Noelle spent the afternoon trying her best to keep Cole and his invitation out of her head, but it was futile. While her and Jacob baked and made a light lunch, she thought of him. When her mom called and asked her questions about Christmas Day, she thought of him. When she blinked, she saw him. It was infuriating and causing her more stress than she needed for the holidays. She even dressed herself comfortable yet cute to be ready just in case. She couldn't stop her mind nor her heart from racing endlessly. Jacob even seemed to notice at times because he looked at her with a confused expression. It was easy to sidetrack him with Christmas prepping though.

Before Noelle knew it, the evening was upon them and she had to decide before it was too late. She knew she wouldn't be able to talk herself into either option so she decided to call someone that might give her enough of a push and to help her decide the best choice. It only rang twice before a voice on the other end answered.

"Hey Nono, we're a little tied up right now, what's up?" Although they argued a lot and made fun of one another, Noelle's brother was always there to help talk sense into her or at least help her see the light. When she had first announced she was pregnant and her boyfriend decided he didn't want a family, Noelle was ready to chase after him and beg for him to stay. It wasn't until Max came around and knocked some sense into her that she realized it was futile. No one would have been happy if he had been forced to be a father. It was tough to get over, especially with her hormones all over the place thanks to being pregnant, but her brother was there to remind her not to be stupid and it's okay to be selfish sometimes especially if it benefits more than oneself. In her case it was for Jacob as well. She couldn't imagine her sweet, bubbly boy being surrounded by someone who couldn't love him fully. Her eyes began to water at that thought.

She realized then, this wasn't all about her. This was about Jacob as well and she wanted to berate herself for being so self-absorbed when it came to this. She knew what she had to do and she would make sure she let Jacob decide.

"Nono?" Max's confused voice shook her out of her stupor and she quickly responded.

"Sorry! I thought I left something at your place, but I just found it," she lied to him. "I'll call you guys tomorrow, love you!" She quickly hung up and dug out the two tickets and headed to Jacob who was glued to the TV, watching an old Christmas movie that Noelle herself watched plenty of times.

"Hey Jacob. Can you pause and give me a second, I have something to ask you and I want you to think long and hard before you decide what you want to do, okay?" Although he looked worried he nodded quickly and turned to her, his eagerness making him jittery. "Okay, so I got these tickets today from Santa," she wanted to keep the Christmas spirit alive. "He invited us to take a sleigh ride at the Kingston farm in a couple hours. Do you want to go? I promise you we don't have to if you don't want to and if you do we have to get ready to head out soon okay?" He listened thoughtfully and his eyes widened at the mention of Santa. He looked adorable while thinking hard and it took him a good while to respond.

"Will Cole be there?" He asked a little sharply and it surprised her that he now had a somewhat tense look on his face.

"I'm not sure. He might be since it's his family's place, but we will be too busy on a sleigh to really run into anyone," she didn't want to force his choice one way or the other and even though he seemed upset with Cole now, she didn't want him to spite himself.

"Okay, we can go, but if we see Cole and he tries to tell me hi I don't want to say anything back," he crossed his arms with a pout on his face. If she didn't feel so bad about how he might be hurt by Cole she'd laugh at how cute he looked so she pressed her lips into her teeth to keep it in. Her heart hurt for Jacob and how angry he was with Cole now. Their almost instant connection ended just as quickly and it left him confused. However, no matter how much Noelle tried to bring it up to talk about, he tried to brush it off. She wanted to bubble wrap him and protect him from the world, but she knew he'd encounter more pain in his life. She just didn't like that it was happening to him at such a young age.

"Okay sweetie, how about you go use the bathroom and get your jacket. We're gonna go on a sleigh ride!" She tried to sound excited for him, but internally she was waging a war. Hope, anger, sadness, embarrassment, uncertainty all filtered through her. Maybe it would be a good thing to see him again. She could at least get some closure and her mind would be free to move on to other things. She didn't know what those things were yet since he occupied a large part of her, but she would find something. Her and Jacob would move on and it would all be a distant memory. The only problem with that was the idea of it just fizzling away hurt her more than she cared to admit.

Jacob reappeared shortly after and didn't seem as enthusiastic as she'd hoped. He seemed hesitant and much more serious than she liked to see, especially on Christmas Eve. He still followed her out the door and helped her buckle himself into his booster. The shine in his eyes had dimmed from earlier in the day and she hoped whatever Cole had planned would bring it back. She was now second guessing this all because the last thing she wanted was for her son to have a heartbreaking holiday.

The drive was quiet and although the Christmas music playing lowly on the radio was meant to fill the dead air, the silence outweighed it all and lingered throughout. "Are you okay back there, Coco?" He hadn't said a word for the short time they'd been driving. He just started out the window with a serious expression. He glanced at her in the mirror for a second before looking back out. He looked more mature at the moment and Noelle hated it very much.

"Yeah," was all he said and in a low tone she'd almost missed it. If only she could erase certain memories from his mind and keep him the happy and bubbly boy he was just hours ago.

"We don't have to go if you don't want to, you know? I just thought..." she sighed heavily, not wanting to have such a serious conversation. She knew she had to do it anyway. "I thought you might miss him and would at least want to say hello to Cole."

His head shot towards her quickly and his voice finally found its volume. "I don't want to see him," he snapped. "I hate him!" Noelle's eyes began to water and she had to blink away the tears just as fast as they appeared. This was a terrible idea she thought to herself.

"Lovebug...I know you might be mad at him, but you don't hate him. It's not nice."

"Yeah well him making you sad wasn't nice either," he countered. He was too observant and smart for his own good it killed her.

"He only made me a little sad and that's because I thought we were friends. Things may have happened that didn't allow us to be friends though okay? I don't want you worrying about that. I'm fine and he has really good reasons, I'm sure," she hoped.

"I thought he was going to be my Christmas gift," Jacob said low with a sadness that pierced her heart. "I asked Santa for something and then you magically found a friend who really liked being with the both of us so I thought..." He didn't finish his sentence and Noelle didn't know whether it was because he was sad he wasn't going to get a dad for Christmas or because he wasn't going to get Cole.

"Sweetheart, you will get whatever you want okay? Just maybe not at the time you think you will. Now, no more sad faces, we're about to see some reindeer again and then take a ride on Santa's sleigh. Who else gets to say they did something as cool as that for Christmas?"

She saw some of the light return to his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. It was going to be okay. She would make sure it was.

She just had to avoid Cole Kingston.