I didn’t have a minute. I was sure something would happen and it would wake me up from this dream.
I shoved my hand between our bodies, found the buttons of his jeans and pulled. The satisfying sound of them popping open just made my already painful throb excruciating.
“Sophie,” he squeezed me one last time, before he pulled my now braless breast in his mouth. As exquisite as it felt I didn’t allow the feeling to deter me from my idea and I put my hands in his jeans and felt him.
He was hard. And he felt even bigger than I remember he was.
“Dylan, please,” I mewled when he gave a big pull on my nipple.
He must've heard the agonizing need in my voice because he lifted his head, looked at my face and grunted, “Jesus.”
“I need you, honey,” I whispered, again.
His hands went between us, they pushed mine away and not even a minute later he was inside me.
I hadn't had a man in a while.
I hadn't had Dylan in seventeen years.
He was big, the stretching kind of stung but I welcomed it.
Cherished it.
Pushing my hands under his shirt, my palms felt his hot skin. “Dylan?” I moaned my question just to be sure this wasn't some kind of dream.
“Here, baby,” he whispered, his eyes roaming my face.
He began to move. Slowly at first but quickly he gained momentum.
“Dylan,” I moaned again.
“Right here, baby,” he repeated almost as if he knew I needed it.
As his thrust became more in power and in speed so did my peak became more and more in my reach.
“Dylan,” I gasped.
“Sophie, I'm here,” he grunted between thrusts, but I was too gone to say anything back. Not even to repeat his name.
My eyes closed, my muscles spasm and a million multi-colored stars burst in my minds-eye as I climaxed.
“Christ,” I could hear Dylan almost bark.
I pushed up to his ear and still in the clutches of the best orgasm I had in over a decade, I whispered there, “I love you.”
“Christ,” Dylan moaned as if he was in pain.
Five seconds later he growled, “Sophie, baby,” and collapsed on top of me.
It was a weight I loved.
The sensation of having his body on top of me finally allowed me, for the first time after he left me, to relax.
And five seconds after I heard him whisper in my neck, “I love you, too.”, I fell asleep.
When I woke up, I was alone on the couch, blanket thrown over my naked body and the house was dark.
I pushed up on my elbow, looking around.
“Dylan,” I called but there was no sound coming from anywhere.
He left.
He left me again.
If it wasn't for the fact I was, indeed naked and there was some pain, the good kind, coming from between my legs, I would convince myself it was all a dream.
As there was all that plus the fact I could smell him all over me, I could not.
I tried to stop the burning sensation in my throat on its way out and swallow it down, but I failed.
A choked sound came out and three fat tears landed on my bare forearm.
Wiping the tears away, I said to myself to stop.
Stop crying, stop feeling sorry for myself.
Stop longing for the man who obviously didn't want me.
I stood up, gathered my clothes and began to get them on, stopping every few seconds to brush of my tears and repeat my mantra.
It was to no use.
I couldn't help it.
It felt like I was trying to push my heart out right though my chest and out of my mouth. And leak the blood from my eyes.
By the time I was fully clothed, had the blanket tucked in a hall closet and was staring for good half an hour at the empty fire place and a soft glow of the lamp tried to chance away the darkness, the tears finally stopped.
The feeling of my own heart trying to choke me to death was still present, but I told myself if I tried hard enough, I would be able to swallow it down.
And that was what I was doing when the door silently opened.
“You were crying,” Dylan whispered when I turned my head and looked at him over the couch.
He was standing just inside holding what looked like a tree but I couldn't tell for certain as it was dark and I could only see shadows.
“You're here,” I whispered.
“I'm here,” he whispered back, not moving.
“I thought you left,” I admitted.
“I did,” he nodded and my heart went back to its upward way. “I cut a tree for you and had to go get it. But when I got home, Zara was just going to bed and wanted me to read her a bed-time story,” he explained.
All I heard was that he cut the tree for me and had to go get it.
“You're here,” I whispered, fresh tears, this one in relief, filling my eyes.
“I'm here” he whispered back.
When I said no more and stayed put not moving just looking at him, he leaned the tree against my wall and came straight at me.
I tracked his movements and turned my head, not willing to lose sight of him for even a second. Kneeling in front of the couch he cupped my cheeks, pulled my face to his and gave me a soft kiss.
“Right, I get that this is too much, it's fast, what happened. Us not even having a conversation about the time we were apart,” he started. “But, and I'm sorry baby, it's going to get faster.”
I didn't know how to feel as I listened to him speaking, all I knew was I couldn't help the hope that lit in me when I saw him standing inside my door holding a Christmas tree.
“You with me?”
“I'm with you,” I said softly even thought I didn't know what I'm with him in.
“So to get us on the right path, I'm here, you’re here. And you're going to stay here.”
“What?”
“You're not moving away, Sophie. You're not leaving Hopeful,” he clarified. “I'm not losing you again. It's been seventeen years since I had you, and baby I thought I remembered, but I didn't. I don't want to spend even a second of the time I have left on this Earth without you, but I have a six year old at home, so I got to give her some time to become used to you and not just the town's doctor or the lady that has her dad smiling in all the photos she dug up from my garage.”
“You have our old photos?” I was surprised. I knew when we were over that my grandmother did as I asked and returned all the photos of us to him.
Well, I thought she did, until I found a bunch of them at the bottom of the box.
“Focus, baby,” he shook me a little, a familiar one sided smile making appearance on his face.
When I nodded, he continued. “So, we'll give her this Christmas, but by the second one we'll all be under one roof. She will also know from tomorrow morning that you're special to me, as in the woman who's got Daddy's heart as much as he does hers. We'll try to answer all her questions, but knowing my girl, she'll just go with the flow.”
I said nothing. I kept looking at him. My heart beating a mile a minute. The hope that started flickering when he first came in, now was an inferno.
“You with me?” he asked me again.
Again, I just nodded.
“I love you, Sophie. I never stopped. And I know you love me. I want all those things we dreamt about seventeen years ago. I was an idiot for ever letting you go. I was a bigger one not to see you suffering when I came to Boston. I need to remedy that. We'll have enough time to hash through the years we spent apart. We don't need to get to know each other, because bottom line, we never stopped knowing each other. And I'm sorry, baby, but if you want to continue with your career as a surgeon, you'll have to find a hospital that's close. I can't move Zara all the way to Seattle.”
“I can't,” I rushed to say.
“What?” he asked.
“I can't continue my career as a surgeon. I had an accident two years ago that lef
t me with a slight tremor and I can't operate anymore,” I continued in my rushing since I could see he took it the wrong way.
“I'm sorry, baby. And I want to hear everything about it, but not now, not tonight. We'll have time for you to tell me. But, you're going to tell me soon.”
I nodded my head, eager for him to say what he had to say next.
“You're also going to wear my ring. And baby, I still want us to have that baby we dreamt about. We're not young, but we still have time, so there's no rush. When you think it's the right time to start trying, when you're secure enough in us, you come and tell me and we'll get right on that,” he looked at me, sighed and kissed me. “So that's where we’re at. I'm here, you're here and as soon as we can manage it, that here will become a same place. As in same house. So, this is where we're at. Now, Sophie, are you still with me?”
He barely finished his question before I answered, “Yes.”
Epilogue
SOPHIE
One year later
“But you have to be sure it's the right moon before you do it,” I came in the living room to hear the last words that Mrs. McConnell said to Zara's astonished face.
“And how will I know it it's the right moon?” she asked. Thankfully, she grew out of her shrieking faze.
“I'll teach you,” Mrs. McConnell touched the tip of Zara's nose with her index finger. “You also have to do it when it's the right time, otherwise it won't come true.”
“How will I know it's the right time?” Zara's eyes were now big. I could tell the signs of her getting frustrated now.
After almost a year of living with her, I learned how to tell all the signs of her quickly changing moods.
I smiled a soft smile at them, then looked around the living room. The tree was done, the last ornament placed in its place.
And the steaming cups of hot chocolate sat on the coffee table waiting to be cool enough so we could start consuming them.
I loved every second of it, it was a blast.
It was almost as I imagined it.
My Hallmark scene.
The slight difference was, I was the one sitting in the armchair, bossing everyone around and telling them where I wanted what as I was seven months pregnant and couldn't stand longer than five minutes. Those five minutes were spent walking to and from the bathroom.
It was a little confusing for Zara the fact that I suddenly became a woman who was someone important to her Dad. But she did as Dylan said she would. She went right with the flow.
It helped that Olivia was staying with them and was able to explain the things neither Dylan nor I could since she didn't ask us.
After Christmas we tried with sleepovers. She didn't bat an eyelid when she saw me that first morning standing in the kitchen making breakfast. The fact that I took her shopping or taught her how to bake or helped with her homework or did her hair and did dress-up with her probably helped.
Dylan said I had her wrapped around my finger.
It was the other way around.
Two weeks after that first sleep over they moved into my house.
We waited for some kind of tantrum from Zara, it was all moving quickly, but it never came.
Dylan said she missed her mom and was probably just smitten she had one now.
We never heard a word from her mom. Dylan would call her sometime, giving her updates on her child, but she had never shown any interest.
It was heart wrenching knowing there was a woman who would never get to know how amazing her child was she made.
I did my best to never give Zara a reason to miss her. It wasn't hard to do as she was a really good kid.
“Are you ready?” Dylan came into the living room asking the question for the fifth time, trying to get us to move on and go to the decorating of the well ceremony.
It was cold and my feet hurt. An arm wrapped around from behind me, pulling me back.
I came in contact with a solid wall of muscle, a scent of forest that still clung to his body from this morning when he went to cut our tree, enveloping me, “Just a little bit longer, baby,” Dylan murmured in my ear. His gloved hand coming to lie on top of my big belly.
“It's okay, I can make it,” I turned my head to say into his ear so he could hear me and pecked the soft skin behind his ear as I finished.
He didn’t' say anything he chuckled in response because he knew I was full of it. I needed our couch. Or bed.
The bed would be better because then he could wrap his whole body around me, and make me feel safe, cherished.
Mrs. McConnell came up to me holding a pot. The Christmas flower. It was time to put the finishing touch-
No matter how many times I got to see this in my life, it would never lose the touch of magic.
It would never fall short of dazzling me, of reinforcing the fact I'm finally home.
I took the flower from her, smiling gratefully.
I couldn't believe when she informed me I was again picked to do it this year.
I was sure she schemed for me to do it the last time.
Turned out the town wanted to continue with its tradition and that meant for me to do it as I was my grandmother’s child.
“How will I know it's the right time?” Zara repeated her question from beside me. She didn't get the question when she first asked.
I leaned down to her, “When it's the right time, you'll know,” I said caressing her cheek then taking her hand in mine. Walking slowly towards the well I remembered the rushing feeling of all my emotions pouring in at once. The loneliness the one that stood out. The need to belong so strong I thought I couldn't take another breath before it came true. One could say I got my wish, another that I didn't even have to wish it, as I already belonged to the man of my dreams.
I was glad I had an explanation for Mrs. McConnell strange behavior that night.
And she was right, I forgot.
I forgot the magic that was this place and that well.
One thing I didn't forget was the love I felt.
And now I never would.
Stepping up to the stoop I pulled Zara up with me and just as I put the pot in the bucket in the nest of twinkly lights, I looked back to her and said, “Besides I will tell you.”
“She better not come near that well for at least thirty years,” Dylan muttered in the dark.
We were in our bed, his naked body wrapped around mine, which was also naked. His fingertips ghosting on my sensitive skin evoking goosebumps to come out.
“Are you worried she would elope soon?” I chuckled.
“Look what happened after you made a wish near that well,” he said as an explanation.
I turned in his arms, looking up at his shadowy face. “Do you really think that the wish and the well was the one that made you mine?”
As much as romantic and magic it sounded, I didn't believe in all that.
“No, you were already mine and I yours,” he touched his forehead to mine. “I just don't want her to get any ideas in her head.”
I squeezed my arms around him, “Don't worry, I tell her over and over again not to come near that well, especially at night.” Just as my grandmother did to me.
Until I forgot.
Until I was ready to do it.
Until what my heart desired wasn't already mine, I just didn't know it yet then.
He turned me to my back, his body focused to my side, his head hovering over mine, “You do that.”
And he kissed me. And did other things.
And in the middle of the town called Hopeful stood an old well.
It was lit with white Christmas lights. And in the nest of them in a steel bucket one of the lights, just under the Christmas flower pot, one got extremely bright spilling its twinkle to all the others. One by one the lights got more strength. Until it seemed that the whole well shimmered.
Just when the first snowflake fell, touching the old stone that lied on the ground just at the edge of the well made of stones, a woman stood next to i
t, her hands caressing the wood. She looked in the direction of the mountains, her eyes glassy, her lips saying something only the well could hear.
And Mrs. McConnell knew, she just made a wish.
It would be granted, of course.
Because it was already hers, she just didn't know it yet.
The End
A Stocking Full
of Wishes
R. A. Lingenfelter
Other books by
R. A. Lingenfelter
With Love; Now & Forever
Shadowgaze
Twisted Beginning
Hearts of the Dark
A Stocking Full of Wishes
Copyright © 2016 R. A. Lingenfelter
All rights reserved.
Chapter One
“So what the hell do you want me to do? Not go to work? Have you forgotten that you were the one who wanted this ranch? You had to have your horses; you had to have the property and all of the things that go with it. How are we supposed to pay for all of these things if I don’t go to work?”
Rena closed her eyes against the tears. After twelve years of marriage, Jack knew how to push her buttons. She was angry, frustrated and tired but she knew he was too. After four days of less than six hours of sleep per day, Jack was dragging on his feet. To say anything at this point was moot but her stubborn pride wouldn’t let the subject go.
“That’s not fair. We talked about this place for over a year before we bought it. Even you said it was peaceful and a great place to raise our girls.”
“Yeah and look at what a great decision that’s turned out to be. Where are my keys? I’ve got to go.”
“We really need to talk about this. I don’t know what to do or which bill I should pay first.”
“Figure it out. I have to go to earn the money for those bills. I’m so sick of this.” He lowered his voice and glared at her. “I want out.”
Her eyes flew wide, surprised at the insinuation. “Want out of what, Jack? The mine or the marriage?”
He didn’t say a word as he stomped out the door.
“Mom, did Dad leave?”
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