Fireworks: A Holiday Bad Boy Romance

by Claire Adams

  Quinn squeezed my hand. "It’s a great story now," she said. "The hero betrayed by someone close to him, tricked by a beautiful but underhanded rival, and finally cleared of all wrongdoing."

  "By a true savior," I said. I pulled Quinn close to me and kissed her on the lips.

  "Well, it’s about time," Milan said.

  "Oh, I'm so glad! Didn't I tell you, Alan? I told you," Artemis said. She elbowed Alan sharply in the ribs.

  "I know, I know," Alan said. "I mentioned the whole jealousy thing. It’s not like Anya was the only one that noticed how Owen looked at her."

  Quinn buried her face in my chest. "Her?" she asked. "I'm standing right here."

  "Yes you are," I said. "Clan, I think it is about time I introduce you to my girlfriend, Quinn Thomas."

  Their good-natured jokes and comments faded. The whole gold spectacle of the Caesar's Palace lobby faded too. For a moment, there was just Quinn and I.

  I held my breath. I should have discussed it with her before, but it just seemed right. I hoped it was right. I hoped for more, but this was the first step and I did not want to stumble over it.

  "I'll just go get my room key," Quinn said. She waved to everyone and went off to the counter.

  I played it casual and chatted with the other players for a few more minutes and then caught up with Quinn as she headed for the elevators. Somehow, in the immense hotel full of people, we managed to get an elevator all to ourselves.

  "Too much?" I asked. "I know we didn't talk about it, but now at least you know how I feel."

  Quinn shook her head. "Owen, this is a big tournament for you and the last thing I want to do is get in your way. Whatever we are does not have to be part of your public image. I know you fought hard to get where you are and I don't want to cause any controversy for you."

  I dropped my bag and took both her hands. "That's all in the past. And now that you are moving on with your career and Dark Flag as your hobby, there is no reason why I can't tell everyone who you are and what you mean to me."

  Quinn went still, her hands warm in mine. "What do I mean to you?"

  I had to kiss her three times before the words would come. "Everything," I said. "Quinn, I love you."

  The look in her chocolate brown eyes melted all my fears. Quinn reached up on tip toe and kissed me again. "And I love you."

  I had just wrapped my arms tightly around her waist to delve deeper into the kiss when the elevator doors opened.

  "There you are!" a voice called.

  Mr. And Mrs. Thomas appeared. "We were just knocking on your door. I thought you would have checked in by now. Don't you have a game to be getting ready for?" Mrs. Thomas asked.

  "We don't really know how these things work, but we read the schedule," Mr. Thomas said. He shook my hand. "Seems like you're top billing on a lot of the events."

  "See, I told you he was a professional gamer," Quinn said.

  "Quinn told me the story about you and the little white chapel," I said. The words just jumped out and I could not take them back.

  Mrs. Thomas laughed. "Oh, it was so romantic. Mostly because it took all the pressure off the big to-do we had planned. It would have killed my family not to have had the big white wedding, so it was fun to run off on our own right before."

  Quinn took my hand and squeezed hard. "I always thought it was romantic too. I mean, you two had planned that big wedding for months and months. You really knew what you wanted."

  I took a deep breath. Quinn was right. I knew what I wanted and there was no reason to rush it. We were together, our hands linked, and her parents smiling at us.

  "So, I did a little check up on your playing and it appears there are lots of bets to be made," Mr. Thomas said. "Better get down to the book before you get started."

  "Betting against me?" I asked.

  "No," Mr. Thomas said, "I always bet on family."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Epilogue

  I focused on the wine-colored carpet to keep my eyes from tearing up. The bouquet of white roses was fragrant and heavy in my hands and I turned to study the petals as the pastor began talking.

  "No matter what family, friends, or life has planned for you, there is nothing like letting love make the decision. It just feels right," he said. "Sure, some people call it spur of the moment and some people say that only fools rush in, but when I see two people as in love as you are, I know there is no room for doubt."

  I heard my mother sniffle and I finally looked up. She was stunning in the white satin dress we had found in a small boutique inside the Venetian. My father wore a dove gray suit and a smile so bright he looked like a new man.

  "Of course, a few decades of successful marriage and grown children also help to remove doubt," the pastor said. My parents laughed.

  Owen laughed too. He stood next to my father as his best man. As my parents began to renew their vows, he winked at me and my heart soared.

  Earlier, my father had joked that Owen was funding their second Vegas wedding. It had been two years since my father won a cool three thousand dollars betting on Owen in the Dark Flag tournament. Since then, "bet on family" had become our family motto.

  We threw rice as my parents walked arm and arm down the aisle. They disappeared to have their photographs taken outside. I moved to follow, but Owen grabbed my arm.

  "I know you have this whole big backyard white wedding plan," Owen said, "and I love it, but we could always just get married now. I mean, you haven't even set a date yet. The way you've been working, I'm going to have to marry you on the side of the road or in the back of an ambulance."

  "March," I said. "Just after your birthday. How does that sound?"

  Owen kissed me, and I could feel his warm smile against my lips.

  "Where are our witnesses?" my father called. He smiled broadly as we jumped apart. "Come on, now, you aren't thinking about following in our footsteps, are you? I thought you were much more independent than that."

  "Oh, she is, believe me," Owen said.

  We joined my parents outside. Traffic driving by honked congratulations as my parents posed under the sign. Finally, we raised plastic champagne flutes in a toast.

  "To family – those lost, found, and forgiven," my father said.

  "And to a happy future, together," I said, finally feeling whole and happy in the hot Vegas sunshine.

  Click here to continue to my next book.

  GRIND: THE COMPLETE BOX SET

  By Claire Adams

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 Claire Adams

  PART 1

  Chapter One

  Distraction

  Mia

  Abs and I elbow our way to the front of the crowd. The competition is about to start and I’m not about to let my neophyte friend go without a decent view of what’s about to happen.

  The announcer comes over the loudspeaker and introduces the first brave soul. I squeeze Abby’s arm and she turns to face me.

  “That’s him,” I tell her.

  “I really don’t think this is my cup of…” she trails off as Mike Onomato skates into view.

  “Yeah, I thought you’d change your mind when you actually saw him,” I tell her.

  Mike Onomato. In the world of skateboarding, the distinction between pro and amateur can be arbitrary or fixed entirely. There are no weekly broadcasts of competitions, at least not on any channel that’s going to show up in a normal digital cable or satellite package.

  Sometimes, a skater can go straight from photo shoots and video games back to their neighborhood skate park, never to return to the limelight again. Mike Onomato, though, he’s right on the verge of being the next Burnquist or the next P-Rod.

  It goes without saying tha
t he’d never be the next Rodney Mullen. Nobody will ever be Rodney Mullen. That guy’s an alien. Seriously, he invented most of the tricks these guys are going to do in the competition today. In fact, if it weren’t for Rodney Mullen, there probably wouldn’t even be street events.

  It’s kind of funny that it actually took him so long to switch over from flatland.

  Ah, Rodney. If only I was a little older and you weren’t married…

  “That is Mike Onomato?” Abs says, and I congratulate myself for converting yet another soul to the glory that is skating. It may take a while for her to actually care about the sport, but at least the seed is planted.

  That’s all I’m doing: planting seeds.

  “Yeah,” I answer.

  “You weren’t kidding,” she says.

  “If you’d actually watched those videos I sent you, you’d already know what he looks like,” I tell her.

  “I wanted to be surprised,” she answers, her mouth never staying more than half-closed as her eyes move back and forth with her new crush.

  I get bored with Abby’s enthrallment—huh.—and I’m watching Mike Onomato grinding the top of a quarter-pipe, coming out of it with a 540 shove it landed flawlessly.

  I like Mike.

  On the flat now, Mike’s only got a couple of seconds, so he throws in a quick varial heelflip underflip like it’s not even a big deal, but just as he’s about to come down, there’s a touch on my shoulder and I instinctively turn, missing the landing.

  I only know that Mike Onomato stuck it by the response of the crowd, and I’m looking at a guy I’ve never seen before.

  “How are you doing?” he asks, looking Abs in the eye and me noticeably lower than that.

  I cross my arms over my chest and turn half away from him.

  “What do you want?” I ask.

  “Hey there,” Abs says.

  “Okay, so you’re the nice one then,” the guy says, pointing to Abs.

  While Abs is saying, “We’re both nice,” I’m saying, “Neither one of us is the nice one.”

  “Yeah, well,” the guy says and claps his hands together, “I’m Ian. You two fans of skating?”

  I turn back toward the street course, though I can hear Abby and Ian’s conversation well enough. “You two fans of skating?” Moron.

  “I had no idea the women around here were so attractive.”

  “Oh, stop it. You’re just saying that.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Are you from around here?”

  Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

  Kyle Law and Ray Vasquez finish their runs and I’m getting sick of all the chatter behind me. We’re not here to talk to guys; we’re here to watch the street competition.

  I turn around, grab Abs by the arm, and say something about needing a bathroom.

  Abs tries to turn, to free herself, but my grip is firm.

  “I’m sure we’ll see you later!” Abs calls out.

  “What are you doing?” I ask, not breaking pace, my fingers still clamped around Abby’s forearm.

  “What?” Abs says. “He was kind of cute.”

  “He was annoying,” I tell her and, when we’re finally well out of sight of the street course, I let go of her arm.

  “Jeez,” Abs says. “You didn’t have to grab me so tight.”

  “Sorry,” I tell her. “I just wanted to get out of there.”

  “What’s wrong?” Abs asks. “I know you’re not this out of your head just because some guy came over and talked to us.”

  She’s right of course, but I really don’t want to get into it with her right now.

  “I’m sorry,” I tell her. “That’s not going to leave a bruise or anything, is it?”

  “I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t think so. Can we go back now, or are you actually going to squat down behind one of those trash cans?”

  “We can go back,” I tell her, “but I’m really not in the mood for social hour with every guy who starts flirting with us. Can you live with that?”

  “Fine,” Abs says. “We’ll go to the other side of the course or whatever and we’ll watch it there.”

  “And if someone else walks up?” I ask.

  “We blow them off,” Abs says. “Can we go now?”

  “Yeah,” I tell her. “I’m sorry. I just really want you to be into this stuff. It’s kind of a big thing for me.”

  “I’ve never seen you skate,” Abs says. “I thought it was just a fashion thing.”

  “I never said I was some big skater,” I tell her. “There’s just something about it though. I don’t know. On the one hand, it’s very physical. It requires a lot of strength and stamina, but it’s also subtle, artistic. You can just get lost watching someone skate.”

  “You’re kind of talking about it like a spiritual experience,” Abs says.

  Well, for me, it is, but I hardly expect her to understand that. She hasn’t even seen a full round.

  “Let’s go,” I tell her.

  These are the days when I feel like I can almost see myself and grasp who I am besides the twenty-year-old skate freak with the straight black hair and the camo pants who still lives with her father. My life’s not a bad one, I guess, and there’s much for me to be grateful for, but days like this are almost holy to me.

  That’s why I don’t want to let anything in that might ruin it.

  “You can probably let go of my arm this time,” Abs says, but I’m not listening to her. I’m listening to the announcer, trying to make out what he’s saying through the distance and over the noise of the crowd.

  We just missed Mike Onomato’s second run. We also missed about five other skaters, but mostly, we missed Mike.

  By the time we’re to the other side of the street course, the cycle’s almost run through again, and the crowd is so thick. We’re already to the final heat of this round.

  “I can’t believe this,” I mutter.

  “This is only the first round, right?” Abs asks.

  “Yeah,” I answer.

  “So what’s the big deal?” she asks. “Unless Mike Last-Name-I-Don’t-Remember sucked it up, he’ll be in the next round.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I tell her and look back toward the street course.

  I’ve seen most of these guys before, though there are a couple of newcomers. Of all these guys, though, Mike Onomato is the only one who’s ever been called a pro.

  Still, as I look up at the big screen showing the current standings, I’m seeing something I hadn’t expected. Someone named Zavala is beating Mike Onomato.

  He’s not beating him—he is humiliating him.

  There are a total of three rounds whittling down the field, then a semi-final and a final round. In this round, the top two skaters will advance, and Abs is right: Mike’s going through, but unless this Zavala person is some kind of fluke, I don’t know if I like the way this whole thing is about to go.

  “What’s wrong?” Abs asks.

  “What?” I return.

  “Well, you finally let go of my arm for a minute, but now it feels like you’re trying to punish me for something,” she says.

  I look down at my hand as its fingers curl tightly into Abby’s arm.

  When the visual processes in my brain, I let her go and apologize, but I don’t think I’m doing a very good job of getting my best friend more interested in what I’m interested in. You’d think that sort of thing would have been a prerequisite for the friendship, but she looked the part.

  I know I’m not a teenager anymore and continuing this friendship that started because Abby, who I often think of as my own portable pop sensibility, used to dress like a skater chick back when it was a more popular look is certainly not the easiest decision to explain, but despite the fact that she doesn’t really care about any of the things that I care about or always act in a way that I feel to be appropriate or listen to me unless I’m waving something flashy in front of her face, she gets me and that’s enough.

&nb
sp; In the future, I think I’ll probably condense that down to the last six words. Most people’s eyes start glazing otherwise.

  “That guy’s up,” Abs says.

  “What guy?” I ask dumbly, though I’m looking at the same board she is.

  The obvious reaction would be excitement, seeing someone with such a clear talent, but I’m not ready to give up on that last teenage hero. I refuse to become jaded, though I’m beginning to lose track of how to go about avoiding that anymore.

  Mike’s still an amateur skater. That’s why he’s in this competition. Usually, he’s the one way out front, though.

  I think, logically, I know that even if this guy ends up beating the pants off of Mike, that doesn’t mean the latter’s going to lose his shot at the big time. I just thought I was going to be there to see it happen. That was supposed to be today.

  Magazines have been doing articles on Mike and sponsors have been hovering, but for whatever reason, he’s just never had that breakout moment. That was supposed to be today.

  I care so much because I’ve been watching Mike Onomato skateboard for a long time now. The competitions have always been a thing for him, but I don’t always have the money to go.

  I care so much because Mike’s not one of those guys on the cusp of stardom that’s touring right along with the pros, only divided from his counterparts by an as-yet-unsigned contract with this sponsor or that.

  Mike’s from here.

  I don’t know who Mike is because he’s always been as good as he is today. Really thinking back, I don’t think I even noticed he’d gotten very good at all until a few months ago. I know who Mike is because he’s been skating at the park near my house as long, if not a little longer, than I’ve been visiting it.

  It’s kind of reaffirming to see someone so close, if not personally, then at least in terms of general proximity, having doors like that open; the disappointment of seeing someone else’s name above his right now is only overshadowed by seeing the person, himself. It’s Ian, the flirty slacker/moron that decided it was his right to implant himself in my day with my friend.