Chapter 14
~ Hailey ~
By the time I finished preparing Christmas dinner, I'd grown surprisingly comfortable with Nathaniel.
He was clumsy in the kitchen—nearly knocked over a bowl of cranberry sauce, couldn't figure out how to work the fancy mixer, kept asking where things were kept like he'd never stepped foot in his own kitchen before. But he was also funny, charming in a self-deprecating way that felt genuine rather than calculated.
And protective.
Every time I reached for something heavy or tried to multitask too many things at once, he was there. Taking the roasting pan from me. Insisting I sit down while he stirred something. Making sure I actually ate a few bites while cooking instead of just tasting for seasoning.
"You're going to exhaust yourself," he'd said at one poi
