My Lucky Days: A Novel

by S. D. Hendrickson

  As if on cue, that last ball initiated a free-for-all. Snowballs flying in every angle and from every person. No one was safe. I laughed and laughed, throwing and ducking, getting hit from every direction.

  Callie was the first to bow out, and I went with her. Getting my bags, I took them to the pool house. I set my things in the bedroom next to his bed. It smelled good in there. Like him.

  I surveyed the place. His living quarters were always functional. Not necessarily neat. But not really messy. His bed was made, but it wasn’t straight. And one of his pillows dangled precariously on the edge, close to falling on the floor.

  I spent a few minutes tidying up. Then I second-guessed myself. Maybe I shouldn’t do that to his stuff. It was strange. I fought the urge to mess it back up to the way it was before. Then I realized that would be even weirder. Who made someone’s bed only to ransack it back into chaos? So I left it fixed.

  I changed out of my wet clothes and went over to the main house. Callie already had cookie dough whipped up from scratch in her mixer.

  “You need help?”

  “Sure . . . um. See if you can get the hot chocolate going. Lucky’s still out there with Zach. They are building a snowman. Colt’s already back, and Mia is changing.”

  “Okay.”

  I made a pot of hot chocolate on the stove as the smell of cookies filled the air.

  “Hey, Katie. Can you check on those when the timer goes off? I’m going to see what Mia is doing.”

  I smiled at Callie. “Sure.”

  I poured a mug of chocolate and went over to the window. Lucky and Zach were busy on a lopsided snowman.

  “I think my little brother has been like this since the day she brought him home.”

  “What?” Startled, I turned around to find Colt at the stove, putting marshmallows in his cup.

  He smiled, coming over to me. His dark hair was straight and short with a few flecks of gray on the edges, even though he was only in his early thirties.

  “I saw you watching him. People have always been drawn to Lucky. He’s like some sort of magnet, pulling you in.”

  “Yeah, he does that.”

  “And he can convince you to do something before you even realize what you just agreed to.”

  I laughed that time. “Yeah.”

  “But you can’t help but like him. Am I right?”

  “Yeah.” I glanced over at Colt, seeing his eyes light up bright as he watched his son and brother through the window.

  We had never really talked before and this was something unusual, not that I minded. I wanted to get to know Colt better. Or I guess hear what he had to say about Lucky. I was curious.

  “What was he like as a kid?”

  He looked back over at me. “The same, really. Happy. Popular. Making everyone laugh. And talented. He was gifted with that voice from the first time my mom heard him sing.”

  “Of course he was.” I smiled.

  Colt’s blue eyes grew serious, like he was contemplating something. “I might be overstepping, but I want to say something to you if that’s okay?”

  “Okay?”

  “Lucky is my brother, but I take care of him. I have for years. And what he lets you see isn’t everything about him.”

  I felt nervous suddenly. I wasn’t sure why. But something shifted, and I felt like I was about to get some lecture from his father. “What do you mean?”

  “He doesn’t let people get close to him. Not really. Yes, he’s funny and popular. He pulls people in, but everything has always been one big party for Lucky. I watched it. Tried to correct it. And finally gave up. He has always done what he wanted. His guitar is the only thing I’ve seen him truly love besides my kids.”

  The trickles of dread moved into my chest. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because you’re the only girl he’s ever brought around his family.”

  I struggled to swallow my hot chocolate. I looked back out the window, seeing Lucky pack snow on the second ball. “You mean he’s never brought someone for the holidays?”

  “No, I mean, ever. Lucky has never mixed his personal life with us before. He keeps it very separate. You’re the only girl he’s let meet Mia and Zach.”

  “Oh.” My heart was clenching. My little visits to his brother’s house flipped through my head. That first time he brought me here. Lucky said it wasn’t a big deal when I walked into the kitchen.

  It had been huge.

  Flashes of that first night here came back to me. Callie was chatty, but I remembered Colt being quiet as we ate, watching me cautiously out of the corner of his eye. I was nervous that night. And the kids occupied most of the conversation. I thought that was just his brother’s personality.

  But after today’s little discussion, I realized I had pegged him wrong. Maybe he wasn’t as vibrant as Lucky. But very few people shined that bright. And the night we first met, Colt must have been concerned or confused. Or maybe a little of both.

  I shook my head as I looked back at his brother. “I didn’t know. I just assumed that I was one of many. I know that sounds bad.”

  “No, it’s okay. I get it and I don’t know what you feel toward my brother. But if you had doubts, I wanted to tell you what he might not be telling you. I see him happy with you. And I thought you should know. Maybe for selfish reasons. But this life he’s decided to live is, well . . . it’s going to be different than the one I know. And I think you’re good for him.”

  “Thank you.” I smiled while telling myself to stay calm, even though his words had sent me reeling.

  “You asked about him as a kid.”

  “Yeah, I guess. What was it like? What was he like when—”

  “She found him?” He smiled. “It wasn’t easy. And I wanted to hate him, you know. I was eleven and I wanted to hate this kid that was disrupting my life. But I couldn’t. He was so skinny. And he just stared at me with these big eyes.” He chuckled. “I sat in his room, trying to play cars. But he just watched me. Lucky didn’t speak to us. I think a few days went by before he even said anything. But I took care of him. And I’ve been taking care of him ever since.”

  I felt a burn in the back of my throat as I blinked back tears. “I’m glad your mom was the one who found him.”

  “Me too.” He smiled at me before glancing back out into the yard. “Speaking of my mother, she is about to go crazy wanting to meet you.”

  A pang of guilt bubbled up inside me. “That’s my fault. I told him it was too soon.”

  “It’s okay. We all understood. And that’s when I knew he hadn’t told you.”

  The timer went off, bringing an end to the moment. “Thank you for . . . um . . . for telling me.”

  He nodded as I left to get the cookies out. Setting three sheets of gooey chocolate chip on the counter, I turned off the oven. They smelled like little round pieces of heaven. I fought the urge to shove one of them in my mouth.

  “I need to see the queen.” Mia came up behind me, grabbing my hand. She was in full costume.

  “You think I’m the queen?”

  “Yes. The Snow Queen Elsa.” And then I realized she was dressed as Anna from Frozen.

  “Why aren’t you the queen?”

  “Because you are the queen, silly.”

  “Okay. Let’s go.” I followed Mia up the staircase. We reached the princess room, and I laughed. Big Teddy had reindeer antlers on top of his fuzzy head. “Let me guess. Sven?”

  “Yes! Big Teddy is Vin.” Her little voice muffled up the words. “And when Uncle Wucky gets here, he can be Owaf. He sounds just like him.”

  “He’s Olaf and not Kristoff?”

  “Yuck. No. He’s Owaf.”

  I sat down at the table as Mia dressed me like Elsa. But my thoughts tumbled back to what Colt had said downstairs. Why did Lucky not explain how big of a deal this was to him?

  Have fun with me, Katie.

  He had said it over and over again. Maybe he was trying to convince himself or not scare me
or both. But this was definitely bigger than fun. And it would keep getting bigger every day I was here.

  I followed Lucky out the back door of the house. The cold air immediately touched every exposed place on my body. But the view across the backyard wiped out any discomfort I felt from the temperature.

  “It’s beautiful,” I mumbled as I stepped off the cement into the thick snow.

  The area behind Colt and Callie’s house was a couple of acres of cleared land that butted up against a thick tree line of the neighboring woods. And tonight, the ground was covered in a good ten inches of snow—at least that’s the amount the weather station had declared when Snowpocalypse came to an end.

  I only went a few feet out into the yard so I didn’t get my clothes wet again. I was shivering. Since my coat had been covered in snow earlier, I had left it to dry in the pool house and went to the main house with only a red sweater.

  Lucky came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my body, pulling me into his chest. We stood like that for a few minutes, taking in the scene. The snow was a smooth and sparkling canopy across the ground and trees. The moonlight made the world glisten with a quiet iridescent glow.

  “I can’t hear anything,” I whispered.

  “Does that bother you?”

  I shook my head, feeling his chin move with me as it rested against my hair. “No, it’s just so different being out in the country with all of this snow. So quiet and beautiful.”

  “Yeah, it is.” I felt his cold nose as he buried his face into my neck. The warmth of his breath sent shivers down my back.

  Today was such a beautiful and amazing day. We had played in the snow and had sipped hot chocolate. Then I dressed as Elsa and had story time with Mia. Lucky had joined us later, and his Olaf impression still made bubbles of laughter surface inside my chest. They had spent the day as a family with me mixed in the middle. I loved it. The way it made my insides feel mushy and my heart bursting with joy.

  After dinner, we watched a movie with Colt and Callie. My thoughts drifted back to the conversation with his brother. I wasn’t sure how to process that information. Or if I should say something to Lucky. Part of me felt dishonest, like I knew some secret about him. But I knew it wasn’t a harmful secret—just information about his life that he had chosen not to tell me.

  “Can I ask you something?” I whispered. I didn’t know why I was whispering, but it just seemed wrong to disturb the perfect picture in front of me.

  “No, I won’t make you shovel snow while topless.”

  I smiled. “Thanks. I was really worried about that.”

  “You should be. A bet’s a bet.” He kissed my neck, muffling his laughter against my skin. “So what did you want to ask me?”

  “Why me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why am I the only girl that you’ve included with your family? Why me?”

  “Did Callie tell you that?” he muttered.

  “No, Colt mentioned it.”

  My words hung breathless in the cold air for what seemed like minutes, but it was only seconds. His hands rubbed over my stomach before tucking me a little tighter against him.

  “Sometimes it feels like I have to be different people. The guy you see on stage. A different guy to fans or girls I date. Someone else with my friends. And then the person I am with my family. It’s not like any of those are fake. They are just different from each other. Different parts of me. But it doesn’t feel like I can be all of them at once. Or mix them together.”

  Turning around in his arms, I put my cold hands on his cheeks. “So which Lucky do I see when I’m with you?”

  “All of them.” He shrugged. “The night I met you was the first time I really felt like I was all of them at once. I could be myself with you. You saw the stage guy, and the one in the bar, and the guy who just wanted to talk to a pretty girl, which you hated and I found funny.”

  “I didn’t hate it. I was nervous.”

  He smiled. “I figured that out about halfway through our first conversation. And I wasn’t used to that. Girls have always been . . . different toward me. Especially after I started singing. They would see the guitar and the stage. And they would say or do anything to get a little closer. But you were different. You tried to act all confident while your eyes said something else. That look hooked me.”

  “What did my eyes say?” I whispered.

  “They said I want you, but I’m too scared to tell you.” He leaned in close to my lips. “Kiss me. Tell me your secrets. And I did. I told you my past that night. About where I came from. I don’t usually tell people or talk about it unless they already know. But I found myself talking about my family with you. I was sharing that guy while still being the singer. And then when I went back to Nashville, I knew something else. They were the eyes I wanted to come home to.”

  “But you barely knew me when you left. How did you know that back then?”

  Our breaths left little clouds in the air as he rested his forehead against mine. “I’ve known you exactly fifty-two days. But I don’t think you have to know everything about a person in order to care about them. To feel things for them.”

  “No, I guess not,” I muttered.

  Lucky brushed his lips lightly against mine, teasing me with a kiss. “Do you feel things for me, Katie?”

  I did feel things for him. Things I couldn’t say. Things I wanted to say. Things we shouldn’t say yet. But could still be summed into a simple acknowledgment. “Yes.”

  “Good.” His eyes took on a mischievous glint. Lucky tightened his hand on my waist and I felt myself falling backward as he dipped me over his arm. I laughed, holding onto his shoulders, my hair dangling in the snow.

  He leaned down until our noses touched and his mouth hovered over mine. “Do you still have feelings for me?”

  “Yes.” I smiled.

  “I can’t hear you. I think someone wants to be buried in the snow.” My back dipped even further. “Do you like having fun with me?”

  “Yes! Yes!” I yelled. “I like having fun with you.”

  Our laughter echoed across the quiet yard until his mouth pressed against mine. Lucky kissed me softly. His lips were cold, but his tongue felt warm. The silence of the iridescent shadows made everything more magical—like we were standing in our own snow globe.

  Lucky held the pool house door open as I scurried inside. I slipped my boots off and left them at the entrance. Rubbing my hands over my arms, I went over to the fireplace. He’d come back in the middle of the movie and added more wood so it would keep burning for us later.

  I saw Lucky disappear into the bedroom for a minute. Leaning back against the couch, I pulled my knees up to my chest, locking my arms around my legs as I waited for him to come back. I wondered if he noticed that I had straightened his bed.

  Coming back into the living room, he didn’t mention anything out of the ordinary as he carried a couple of blankets. Lucky handed me one and then placed a little kiss on my cheek.

  “Thanks,” I said, wrapping it around me before spreading the other one out like a little pallet.

  He smiled at me. “Want to listen to something?”

  “Sure.”

  “Do you want to listen to new or old?”

  “I don’t care. You pick.”

  I watched the musician carefully mull over his record collection. His finger ran over the albums until he stopped midway on the second shelf. “How about Keith Whitley?”

  “I don’t know who that is.”

  “Don’t Close Your Eyes?”

  I shrugged. “Is that a song?”

  “Really? That actually hurt.” He flinched like I had shot him in the heart with an arrow. “There’s so much we need to work on.”

  “So teach me.”

  “Teach you what exactly?” His gaze held mine and I got warmer—not from the fire that was burning behind me, but from the slight shift between us.

  I knew it was coming. Where everything was leading now that
we were alone. The butterflies moved through me slowly, spreading their wings. “Whatever you want, I guess.”

  I counted my breaths as his eyes grew more intense and he silently questioned what I meant. “Whatever I want?”

  I nodded slowly.

  The record started spinning and he placed the needle down. Lucky grinned as he walked over to the fireplace, sitting down next to me on the blanket. “Let’s start with When You Say Nothing at All.”

  “You don’t want me to speak now?” I teased him.

  “No.” He shook his head and smiled at me as the song played softly through the speakers. His eyes flickered to my lips. The soft glow of the fireplace filled the room. I swallowed hard, feeling the beat of my heart, feeling the beat of the music, bringing us slowly closer together.

  Each pound. Each beat. Each breath.

  And then he kissed me.

  A slow, burning kiss that started in my lips and moved through my bloodstream, giving every piece of my body a little taste of his mouth.

  Lucky ran his fingers through my hair, pulling my head closer so his tongue went deeper, stroking the soft places. I thought I had experienced every kiss imaginable with him. But this was erotic and sweet—erotically sweet if that was such a thing.

  I felt myself falling a little lower until I was on my back against the blanket on the floor. His lips continued to tease my mouth as his body shifted until I felt his weight cover me. Opening my eyes, we looked at each other for a moment. He was balanced on his hands while his legs straddled my hips.

  “I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this tonight because you are staying here.” Leaning in closer, he whispered, “But I do want you pretty bad right now.”

  As I gazed up into his brown eyes, I was a little nervous. But I would be the same kind of nervous months from now. That’s just the nature of sharing yourself with another person—all of you, inside and out, causing pleasure and sometimes even pain.

  “I want to do this,” I whispered.