25. Rachel
25
RACHEL
C hristmas Day…
Snaps and crackles woke me first. The sounds from the fireplace broke me out of the deep sleep I could have sworn we’d just fallen under the spell of.
If being with Nate would mean staying up late, then waking to make love again every night, I would need to seriously revise my sleep schedule.
Yawning so wide that it hurt my face, I shivered as I let the cool air of the bedroom kiss my exposed skin.
“Hey,” I murmured sleepily. “You’re hogging the blankets again.”
“No. I would never.” Nate kept his eyes closed as he reached over to pull me on top of him. Draped over his hard body, I sank against him and closed my eyes once more. I rested my cheek on his chest, letting the steady beat of his heart soothe me. “If you didn’t toss and turn so much that half the sheets end up on the floor, we would be set with our blanket.”
I yawned. “I do not toss and turn.”
“You do.” He stroked his hands over the globes of my ass. “I guess I don’t tire you out enough before bed. Or in it.”
“Oh, I’m plenty tired.” I laughed at the idea of losing more sleep.
Here in his cabin, it made sense. This was a vacation spot. We weren’t working or expected to anytime soon. Dinner with his parents last night was wonderful, and they both encouraged us to take time off. That was when I expressed my wish for a change in my temporary employment.
“Simply put,” I told Mr. and Mrs. McIntosh, “I don’t think Julie will allow anyone else to be an assistant on that floor after me.”
“Oh, she’s such a sweetheart,” Cindy McIntosh said.
Her husband, Darren, grunted. “You mean a ball buster who doesn’t take shit from anyone, eh?” He winked at me. “That must mean you’re really tough to impress her.”
“Rachel?” Nate teased. “Nah. She’s a sweet girl.”
I still couldn’t believe he’d made me blush in front of his parents.
I was Nate’s sweet girl. And I never wanted him to stop calling me that.
Now, this wonderful Christmas morning, I wondered how it would work when we stopped this winter break. I planned to email that place that offered me the contract work starting in January. I’d let them know next week. Everyone was in holiday heaven—or hell.
“When we go back to work,” I said, rousing Nate from falling asleep again, “how will it go?”
“What do you mean?”
I peered up at him. “We can’t be locking ourselves in your office all the time for quickies.”
He sighed, stretching with the sound to the point where he almost knocked me off him. “And I want longies with you, anyway.”
“Longies?” I snorted, laughing so fast.
“I don’t want to rush with you, sweet girl.” He rolled me onto my back and nuzzled my breasts. “I want to take my time with you.”
“Hmm…” I threaded my fingers through his thick red hair, keeping him right there.
“But not right now.” He reared up, smiling at me.
“Aww. Tease.”
He leaned down to kiss me. “We’ve slept in long enough. It’s Christmas, Rach.”
“I know.” I smiled, putting my hands behind my head as I relaxed. “No more craziness from my mother about this season.”
“What, the day comes and she just shuts off? She doesn’t get like that about all holidays?”
I watched him walk to the other side of the room, grabbing the small wrapped presents we’d brought here for each other. “No. She doesn’t. It’s just the Christmas madness.”
“Weird.” He climbed back into bed, handing me the gift he’d gotten for me. He kept the one I’d purchased for him. I grabbed it right before the Malley, Inc. holiday party. It wasn’t easy, mostly because he insisted we could only exchange silly gifts.
“Can I go first?” he asked, smiling cheekily like a boy on, well, Christmas morning.
I laughed. “Go ahead.”
He unwrapped it, finding a mug that read Hottest Boss Ever . “Oh, is that so?” He pretended to drink out of it.
“Yes.”
“But I’m not just your boss…”
I smiled, flipping the covers down. “And this is the present you already unwrapped for being my boyfriend.”
“You got that right.” He smiled, shaking his head. Then he kissed me before tipping his chin at me. “Go on. Open it.”
I removed the wrapping paper carefully until I saw a box for a dice game. Or not? “Oh.” I raised my brows. A naughty dice game. “I thought you said we had to get gag gifts.”
“And that is one,” he protested as I read around the package.
“I don’t know…” I pointed at one erotic suggestion. “I’d be game for that.”
“Okay, then I suppose this gift is the purposeful one.”
I frowned at him. “What do you mean, this gift? You mean between mine and yours?”
He nodded quickly and shrugged. “Yeah.”
“Well, then let’s play.”
He cracked up, helping me open the package. The rules were kind of confusing, ironically. We both got hungry, anyway, and got up to make breakfast as we argued about what the rules meant.
“It’s a sex game. I think the rules aren’t supposed to matter,” he reasoned.
“And it’s a Christmas sex game,” I said, tossing the rules paper back on the bed, where we returned after breakfast. “Which is basically a bunch of role playing with a dirty Santa.”
He pulled me onto his lap. “Tell me what you want for Christmas, sweet girl.”
I laughed, shaking my head at his silliness. “Easy. I want you.” I twisted back to kiss him, loving this first Christmas with him. No pressure. No clothes were mandatory. And we had yet to really stay out of bed.
“And you’ve got me,” he promised, kissing me hard until I turned around and straddled him.
After we made love and napped again, he woke me up.
“We’re going to be late,” he said.
“Late?” I asked sleepily. “For what?”
“The Christmas lunch.”
I groaned, wishing we could hide out in this cabin so I could pretend we weren’t even back in the small town we grew up in. Nestled in the woods, it felt like a whole other destination. No neighbors. No commitments…
Except this one, I supposed.
“Do we have to?”
“I want to,” he said as he stood. He whipped the blankets off me, chilling me and waking me all the way up. “Let’s shower and go.”
“To deal with my family?”
“Hey, Brandon’s my friend. I always see him on Christmas.”
I got up to join him in the bathroom. “Fine, but this will be the first Christmas where he’s got to come to terms that we’re together.”
He smiled under the water. “I like that. First . It means we’ve got so many more to come, sweet girl.”
I loved that we’d have a future, too. But that didn’t mean we could avoid the present. Realistically, I knew I’d need to talk to my family. I’d need to come right out and explain that Nate and I were dating. And that I’d move in with him. And… that I wasn’t coming back home but would be living and working in New York with him.
Those things would equal a clean break from my past here, and while I was aware it would be better to tell them these things in person, I didn’t want to have to deal with it yet.
“We’ll handle it,” Nate said. “Together.”
I sighed, washing up. “We will. We will.” It felt so good to be able to say we .
After we cleaned up and exited the cabin, Nate held my hand on the way to his SUV. “Hey, before we go into town, I was wondering something.”
“Why the café always stays open on Christmas?” I guessed. “I know, I’ve wondered that too.”
“I think the owners just like hosting the Christmas lunch since they don’t have kids or a big family.” He opened the passenger door for me, ever the gentleman. “But no, I was wondering about something else.”
I waited for him to round the vehicle and get into the driver’s side. “What is it?”
“Why did Kyle break up with you?”
I drew in a deep breath. “I didn’t want to tell anyone. It’s his story to tell. Not mine.”
“Okay, you’ve said that before. And every time you say it, it makes me think that he’s hiding something big about his health, like he’s got something terminal. Or that he’s coming out.”
I began to nod, wincing as he drove.
“Wait, what?” He jerked his focus between me and the road. “He’s gay?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t out him.”
“Oh, damn. Well, now it makes more sense. How you’d be a virgin but with him and… wow.” He gave me a soft smile. “You’re loyal.”
I smiled back and shrugged. “He asked me not to tell anyone. And while it was kinda crappy to put that secret on me—with the news that he wanted to break up with me at a huge joint family dinner—I couldn’t.”
“ That’s why you were so adamant not to tell your mom.”
“Or his mom. Or Brandon. Or anyone. It’s not my story to tell.”
He nodded. “Brave, Rachel. That’s brave of you to let everyone badger you for the truth and keep his secret.”
“Don’t tell anyone.”
“No, I won’t. But it’s not fair for him to expect you to take the brunt of all the drama.”
I shrugged, not really caring anymore. I had Nate, and that was that.
As soon as he parked at Rockton’s café, I sighed, dejected at the sight of my family’s car parked there.
“Time to face the music,” I said as we walked toward the little building bustling with townsfolk.
My mom and dad sat at a long table in the corner. Brandon was seated there as well. And Mr. and Mrs. Jones were there too.
Two empty seats were available, presumably for me and Kyle.
“Well.” Mrs. Jones glanced at my mom, sniffing. “It looks like you weren’t lying about her shacking up with someone else, moving on after Kyle so rashly.”
I pursed my lips, looking up at Nate and silently begging him to leave.
“Merry Christmas!” he cheered loudly instead, ignoring my former neighbor’s dig.
“Have a seat,” Brandon said, eyeing me and Nate closely.
I sensed the tension from him, and I wondered if the idyllic, cozy Christmas Nate and I had shared so far would turn to disaster now.
“That seat is for my son,” Mrs. Jones told Nate as he reached for it.
“Stop,” I said, tugging Nate to sit with me.
This is the last time. The last damn Christmas whatever with them.
“But Kyle should be sitting there,” Mrs. Jones said, “with…”
She ceased speaking. Her mouth hung open as she got stuck staring at something past Nate’s shoulder.
Someone had entered, and as I craned around him to see who it was, I smiled with utter relief.
“Finally.”
I grinned at my ex’s entrance. Kyle walked in, hand-in-hand with one of his gym rat friends.
Nate turned as well, chuckling lightly. “Aha.”
“Kyle?” Mr. Jones asked. “What is this?”
I met my mom’s gaze across the table, loving how silent she was. She was speechless, but recognition settled on her face. She pulled her lips in, realizing, at last, that it was never my fault that Kyle had dumped me.
I was finally off the hook. The cat was out of the bag. No one would ever have any reason to pester me about why I had been dumped.
“Okay, that answers a lot of questions,” Brandon said, leaving the Jones family to talk at their side of the table, welcoming this new boyfriend to lunch. Another pair of chairs were being pulled up.
“But I’ve still got one for you ,” my brother said to Nate, his brow furrowing with irritation. “What the hell, man? I thought my sister was off-limits to you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, that’s so dumb.”
“My best friend, hooking up with my little sister?” Brandon asked. “Isn’t that against the bro code?”
Nate eased out of his chair, getting down on one knee as he faced me but spoke to Brandon. “Would there be an exception if I’m your brother-in-law?”
I gasped, covering my mouth. “Nate!”
He faced me, smiling with that slow, soft grin that was just for me. “What do you say, sweet girl? It’s been fast, but maybe that’s just us getting a head start on the rest of our lives.”
A bark of laughter burst out of me. This had to be the “other gift” he’d gotten for me.
He opened the ring box, showing me a sparkling diamond ring. It wasn’t a present, but a promise. Because as I nodded and held out my hand, I knew that Nate was a vow I’d keep and deliver on.
We were each other’s gifts, today and for the rest of time. We were each other’s Christmas wishes coming true, for good.
“Yes, Nate. Of course, I’ll marry you.”
He slid the ring on my finger, gazing up at me with happy tears in his eyes as he hugged me close and kissed me.
This is the best Christmas ever.
And it was only the first of many, many more to come with my one true love.