The Dare: Sterling U: Book 1

by Amanda Ray

  "Babe," Savvy grabbed my hand in hers and looked me square in the eyes. Her voice, soft and loving, "you could know someone your whole life and not fall in love with them and you could know someone for two minutes and fall madly in love with them. I know you better than anyone, Scarlette Rose Jenkins and you know I love you to the moon and back. I'm telling you, you are in love with him, whether you want to admit it or not. And to be honest, based on the way he looks at you and the way he's looking at you right now, he's in love with you too." I took another glance behind me and sure enough Brooks was staring right at as. A smile on his face and his eyes glistened with something. Love, Savvy would say.

  My eyes were still on him when I whispered, "Yeah. Maybe I do."

  Chapter 26

  Letty

  The last week of classes were a blur. Brooks, Nate, Savvy and I hung out almost every night cramming for exams and binging on food. We had split the time between our apartment and Brooks' specifically because Savvy was upset Brooks didn't have any decorations up for the holidays. "Are you kidding me?" She had yelled at him.

  "What? I'm not going to be here for Christmas so what's the point?" I had to shake my head when he said it because he didn't realise that he had just unleashed the beast in Savvy.

  She gasped looking over at me and I smiled telling her to let it out. "What's the point? What's the point! The point is to spread love and happiness and cheer! It's not just about the damn holiday Brooks! But I'm sorry if your family only taught you that! The whole holiday season, the whole freaking winter season is something that's supposed to bring you warmth when you look out the window. It makes your heart melt and brings a smile to your face when you see the tiny lights and the snow fall. It makes you feel loved when you cuddle up under a blanket with your closest friends or boyfriend or whoever, with a nice cup of hot cocoa and a fireplace or a movie. It's not just a freaking holiday! It's a whole damn mood!" She let out a breath trying to relax herself after her rant.

  I couldn't help but laugh when I looked over at the boys. They were so stunned and utterly shocked that I just wanted to break down in hysterics. Been there. Done that. The first year Savvy and I were roommates I hadn't wanted to decorate because I never celebrated any holidays after my family had passed, but Sav wasn't having it. She said that holidays -the actual day - doesn't really count. What counts is the fact that those holidays bring people together. They bring strangers from around the world together to celebrate a common thing. She'd gone on about how much joy there was in just thinking about the upcoming season or holiday and how going shopping for decorations could bring smiles to peoples faces. How you could drive around and see something so simple turn into something magical and that everyone needed a little magic in their lives.

  From that moment on I never fought her on it again and actually started to look forward to the holiday season. “Isn’t Christmas a religious holiday abo-” Brooks had tried to argue back but Savvy waved him off. After another long rant about not having to be religious to celebrate and believe in the magic of the holidays, Brooks finally caved and agreed with her. We made it a point to take the boys out shopping for decorations and a tree for Brooks' apartment and spent a few nights decorating, studying and watching Christmas movies. It made me feel something I had never felt before, something I couldn't describe, but something I didn't want to go away.

  Twas the night before everyone was leaving campus and Brooks had asked us to come over for a "holiday surprise." Savvy swore something was suspicious and demanded we go to the mall first to buy the guys Christmas gifts because she "had a feeling." Sure enough when we arrived at the apartment Brooks had set up a beautiful spread. There were appetizers spread out on his coffee table, Christmas movies stacked out by his giant flat screen, fuzzy blankets and pillows laid out on the couch, and presents under his tree. Nate walked in with a tray of mugs filled with hot cocoa when we made our way to the couch.

  I was in awe of everything. My eyes were wide and I could feel tears brimming the surface. "What's all this?" My voice was shaky but I cleared it to avoid suspicion. "Well, since we've become an awesome little group we wanted to do something nice since we won't see you guys for Christmas." Nate said as he handed me a mug. "Well, that was very thoughtful of you guys," Savvy said smiling at him.

  My heart was pounding so fast I could feel it down to my toes. I'd never had anyone do something like this before. Savvy was the first kind soul to invite me to her home when she found out I had no family but even then it was more of a threat. She wanted me to go with her so I wouldn't be alone but she also needed me as a buffer for her family. I'd loved her for it and still do but there's still that tiny piece of me that thinks she only wants me around to help her deal with her family. This. This was different. They didn't do this for any other reason than for all of us to be together and it took everything in me not to let out my tears.

  Brooks saw and came over to sit next to me on the couch. He pulled me in, kissing my cheek and whispered in my ear, "I know you'll be with Savvy for Christmas but a selfish part of me wanted to celebrate with you, too. I wanted to be with my girlfriend for Christmas, so I figured we could have our own little celebration." I looked up at him, the tears had escaped. I smiled and grabbed his face, bringing his lips to mine and sealing them with a kiss that told him how much this meant to me. How much he meant to me.

  "Get a room," Nate wolf whistled at us and I pulled away on a chuckle. "Sorry," I laughed, "thank you guys. This is amazing!"

  "It really is!" Savvy agreed, "And this hot cocoa is freaking bomb. I'm so happy you guys listened to my suggestions about the holidays." We all let out a laugh. We decided to watch Die Hard after all agreeing that there was no better Christmas movie then watching Bruce Willis kick some butt. After the third movie I looked over to see Savvy asleep on Nates lap, his hand wrapped around her waist. "What's going on there?" I looked up at Brooks gesturing to our friends. He shrugged, "Nate says they're just friends. He wouldn't lie to me." I looked back at them. Nate's hand had moved from her waist to her hair and he was mindlessly playing with it while watching the movie. I smiled and shook my head. Yeah. Okay. Just friends my ass.

  "Oh. Before I forget." Brooks kissed the top of my head before getting up and going to the tree. He grabbed a small square shaped gift and came back over to the couch, pulling me back into his chest and letting me rest my head on him. "I got you a little something. It's nothing big but I really wanted you to have it." He handed it to me and I couldn't help the smile on my face. I looked up at him, my head still plastered to his chest, "Can I open it now or do I have to wait for Christmas?"

  Brooks laughed and shook his head, "I'm not that big of an asshole. I wouldn't hand you the gift and then tell you to wait two days before opening it." I gave him a look that said yes you would. He laughed, "Okay, yeah. Maybe I would. But I'm not. I want you to open it now. I got you something else, something stupid and small because Nate and I wanted to get you girls something too so that you can open later when we do the whole gift exchange thing. But this one is just for you. Just between us." I looked at him confused but he just nudged me to open the gift. I tore open the shiny red wrapping paper. For a guy, he actually did a pretty good job wrapping. I pulled out a dark gray jewelry box.

  I looked up at Brooks with my eyebrows pinched. Jewelry? He bought me jewelry? This is too much. I lifted up the top of the box to reveal a heart shaped locket and my heart stopped. I held my breath and shot up in my seat. I couldn't break my eyes away from it but I could feel Brooks staring at me. It looked just like the locket my mom used to have. The one she was wearing when she died. The one they never found because the car had gone up in flames when the drunk driver hit them.

  Tears started pouring out of me and I heard Brooks whisper, "Open it up." With shaky hands I took the locket out of the box and opened it. A gasp escaped me and I tried to hold back the sobs that wanted to rip through me. Inside was a picture of all of us. A picture of my mom, dad and sister on the left and a
picture of me, Brooks, Savvy and Nate on the right that we had just taken at the tree farm a few days ago. "Turn it over," Brooks whispered and on the back, engraved read:

  My family. Always with me, forever growing.

  I couldn't take it. I jumped into Brooks' lap and sobbed hysterically into his neck. This was the best gift I have ever gotten. He held onto me so tight it was like he was telling me he'd never let me go. When I got my tears under control I pulled back and looked him in his eyes, "How did you know?"

  He smiled, "You told me one day about the locket that she never took off. How you wish you had a piece of them to carry with you always. I hope you don't mind but I did some research and had some help from my family. We tracked down a few photos and I found the necklace. That's your mom's necklace,”Brooks pointed to the locket and my breath hitched, “The firefighters had recovered it in the car but didn't know how to give it to you since you went straight into foster care. They didn't have any contact information, that's why you never got it. One of the firefighter’s held onto it, in case he ever found the relatives. My parents have connections and they helped me get it for you. I had it cleaned and taken care of. The picture of your family was already inside of it. I just added the other one to it."

  The tears had returned and I leaned in kissing him with everything I had. So much love flowed inside me and I wanted to tell him. I needed to tell him. Right here. Right now. How much I loved him but when I pulled back and opened my mouth I heard another sob. I looked over and saw Savvy and Nate teary eyed and staring at us. "I'm sorry," Savvy whispered, clutching onto Nate's shirt, "but that's the sweetest thing I have ever heard in my entire life and I just couldn't hold back the tears." Nate cleared his throat and quickly wiped away a tear that escaped, "Yeah, man. That's a damn good gift. Way to upstage everyone, huh."

  I laughed, shaking my head at them. I looked back over at Brooks who was staring at me with something I'd never seen before. His eyes were so tantalizing, so fixating I could get lost in them forever. He ran his fingers slowly up my sides until he reached my face, cupping my cheeks and pulled me down to him slowly before kissing me in a way I've never felt before. It was so soft, so gentle and so loving that it made me want to cry tears of joy." Nate cleared his throat again, "Okay. So I guess it's present time then?" Brooks and I pulled apart and I moved to sit beside him on the couch as Nate passed out the gifts. I clutched onto my mom's necklace with one hand and grabbed onto Brooks with the other. I looked over as he was unwrapping his gift from Nate and watched him laugh. I knew then that I was utterly and completely, madly in love with this man. And I knew just how I was going to tell him.

  Chapter 27

  Brooks

  Christmas Day and all I want is to go downstairs and see Letty under our Christmas tree. We said our goodbyes two days ago but she's all I can think about. After I gave her the locket it was like something clicked in her eyes. A light shone in them that I hadn't seen before. It was like I gave her a piece of her life back and it melted me. It changed me. If a simple gift can do that, can make me feel like this...whatever this is, just by looking at her, then hell I'm about to max out every single credit card I own. I know that it wasn't just an item, that it was more important than that. It was her moms and she cherished it. Still does, and I'm so grateful to be able to have given her something back, something positive, from everything that she's lost but honestly...Nate was right. I'm so damn lost for this girl that I'd do anything for her.

  After the whole locket exchange all four of us decided to exchange the little gifts we got. I got the girls some of their favorite sweets, gave Nate tickets to a game for his favorite hockey team - there were four tickets ‘cause gifts are always better when you can share them with friends right? Nate bought Letty a bottle of her favorite wine - which again we all shared, and I'm sure he got that information from Savvy, who he granted with a black vibrator. Apparently that thing has multiple speeds and is waterproof- information that I did not need to know. Savvy in return gave him a book on "how to read a woman's mind, body and soul." To say their relationship is a strange one would be an understatement but Nate insists that they're just friends even though I'm pretty sure there's something more going on. Whatever. He'll tell me when he wants to.

  Savvy gave me a black, silk blind fold before winking at me and telling me, "Don't worry, you'll have a ton of fun with that." I laughed when she gestured over to Letty, who gave me the best gift of all.

  I look down at my coffee mug and chuckle, bringing it to my lips I take a big sip of my smooth Columbian roast. "What...in the hell....is that?" My mom stops dead in her tracks and stares at me. "What?" I play dumb and look all around me trying to find what she's talking about. My dad walks in behind her, clad in his plaid Christmas pajama pants and ugg slippers. He stops, looks at me, looks at my mom, then back to me and laughs. "Oh my God. Who was the genius that bought you that?" I smile and shake my head taking another sip from my mug.

  "Seriously? You think that's funny?" My mom's still standing gawking at me and my mug. "Yes. I think that's hilarious actually," My dad fills up two cups of coffee, walks back over to my mom handing her one and places a kiss on her cheek. "Come on Lo, you can't tell me that shit isn't funny. Look at it."

  "Really with the whole shit thing?" I start coughing on my sip of coffee, choking while trying to hold back my laughter.

  "Ma, it's just a cup. Can you relax?"

  She lets out a huff, rolling her eyes, "Just don't take that out in public." I stare at her for a second before we all start laughing. My dad sips his coffee while talking, "Why not? It's true." My mom nods, smiling down in her cup, "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

  "So, who got that amazing gift for you?" I look down at my ass shaped coffee mug that reads: This guy is such a smartass. I smile and take another sip before replying, "My girlfriend." Both my parent's eyes shoot up to my face. Wide eyed and curious I let out a small chuckle watching them beg me for answers with their eyes. Yeah. Never had one of those before. Not really anyway. I never had a girl worth mentioning to my parents, let alone a girl who I wanted to be my girlfriend. After my brother died I closed myself off in a way. I didn't want to let anyone close like that. I didn't want to love someone because I didn't want to feel the pain I felt when they would leave. When they would die. I never wanted to feel what I felt when Braiden died. It almost ripped me in half and I swore to myself that it wasn't worth the risk; loving someone just to lose them. So, instead I decided that sleeping around and focusing on sports and school was the best option for me. I tried dating, sure, but nothing ever came of it. No one ever interested me enough. Got me to feel something, more. Not until....until Letty came around.

  "So, this new girlfriend gave you an ass shaped mug that's wearing glasses and pointing up at you telling you you're a smartass?" My dad lets out a laugh, "Damn. I think I like her already." My mom shakes her head, trying to hide her laughter. She moves closer to me, looking me straight in the eyes, "What's her name?" I look down for a brief second, smiling before I look back up at her, "Scarlett. Scarlett...shit I don't know her middle name. I gotta find that out," I let out a chuckle, "Scarlett Jenkins, but she goes by Letty." My mom smiles, giving me a knowing look.

  "What?" my eyebrow quirks and now I'm getting uncomfortable because my dad is staring at my mom, who’s staring at me. She shakes her head, smiling before turning around to my dad. "She's the one." I look between both of them, confused out of my mind as my dad just smiles and nods. What? "What are you talking about?"

  "Nothing, honey. Just that, the way you say a girl's name says a lot." Huh. Never thought about that. "What do you mean? How did I say her name?" My mom looks at me, smiling like she's got a secret. "Nothing you don't already know deep down. Come on, let's go open presents and you can tell me all about Letty." The way she says her name comes out so sweet and loving that it warms me. I grab my cup and make my way to the living room to tell my parents all about my new girl, the hockey games coming up and the auction that I've put o
ut of my mind for too long.

  Chapter 28

  Letty

  "So, what are you supposed to wear to hockey games anyway?" I yelled from the kitchen. Savvy's in her room grabbing us options for what to wear today. Christmas went by super quickly for a day where I did nothing but lounge around on the couch with Savannah and pig out on junk food and wine. We watched movies all day in our pj's, made Christmas cookies, ate a ton of snacks, ordered takeout and unwrapped some presents we had gotten for each other. I texted with Brooks a few times but I didn't want to bother him while he was visiting with his family. He came back the next day and has been focused on his upcoming hockey games and the auction ever since. Today, they have an afternoon game against the top team in their division and Savvy and I have decided to crash it to surprise the boys.

  She walks out of her room with a few pairs of jeans, long sleeve shirts that show a lot of cleavage and some sweaters. "You're still eating that?" I shove a handful of popcorn in my mouth just as she asks me that. I nod and give her as big a smile as I can muster with a mouthful of my cheddar popcorn. Brooks gave me three family sized bags for Christmas and I almost squealed. I couldn't open them fast enough. "I still have my Reese's that he got me but I'm not sharing." She gives me a death glare knowing that I would steal them in a heartbeat. I swallow, "Fine. Then you don't get any of my delicious, white, cheddar-y popcorn." Sav looks between me and the bag before letting out a sigh, "Fine. I'll give you some. Move your hand so I can get in there." She shoves my hand away, taking a giant handful for herself.

  "Okay," she said around a mouthful, "I figure these are our options. I've only ever been to a hockey game once with my brother but I don't really remember it but I do remember that it was pretty cold. However, I wasn't old enough to drink back then so if we get some alcohol in us I don't think we'd be freezing." I nod my head, yeah, that makes sense. It's around thirty degrees out today -winter in Connecticut - so I planned on dressing warm anyway but I wanted to look cute for when we surprise the guys. I take in the choices and decide to go with skin tight, dark, blue jeans, a red, long-sleeve sweater that shows some cleavage and black knee high boots. I ended up straightening my hair and throwing on a black beanie, scarf, jacket and gloves.