Love Like Winter ❄️ Xavier Thorpe

Chapter 25: You Can Love Someone and Not Like Them

I stay awake for the rest of the drive to our Airbnb. He pulls into the driveway of a rather tall, blue house with Victorian style bay windows. It's definitely in the historic downtown district.

"That's ours?" I ask, wide-eyed.

Xavier lets out a laugh and says, "Yeah, Princess. I told you we had an entire place to ourselves."

I rub the lingering sleepiness out of my eyes and climb into the front seat so I can help Xavier with our bags. The food from the restaurant is still up here too and actually smells really good. I grab the food and my backpack and give Xavier his backpack. As we get closer to the house, I see that it's decorated for Halloween with pumpkins all along the steps and skeletons hanging from the awning. I giggle at the decor and catch Xavier's smile out of the corner of my eye.

He unlocks the front door and it opens up to yellow walls surrounding very modern furniture and decor. "Technically the top floor is a different unit but there's nobody staying there while we're here." Xavier says while putting his bag down on the couch in the living room.

There's a little sign hanging on the wall that says this house was built in 1882, for the former mayor of Beverly, Massachusetts. That's pretty cool. I continue strolling through the bottom floor and checking out the layout of the house. The kitchen is painted a dark teal with stainless steel appliances and I'm almost afraid to touch anything because of how crisp and clean it all looks. Xavier comes over to me and wraps his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder.

"Better than the cabin?"

I was trying to not even think about the cabin to be honest; getting kidnapped definitely wasn't the getaway I'd wanted. "As long as no crazy fucks come up here and try to take me away, then yes, definitely." I swallow hard and let out a shaky breath.

"Hey, Princess, don't talk like that," he holds me by my shoulders and stares directly into my eyes. "Nothing like that is ever going to happen again, I swear to you on my entire existence."

I smile and nod. "Then could we please not talk about the cabin? I'm starving."

We warm up our food from the restaurant and sit across from each other at the little kitchen table. He has some sort of ravioli dish and I have my favorite, which is spaghetti.

"Why do you have a breadstick and I don't?" I frown.

He tries to stifle a laugh and gives me his breadstick. "I may have eaten one in the van on the way up here."

"I guess you did work up an appetite," I giggle and wink, snatching the breadstick and taking a bite. "But this breadstick is mine."

It's quite bizarre to be alone with Xavier, surrounded by nothing but the peaceful sound of silence and a random car or two going down the street. There's no negativity in the air for once, it's almost unsettling.

After we finish eating, we take a shower in the brightly lit bathroom with the graveyard theme. "Wednesday would love this bathroom," I say, taking in all of the decor and shower curtain.

Xavier laughs. "I can't even imagine Wednesday decorating a bathroom, or any room for that matter. But, I guess we'll find out since we'll be sharing a house."

"I think that house is already decorated, luckily." I giggle.

Xavier takes the bandages off of his shoulder and all that remains are small faint lines where the deep gashes once were. The lines are surrounded by pinkish skin that I'm assuming will continue healing. I reach up and gently touch him, almost instantly bringing me back to the facility when he basically bled out in my arms. I shudder at the memory and press my lips to those awful reminders, trying to imprint my love into them.