The Christmas Letter (Davidson Center, Colorado Book 1)

by April Zyon

  As Molly played, Dante stood and said, “Can I talk to you, Noelle?”

  “Sure.” She rose and gave Molly a playful hug and walked out of the room with Dante.

  Noelle was surprised to see her coat and purse there on the steps. “You should leave, while she’s otherwise occupied.” He sounded angry now, and she didn’t understand why.

  “Why? I don’t understand?” Noelle asked and stepped in closer to Dante, reaching out for him.

  “You fucking used Molly to get to me.” He looked at her now, and she could see the bitter anger in his eyes, the hurt, the hatred and that had her stepping back. “You knew who that letter was from, you knew what we were worth, and you stepped right the fuck in. What you did is worse than what any of the other whores have done who have tried to get into our lives since I got back. It’s unconscionable. I thought for a moment there that you were different. With your innocent eyes, with your crusade to keep the spirit of Christmas alive for Molly and all the other bullshit you were spewing, I really fell for it. Hook. Line. And fucking sinker. Get out. I never want to see you again, Noelle Henry. If I have to, I will put out a restraining order against you.”

  Noelle had never been more shocked in all of her life. She had been called a lot of things in her life but this, never this. She just looked at him and went to say something several times, but words wouldn’t come. Finally, she picked up her purse after putting on her coat. She walked to the door and turned to him to say, “I just want you to remember, and you will, who it was that pushed for that date. All I wanted to do was give you the doll and ask you to ensure that your niece had the perfect Christmas. Merry Christmas, Dante. Your gift is under the tree, I hope you like it,” she told him and stepped out into the blinding cold. He had picked her up, but it looked like she was walking home.

  Her heart broke as she heard the lock turn behind her, she couldn’t believe he would actually think something so low of her. After all they had shared, all the talks and all the feelings expressed physically. She shook her head and taking another deep breath, she walked on through the foot-deep snow in her flats, knit tights, and skirt. Thankfully she actually had on a winter coat.

  Chapter Ten

  “Where is Noelle?” Molly asked when Dante walked back in.

  “She had to go home. Someone needed her.” Dante’s heart had been ripped out when he realized what play had been played on him, all using Molly. He couldn’t believe that Noelle had pulled that shit on him. He thought he knew her better than that, but he was obviously mistaken. She was like all the other women in life and only wanted their money.

  “But you didn’t get to give her the present,” Molly grumbled. “We spent all day picking out the perfect one.”

  “I know, Molls, maybe it’s better this way. You and me, we are a team, and we are perfect, right?”

  Molly looked at him with that frown that was just like Sammy’s when she was displeased with him and shook her head. “No, we aren’t perfect. We were perfect when we had Noelle with us. You were happy, and so was I.” The little girl pulled out a gift from under the tree. “I saw her put this under here for you. She didn’t think I saw, but I saw. I don’t like that you let her go spend Christmas with someone else. She’s supposed to be our family, Uncle Dante.”

  “She’s not, though, Molls. She’s not our family. She never was, and she never will be. She was a friend who was just spending time with us for a few days, that’s it. She’s gone now, and she won’t be back.” Dante didn’t mean to snap at Molly, but he couldn’t help it. He needed Molly to know that Noelle wouldn’t be back, period. End of discussion. She was a leach like the others.

  Molly began to cry but nodded all the same. “I guess it’s okay,” the girl said and looked down at the doll. She placed it back into the box and then shrugged. “I don’t think I want to have a gift from Santa. Can I have my next gift from you?”

  Dante realized at that moment he burst her bubble about Santa. He didn’t know how he did it, but he did. “Sure, Molls,” he said and pulled out the presents he got for her. They talked and laughed, but there was no real happiness, not like there had been earlier. It seemed to have left with Noelle.

  ****

  Later that night Dante opened the gift that Noelle left him. It was a strange gift, a wallet. Inside there was a note.

  I know that times are hard raising a child on your own, so I want to share with you the best thing, besides you, to happen to me this week. Last week on a whim I bought a Powerball ticket, the one for 345 million dollars, and won! This note entitles you to half of that money. I never want you or Molly to want for anything, and since we aren’t married or even dating, this was the only thing I could think to do. Don’t think too hard, just take the money. Do it because someone in this world, besides Molly, of course, loves you.

  Noelle.

  Dante could only look at the note. What had he done? She hadn’t wanted his money. She hadn’t wanted what he could give her. Christ, she had a hell of a lot more than him! She wanted, she wanted him? How could he have made such a terrible mistake? What had made him so jaded?

  In his mind, he began to think of what led him to Noelle, and she was right. He had been the one to push for the date. He had been the one to push for everything. If anyone was to blame for anything, it was him, not her. “Fuck.” He sat up on the side of the bed and ran his hands through his hair roughly.

  When his phone pinged, he hoped that it was Noelle texting him. It wasn’t, it was a law firm emailing him, asking to set up a time to go over the transfer of funds from Noelle Henry to his accounts and disbursement as he saw fit. The email was hours old and had just pinged because his phone had been charging. Fuck.

  He scrolled through his phone and saw a text message from Noelle.

  Got home safe, attorneys will be contacting you for your Christmas present. I never wanted anything from you, certainly not money. All I wanted, Dante, was you. I hope that you one day find whatever it is that you are looking for. Noelle.

  He didn’t text back. Instead, he called her and got her voice mail. “Noelle, call me the minute you get this. I’m a colossal ass, please, call me?”

  He began to pace back and forth in his room and then did something he never thought he would. He called one of his friends to come over and watch Molly while he tracked Noelle down.

  Chapter Eleven

  Noelle was laying in her bed looking up at the ceiling. She had a six AM flight to Jamaica and then from there, well, she didn’t know where she would go. She didn’t know what she was going to do with her life now that her heart and soul were shattered, but she would figure it out. She knew running wasn’t the solution. She knew she should give Dante time to cool down so that they could talk like actual adults, but she didn’t want to. His words had cut her to the core, had been too close to what her ex had said far too long ago, and he hadn’t even cared how she got home, or if she did. He turned her out into the cold in a skirt and knit tights without thoughts to her well-being. No, it was best if she left for now at least. She needed time and space.

  Maybe Dante was right. Maybe what she was feeling wasn’t love. She laughed at herself. “Yeah right. I love that man more that the moon and stars,” she whispered in the darkness.

  “That’s a damn good thing because he loves you too, even if he is a stupid fucker.” Dante’s voice came from the darkness, which had her screaming.

  “Holy fuck! How the hell did you get in here?” She sat up in the bed, holding the blankets against her chest, gasping for air because of the scare and how fast she had moved.

  “You gave me a key, remember?” He was sitting in the chair in the corner, she realized now, as her eyes tracked his voice.

  “Why are you here?” Did he just say that he loved her? What strange Twilight Zone was she in the right now?

  “I have so much to apologize for, starting with taking away our Christmas, your present, and telling you how I feel. That’s just to start with.”

  �
�No shit, Sherlock.” She was wicked angry with him, but hearing him tell her he loved her did something to her insides. “You don’t need to butter me up you know, the money is already yours. The lawyers have had the contracts drawn up for days, but I asked them to wait to email you until tonight. If that’s what this is about, don’t let it be. You don’t have to fake a feeling for me to get that money, it’s not necessary.”

  “And giving me the money isn’t necessary either. Keep it. I don’t need it,” he told her and moved from the chair to the bed. “All I need is you,” he said softly. “It freaked me out,” he explained to her and reached for her hand. “When you gave Molly those earrings, and she tossed herself at us and said that I remembered what you said about her letter, how she wanted a family and I thought the worst. I thought that you were using a six-year-old’s letter to Santa to get your way into our family money.”

  “What family money?” She was now the one frowning.

  “You don’t know? Sammy never told you?”

  “Um, no. She came over here as often as possible to escape your dad because he was a complete douche who was a mean drunk.” Noelle was getting even more confused now.

  “Noelle, baby. The town is called Davidson Center.”

  “And?”

  He chuckled and leaned in to kiss her forehead. “My family founded this town. They are, well, we are, extremely well off. I think that’s why the Sheriff wants me on staff, because of who I am. He wants to use me to get the upgrades that they need.”

  “Wait, are you serious? But you guys live in a small four-bedroom bungalow.”

  “And have houses all over the globe. And the bungalow is a little bigger than you think. I was going to start to show you everything tonight, baby. Didn’t you notice we have no neighbors on about half the block? The bungalow we live in is the guest house, the main house is where the mayor lives because we’ve never wanted to live there. Your family lived closest to us.”

  “Sammy always came to my place when your dad got rip-roaring drunk,” Noelle agreed.

  “Open your gift, Noelle?” Dante asked her as he placed the small box on her knee.

  Noelle could only look at the box. It had to be earrings. “Did you get me earrings to match Moll…” She trailed off mid-word because she had opened the box. It certainly wasn’t earrings in the box, and he was no longer sitting on her bed. Instead, Dante was on his knee before her.

  “Noelle, I fucked up. God, I have messed up in more ways than one tonight, and I will mess up again and again. I’m asking you to help me through those screw ups. I’m asking you to walk at my side for the rest of our lives. Noelle Henry, will you please do me the honor and marry me?”

  She wanted to tell him hell no. She wanted to scream and fight with him. She wanted to shout at him for believing the worst in her, but she could see it from his point of view as well, especially if women had been doing it to him his whole life. Now high school made even more sense to her.

  She looked at the ring and then him.

  “It has an inscription,” he told her.

  So, she read it. Thank you for helping me believe again. Those words, while not words of love, were all it took. With tears in her eyes, Noelle looked at Dante and nodded. “Yes,” she whispered and then a little louder repeated. “Yes, I will marry you.” She threw herself into his arms then.

  “Thank fuck,” he said and picked her up to hold her close. “I was not against begging, you know,” he said with a grin and twirled her around. “I have someone watching Molly until morning. How about we make use of your bed?”

  “I think that sounds like an amazing idea,” Noelle told him happily and tugged at his shirt. Her emotions were all over the map, and she honestly didn’t care. All she cared about was the fact that he was there with her, he loved her, and he wanted to marry her. “You do know I don’t believe in divorce, right?”

  “Again, thank fuck, because I don’t either. You are it for me. I think I knew it years ago, but when I saw you stalking me, I felt it in my bones and then when we talked, something inside of me screamed mine! And I knew that you were it for me. There will never be another for either of us,” he said as he quickly stripped her out of her clothes as well.

  “Good.” They were soon naked and in her bed. Her mouth was on his cock and demanding that he give in to her, but he wouldn’t, him and that control of his. He quickly had roles reversed, and she and her lack of control let go immediately. She was quickly screaming his name as she orgasmed.

  Dante’s famous control didn’t last long, however. Typically he would give her two or three oral orgasms before he entered her body, but tonight was different, and she didn’t mind it one bit.

  He crawled up her body, his mouth leaving a hot trail of kisses in its wake as he did so. When they faced each other, he smiled. “I love you, Noelle. Now and forever.” He then entered her body, his large cock stretching her pussy as he tunneled his way inside.

  Noelle wrapped her legs around his hips and tugged him closer. She moaned and bit her lower lip, and then leaned up to pull him to her body. “And I love you, Dante. Now and forever.” Her nails raked over his back as he began to pump in and out of her body. She whimpered and shifted slightly and then smiled. “God, that feels amazing.” She loved how he felt, loved everything about the big man that as going to be hers forever.

  He braced his upper body weight on his elbows beside her head so that he could toy with her cheeks, lips, and ears while fucking her until he couldn’t take it anymore. Then he began to pound into her harder and faster. “Fuck, come for me, baby, give me your orgasm.” He moved one hand and braced his weight on the other elbow alone so that he could reach between them and toy with her clit. She began to tighten on him, and he smiled. “Fuck yes baby, that’s it.” He was panting and when she started to scream, he kissed her, taking all her passion into his mouth and came right along with her.

  It was in that second, that hot steamy moment that she felt it. Dante hadn’t put on a condom. She felt his seed pouring into her waiting womb, and it was as if fireworks were exploding around them. She had never had anyone go bareback inside of her, so this sensation was one that was utterly foreign to her, and it was so hot to have him being the first as well.

  When he pulled back, she saw the shock on his face, but she just grinned and stroked his cheek. “It’s okay. We are committed to each other. I’m clean, and I trust that you are as well. I’ve never had sex without a condom before, so that was, wow that was incredible,” she admitted to him.

  “I’m so sorry, baby. I should have been thinking, but I wasn’t. All I could think about was you, being inside of you and simply loving you. If you need me to go and get you some of that Plan B stuff, I will.”

  “Why? Dante, it is okay. I’m happy. I love you, and I plan on staying in your life for the rest of time. I know we’ve only been in each other’s lives as adults for a few weeks, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that you are it for me. There is no one else for me, not now and not ever. So, unless you have doubt?”

  She was tackled by his very large body, and he was once more in her face. “Not on your life, princess. I’m keeping you forever. I know a good thing, and you are beyond a good thing. I almost lost you once because of my stupidity and I’m not going to even attempt to lose you again.”

  “Then I think we need to shower and get back to your place before Molly wakes up so that we can tell her the good news. Tell her that Santa came through, after a visit with you during the night or something. Make that child believe for as long as we can.”

  “I like the way that sounds, a lot better than telling her that her uncle is the biggest asshole on the face of the planet.”

  “Not biggest,” Noelle said with a laugh and got out of bed. “Now, I’m showering, and you are staying out here, or we won’t make it back to your place until New Year’s.” She looked down at the ring and sighed. “It’s perfect, Dante.” The ring, she hadn’t even had a chance to look at it, but it
was perfect. It was platinum with diamonds all around the band and at least a four-caret princess-cut diamond in the center. If she had doubted about his wealth before, she didn’t now.

  “Well then, hurry, I want to tell her the news over waffles. Smitty is watching her, and he makes these killer waffles, so get your cute ass in gear, woman.”

  Noelle just giggled and did just that. She got ready to head off to her future with her family. The family that she was certain had always been intended to be hers, in some weird and cosmic way. She would of course much rather have Sammy and David there to take care of Molly, but all things said and done, it would be an honor to start this life with Dante being a female role model for the little girl, and being someone who would help remind her that magic does live in the world, she just had to look for it.

  The End

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  Other Books by April Zyon:

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