by Vivian Lux
Gray shot me the middle finger. "Hey man, nice shirt. You smell like my Great Aunt Hilda," he grinned, waving his hand under his nose. "Help me get this bitch off of here, I had a hell of a time strapping it down."
"No shit you did," Rett groused. "That's completely illegal and completely unsafe. Surprised you didn't drive off the road."
"Never happened," Gray said, puffing his chest.
"Harper's here," I blurted. "I just saw her." Why did I feel like I needed to fucking lay claim or something? But I did.
Gray looked at me. Was that a flicker of disappointment in his eyes? Yeah, probably. Why did that make me happy? Like this was some kind of pissing contest. "Cool. You must be happy to see her," he said, his voice oddly flat.
"Sure," I replied, equally flat. Both of our gazes flickered over to where Everett was standing, assessing the giant Christmas tree with no idea of the silent standoff that ensued.
I took a deep breath. "Go grab an end," I told Gray.
Chapter Three
Grayson
"Where the hell did you get this thing?" Cal complained as he shouldered the trunk of the tree. "It's fucking huge."
"Thank you." I smirked.
I couldn't see him, but I could practically feel Everett rolling his eyes. "I know, it's the only time anyone's ever said that to you, so you're confused, but he's talking about the tree."
"You can keep making that joke, but it doesn't make it any less true," I said with a grin. "I'm taking the front by the way," I said, helping them heft the last bit off the cab of my truck. "I want Ma McCabe to see me first."
The three of us grunted and swore, as we wrestled the eighteen-foot tree towards the steps of the deck. "You guys are slow as fuck!" I complained, leaning forward. "The hell is wrong with you weaklings?"
"In case you haven't noticed," Cal huffed. "We're holding the heavier part of the trunk."
"Bullshit, you're old and slow," I teased, throwing open the set of doors that led from the deck into the living room and lowering my end through. "Pick up the pace here."
"It's stuck!" Everett called from the back.
"No it's not!" I yelled, turning around and tugging hard on my end. "Come on you pussies, push!" I yelled, pulling with all my might.
A branch broke with a loud crack and suddenly the tree came unstuck with a ferocity, propelling the top of the tree, into the living room with a sudden lurch forward. "Oh shit," I muttered, staggering backwards...
Directly into something soft and fragrant that gave way with a cute little "Oof!"
"Harper?" I gasped, dropping my end of the tree to see her sprawled out on the floor. "Oh shit, are you okay?"
She reached up and grabbed my hand. "I'm fine?" she gasped, but she didn't sound sure.
I lifted her to her feet and then stood back and stared for a moment. My god, she was even more beautiful than I'd remembered. The way her breasts swelled above that red satin dress made my mouth run dry. For just a moment, I let my eyes wander down across that dress, appreciating the way it highlighted every single curve. Then I suddenly realized..."Oh shit, you're covered in pine needles."
She looked down and winced. "Oh shit," she said, wiping her hand across the front of her dress. "Ow," she complained as her hand came away looking like a porcupine.
"Here," I said, breathlessly. "Let me." I reached over and started swiping my hands down her front, brushing the needles down to the floor over and over again, running my hands over her hips, her stomach, her thighs, her breasts....
"Grayson!" Mrs. McCabe called. "You went all out!"
I yanked my hands back from Harper's body — er, dress. She was staring at me with a small smile playing at the corner of her lips and unless I was imagining it, her green eyes were dancing with amusement, and something more too. The way her still bare toes twisted against the gleaming hardwood did something to my heart.
"Hey asshole!" Rett called from the porch. "Mind getting out of the way?"
"Mind your tongue," Ma McCabe called to her son, her eyes gleaming. "For fuck's sake!"
We all laughed, but I was still staring at Harper. She’d done something to her hair so that it shimmered and fell in swinging ribbons around her face, but she was still the same Harper. Who I'd been in love with for fucking ever.
She caught a glimpse of me, staring at her like she was a mirage. Confused, she looked down at her hand and I realized that all this time she'd been holding a sandwich. "Merry Christmas, Gray," she grinned. "You hungry or something?" she asked, thinking I was staring at her food. "I can go make you a sandwich if you want."
"Sure," I said, if only to get her out of the room so I could collect my thoughts.
"You want something to drink too? A beer?"
"Nah, I'm good," I mumbled.
"Can we deal with this fucking monster of a tree now? Please?" Callum yelled.
Reluctantly I turned away from Harper's retreating form and grabbed my end of the tree again. The three of us wrestled it the rest of the way into the giant living room. It took a lot of swearing, but the three of us had been friends forever, so an unspoken language had sprung up between us, so that we knew exactly what the other was planning to say before he said it. "You got the...?" "Yeah I got that." "What about...?" "Hang on... okay." "Good." "Grab that...?" "Yep..." We spoke in a series of grunted, half jumbled sentences, but it worked, the way it always did, and soon enough the tree was in its stand and stretching nearly to the ceiling.
Ma McCabe came in again, fluttering her hands and made a beeline right for me. She pulled me down nearly double to give me a hug. I blushed like a little kid as she ruffled my hair, even though she had to reach up almost two feet above her. "Thank you for finding that. Where did you find it?"
I grinned. "My uncle'll never notice."
"You cut it down on your uncle's farm?" Everett asked. "Shit, I'm surprised he didn't shoot you on sight."
"Nah, I'm family. He just fired a warning shot," I grinned.
Harper reappeared with a sandwich in hand. "Peanut butter with way too much jelly," she said, wrinkling her nose.
I snatched it off the plate and inhaled it in four bites. "Thanks," I mumbled through a mouthful of peanut butter. "You remembered."
"Of course I remembered," she taunted. "You like sandwiches that are absolutely disgusting."
"Don't you be judging my sandwiches, big-city girl," I grinned, opening my arms. "Where the hell is my hug?"
"If I stick you with a pine needle, it's not my fault," she laughed and came over to me, throwing her arms around me. I had to suppress the little sigh of relief that I had her in my arms again.
But from over my right shoulder, I could feel Cal staring at us, and I slowly backed away.
"Harper, why don't you give the boys a quick tour while Rett finishes with the outside lights?" Ma McCabe asked in a tone that said she wasn't asking at all.
Harper looked at her askance. "Ma, I've been here for a grand total of eleven hours, most of them spent asleep. How am I supposed to give a tour?"
"Be hospitable," Ma McCabe warned and I stifled my laugh behind my hand as Harper immediately straightened up.
"Okay then, guys, shall we figure this place out together?" she asked, beckoning us to follow. As we headed off into the humongous house, I wished desperately that I had taken her up on that offer of a beer. I needed something to steady my nerves when I saw the way that red dress darted in at her waist.
How was it that she'd gotten even more beautiful with time?
"So, um, this appears to be a bedroom," Harper laughed, opening the first door. "No idea whose though, maybe guest room?"
"Big bed," Cal observed.
There was no mistaking the way Harper's green eyes flickered up at him. Okay Gray, cool it, she's obviously into him, I thought as I took a deliberate step back.
"Yeah, that's a really big bed," she echoed.
A flicker of jealousy flared in my chest. "And what's over here?" I demanded. I didn't give a shit what was ov
er there, I just wanted to get the two of them away from the very big bed.
"Um?" Harper pushed open the door. "Bathroom. Oh shit, look at the size of that tub! That's like, as big as my apartment in the City."
"You miss it up here at all?" I asked, without really meaning to.
Her eyes flickered up and down again, and my cock stirred at the way she bit her lip before my brain could catch up and wonder if I had mistaken her look. Was she flirting with me too? "Well I miss cheap real estate, yeah," she laughed, tossing her head so that the curve of her throat was exposed. I could smell the scent of her shampoo and was thrilled to realize she hadn't changed it. Even after all these years, she still smelled like the girl I knew. "Sure, a little." Her voice softened, "I mean, it's home here. It's where I grew up."
"It's where your friends are," Cal interrupted. I shot him a confused look. What the hell was he going on about? Harper had friends. She was an amazing girl, talented as hell, there was no way she was lonely.
But the way she bit her lip made me re-think that assumption. "It's where my friends are," she echoed. She tucked her chin down and I saw her jaw work for a second. "Yeah," she said. "I've missed my friends."
Cal took a brazen step towards her and my fist balled up. All at once I was ready to punch my best friend — the guy who'd taken me in and saved me from homelessness — in the face. I took a deep, steadying breath and called out, far more loudly than necessary. "How about downstairs?"
Harper snapped out of her trance. "I think you saw everything already. Should we go check though?" She whirled sharply and fairly ran down the stairs.
Cal looked at me sharply and narrowed his eyes. His fist was clenched too. I tried like fucking hell to tamp down the urge to go at it, right here, right now. Whatever my feelings towards Everett's sister might be, I had to watch it. Because Callum was in love with her, completely. Had been forever. And I'd never do anything to fuck Cal over like that, so I backed away before my dick got too fucking hard to deal with.
We tromped back down the stairs and into the giant sunken living room dominated by the naked frasier fir. Little drip-drips of melting snow collected on the wooden floor. Rett reappeared at that moment, like he'd been timing our return down to the second, with a long string of lights in his hand.
Cal was still close to Harper. Too close. "So, are we decorating this bitch or what?" I called, clapping my hands together. "You, get moving and stop lazing around," I said pointing at Cal. "You start stringing the lights," I barked at Rett.
"What about me?" Harper asked.
"You stand there and look cute and try not to get in the way."
"Always the kid sister," she sighed and plopped down on the sofa.
Clearly you aren't a kid anymore, I did not say. She was a full-grown woman now, all softly rounded curves. I grabbed a handful of ornaments, and then took a moment to drink in the way her neck curved into her shoulders, which were broader than I remembered. I chucked a few ornaments on the tree all haphazard, all while sneaking glances at her through the branches. She clearly was working out now, and had lost some of that rangy adolescent scrappiness. And the way she laughed that same laugh, but with a bright note of confidence; it squeezed my heart at the same time it made my dick stiffen...fuck me, I didn't think it was possible that she'd get better with time but she clearly fucking had.
"Ah man, what the hell, you're clumping all your ornaments in one place." Cal came barreling over to my side, interrupting my lovely train of thought. "You are legitimately terrible at this."
"What are you, some kind of old woman?" I scoffed. "Have I messed up your vision board?"
"Yes I do have a vision, and it involves you shutting the fuck up and letting me do this," Cal said, smoothly stepping around and putting himself right in my line of sight.
Blocking my view of Harper. It couldn't have been deliberate, except it looked completely fucking deliberate.
I snuck a glance over at Everett, who looked like he was conducting complicated mathematical equations in his head involving surface area and other shit I'd slept through in high school. He held up his string of lights at precise mathematical angles, completely oblivious to me and Cal squaring off like two billy goats.
I shot Cal a giant grin and stepped back. "Fine, do it all yourself, you fucking control freak," I said, throwing up my hand. "I'll go keep Harper company."
His head whirled around so fast he was at risk of whiplash. I flipped him off behind my back and plopped myself down right next to Harper. "Hey kid," I said, because what the hell else was I supposed to call her after all these years? "Glad you're home."
She twined her fingers together and then stretched her arms out in front of her, then raised them over her head. "Ah, it is good to be home," she sighed. "It's so quiet here."
"Not with the three of us around, it isn't," I pointed out, gesturing to Rett and Cal.
"No, this is true," she said, nodding sagely. "But I mean, there's no street noise, or noise through the walls of the apartment next to mine. The noise sort of...seeps into you after a while, making you feel like you can never actually relax." She sighed and dropped her hands to her lap. "Or maybe that's just me. Everyone else just seems to deal with it."
"Maybe you're not cut out for the city," I said, a little too eagerly.
She gave me a baleful look. "It's my home now, Gray."
I was an idiot, that's for certain, but more than that, I was a stubborn idiot. I already knew I'd mildly pissed her off by suggesting she wasn't succeeding — even though I knew she clearly was — but instead of backing down and reassuring her that I knew she was doing great, I doubled down. "This is your home," I told her, reaching over and grabbing her fingers and spontaneously bringing them to my lips. "It always will be, no matter where you end up."
She froze when my lips brushed her fingers, and I froze in turn, pausing just before I could press them to her knuckles. Slowly I turned to see that Rett and Cal were both staring at me.
Swallowing hard, I nonchalantly lowered her hand.
"Hey Gray," Rett said, stepping around the tree, his voice low and dangerous. "How about you help me get the lights up outside?" He glared at Harper. "You'll finish decorating the tree, right Harp?"
"Uh, sure," she said, scrambling to her feet.
"You can help me," Cal said smoothly.
"Actually, Cal, we're gonna need a third man to hold the ladder," Rett said, and there was no mistaking that big-brother-fuck-you in his voice.
"Yeah," Cal said, slowly placing his last ornament. "Sure man."
"I'll see you later?" Harper called. "At the party?"
"I wouldn't miss it!" I told her. Rett glared at me for a second, and I just gave him my standard dopey grin, the kind that always smoothed shit over. He sighed and shook his head. I knew he was trying to tell himself he'd only imagined it, that me kissing Harper's hand was totally fucking innocent.
I wanted to believe it myself.
But my lips still burned where her fingers had grazed them.
Chapter Four
Harper
As the party kicked into high gear, I swayed in place to the sounds of Bing Crosby and tried not to fiddle with the pompom at the end of my elf hat.
"I have to tell you something," Brynn Reese said, grinning like a jack o' lantern. "And you have to promise not to laugh about it, because it's really important."
Her sleek cap of blonde hair was so shiny it reflected the twinkling Christmas lights. It was a few shades darker than Cal's short, sun-streaked waves, more honey colored than her brother's burnished gold. And I really needed to stop thinking about her brother instead of paying attention to what she was saying to me..."Okay?" I chirped in my bubbly, obnoxious way, then bit my tongue before I asked her what the hell hair conditioner she used to get her hair to do that. I felt like a donkey standing next to a thoroughbred.
She smiled widely again and lifted her drink to her perfectly scarlet lips, then grabbed my arm and forced me into the corner. "I
t's just that, I was thinking, I know her, right? For real, not in a 'she went to my school,' sense. We go way back, you and me, don't we?"
"Uh," I babbled.
I'm not exactly sure why Cal's sister always intimidated the fuck out of me. Maybe it was because, with her sleek blonde bob and take no shit attitude, she seems like the epitome of big city sophistication, even though I knew for a fact she'd rarely ever left Reckless Falls. How could she? Just like Cal, she was stuck at the mercy of her father's bar, wiping down glasses from an early age. That's probably why she seemed so worldly, because at thirteen years old she knew more about cocktails than most of my New York friends.
"—But I was re-reading that book and realized just how perfect it was," she was saying. "You laid it all out..."
I was trying to wrap my head around what she was telling me when suddenly I put two and two together and remembered that Brynn taught kindergarten and she was telling me about using one of my books.
Brynn was still holding on to my arms, talking without breaking eye contact. "—A whole curriculum around Gilly's Garden," she was saying, naming my most successful picture book, but once again I was stuck wondering why I had ever found her stand-offish. Because right now, with her flushed, half drunken cheeks and wild, honking laugh, she was just as down-to-earth and warm as anybody in Reckless Falls. I felt a pang, wishing that she and I had been better friends, but as I took another drink, I got the feeling we were making up for lost time.
"Yes," she said, grasping my upper arm emphatically. "The whole curriculum."
"I mean, I guess I see it," I said haltingly.
"You got letters, numbers, phonics sounds, it's perfect. I always said that if I saw you again I would kiss you right on the mouth for writing that book, but I don't think either one of us are drunk enough for that."
I laughed hysterically.
"I'm serious, it's a godsend."
"I'm just...I dunno, I guess I never thought you'd be teaching kindergarten," I said hesitantly.
"Oh what, because I'm the..."