldn't be running at a place like this."

"Sorry," he apologized sheepishly.

"That's okay," I assured him, crouching down to help him straighten out his clothes. "Just be more careful next time, yeah?"

A hand grabbed my wrist and twisted it slightly, making me wince and straighten up. "What are you doing with my son?"

I immediately went into defense mode, trying to explain what happened so the lady would let go of my wrist that she was only twisting further. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I just saw him trip and fall, and I didn't see anyone with him, so I helped him out. Please let go of me."

She stared me down. "So now you're blaming me for not being with him? You're calling me a bad mother?"

Where the hell did she get that idea from?