Revving Up the Holidays

A.S.
Fenichel

Workaholic Isaac hasn’t been back to his hometown since his
father’s funeral two years earlier, pushing his family away because of a
painful secret. Hanukkah and a forced vacation lure him back to Atlanta, where
he’s reunited with his two lost loves—an old motorcycle and his sister’s best
friend Giada. While rediscovering his passion for both the bike and the woman,
Isaac rebuilds his heart.

Giada has lost her Christmas spirit since returning home to
care for her dying parents. Left alone, she struggles to return to her
successful teaching career, choosing instead to stay in her hometown. Only the
unexpected return of her high school crush Isaac brings any joy to the season.

The transitive nature of Isaac’s visit and Giada’s fear of
abandonment keep them from sharing their whole hearts, but certainly not their
bodies. Their desire for each other is hotter than the flames of a menorah and
they take advantage of their limited time together by burning up the sheets.
But once their secrets are revealed, their hearts will do all the thinking.

A
Romantica®
contemporary romance
from Ellora’s Cave

Acknowledgements

Writers never do it all alone, and a lot of people helped me
along the way. Special thanks to Miki Glass and Shula Minsky for being such wonderful
advisors. I also have to thank my fabulous beta reader Amanda for her wonderful
thoughts and encouragement, my extraordinary critique partner Stormie Kent for
all her efforts to make my books shine, and Karla Doyle for slapping me with
tough-love whenever needed—I don’t know what I do without her. Special thanks
and love to my sexy husband, Dave who continues to inspire me every day.

“I don’t need a vacation, Ben.”

“You do and so do I.” Ben Silverman raked his fingers
through his thinning hair.

“Fine. You take a vacation and I’ll take care of things
here.”

“No. You will take some time off. No one can work as hard as
you do nonstop and not burn out eventually. Go visit your sister. I’ll bet
Sadie would love to see you and you can spend some time with your niece and
nephew. It’s Hanukkah, Isaac. Go home.”

“I don’t need the time off and we just got that new sporting
goods account. There’s a lot of work to be done.” His boss was the same age as
him but he felt as if he were a child whining about the forced time off.

Ben’s lanky form folded into his large leather chair. He
leaned forward and steepled his fingers. “Isaac, you are going to take two
weeks off, paid. Most of the people in those cubicles would kill to have me say
that.”

“So give Jody some time off, or Sal.”

Ben shook his head. “Look, we grew up together. I know you.
You need some time to regroup.”

Isaac’s heart beat faster. “Are you saying my work’s not
good?”

“Your work is excellent. Just take some time, recharge. When
was the last time you had a vacation?”

He started to think about it and couldn’t come up with an
answer. “It’s been a while.”

“See, you don’t even know. I looked it up.”

Isaac’s eyes widened.

“Yes, as your boss, I have the power to look those kinds of
things up. You haven’t taken your vacation days in two and a half years. In
fact, you’ve only taken two personal days in all that time and not a single
sick day. What’s wrong with you? Don’t you like to have fun?”

Defeated, he said, “I have fun.”

“You used to. When we were kids no one was more fun than
you. Now all you do is work. Go home, Isaac, two weeks at least. We’ll manage
and you’ll be surprised how refreshed you’ll feel when you come back.”

Isaac got up and headed for the door. He stopped and turned
back. “Is it really Hanukkah?”

Ben nodded and smiled. “The first night is tonight.”

As Isaac walked out of the office with his briefcase stuffed
full of marketing ideas to go over, he thought about the fact that he’d had no
idea that the holiday had already come. Amazing that a tradition he’d grown up
with and cherished could come and he’d not even noticed. And it was eight days
long. Maybe Ben was right. Maybe Isaac did need a vacation. But returning to
Atlanta, was that really what he wanted? The last time he’d gone home had been
to attend his father’s funeral.

He ignored the woman in the elevator who stared at him.
Normally the attractive brunette would be just his type, but he was lost in
thoughts of his father’s death and his heart clenched. The bell of the doors
opening snapped him back to the present.

In the building’s lobby he waved to Jake at the security
desk and walked out into the chill of the New York City street. Instead of
hailing a cab, he walked ten blocks to the ferry that would take him across the
Hudson River to Jersey City where he lived. Wind whipped down the avenues and
he barely noticed.

The ride was quick, but he continued to muse over how he
could have missed the coming of a popular Jewish holiday. He pulled his phone
out, found his sister in his contacts and pressed the call button.

“Hi there, stranger. How are you?” Sadie asked.

Sadie was younger by fifteen months. They had always been
close, but in recent years they spoke less and less.
My fault.
The sound
of her voice made him smile. “I’m fine. In fact, I have some time off and I was
wondering if I might come for a visit. I can get a hotel room in the area.”

“You will do no such thing!”

“I won’t?” His heart jumped into his throat. Ben was right.
He’d spent so much time working that his own family didn’t want him anymore.

“You aren’t going to stay in a hotel. You get down here and
we’ll make up the guest room. I’m so excited I could cry. And for Hanukkah too.
When will you arrive?”

Flooded with relief and embarrassment, he said, “Late
tomorrow. I’m driving.”

* * * * *

He tried to work on the reports and ideas he’d stuffed into
his briefcase. Finally he gave up, packed a suitcase and went to bed early. At
two in the morning when he woke and couldn’t get back to sleep he got up,
showered and started the drive south.

Halfway down the New Jersey Turnpike rain splattered his
windshield. The wipers’ serpentine path lulled him into thoughts he preferred
left in the darker corners of his mind. Unfortunately, those memories rarely
stayed locked away. Work was the only thing that kept his demons at bay. An
idle mind was his worst enemy. Bad weather, a woman’s laugh, even her favorite
ice-cream flavor could bring it all back in a rush of unwanted emotion.

It had been rainy and cold the night he lost Leslie. Three
years later, it was as if the November night had happened yesterday. Every
muscle in his body tightened with those memories. Leslie’s smiling face filled
his vision. Then he saw her long blonde hair matted with blood on a cold metal
table.

The loud screaming horn of an eighteen-wheeler and
screeching tires rocketed him back to the present. He swerved to get out of the
path of the fast-moving truck. His own speed had slowed to the point where he
was a danger on the highway.

“Shit. Don’t end up a statistic, man.” He pulled into the
next rest stop and got himself a cup of coffee.

Driving into Atlanta was as if he were driving into the
past. It had been two years since his dad’s stroke and the unexpected death had
rocked Isaac. Why hadn’t he come home more often? His father had never even met
Leslie and now they were both gone.

His chest clenched at the thought that he hadn’t given his
family the chance to meet the woman he had planned to marry. Would his parents
have liked her? How could they not? She was bright, charming and everything
they could have wanted in a daughter-in-law.

He pressed the brake when he saw the flashing lights of
emergency vehicles. A fender-bender, but the image of twisted metal flashed in
Isaac’s mind. His knuckles stood out white on the steering wheel. Turning left
away from the accident, he had to wipe the beads of sweat from his brow.

He brushed the horrible thoughts aside as he approached the
house his sister and brother-in-law shared with their two young children.

Mark Haber’s blond hair stuck straight up on his head as he
struggled in the fading light to put blue and white lights around the picture
window on the front of the house. Two small faces stared out the window,
watching their father’s every move.

Isaac pulled into the driveway. He got out of the car and
crossed the yard. “Do you need a hand?”

“I do, but your sister will never allow you to stay out here
with me. She’s going to batter you with questions about your personal life and
drive you nuts.”

Laughing, Isaac put his hand out. “Good to see you, Mark.”

His brother-in-law shook his hand, smiling. “You too. Go on
in. The kids will have already told Sadie you’re here. I’ll be in shortly.”

The little faces had disappeared from the window. “I’ll see
you in a bit.”

He didn’t bother to knock. As Mark had said, his sister
would already know he was there. The typical middle-class home hadn’t changed
much since his father’s funeral. It was comfortable, lived in and neat. Two
sets of running feet could be heard as soon as the door closed.

“Uncle Isaac,” they screamed in unison. At five, Abigail was
older than her brother Daniel by two years. Even though they couldn’t possibly
remember the last time they had seen him, they rushed him, clinging to his legs
as if they were a pair of boots.

He laughed and crouched in the foyer. Putting down his
suitcase, he lifted them both, one in each arm. “Well, hello you two. I can’t
believe how big you’ve gotten.”

“I’m bigger,” Abigail said.

“You are and very pretty.” He kissed her cheek and was rewarded
with a sloppy wet kiss on his. “One day, this little man will be bigger than
you, you know.” He jiggled Daniel and the boy giggled before hugging him around
his neck.

Abigail sighed and wiped a stray bit of dark-brown hair out
of her face. “I know. Mommy keeps telling me.”

“Where is your mommy?”

“In the kitchen with Gigi.”

“Who is Gigi?” He knew they called his mother “grandma”.
Maybe that’s what they called Mark’s mother.

Daniel shrugged. “Gigi.”

Abigail nodded in agreement.

“Let’s go and find them, shall we?”

He walked down the hall and turned left into the large open
kitchen. His sister sat at the high island counter that separated the working
kitchen from the eating area. She had a glass of wine halfway to her lips when
she saw him. Next to her was a woman who made all the air rush out of Isaac’s
lungs.

Both women stood up.

“I thought the children must be playing a game with me. How
on earth did you get here so soon?” Sadie asked. She crossed the marble tile
and wrapped her arms around him.

The top of Sadie’s head came to his chest. He kissed the top
of her head. “I left early.”

She pushed away and looked at the slim gold watch around her
wrist. “It must have been really early.”

He smiled at her disapproving look, then returned his gaze
to the stunning woman next to her. “Giada Leone?”

Her heart-shaped face brightened with a stunning smile. “I
can’t believe you remember me.”

“Are you kidding? Of course I remember you.” He remembered
those brown and gold streaks in her wavy mahogany hair. He definitely
remembered her soft curves and the way she had made him feel as a teenager. As
an adult, she was even more appealing.

“Gigi,” Abigail said with her hands outstretched as if she
had magically produced the woman.

“So I see,” Isaac said.

“You two need to get ready for bed,” Sadie said in a voice
that reminded him of his mother.

He crouched and placed his niece and nephew on their feet.
"Go on. I’ll see you both in the morning.”

After a bit of complaining they ran from the room and could
be heard a moment later on the steps. They might have been a herd of elephants
rather than two small children.

He walked over to Giada and put out his hand. When she took
it, he clasped her delicate fingers between both of his hands.

“I figured a big football hero, motorcycle-riding popular
boy like you never gave me a second thought.” She was still smiling. Her
dark-brown eyes were lit from within.

He couldn’t look away from those huge eyes. He longed to
reach out and see if her skin and hair were as soft as they looked, but he
managed to be a gentleman and only touched her hand. “You figured wrong.”

Sadie cleared her throat. “Giada came for Shabbat. We’ve
already eaten dinner but I can make you up a plate, Isaac.”

He forced himself to release her hand and look at his
sister. He hadn’t even considered that it was Friday night and his sister would
be celebrating the Sabbath. On the other side of the kitchen he could see
through to a large formal dining room. On the sideboard a pair of candles had
been lit for Shabbat along with three menorahs, each one with two candles. “No
need. I ate on the way here. I’d love some of that wine if there’s any left.”

Sadie smiled and went to the cupboard for another glass.
“I’m going to get those two into pajamas. Help yourself to the wine.”

The expression on his sister’s face as she looked at the two
of them put him on guard. He picked up the bottle and poured. Sadie was still
watching. “I thought you said you had something to do?”

She laughed and left the kitchen.

He sat on one of the cushioned stools and sipped the wine.
“I didn’t think you were Jewish, Giada.”

“I’m not. Your sister just feels sorry for me so she invites
me for dinner all the time. We work together at the university.”

She took a sip of wine and a drop lingered on her bottom
lip. He couldn’t help wanting to kiss it off. The tip of her tongue peeked out
and grabbed the drop.

He was losing his mind. She was the one who got away.
Actually, he’d been too stupid to try to catch her. Giada had deserved to be
properly courted, and he’d been too busy running around with other girls, ones
who hadn’t required much effort. However, not having seen Giada since high
school, all the sexy thoughts of his youth returned with force. “What do you do
at the university?”

“I’m a professor of literature.”

“At Georgia State? I didn’t think they had much of a
literature department.”

She shrugged. “I was up at George Washington, but I came
down here last year when my mother got sick. I took care of her before she died
and after that my dad didn’t last long.” She sighed. “I guess I could have gone
back, but here I am.”

He wanted to ask a lot more questions. He wanted to tell her
how sorry he was about her parents.

“Ooh, wine.” Mark walked into the kitchen, got a glass and
poured the last of the bottle.

They both chuckled at his enthusiasm for the wine.

“Did you get those lights up?” Isaac asked.

“Yup. They should have gone up two days ago. Your sister
kept reminding me. Hopefully she’ll be happy now. I promised they’d be up
before the party and now they are.” Mark smiled, obviously pleased with
himself.