A Little Christmas Romance (5 page)

It feels like a dream, but I’m awake. Chris has his fingers intertwined with mine and is pulling me up the steps of his mother’s house. I’ve been here before, but it’s been a long time. Nervous butterflies fill my stomach and I kind of hope that I’ll slip on a patch of ice and break my leg. I’d rather spend Christmas dinner in the emergency room. That’s less frightening than facing whatever Chris’s family is going to think about me and him together.

I pull on him, “Chris, I can’t do this. What if they—?”

He doesn’t let me finish. “They adore you and I already told them that you were coming. You can’t back out now. Come on.” Chris doesn’t ring the bell. He pulls open the door and we walk inside, hand in hand. He smiles and laughs when his brothers see him. “Look who I found!”

“Brooke!” Matthew, his older brother greets me and pulls me inside. The
barrage of scents hits me hard, and when I see the food on the table I drool a little.

“Matt, hey.”

He holds out his hand and then pulls me into a hug. “It’s about time!”

Chris laughs and yanks me away. We head toward the kitchen and find his parents and the rest of his family. They pass me arou
nd, hugging me, and saying the same thing as Matt. Confusion covers my face. I glance at Chris, but he won’t hold my gaze. It’s a worried glance, like he knows what they’re thinking and is worried about what I’ll think.

When we sit down for dinner, Chris is next to me. Before we start eating his mother looks up and down the table. She takes her husband
’s hand and beams at me. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Thank you for having me.” I feel awkward. Everyone is looking at me
with a weird expression. Matt can’t stop grinning at me and his Dad looks proud. Seriously, what the hell? Meanwhile, his mother is smiling at me like I’m their long lost daughter or something. It’s freaking weird and the silence doesn’t help any. No one eats. They just sit there staring at me with those goofy expressions.

Chris sighs and slumps back in his chair. Covering his face with his hands, he grumbles,
“Dear God. Just say it.”

They’re going to drop a bomb and Chris just gave them the go ahead. Nervously, I twist in my seat.
For a second I think about running away. The door isn’t far, and I’m pretty sure I could run out the front door before anyone would catch me.

Matt looks at me and laughs. “Don’t even think about it.” Bastard. How’d he know? As if he can read my mind, he answers, “You glanced toward the door too many times.”

Chris’s mother cuts Matt off. “It’s just that we’re so happy to see you and Chris together. He was always fond of you.”

Smiling, I look up and down the table. I can’t believe it. My eyes are a little too wide when I speak. “Fond?”

“Yes, dear.”

Matt jumps in again, “More like obsessed with all things Brooke. The guy hasn’t dated in years. If he couldn’t have Brooke, he didn’t want—” Matt makes an
oof
noise as Chris elbows him in the ribs.

“Don’t make me kill you.” Chris hisses under his breath and looks
positively bashful.

I scoot forward and grab the table cloth. “Wait a second, what are you saying?”

“He’s adored you for years.” His mom smiles at me and then hands carving utensils to her husband. “When you were gone, he just wasn’t the same, and now here you are and it’s like we have Christopher back. I mean, look at that smile. Doesn’t it make you melt?” She presses her hand to her heart.

Chris glances over at me. “Major crush.”

“Half a decade. Yeah, I’d say so.” Matt moves before Chris can smack him.

When Chris looks back at me, he’s worried. “I already told you, but you seemed to think something else.”

“I thought you—” My jaw drops and I don’t know what to say. It takes me a second. I press my lips together and ignore the stinging in my eyes. “You’ve been alone all this time?” He nods. “Because you wanted me?” He nods again, which triggers the most horrific reaction.

All of a sudden I gasp-wail. It sounds like someone is ripping the legs off a cat. My
hands slap over my mouth and I get up and fly from the table and race outside.

Tears sting my eyes and I can’t stop gasping. Chris grabs my shoulders when he reaches me in the middle of his front yard. I’m holding my face and my stomach. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me. I’m laughing and crying. There’s snot, giggles, and tears. It’s the ugliest thing ever and yet, Chris stands there watching me like I’m the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.

“Well, if I knew you’d react like this…” he grins and steps toward me. I punch his arm lightly and nearly fall over. Chris grabs me and pulls me into his arms, crushing me against his chest. “I told you how I felt.”

“I never noticed. How did they realize how you felt, but I didn’t?”

“Well, back then I didn’t exactly let you know, and when you left, it was like part of me died. They all noticed. You light me up, Brooke. You always have.” He pulls back and holds up a little box wrapped with a white bow.

I smile nervously and stare at the little box in his hands. “What’s this?”

“Your Christmas present.”

“When did you have time to get me something?” My bottom lip wants to poke out, but I suck it in. He got me a gift?

He nods slowly with a half-smile
on his face. “I got it for you a long time ago. I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to give it to you. I waited too long and almost missed my chance.”

Reaching out slowly, I take the box from his hands and suck in a shaky breath. I can’t imagine what’s inside this thing and so my mind runs away with me. A lump forms in my throat because I don’t have a present for him. I pull off the bow and rip open the paper as the cold air makes me shiver. Chris steps closer to me, wrapping his arms around my waist. His breath turns white in the frosty air.

After all the paper is removed, I’m holding a black velvet box. Slowly, I open the lid and look inside. I don’t like jewelry, so I can’t imagine what he got me. Something glitters and catches my eye. I blink. For a second, I don’t understand what I’m seeing, then I get it. A laugh tickles my tummy and I close the lid, and glance up at Chris. “What is this?”

He takes the box from my hands and opens it again. Lifting the necklace from the velvet case, he explains, “I knew you were going to have hard times ahead of you and I wasn’t sure what you needed, so I got you everything I could think of and stuck them on a charm necklace.”

He places the charm holder in my palm and points at the little golden objects. His finger presses against a cross. “This one is for faith, and this one is for hope.” He points to a daisy, and then to a four leaf clover, “And this one is for luck, because God knows you needed some.” I elbow him lightly and he laughs. “Well, you did. This one here, is for strength” he flicks an object that resembles a rock, and goes on explaining which symbol means what and why he bought it, until I see it—a little frog.

Pointing at it, I ask,
“What’s this one for?”

Chris doesn’t look up. His head remains bowed to the glittery objects in my hand.
“To remind you that I’m always here for you, Brooke.”

My eyes flick up to his face.
I try not laugh because it’s not one of those cute frogs with the googlie eyes. It’s an ugly toad with warts and a big mean mouth. “Wait a second, you’re the gross frog?”

He nods, but doesn’t meet my gaze. “Y
eah, I was cursed. I fell madly in love and never got the kiss to set me free.” He glances up at me and those blue eyes make me forget everything else. “I’ve always loved you, Brooke.”

My throat tightens and there are no words, just a rush of emotions that confound my mind. My mouth opens like I’m going to say something, but all I can do is gasp. Chris presses his finger to my lower lip. His eyes follow the movement before looking back up at me. “I’m yours, body, mind, and soul. I always have been. I always will be.” Dipping his head, he leans in and kisses m
e as his arms wrap tightly around my waist.

When he’s done, he leans his forehead against mine and smiles. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Chris. I can’t believe you felt like that about me. I—” My jaw hangs open as I try to express how I feel, because I love him too. I didn’t realize that I could feel like this, and now that he’s here, I never want him to leave.

Chris leans in and kisses me again, which makes me smile. “Believe it. Christmas is a time for miracles and I was given the best gift I could possibly imagine—you, my perfect present.” He smiles hard and kisses me again.

*****

SECRETS & LIES

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THE PROPOSITION

                
Bryan Ferro

A Ferro Family serial coming November 2013!

THE PROPOSITION

Vol. 1

The sky is clear except for a few white glittering stars. They’re hung high out of reach, impossibly beautiful and distant. The air has that crisp fall scent, and I know there will be frost tonight. Dad would have covered his plants with plastic to get a few more weeks from their fragile lives. The tarp is in the basement, still folded, where he kept it. The pansies will freeze and fade. This is their last night in this house, as it is mine.

Pushing the swing on the back porch with the tip of my foot, I start it swaying again. Life is so fleeting, so meaningless. The hole that’s swallowing me is relentless. I thought I’d cry more, but I haven’t even been able to do that. The tears won’t fall. Neil says it’s because my father’s death hasn’t hit me yet, but it has. The weight of his loss is pressing so hard on my shoulders that I can’t lift my face from the dirt. For all those years, it was just the two of us. He was always there for me. He saved me from incomprehensible misery and now that he’s gone, I find myself back in the shallows, unable to escape.

My eyes sweep over the wooden fence, taking in the rotten boards. Things were tight and I knew Dad sacrificed for me, I just had no idea how much until now. My college bills, my car, and all the things I needed were paid for without a blink, but I never stopped to wonder where the money came from. Dad worked hard, so I assumed it was enough.

I was wrong.

     
There hasn’t been enough for a long time, and I had no idea. He never said anything. When I came home from classes at the end of the day, he’d hand me a twenty and tell me to be a kid and go have fun. He said stuff like that all the time. It makes me wonder if he knew what was coming, but there’s no way he foresaw this.

When I came home from class last week, I found him in the yard, face down in a pile of leaves. My throat tightens and I push away the memory. It’s not something that I ever want to see again, but it lights up over and over again. My senses are overloaded. I can
still feel Dad’s cold skin and the weight of his lifeless body as I rolled him over. The texture of his tattered flannel jacket is still on my fingertips. The sound of my strangled voice crying out his name over and over again still rings in my ears. I’ve never felt so afraid. For the first time in a long time, I am alone.

My phone is on the wooden swing and chirps next to me. I don’t feel like talking. Silence has encased me inside a tomb of misery since that day. Neil stood next to me and held my hand until hours blurred into days. Neil didn’t want to leave me alone here tonight, but I insisted. It’s my last night in this house. I’ll never step over the threshold again. I’ll never catch the scent of my father’s aftershave in his little bathroom. All the memories will be lost and it will be like he never existed.

~COMING NOVEMBER 2013~

The Story of Bryan Ferro

SECRETS & LIES

Coming Soon