Oh Nights Divine

Chapter 13

T ravis was sprawled on his back on the ultimate make-out couch, unable to move, spent and perfectly content.

Keely sat at the other end. She stretched her arms overhead and gave him that sassy look he adored. "Interested in another customer satisfaction survey?"

He grinned. "I'm still recovering from the last one."

"God rest ye weary gentleman," she sang in her whispery voice.

It made his grin widen. Keely pounced on him and he wrapped his arms around her. He would hold her like that forever if she let him.

Boy did he want that. More than he'd ever expected. It was time he told her. Let her know this was so much more than a holiday romance.

"Keely—"

"You've made this Christmas so wonderful," she said.

"Have I?" He nibbled on her earlobe. "How did I do that?"

"By helping me get my sass back."

He tipped his head back to gaze at her. "I never saw you as sass deficient."

"I was though! After last Christmas I was pretty sure I'd second-guess myself through life. Then you came along, and now I'm ready to face the new year as, well, a new woman."

"A new woman," he repeated. He definitely liked the one in his arms. How could she be even better than she was now? "Are you making resolutions already?" he teased. "I haven't even thought of any yet."

"Not resolutions, no. Just looking forward to all the new adventures. Plus plotting how to fill up my nights, since yours will be busy with school again soon."

Travis felt his stomach sink. It would be a challenge once he was back in school, but he'd avoided thinking about it, because he didn't want to consider the possibility of less time with Keely. Not after spending every available minute with her.

"We'll figure out the schedule somehow," he said. There was no other choice.

Unless...Wait. Was Keely trying to tell him something? Getting back her sass, filling up her nights, adventures in the new year.

Was he included in those future plans? It almost didn't sound that way. Maybe he was misinterpreting things.

He sat up, moving her onto the couch beside him. "Sounds like I've been one helluva confidence booster."

"Yes! How could a girl's confidence not be boosted after a Christmas fling like this? It was a fantastic way to spend the holidays. I'll highly recommend it to everyone I know." She waggled her eyebrows. "On all the review sites, too."

His smile was tight. Normally he'd enjoy her customer satisfaction joke. But this time...this time she was telling him he'd served his purpose. Nicely, of course. That's how Keely was.

She'd seen this as a fun, lighthearted fling and thought he did, too. Clearly he should have. Instead he'd lost his heart. It wasn't going to be easy to retrieve that—not like the lost package that had gotten them together in the first place.

"Who doesn't love a fling?" He did his best to appear chill and carefree, and not like he'd been knocked sideways by her words. "That's what the holiday season is all about."

"Travis?" She gazed at him with confusion. "Is everything okay?"

No, it wasn't. At least he hadn't confessed how hard he'd fallen for her. Keely had known all along this had an expiration date, while he, the dating rookie, was blissfully unaware.

She was giving him this gift, a chance to bow out gracefully, before he got in even deeper.

Before their "fling" could turn into something they'd both remember with regret each Christmas.

"Everything's great," he lied. He stood, giving her a quick smile, and then a brief kiss on her cheek. "It's been a blast, Keely. Merry Christmas. I hope you have a great new year, too."

Then he hurried out the door, before he could do something foolish. Like try to convince Keely to turn their fling into something long-lasting.

***

"O N YOUR CHEEK?" NICKI practically screeched. "He kissed you on your cheek?"

Keely could feel her lip tremble, so she bit down on it. She couldn't say anything that way, though, so she just nodded.

"Of course he did," Nicki continued. "If he'd kissed you, for real, he wouldn't have been able to say goodbye, right?"

Keely shrugged, trying for happy-go-lucky, but it might be a while before she could give a good example of that emotion.

"We've got to fix this, Keely."

They were sitting on the formerly ultimate make-out couch. Now it was the ultimate break-up couch. The scene of her dashed hopes.

Keely had put a plate of cookies on the coffee table, but they seemed downcast, too. Like they missed Travis' lips as much as she did.

"There's nothing to fix, Nicki. He made that really clear."

"Oh yes, there is. Even if I have to punch him in the—"

Keely narrowed her eyes.

"Throat."

Keely hiccupped. "I don't want you to ruin his sexy voice." The thought of that brought on new tears. Especially since she wouldn't get to hear him again. "He has the sexiest voice. That's what I first fell in love with. God, I love him, Nicki. How did this get so messed up? It seemed perfect."

"I know, honey. I know."

"I didn't miss any caution signs. I looked. Everywhere." She swallowed as another memory surfaced. "I even sang for him! I never sing for anybody."

Nicki put her arms around her best friend and vowed, "We'll fix this. I swear."

"No dick punching. You have to promise me that. And no throat punching."

Nicki growled. "That doesn't leave me much to work with. And you know I can't speak for your grandma."

Keely managed a watery laugh. "Don’t tell her anything yet. I don't want her knowing he's back on the market."

"Except he's not. And your grandma, crazy as she is, wants you to be happy. Just like I do." She stared at the ceiling for a moment. "I wish you could just call him up and say you had a customer service emergency or something. But it might come across as desperate, or stalker-ish."

Keely blushed at the mention of a customer service emergency. That would end up being one of her favorite memories. If there was one thing Travis was good at, it was resolving customer service issues. How ironic that he wasn't available to help her with this one.

"So what exactly did you say, before he left?" Nicki frowned. "I'm really confused here."

"I told him how much I was looking forward to our adventures in the new year."

"But that's not what he heard apparently."

Keely reached for a cookie and then changed her mind. "Maybe he always saw it as a temporary thing, with school and everything else he's got planned for his life. So he ended it."

Nicki snorted. "That's Wyatt's move. I can't see Travis doing it, too."

"I know! I told him how much fun it had been, and I'd have to fill up my evenings now that he was going back to school."

"That shouldn't have crashed everything. He is going back to school. Anything else?"

Keely wracked her brain. She'd tried to let Travis know how she felt about him and their possible future. How she'd finally felt like she'd gotten her sass back and knew where she wanted to go with her life.

She was just about to confess how her heart had gotten involved, more than she'd expected...

She gulped. "I think I might have accidentally used the f word."

Nicki looked shocked. "You never say fu—"

"No, not that one. Fling . I said what a great fling we'd had. How it had been a confidence booster, and I was a new woman now, thanks to him."

That one word "fling" had made everything go off the rails. Why had she said it? Why?

Nicki's puzzled expression was asking the same thing.

"I thought I was being subtle," Keely explained, "trying to lead up to what I really meant to say."

Nicki frowned. "You tried to half-sass it, didn't you?"

"No! No. Did I?" Except she knew that's exactly what she'd done. "It seemed like a good idea—"

"For last-year Keely maybe. But this-year Keely?" Nicki shook her head, her expression filled with disappointment, like she'd expected more from Keely and wished she hadn't.

Keely rushed to defend herself. "Everything between us happened so fast, which made me think I'd misjudged how real my feelings were. How real his might be."

Nicki spread her arms wide, her meaning clear. Keely and Travis were slowpokes in comparison to the lightning-fast romance of Nicki and Wyatt.

"Keely, nobody ever knows if a relationship will last. Every single one of them is built on hope and optimism and a little bit of wishing upon a star." She pinned Keely with her gaze. "But a relationship definitely won't last if you cut it off before it has a chance to develop. It's like taking a batch of cookies out of the oven before the timer goes off and wondering why they suck."

"Cookie analogies?" Keely teased. "Really?"

"I've got more," Nicki grinned. "Are you going to make me use them?"

"No. And I have to admit it's a bit weird discussing long-term relationships with you. I mean, you were the one talking up the Twelve Days of Sassmas."

"To get you out there. Not as an end goal."

"Now what? How do I fix this?" Keely sniffed. "What if it can't be fixed? God, I hope breakups aren't going to be my new Christmas tradition."

"They won't be. Travis was as much of a knucklehead as you, running away too soon. But that boy is crazy about you. You just need to decide how to tell him you feel the same way, Miss Sass."

Keely made a sound that was meant to be dismissive but came out like she was blowing her nose without a tissue. "Yeah, I did such a great job the first time."

"No worries. We'll practice. And remember, whether or not Travis gets his head out of his ass, you've still got your sass. Hey! That's a good one!"

"It is! Great job. Now I just need a plan to turn things around. Any thoughts?"

Nicki nodded. "A few. How do you feel about groveling?"

"I'm not sure." She wrinkled her nose. "I'm actually a grovel virgin."

"Me, too. Maybe we can skip that part."

"And get to the happily ever after part?" Keely's heart filled with hope. "Sign me up."

***

"O N HER CHEEK?" WYATT yelled. "You kissed her on the cheek?"

"What else was I supposed to do?"

Wyatt stomped around the breakroom, throwing his hands into the air. "You should have consulted me. You don't know the first thing about handling something like this."

"And you do? You've never even said the word relationship, let alone been in one."

"But I do know breakups. I could teach a master class on the topic."

"I didn't think that's where this was headed," Travis grumbled, glad everyone else had left for the day. He could have this conversation without everyone else eavesdropping on his worst moment. "And I didn't end it. Not really. Keely did."

Wyatt sat down. "Okay, explain this to me like I'm in kindergarten."

"I always do that with you."

Wyatt gave him an impatient look. "What did she say?"

"I can't remember exactly." As if he could ever forget.

"What. Did. She. Say?"

Travis heaved a sigh. "She said how fun our Christmas fling had been, and what a confidence booster it was. She was going into the new year as a new woman."

"And?"

"And that wasn't what I wanted. Helping her get her mojo back so she could move onto somebody else once I was back in school."

"Did she say, 'Thanks, bro, now that you got me back my mojo, I'm going to move onto somebody else and oh, make sure you study hard while I'm out having fun every night'?"

"Of course not. She doesn't call anyone bro." Travis held up his hands. "Okay, okay. Maybe I misread something. I told you I don't know how to date."

"True."

"But I knew this was something bigger," Travis confessed. "Right from the very beginning. I'd hoped it was the same for Keely. It really seemed like it was. But when she said this had been such a fun holiday fling—"

"You freaked out." Wyatt nodded. "That's what happened. It wasn't what she said. It was what you were feeling." He made a circular motion near his heart. "Here." His hand lowered and then circled near his groin. "Not just these feelings."

Travis snort laughed. "What the hell do you know about—" He mimicked Wyatt's heart gesture. "Feelings here?"

"You can be such a clueless dick sometimes, Travis. Why do you think I get out before things get serious? I don't know how to deal with those feelings. They're scary. But now, with Nicki." He shook his head mournfully. "I think I might have found it impossible to leave this time. I'm worried she's going to be the one who says adios."

Travis gaped at his brother. How did everything get so twisted around? Wyatt had somehow evolved while Travis had turned into Wyatt. The old Wyatt. The jumping-up-and-leaving-before-things-got-scary Wyatt.

"This is worse than a breakup, Travis. This is you torpedoing your future, leaving wreckage behind."

Travis felt his stomach clench. "Why do you say that?"

"Did Keely kiss your cheek?"

"No."

"Did she cheerfully show you to the door? Say thanks for the good times? Wish you a Happy New Year?"

Travis felt worse with every question. "No."

Wyatt was on a roll and didn't seem to be running out of painful queries. "Did you let her know this wasn't just a seasonal gig?"

"No. I was getting ready to—"

If only he had. Her stunned expression revealed what Travis wished he'd understood sooner: Keely hadn't expected things to end. Even worse, he'd made her believe she was nothing more to him than a holiday hookup.

He groaned. He knew firsthand how much it hurt to hear that, especially when it wasn't true.

He'd thrown away his chance for a future with Keely because he'd failed at something basic, something he did on a daily basis.

"Dammit! What is the first rule of customer service?" Travis asked.

Wyatt stared at him blankly. "Uh..."

"Listen."

"I am!"

"Listen. To. The. Customer." Travis slapped the back of his hand against his palm with each word. "That's how you make sure the customer is happy."

"Bro, Keely's not a customer. Not anymore."

"No, but she's the one I care about making happy. And how do I do that? By listening to what she's saying. Really listening. Asking her what she wants, what she needs. Instead, I tried to guess, or assume I knew, and then screwed up everything good we had together."

Worst of all, he'd done it before Christmas, just like her ex had done.

"Jesus." Travis ran his hands through his hair and then stared at his brother. "How could I be such a clueless dick?"

Wyatt gave him a sympathetic look. "It might run in the family."

"But I kissed her on the cheek! Nicki's going to throat punch me."

"Hah! If you're lucky."

"I have to fix this. I love her, Wyatt." He sat down and stopped shouting. "I love her."

Wyatt gripped Travis' shoulder. "It might take some kind of Christmas miracle, but we'll get you two back together."

Travis looked up hopefully. "Yeah?"

"You and Keely belong together. Like Rudolph and Clarice. Or Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snowman. We're going to work this out."

"God help me. I'm getting relationship help from a guy who thinks Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable are soulmates."

Wyatt tossed a wink his direction. "And you think I can't be romantic."

Travis stood up and began pacing. "I need to show Keely how I feel. I don't want there to be any doubt in her mind."

"That's where groveling comes in. The First Commandment of Breakup Repair: Thou shalt grovel thy ass off."

Travis stared at his brother. "Whatever it takes. If Keely knows how I feel and then decides—"

"That you're a clueless dick?"

"I'm hoping she'll see the facts a bit differently. But yeah, at least she'll get to choose. She deserves that."

"What do you have in mind?"

Travis grinned. "I'm not sure it'll work, but I have to give it a try..."