by Maine, Miley
3
Serenity
Grayson was much, much hotter than I remembered him.
During those thirteen years in which we’d been apart, he had changed a lot.
Somehow, he seemed even taller now. His hair was dark with a singular streak of silver that must have appeared recently or his vanity had gotten the better of him and he decided to dye it. His green eyes were more vibrant than ever and his skin seemed to sparkle with an inner light.
My stomach clenched and my heart beat faster in my chest. No wonder none of my past relationships had worked out; it was clear that the crush I had on Grayson had never, ever gone away.
“Oh,” was the only thing I managed to say, not quite able to force anything else from my mouth. “Grayson.”
“Didn’t you know I would be coming?” he teased, winking at me.
“I mean, I did.” I looked down at my feet, blushing. “It’s just been so long. You look so different.”
“Please, do come in,” my mother said, and Grayson brushed past her to ruffle my hair.
“Of course I’ve changed. But look at you—you were only eleven when I left. And now you’re a grown woman!” He said that, but did he really see me as such? I still had no way of knowing. I didn’t want him to see me as a child anymore. I wanted...a lot of things, even if though I knew that it was probably a bad idea. Childhood crushes never turned out to be how you might imagine them. But perhaps with Grayson….
“What, did you expect me not to grow at all?” I looked up at him with a sly smile, doing my best to put on a face that would hide just how flustered I felt at that moment. “Of course I’ve grown. I’ve even had some boyfriends.” God, why did I say that? “Though, the last one did break up with me right before the holidays, so I shouldn’t be getting so high and mighty.”
“He did?” Grayson raised his eyebrows. “Well, he’s certainly missing out then.” He gestured to my outfit. “I mean, a sweater dress? How could he resist that?”
I giggled. “Apparently he decided my womanly temptations were not enough for him.”
“Tell you what.” Grayson grabbed my hand and brought it up to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles and making my stomach flip flop. “I can be your date for the night, since your escort has so grievously neglected you.”
I smiled up at him, knowing that my face must be showing some sign of my embarrassment. “Okay,” was all I could manage and I cringed at my own awkwardness.
Just then, Sebastian came bounding down from upstairs and Grayson dropped my hand to envelop my older brother in a big hug.
“You’re late!” Sebastian nagged him affectionately. “Guess they don’t make private jets as fast as they used to, huh?”
“More like your roads are icier this time of year than they usually are in So Cal. I had to make sure to drive slowly so that I didn’t crash, or I wouldn’t have arrived at all. I’m a little out of practice ice road-trucking.”
“Oh, sure, sure.” Sebastian released Grayson and took a step back, beaming back at his long-lost friend. “I’m so glad you could make it, though. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now.”
“How could I forget? You canceled on your girlfriend to see me.”
“Hey!” I protested. “I thought you canceled because you wanted to keep me company.”
Sebastian shrugged. “I mean, that, too. A man can have more than one reason.”
“Because her boyfriend broke up with her?” Grayson ventured.
“Hey!” I said, playfully hitting his arm. At the same time, Sebastian gave me a strange look.
“You’ve told him already? Wow, you really are just a sob story, aren’t you?” He broke into a grin, pulling me close to him and ruffling my hair. “Can’t keep your relationship issues to yourself for one second, huh?”
Grayson looked on with a sigh and shook his head. “You know, Sebastian, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk that way to my date for the evening. I may or may not have to defend her honor if you keep going at her like that.”
Sebastian broke out into a great big laugh. “Oh, did she coerce you into that, then? That’s golden.”
Grayson shrugged, pulling me out of Sebastian’s arms and to his side. “I offered, since her boyfriend obviously doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.” My heart beat faster in my chest. “And by that I mean your cooking, Mrs. Allen,” he added, with a smile at my mother.
“Oh.” She blushed. “I’m flattered. Well, we really should be getting to dinner before it gets cold, then.”
“Mmmm, I can smell it, and it smells delicious,” Grayson said.
I could smell it, too. I was used to the smell of my mother’s cooking in the house by now. She was an incredible cook and she usually cooked all of our dinners for us, so Thanksgiving really was a time to be thankful for. She always made a big spread, and we ate in between the time of lunch and dinner, combining the two meals into one so that we could have a true feast and splurge all of the day’s calories at once on her delicious cooking. She’d cooked a few extra dishes this year since she knew that there would be another person helping empty the plates, and I was especially looking forward to the mini golden potatoes she had prepared. Along with her homemade, fresh-baked bread. And her cranberry sauce. And the stuffing. And turkey. Everything she made was absolutely heavenly, every year without fail.
We all went into the dining room where the table had already been pulled out and the special silverware set out next to seasonal plates and napkins folded to look like turkeys. The dishes were set all along the side counter buffet-style, ready for us to take heaping portions of each dish without waiting for someone to pass them along. We all sat down and, to my surprise, Grayson sat down next to me.
My heart kept beating at its fast pace as we held hands and said grace. I knew that he could probably feel just how much I was shaking and how sweaty my palm was from the close proximity, just like I knew that his flirting was all in good fun. But that didn’t change how I felt or the reaction that it all got out of me.
We finished saying grace, and the bubble of conversation and joy started as we all got up to fill our plates. “What would you recommend? It’s been a while since I’ve had your mother’s cooking,” Grayson said, leaning in to whisper to me conspiratorially.
“Honestly, everything,” I said, grabbing a heaping portion of potatoes and several large slices of fresh bread.
Grayson took one look at my plate and followed suit. “I trust your judgment,” he said with a wink. “I can always come back to get more.”
I pushed down my flush and headed back to the table to slide into the seat next to him. I unfolded my napkin, placing it on my lap, and scooted my chair in, smiling at Grayson.
“Remember not to eat too much,” I said with a little laugh. “I know it can be tempting, but an upset stomach is the last thing you want. Especially with dessert waiting just around the corner.”
“Is that so?” He gave me a grin. “I think it might be worth the suffering to get a helping of Mrs. Allen’s cooking. You’re lucky, remember? You have it every day, but I’ve been going thirteen years without it.”
“Oh, stop,” my mother said, a blush rising on her features as she sat down next to my father. Like mother, like daughter; Grayson certainly had an effect. “There’ll be plenty of leftovers for you to take home, so don’t feel as if you have to stuff yourself right now.”
“Thank you,” Grayson said with a grateful nod and dug in.
The two of us exchanged flirtatious remarks throughout dinner, even though I knew that they probably didn’t mean anything much to him. He was playing a role, having fun. He was trying to make things better for me, distracting me from my breakup even though that wasn’t his job. This didn’t make it any easier to separate myself from my feelings, though. I was still furiously attracted to him, and every comment brought up yet another blush or a flustered remark in return.
Whatever he said, however it sounded, I could tell that he
really didn’t mean anything by it because his physical responses were incredibly different and not at all similar to mine. I would have at least expected to see some change in his demeanor if he really had an interest.
As the dinner continued, it began to snow outside. Only lightly at first, which we had expected. The weather reports said that there would be light snow today, citing some sort of cold front or whatever, but apparently they hadn’t gotten their prediction exactly right because it began to snow harder and harder outside. Soon, the view outside the windows went mostly white as the snow continued to swirl around in the air. If I didn’t know any better, I might have called it a white out. But of course, those were much more severe.
As we got out dessert—a fresh apple pie that my mother had made from scratch—my mother seemed to have just noticed this very concerning weather development.
“Oh dear,” she said. “It seems the weather really has taken a turn.” She looked over in Grayson’s direction and a furrow creased in the middle of her brow. “It wouldn’t be safe for you to drive in this weather, dear,” she said, looking rather concerned. “You’d better just stay the night.”
My father piped up. “We have plenty of extra bedrooms, so don’t worry about being a bother. We can have a room made up for you in a jiffy.”
Grayson laughed. “A bother? I would never. Though I don’t want to take advantage of your hospitality.”
My mother gestured in the general direction of the window. “Have you seen what it looks like out there? No, I really must insist that you stay here, at least until it settles down a bit. It’s really storming out there and I can’t bear to think of you driving in that, let alone flying. I’m sure they’ve shut down the airport already”
My face continued to redden as the conversation persisted. I couldn’t believe it—was Grayson really going to stay the night here? In this house? With us? With me? I knew that it was dangerous outside right now, but that didn’t stop my head from flying in all sorts of directions. Really, it must be the romance novels. Obviously I was reading too much of them if the mere thought of Grayson staying in another room made me this flustered. I would really have to make a note to switch to something a little more decent.
I thought that would be the end of that conversation after Grayson relented, but it continued as my mother served the pie, as did my wild imagination.
“Where would you like to sleep?” Sebastian asked with a wink at Grayson. “Will it be a sleepover like old times?”
Grayson shrugged and let out a little laugh. “Those were fun, but I doubt it’ll quite be like old times unless Serenity sneaks in the middle of the night demanding to be included.”
He winked at me, and my face flushed as my stomach clenched. Oh, damn these nerves, I couldn’t take it anymore. It was all too much, far more than I had expected.
“I’m going to, uh, excuse myself early. I have a, umm…stomach ache,” I said, not very convincingly. I stood and ran, not waiting to hear the responses from my family or Grayson. I couldn’t handle it, not now at least. I needed a minute before I could trust myself to interact with humans again.
I retreated to my room where comfort and solitude awaited me, flopping down onto my bed with a sigh. Really, why did it always have to be my mind getting the better of me? This hadn’t happened with Ethan, my ex, or any of my boyfriends before that, really. My imagination never ran wild with them. My stomach never got the same kind of butterflies that it did when I was with Grayson.
Did I have too much of an idealized version of him in my head? Or maybe it was the romance, filling my head with fantasies that could never actually happen? I knew that I shouldn’t expect that much. I was an average girl from a small town buried in the hills of Northern California. There wasn’t much of a choice for me but to flee to my fantasies for fulfillment; I certainly wasn’t going to find anyone that dreamy here. And on top of all that, I was unemployed and would probably never be able to follow my dream of being a musician.
So, really, it seemed wrong for me to expect anything even vaguely like the romances that were in my books. Those people led interesting lives, went places, accomplished things. They had adventures, jumped out of airplanes, turned into dragons, and solved mystical quests. They found the love of their life because their lives were interesting enough to be shared. I just read books and played the harp.
But was it really so bad to want all that passion and fantasy? Especially when I had struggled so much before? I’d lost myself when I was rejected from Juilliard, but maybe if I had a reason, I could find my fire again.
4
Grayson
I watched as Serenity fled from the room, her hair billowing out behind her in some phantom wind. If I was any bit the gentleman I perceived myself to be, then I would go after her without any ulterior motives and ask her what was wrong and if I had offended her in some way.
But apparently I wasn’t that gentleman—couldn’t be that gentleman—because I couldn’t lie to myself. I found her so incredibly attractive. She had grown into a beautiful young woman, and there was no denying that I found her sexy and that I wanted to be with her. But I feared that would be taking advantage of her childhood crush on me and a betrayal of the trust and friendship between Sebastian and me.
But would it really be that wrong? It was not like I was still seventeen and she was eleven. We were both adults now, and six years was not that much of a difference now that I was thirty and she was twenty-four. And she had to be over me to some extent now that she had a better idea of what she was doing. She wasn’t still the same naive little girl who blushed and confessed her crush to me.
Maybe I would never know. Maybe I would never be brave enough to take that leap, and that might be a good thing for the sake of my friendship with Sebastian. For now, it was all only speculation. And maybe a little bit of hope.
Mrs. Allen sighed as she watched Serenity leave. “Really, I don’t know what’s gotten into that poor girl.”
“Let her be, Mom,” Sebastian said with a sigh. “You know that she’s dealing with some stuff.”
“I know, I just wish that there was a better way for me to help her.”
“Being there for her is the best we can do right now,” Mr. Allen said, giving Mrs. Allen a firm, sideways hug. “She’ll figure her stuff out in time.”
“I know,” she sighed. “Well, maybe we can help in some way. She did say her stomach was upset and I’ve just baked some gingerbread cookies.” She headed around to the kitchen and stacked some cookies from cooling rack onto a plate. “Grayson, would you mind taking this to her?”
“Of course not,” I said with a smile. Not a gentleman at all. “I would be happy to help.” I grabbed the plate from her and then headed back into the living room and up the stairs, my memory serving as a guide to Serenity’s room.
This old house hadn’t really changed much since my childhood. There were maybe a few new decorations and pictures of Sebastian and Serenity steadily growing older (maybe skipping over a couple of the awkward teenage years), and a few obvious modern touches like a flat screen TV and gaming console, but it still had the same feeling as the place I remembered. The furniture were all in the same places, and the rooms were near enough as I had left them.
I felt so comfortable in this place and caught up in my memories that I forgot to knock, and opened Serenity’s door with a smile—only to come upon a rather amusing sight.
She had her face buried in a pillow, and she was screaming into it with all her might while her legs flailed uselessly in the air.
“Are you alright?” I asked, causing her to jolt upright with a start.
She covered her humiliation with a stern, accusing glare. “You should have knocked.”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t like you were indecent. Besides, I brought you come cookies. That ought to sweeten the deal.” I held up the plate in my hands, and she looked at it curiously.
“Did Mom send you up with those?”
I nodded, com
ing over to sit next to her on the bed. “She did. She was concerned about your upset stomach.”
Serenity scoffed. “As if anyone really believed that.”
I laughed and set the cookies down on the nightstand. “Would you mind telling me what’s really going on, then?”
“No! I’m not telling you,” she said, rather defensively and that blush instantly reminded me of that feisty little girl.
I raised my eyebrows, covering up a smile. “That’s quite a bit of protest. It was only a simple question, and a rather harmless one in my opinion. Perhaps the lady doth protest too much?”
Her face got redder, if that was even possible. “It really is none of your business.”
“Or is it? For some reason, I have the strangest feeling that this relates to me.” I grabbed one of the cookies, and bit off the gingerbread man’s head, letting the heavenly taste of ginger and molasses dissolve in my mouth. Mmm, my favorite.
“Hey!” she protested. “Those were for me.”
“Oh? You want one?” I teased, taking another bite. “Maybe you should tell me what’s up then or I’ll just have to eat them all..”
Serenity pouted. “That’s not fair. Mom sent you up with those for me and you know it.”
“Because she thought you had an upset stomach.” I took another bite of the cookie in my hand and reached over for another. “Which you apparently do not. So I would say that your argument is null and void.”
“It is not.” She huffed, giving me an exasperated expression. “You’re just being greedy.”
“Am I? Or are you being difficult?” I tapped her on the nose, eliciting an even deeper blush than the one that she had been displaying before.