Cocktails & Dreams

by Autumn Markus

  Jena relaxed and her eyes drifted closed. “This is definitely familiar,” she murmured, and then she was silent, seeming to drift along on the words she was hearing. As Nick read, he was listening for movement in the house, knowing that his mother would not be able to resist coming down if she heard his voice.

  As he spoke the last few words, Nick looked at Jena and found her gazing back at him. He cupped her cheek, lightly brushing her lips with the pad of his thumb before leaning toward her, licking his bottom lip as he watched her mouth get closer.

  A soft sound in the room drew Nick’s attention, and he flashed his eyes toward the doorway, seeing his mother stop there. Jena looked, too, and started to draw back, but Nicholas slid his fingers into her hair, holding her in place lightly while he leaned further forward to press his mouth on Jena’s in a slow, intense kiss. He heard his mother leave the room with a soft chuckle. When they parted, Nick pressed a kiss on Jena’s forehead before saying, “That’s do-over number two. I should have kissed you the first time, and the hell with Leisa. Merry Christmas, Jena.”

  Jena smiled. “Merry Christmas, Nicholas.”

  Nick heard a quiet throat clearing. He looked around to see Laura smiling broadly and balancing a tray of Christmas goodies. “I found these on the porch. Apparently Conor was up even before you guys. Coffee’s on, and the oven’s warming for the French toast. Presents before or after breakfast?”

  Jena smiled and crossed the room to kiss Laura on the cheek, taking the tray of goodies from her in the process. “How about these and presents? Oh, and coffee. I think I need a transfusion after four hours’ sleep.”

  Laura chuckled and agreed, going to the kitchen. Jena also scooted out of the room, returning with a small package and a larger box. She deposited them on the coffee table, grabbing a piece of fudge from the platter and settling on the floor, leaning against the front of the loveseat with a grin.

  “You have to sit on the floor for Christmas presents, Nicholas. It’s imperative to experience the full kid effect.” She patted the floor next to her, and he plopped down, smiling at her enthusiasm even as he stressed over the actual gift giving.

  Returning with a carafe in one hand and three mugs dangling from the fingers of her other hand, Laura laughed when Jena shoved the last of her piece of fudge in Nick’s mouth. “Goodness, Nicholas. Candy before breakfast. You dad would have so approved of that.”

  “No way. After all his lectures about healthy eating,” Nick scoffed as Jena listened with interest.

  “He was always trying to convince himself, I think. He had a ‘secret’ cache of chocolate in his sock drawer for as long as I knew him. I would hear the wrappers crinkling when he thought he was being sneaky. You can go look, if you like.” Laura chuckled again and retrieved her presents from under the tree, sinking to the floor gracefully in front of a wingback chair and handing each of them a box.

  The exchange of presents went well: an album of family photos for Jena and a white coat and stethoscope for Nicholas from his parents, a framed copy of the concert picture from Jena and a heartfelt letter from Nicholas for Laura. Opening a large box from Jena, Nicholas’s present was bittersweet for the both of them, but proved to be a good step when they could laugh at the many silly and personal items she had individually wrapped inside, ending with a crystal angel, edged with gold, as a loving keepsake of how far they’d come in the past year. Though Jena had started as an angel in Nicholas’s eyes, she was now something so much better: a flesh-and-blood woman.

  Laura quietly excused herself to read the letter that Nicholas had carefully crafted. As she left, Nicholas turned to Jena, handing her a small box.

  When he and Conor had gone out shopping, he’d almost immediately spotted the pendant Jena was carefully raising from the velvet-lined box. Hanging from a fine gold chain was a teardrop-shaped sapphire, surrounded by small diamonds.

  “Nicholas…it’s beautiful.” She cast him a sideways glance. “I thought we agreed, nothing big.”

  “This isn’t big.” He smiled and pulled her to her feet, moving behind her to drape the chain around her neck. Jena tipped her head forward as he tried to clasp it with shaking hands. “Jena,” Nicholas said quietly as he finished and placed his hands on her shoulders, “I got this because I know you can’t wear rings at work, and I don’t want you to have to take it off.” He stopped, trying to get his voice under control. “We can pick a simple band later. If you want to.” Nick felt his heart slamming against his ribs as he waited for her response, and as the minute stretched on he wondered if it would explode or he would throw up first.

  Throwing up was winning when Jena finally turned around and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest. Fuck. He’d gone too far too fast. He held Jena, smoothing her hair and resting his cheek on the top of her head, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t hurt either of them. He came up with nothing.

  Jena finally moved her head, and Nicholas lifted his so she could look up. “I want,” she said, her smile dazzling. “I freaked out for a minute there. But I really, really want.”

  Nicholas let out a huge lungful of air and realized that he had been holding his breath. He searched her eyes for regret or hesitance and found none. “I don’t mean next week or next month, Jena. Just—”

  Jena put her hand on his chest, and he stopped speaking. “Some day. In the future.” She recited the familiar litany quietly, with a smile, and wrapped her other hand around the back of his neck, urging his head down as she stood on tiptoe.

  Nicholas pulled her up to him, trying to let this kiss say everything that words couldn’t encompass. He finally let her slide to her feet, and she entwined her fingers with his.

  “I have one request,” she said, eyes shining with mirth. “Can we keep this between us for a while? Leisa and my mom are going to go nuts, and I’d like to put that misery off for as long as possible.”

  They were both laughing when Laura re-entered the room, showered and dressed. She looked from one to the other of them and smiled. “Sounds like I missed something good.”

  Jena showed her the necklace, and Laura seemed to understand the significance right away, hugging Jena tightly before crossing to Nick.

  “Very smart, Nicholas,” she murmured in his ear as she kissed his cheek. “Thank you for the letter, son.” Stepping back, she smiled brightly. “Now, breakfast is ready, but first I want to give the two of you my present. We’re going online right now and booking your tickets home, on me. Don’t fuss,” she warned, looking at Nicholas archly.

  He nodded, smiling. As long as Jena was going with him, he had no intention of arguing the matter.

  Jena started to laugh as the cab pulled to a smooth stop in front of a familiar hotel in downtown San Francisco. “You’ve got to be freakin’ kidding me,” she said, flopping her head back against the seat and covering her eyes with a hand as she shook with laughter.

  Nicholas smiled back, passing the fare forward to the cabbie before opening his door. He turned to look at her, tracing the line of her neck with his gaze, unobserved by anyone but the grinning cabbie.

  “Jena, you wound me. I never kid about the things that really matter. Remember that.”

  The cabbie off-loaded their luggage, still smiling, and took the tip Nick offered before driving off. Jena grabbed the carry-on bags and nudged Nicholas.

  “There’s no way you did this since Christmas Eve.”

  Picking up the other bags, Nicholas headed for the doors after kissing her on the forehead. “Nope. I booked this the day before we went to Ashland. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Both, I guess.” Jena was shaking her head as they went to the front desk and checked in. “The room is different, though,” Nick qualified. “I didn’t think we needed a two-bedroom suite.”

  Jena snorted. “Like I knew where the hell I was anyway. I couldn’t even find the elevators the next day.” Nicholas laughed and keyed open the door of a small suite, tossing the bags to the side of the do
or as he nudged it closed with his foot. Jena dropped the carry-ons beside her and walked into his arms. He backed up until his legs hit the couch and they collapsed together. Jena’s mouth met Nick’s hungrily. When she had to breathe, she laid her head on his chest with a sigh. “Now, that’s familiar. Is this part of the do-overs?”

  Nicholas chuckled, rubbing his hand slowly over her back. “I didn’t think of it that way when I booked it but, yeah.” He thought for a minute. “Jena, we’ve done things back-asswards from the beginning. We rushed into everything—sex, intensity, living together, splitting up…everything. I think we need to take our time from now on.”

  “Yeah,” she replied softly, then folded her hands on his chest and rested her chin on them so they could look at each other. “Do you think we should go back to the beginning? Do things right?” A shadow crossed her face. “Maybe we should have gone with the two bedrooms.”

  Nicholas smiled and ran his hands over her backside. “Fat chance. Notice we didn’t start in the bar. ‘You can’t put that Cheez Whiz back in the can,’ to quote Conor.”

  Jena gasped. “He told me to ask you about Cheez Whiz the day we went rowing! I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, and I forgot all about it by the end of the day.”

  They both laughed, and Jena asked, “So…what’s next? Champagne?” She grinned. “Jäger?”

  Grasping her bum with one hand and the back of her head with the other, Nicholas drew her into a fierce kiss, sliding her underneath him so her back rested against the cushions. Looking into her eyes, he smiled.

  “Hell, no. This is my do-over, and I plan on remembering every damned minute.”

  Acknowledgments

  This would not be possible without the love and support of my family, who have lived with the trials of my characters almost as long as I.

  C.J. Creel believed in this story from its infancy, and helped pare it down from its original “bloated monster” form, and I thank her for that.

  Meredith MacLeod…tough, but kind. Isn’t that what everyone needs in an editor? Thank you.

  The MiniUN (you know who you are): You guys keep me honest. You keep me grounded. You tell me things about train station benches in Chattanooga that…well, that’s another story altogether.

  All the people who have read this story in its many changing forms mean the absolute world to me.

  Shannon Helton is my music brain, my technical guru, and a great friend who tries her best to keep my old brain up to date. Thanks, Shannies.

  And finally, I can never say enough to or about my HLM, Sandy Wright, or my BT, Siobhan Melia. My life is infinitely better for having met you.

  About the Author

  When she’s not chasing rug monkeys or otherwise running around like a madwoman, Autumn likes to look out at the Rocky Mountains that surround her, and daydream. She wouldn’t live anywhere else (except maybe Tahiti, if half-naked serving men were included in the deal. Admit it—you’d trade, too).

  Autumn’s always up for a good chat about music, movies, wine, or good books. Or bad books. Or books of any kind (Really. She talks a lot. Almost as much as she reads. Ask her husband). She sucks down java at a scandalous rate to keep her going by day, but in the dead of night you’ll find her hunched over the computer keyboard, writing frantically while alternating between bouts of snickering madly, sniffling aloud, and despairing over her technodorkiness.

  Someday she’ll grow up and put her very grown-up education to use.

  Maybe.

  But not today.

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  Table of Contents

  title page

  Copyright Information

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

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