Rekindled: A Holiday Romance Read online

  Tonight, none of those doubts and fears would be allowed to the surface. Tonight, it would just be Garrett and me, wrapped in each other’s arms like we were all those years ago in the bed of his truck.

  7

  Garrett

  Bianca’s soft curves pressed against me, fitting against the hard planes of my own body like she had been carved out just for me. I wanted to take it further, move her to the bed, but I didn’t want to break the kiss or let her go just yet. I was hard as a rock, pressed against her belly. The more she swayed against me the harder I got. Once we came together, I wouldn’t last long, not after wanting her from the moment I laid eyes on her in her parents’ driveway. I would take care of her first; bring her pleasure so that by the time I was buried inside of her, we could fall apart together.

  Sighing, I pulled away from her, sliding my hands under her butt and lifting her up so that her legs were wrapped around my waist. The center of her pressed firmly against my erection and I groaned. We moved towards the bed as quickly as I could while keeping her flush against me. It wasn’t easy, but we made our way there without stumbling, and I tossed her back gently onto the soft surface.

  Her eyes met mine, their beautiful greenish brown intensity burning straight to my soul. We didn’t have to speak beyond that, both of us undressing as quickly as we could. I watched her as she shimmied out of her skinny jeans before tossing them to the floor. The thick sweater she wore was next, mussing her hair in a way that made her look sexy as hell. I undressed quicker after that, needing to feel her skin against mine, to touch her where I hadn’t touched her in ten years.

  When we were both in our underwear, I climbed onto the bed next to her, scooting us both up to the pillows. I gave her one last look, asking with my eyes if she really wanted to do this. Bianca gave me a short nod.

  I pulled her against me again, only the thin fabric of her lacy bra separating full skin-on-skin contact. I had to remedy that. Reaching behind her, I unclasped the bra with one hand and tossed it aside. She gave me a slight look of surprise for the speed at which I undid it, but I didn’t want to waste any time.

  “I need to feel you against me, all of you,” I said as I slipped my hand down the back of her panties and pulled them down to her ankles.

  She kicked them away, and I did the same with my boxer briefs. Neither of us cared where the garments landed, as long as we weren’t encumbered by them any longer. Once we were both completely nude, I flipped her onto her back, capturing her mouth again. This kiss was different than the rushed and needy kisses of mere moments before. This one was slow, torturous, and indicative of what was to come next. I hadn’t been with Bianca in ten years, and I didn’t want to hurry what was about to happen. I wanted to savor her the way you would a finely aged wine.

  I trailed kisses down her jaw, over her neck where her pulse fluttered under the skin, down to her collarbone and finally between her breasts before sitting back to admire all of her. She was beautiful. Curvy in all the right places, pert pink nipples on full breasts, and soft skin all the way down to where a groomed strip of dark curls nestled between her thighs. I continued my exploration of her glorious body with my lips, kissing her rose-colored nipples softly before taking each one between my lips and sucking gently. Her back arched off the bed, a soft moan escaping her lips. But I didn’t linger there. Kissing a line down her belly, I dipped my tongue in her navel before I reached the apex of her thighs. Pushing her legs apart, I caressed her inner thigh down to the knee before making my way back up. I found her entrance, my finger swirling around the moisture that gathered there before I pressed one and then two digits inside. Her back came off the bed again and she tried to close her legs, but I stopped her with one hand. Lowering down between her spread thighs, I fastened my lips over her sensitive bud, sucking and licking as she panted beneath me. Her body writhed, legs shaking as I licked a trail from her entrance to clit and back again.

  “Oh God!” Bianca gasped out the words as she fell apart around my fingers, her body clenching as she came.

  Without removing my fingers, I slid up and kissed her on the mouth, our tongues twining. I was ready to be inside of her, but I needed a condom.

  “I’ll be right back,” I muttered.

  She responded with a lazy nod. I climbed off the bed, rummaging in my pants pocket for my wallet and extracting a condom. I slipped it on swiftly before positioning myself back on top of her. She opened her legs, hips thrusting up to meet me as I lined up my erection with her entrance. I thrust into her, gripping her ass in one hand to hold her steady as I settled in. Our eyes met and something broke loose inside of me. It was like the years fell away and we were eighteen again.

  We kept our gazes locked as I rocked in and out of her, slowly at first, still in no hurry, not ready to be done with her yet. Bianca hiked her legs up my hips, locking me in place with her heels. Her arms wound around my neck and my lips found hers again as I sank deeper into her, both physically and emotionally.

  As the pressure for release built, I picked up the pace, the room filling with the sounds of our pants and moans. Bianca gently dug her nails into my shoulders as I sat back a little, lifting her legs higher, opening her wider. Then she came, crying out, her heels digging into my ass. The feel of her clenching around me sent me over the edge. As we both came down, bodies pulsing in unison as I collapsed on top of her, I pressed a soft kiss to her temple. Our eyes met again, my chest clenching with the intensity I saw in her gaze, which I knew was mirrored in mine.

  How were we supposed to keep this casual when everything was screaming at me that Bianca was what I had been waiting for all these years?

  8

  Bianca

  Garrett and I had lain in bed for a long time afterwards, touching each other, reminiscing about the times we spent together our senior year of high school. He was reluctant to leave and I was reluctant to let him go. But we had an arrangement, a plan—friends with benefits. After he left, I tried to tell myself that those feelings I’d felt when our eyes had locked and we came together with our bodies intertwined, were only those of nostalgia. Those feelings were real but not in the way that they could have been. I had been lonely for so many years in Florida, working and making casual acquaintances. Coming home, after such a long time, was bound to arouse confusing feelings.

  That was all it was.

  The next morning, I was slow to get up. Not only was the cold of the upstate Pennsylvania winter making me want to stay in bed, but I was loath to see my family and people in the town after yesterday. Shay was supposed to meet me at the diner for breakfast. She’d said she was going to bring my mom. When she called me yesterday to make sure I was all right after running out of my parents’ house, we talked about Mom, Dad, and everything that had pushed me from Gandy’s Ridge. Shay didn’t blame me for any of it except the way I went about it. She’d wanted to know and was glad I told her, but she also wished I had tried harder to get Mom and Dad to see my side first. But what Shay didn’t understand was that my parents had no intention of ever telling Shay about the circumstances surrounding her birth. No matter how many times I’d tried to convince her, she still thought they would have eventually told her.

  I knew differently.

  My father, especially, didn’t want either of us to know. I found out by accident. That summer, the summer after my senior year when I was an intern in our pediatrician’s office. They were upgrading their system—finally—transferring all the paper records over to electronic. My job had been to input everything into the database. It was tedious, but I was getting paid, and at the time I thought it was better than working at the local fast food restaurant or the diner. I never expected to find information about my family that Shay and I were never supposed to know. I never expected to stir up trouble in a way that would push my parents to kick me out.

  But once I found it, I couldn’t keep it to myself. Shay deserved more than that.

  My phone rang as I exited the bathroom after a long, hot sho
wer, snapping me from my thoughts of the secret that had almost destroyed my family.

  “Hello?” I answered without looking at who it was first.

  “Where are you?” It was Shay.

  “I just got out of the shower. Why?”

  “You were supposed to meet us for breakfast. You’re still coming, right?” Anxiety poured from her voice through the line.

  “Of course. I’m moving slow today, sorry. Aren’t we supposed to meet at nine-thirty?” I turned to look at the bedside clock. “It’s only nine.”

  “Uh, no, it’s ten,” Shay said, the anxiety replaced with irritation.

  “What? The clock in here says nine.” I swiveled to look at it again.

  “Well, it’s wrong. I was getting nervous. I thought you weren’t coming because I was bringing Mom,” she was whispering, which I knew meant Mom was right next to her.

  “Shit! Don’t the Hendersons update their alarm clocks?! I’ll be there soon,” I said as I hung up, tossed my phone and towel to the side and ran to my suitcase.

  Being late was not a way to make an impression with my mom. Of course, the one time I didn’t use my phone to check the time was the one time the clock I was using was wrong. I rummaged in my bag for jeans and a sweater, dressing as quickly as I could. Luckily, I hadn’t washed my hair, and after running a brush through it to get the tangles out, it fell around my shoulders in soft waves. The one thing I wasn’t missing about Florida was the humidity.

  After making sure to grab my purse and phone, I shoved the key to the room into my pocket and flew out of the room. The great thing about small towns was that anywhere in town only took two minutes of travel time max. I ran into the diner only five minutes after receiving Shay’s phone call, panting.

  “There she is!” Shay announced to practically the whole place as I walked through the door.

  She relaxed into the booth as I approached them, relief evident on her face. My mom gave me a slight wave and some of the tension I had been holding in my shoulders escaped. I hadn’t realized until that very moment that I was practically holding my breath. I leaned in and hugged Shay, who sat on one side of the booth. I wasn’t sure if my mom was expecting the same thing, but when I turned to her I could see that she was, so I leaned down and hugged her as well. Mom patted the seat next to her, sliding to the inside. Something swelled inside of me at my mom’s acceptance, filling a hole I hadn’t known was there. What was I so anxious about? Everything my mom had done since I arrived showed me that she had forgiven me. But some small part of me was still waiting for her to reject me again. Maybe I just needed to hear her say the words out loud.

  “It’s so wonderful that both of my girls are in the same place again,” Mom said, her voice hitching. “After my diagnosis, I was so scared to reach out to you. I was afraid that you wouldn’t want to speak to me after how your father and I treated you. It’s one of my biggest regrets after pushing you away that summer.”

  I listened to the words my mother spoke, my heart feeling unburdened for the first time in so many years. Tears gathered in my eyes and I swiped them away with the back of my hand, looking at Shay on the other side of the table. My mother wouldn’t let me withdraw from her, though, grabbing my hand under the table and holding it tightly. Shay’s eyes matched mine: tear-filled and red-rimmed. She mouthed the words “I told you.”

  I nodded at her to let her know she was right.

  “I should have reached out sooner, but I was also scared,” I admitted in a small voice.

  My mom shook her head, squeezing my hand tighter. “It wasn’t your place to reach out. I’m your mother, I shouldn’t have let something so silly, something your father and I should have told the two of you anyway, stop me. I’m so sorry for all the wasted years. I’m so sorry that you may have come home just to watch me die.”

  My mother lowered her head, silent sobs wracking her frail body. I took my hand from hers, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her to me.

  “We’re going to beat this, Mom. We have to.” I wasn’t sure if it was an empty promise, but right now, we all had to believe it.

  After a few more moments of silent tears from the three of us, we all cleared our throats, looked up, and picked up our menus.

  “What a sorry group we are,” my mom said with a slight smile.

  “It’s okay, we’re allowed to cry in public, you have cancer,” Shay said.

  At that, we all laughed before we went back to looking at our menus, taking our time to discuss our favorites on the diner menu and what each of us would eat. Mom’s appetite wasn’t great, but she said she really wanted pancakes, even if she only ate two bites of them. We placed our orders, each of us adding an orange juice, and sat back to wait.

  “Yvonne Alexander called me last night,” Mom said. The tone of her voice changed, and I knew exactly what she was going to say.

  I decided to feign ignorance. “Oh yeah. What did she have to say?”

  Mom gave me a pointed look, a slight smirk on her face. “She told me that you helped Garrett set up for the Christmas party and bazaar today.”

  Shay’s head whipped towards me, her eyes wide. She knew about my and Garrett’s history. When she’d called to tell me to come home, we’d talked all about it.

  I shrugged, taking a sip of my coffee to hide my face. “Yup. I literally ran into him when I left your house yesterday, when he dropped off the lasagna.”

  “She also told me that you two had dinner last night, at the B and B.” Her tone had taken on a whole new meaning, one I didn’t want my mother to take.

  Shay’s eyes grew wider. I gave my head a slight shake to tell her to drop it and that I’d tell her later.

  “It was nothing, Mom. We had dinner together, that’s all.” I’d forgotten that this town had spies. Everyone knew everyone else’s business. It was a gift and a curse.

  But mostly a curse.

  “That’s not what Mrs. Henderson told me.” My mom shrugged, taking a sip of her own coffee.

  My face burned. I should have known Mrs. Henderson would rat me out. That woman had probably been waiting in the hallway when Garrett left.

  “It’s really—”

  “Here ya go!” I was interrupted by Mrs. Harrison as she delivered our food.

  I clamped my mouth shut, not willing to let another of the town gossips in on what we were talking about. Though I was sure she probably already knew. I suddenly wondered how Garrett and I could make this “friends with benefits” thing work when everyone in town knew about it. Well, it was too late for that now.

  Mom had the decency to wait until Mrs. Harrison walked away before she leaned in to me. “You know, B, there’s nothing wrong with a little fling while you’re in town, but just be careful.”

  Was she implying we didn’t know how to use protection?

  “I’m always careful, Mom,” I said quietly.

  “Oh, no, I don’t mean condoms,” she whispered the last word. “I meant, if you mean to leave, to go back to Florida, whenever that may be, be careful.”

  She meant be careful with my heart. Even my mom knew that this thing may implode in my face.

  “I know, Mom. I know,” I mumbled as I shoved a mouthful of omelet in my mouth.

  But I wondered, not for the first time today, if I really knew.

  My eyes burned as I looked at the clock. I had been working on my computer for the last two hours to catch up on the work I’d missed over the last few days. Between the drive up to Pennsylvania and the news about my mom, I had let several design projects fall behind. I stood up from the chair, stretching the kinks out of my back, just as my phone pinged with a text message.

  Since you basically designed the whole thing, how about coming to the Christmas party with me?

  I smiled at my phone. Though I didn’t have the number saved, I knew exactly who the text was from.

  How did you get my number? Stalker much?

  I waited with a smirk on my face as the bubble that showed he was respon
ding appeared at the bottom of the screen.

  I didn’t even have to ask. My mother sent it to me this morning. Unsolicited. The town hens know all about us already.

  The message was followed with the shocked emoji face, the one that looked like it was from the Edvard Munch painting.

  I laughed out loud in my room as I thought about a response.

  I guess I’ll go to the party, since the whole town already knows about our arrangement, and I did, singlehandedly, design the whole hall.

  I didn’t have to wait long before he answered me.

  I’ll be at the B and B at six to pick you up. Wear something festive. ;)

  I giggled again.

  So now you’re telling me what to wear? What happened to “casual”?

  His only response was the emoji sticking his tongue out. I tried not to read too much into it.

  Well, that’s what I told myself.

  9

  Garrett

  I was nervous. I hadn’t been nervous to see a woman in years. This felt like a blind date. Or prom night. Not picking up a friend to go to a church Christmas party. Maybe it was the fact that when we walked in there together, the whole town would know that Bianca and I were sleeping together. Or maybe it was just because I wasn’t sure how to approach this whole arrangement anymore.

  This morning, as soon as I woke up, my mother called. She ranted and raved about how Mrs. Henderson saw me leaving Bianca’s room very “early”. I could tell she was elated, hoping that this was it and I would finally get married and make her a grandma. I didn’t give her any information, just listened to her go on and on until she was done. Then I told her that I ate dinner with Bianca and left it at that. But my mom wasn’t an idiot, and neither were the townspeople of Gandy’s Ridge.