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Lucas
Chris stared, uncomfortably intent on both Bella and Lucas on the drive to Bella's apartment so she could rush and put a bag together. Then to Laguardia, into the Astor jet, and the entire freaking flight to Kalamazoo.
On the plane, Bella threw pillows and shoes, and Lucas had to catch her before she chucked the crystal bowl filled with Christian’s favorite mints.
"Well, do something already!" Chris whined, and with a depressingly weak toss, a pillow landed at their feet.
Lucas squeezed his eyes shut tight because his question was surely a mistake, but he still asked, “Do what?”
“Act all lovey-dovey! You’re not kissing, or making out, or anything!”
Out of spite, Bella moved across the bench seat and pulled out a book from her purse, keeping her middle finger up as she read.
Lucas flushed. When Chris dared to emerge from his room again earlier in the morning, Bella and Lucas may have been very engrossed in certain... activities on his couch. Chris snapped for them to get a room, so Lucas picked Bella up and carried her to his apartment to give Chris a reprieve.
That had been enough of a pause for Lucas' senses to kick in. He'd felt intense guilt when he asked Bells to stop kissing him and then pulled away.
"I... don't want to... uh," Lucas felt very at home, returning to a loss of words around Bella. They were lying in his bed. How could he have brought her straight there?
“Don’t want to what?” Bella asked.
"I don't want to rush things," he'd blurted out. "We've been friends for such a long time, and for as well as I know you, I don't know what you'd want in a relationship."
Bella grabbed his neck, flipped Lucas onto his back, and pecked him on the cheek once, twice, and then on his lips. “Ok.”
“Ok?”
“Ok.”
They'd spent the morning talking, stealing kisses, and figuring out how they would move forward. No switch instantly flipped, and they'd be in a perfect relationship. Bella was too important of a person for him to rush into a romance with.
In the jet, Chris was still staring at them. “What happened? How did you screw it up?”
“He did nothing!” Bella called.
There was a definite slump in Chris' posture, and he played with the edges of his brace. "You didn't sleep with her?"
"Why are you even asking that?" Lucas asked, his cheeks on fire. "She's your sister!"
"Of course." He was shaking his head at them both. "But twelve years warrant some extreme measures. What are you doing to show Bella you love her and not screw it up?"
Lucas leaned across the gap a little further and grumbled, “I will not screw it up!”
After landing, the annoying glances, sneers, and commentary continued on the drive to Lucas' parents' house.
For a late December mid-afternoon in Michigan, the sky was overcast as far as the eye could see. Not the clouds that threatened snow. The kind that made everything feel gloomy. Unlike in New York, there was over two feet of snow, and on street corners and parking lots, the piles were taller than Lucas. Though still fresh enough, the banks were primarily white and not a murky gray color.
The front of his parents' split-level house was decorated with colorful lights lining all the gutters and windows, plastic light-up reindeer, and Santa Claus figures as old as Lucas.
His mom and dad were lounging in the kitchen when Lucas stomped his boots on the welcome mat. Lexi, her bright blond hair thrown up in a messy bun, popped up from behind her phone on the couch to slap Lucas with a pillow on his way in.
Bella blocked, ripped the pillow free, and bopped Christian in the face.
"Bella?" Lexi perked up, tossing herself over the couch, straight into Bella, shrieking incoherently. His younger sister didn't abide by rules, very much like Bella. Though in her mid-20s, she didn't let her enthusiasm diminish. "Bella! Oh, it's been so long!"
They stood there, Lexi wrapped around Bella's torso, reminiscent of the first Christmas Lucas brought Bella and Chris home with him.
Bella’s eyes were glassy, but she held her composure until Lucas’ mom came rushing out with a slew of, “Oh, dear! You’re home!”
“She’s been home, mom,” Lucas whispered.
"Of course, but not here, at home." His mom enveloped Bella, too, turning her cheeks a bright pink.
***
It took a while for the Holt household to calm down.
Bella set her bag in Lexi's old bedroom, a room that had practically become a time capsule of Lexi's life. Her old unicorn duvet, piles of stuffed animals that did not make the move to his sister's apartment, along with her banged-up dresser and bedside tables.
The men stood at the door of Lucas’ childhood room and single twin bed.
“Bunk with Bella,” Chris whined.
“No.”
Lucas would take the basement couch like he did many years Bella joined them.
"Twelve years, and you're doing everything in your power to lose my sister." Chris' whiny complaint was loud enough for Bella to hear and retaliate by whipping a pillow through the connecting bathroom. She successfully hit Chris to Lexi's cheers echoing through their old bedrooms. Bella closed off the bathroom, and she didn't emerge again for nearly an hour.
"I don't need to sleep with Bella to keep her."
Her brother had worked his brotherly magic getting under her skin. Chris and Lucas joined his parents in the kitchen. Fresh, strong eggnog and cookies were out, and cookbooks surrounded Lexi searching for a new cookie recipe.
“How many varieties did you and B agree to?”
“B? Aren’t you freaking cool?” Lexi flicked her brother’s hand off her head. “And three kinds. But I still haven’t nailed down the third. Bella pulled out the licitars recipe. We forgot some stuff and need to run up to the store.”
Movement in the living room near the tree caught Lucas’ eyes. Bella had finally emerged, hugging her arms tight, and studied the Holt Christmas tree.
Christmas Eve.
"Hey, big, fancy New York businessman! You coming with dad and me?" Lex asked.
"Ah, no. You can handle it without me, right?" He grabbed two glasses and ladled some eggnog into each, adding a sprinkle of nutmeg exactly as his mom had taught him.
Lex said, “Sure?” Gazing at Lucas on his way past, his sister opened her mouth to say something else but never got the words out.
Walking up behind Bella, he let out a small huff, brought her glass over her head, and held it at eye level. Since he was standing at her shoulder, he caught the turn of her mouth upward.
“Our first Christmas here.” Bella took the mug and pointed at a pink and purple painted popsicle stick frame containing a picture of Bella, Lucas, and Chris on the brown sectional couch in the basement.
He had never noticed how Bella leaned into him before in those pictures. Her head rested on his shoulder even back in her first year of college.
Abruptly, Bella turned to face him. She’d never put on makeup today, not that it mattered. Bella was more radiant like this. Dewy skin and flushed cheeks.
"I thought you were going to do something cheesy." After everything with Preston in the last day and the gala, and Chris' accident, Lucas promised her space, and Chris had pushed the last button his sister had left. Finally, Bella seemed to be coming back around. Her smile was warm, and his heart raced again.
"Cheesy?" Lucas touched an old silk mistletoe his mom hung in the hallway every year in his back pocket. He made his move, and when she glanced down at the eggnog in her hand, he held it over them. "Why would I do something cheesy?"
A silent giggle from Bella brought a smile to his face. She glanced up, and there it was.
"I love when you're cheesy." Raising up on her tiptoes, Bella looped her arms around his neck, careful not to spill the eggnog. Their lips brushed together, leaving a tingling behind every time they parted.
A glass shattered, and an excited screech startled them apart.
“What! What? You two? Dad! Lucas and Bella! This is not a drill!”
Curls peeked out from around the kitchen door. “Huh,” Chris said, “I guess you didn’t screw up.”
Lucas dropped the mistletoe, but Bella kept nuzzling his cheek with her nose.
“Was everyone waiting for you to say something?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he answered. “Wait, you and Lex were in her room forever. You didn’t tell her?”
“No. She’s your sister. I dealt with Chris.”
Immature giggles preceded Chris yelling, “Get a room!”
“You didn’t deal with him enough,” Lucas sighed.
She whispered, “I dumped snow in his boots and shoes.” Then to her brother, “Chris, go shopping with Lex!”
“Only if you’ll...”
“Go!” Lucas and Bella said simultaneously.
Rocking them back and forth, Lucas kissed her temple and said, “He will kill us.”
“I can take him.”
Gazing into her eyes, Lucas noted the change. He brushed the hair back to get a better view of her eyes.
“What’s on your mind, Bella Astor?”
“That I am pretty stupid for not seeing you before.”
Lucas turned her back to the tree, the pictures of him and her dotting the branches encased in colorful popsicle stick frames over the years.
Bella leaned into him. Her weight and warmth stole his breath.
After a cough to clear his throat, Lucas pointed. “The way you looked at me just now?” She nodded. “I guess I missed it too all those years.”
"I can't believe you let me push you to date someone! What is wrong with you?"
“I didn’t tell you.”
“Dumbass.”
“You never needed a man to make you happy, though.”
“I know.” She sipped the eggnog thoughtfully. “I just needed to be around the people that I love.”
Behind them, Lucas' parents and Lex ran commentary on them, snuggling into each other. Bella was a master at ignoring them, and Lucas concentrated on doing the same. "So, we didn't waste our time together."
"Nope."