One New York Christmas

by Mandy Baggot

  ‘Can I sound the horn?’ Lara asked him.

  ‘Yes, you can sound the horn,’ Seth answered. ‘Come on, Austin, let’s hear what you got.’

  An air-horn noise of epic proportions had even Lara jumping in her seat. ‘Oh my God, I want this truck!’

  ‘I’m sorry it’s only a loan for one night. I think, to buy it, would probably cost almost as much as my parents’ house.’

  ‘One night is better than nothing,’ Lara said, smiling at him. ‘Thank you, Seth. This is the best almost-Christmas gift I’ve ever had.’

  Sixty-Seven

  Greenpoint Diner, Greenpoint

  Lara had made sure to get the egg yolk all over everything on her plate and dotted the sausage, bacon, sourdough toast and steak with ketchup. ‘You’ve taken me to America tonight, Seth.’ They were in a simple diner with booths and cheaply upholstered banquette seating around Formica tables, an old-fashioned jukebox playing country Christmas songs.

  ‘Yeah,’ Seth answered, sipping from his bottle of Bud. ‘All this country-hopping was getting a bit out there, right?’

  Lara smiled and sipped her Coke. No alcohol for her while she was in charge of the beautiful Austin with his super-large gearstick …

  Driving the truck through New York had been an experience like no other. Heavy traffic and going at minus miles per hour through the Manhattan streets had given her time to really look at NYC in detail. It was so cosmopolitan. Everyone knew its towers and skyscrapers, the landmarks shown on movies – Times Square, the Chrysler Building, Central Park, Grand Central Station – but there was a whole lot more to it than that. Every area of the city offered something singular. There was dirty and rough but there was also quaint nestling beside modern. Bright lights of theatres mixing with the soft glow of brasseries; smoky, gas-guzzling cars alongside bicycles and roller skates; designer dresses and suits mingling with authentic ripped jeans and tattered rags. It was like every corner of the world was inside this metropolis. And add Christmas to that, the scenes had been incredible. There were lights and displays literally everywhere. Now, only a week until the big day, no home, office, or store was without a homage to the season. Every shop had a display, from giant penguins to tiny mice circling around ornate sleighs piled high with gifts. There were ice-white Christmas trees, trees with every colour of the rainbow swirled around them, trees entirely made of Hershey’s chocolate and probably enough Santa images to fly-post the whole height of the Empire State Building. And after the congestion of the city, they had swung out onto the Williamsburg Bridge and crossed the East River. Eight lanes flowing across a steel suspension bridge and Lara had felt like she was in a movie scene. Except it was real. And she was the starring role in the film of her now. There was no doubt about that.

  ‘You didn’t have to have breakfast in a diner, you know,’ Seth remarked as Lara bit into her toast.

  ‘I did. I haven’t had a full all-American breakfast since I’ve been here and I’m running out of days.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Seth said, putting down his beer and rubbing at his eyes with his fingers.

  ‘Where are your glasses?’ Lara asked him.

  ‘In my apartment,’ he answered.

  ‘You haven’t worn them for a while now.’

  ‘No, well, I don’t usually wear them at all, you know, only when my eyes are tired, but I had some issues with my lenses so …’

  ‘I like your glasses,’ Lara admitted.

  ‘You do?’

  ‘Yeah, I always thought Dr Mike should wear glasses. All those clipboards he had to read.’

  ‘God, Dr Mike did so much of that, didn’t he? I know I used my glasses a whole lot more when I got home from filming on that show.’

  ‘Have you heard?’ Lara asked. ‘About A Soul’s Song?’

  Seth shook his head, hair springing a little. ‘No. Not yet. But I’m still hopeful.’ He smiled. ‘I didn’t get the part of David Hasselhoff though.’

  ‘Should we commiserate?’ Lara said. ‘Because I might have quite liked to see you in tiny red shorts.’

  ‘We might be commiserating if I don’t get the part of Sam. West Village isn’t the most economical place to live.’

  ‘And that’s why I’m lucky to live in a barn,’ Lara mused. ‘Well, a barnpartment.’

  ‘I really want to know more about this,’ Seth admitted with a smile.

  ‘When my dad bought the house, the barn used to house horses. And it’s right next to our yard with a farm on the other side. There are stairs at the entrance and it goes up to an open plan room with everything I need right there. I’ve got a kitchen, a bathroom, a double bedroom and a lounge.’

  ‘It sounds great,’ Seth said, just watching her light up as she spoke about her village.

  ‘It’s totally not ready for Christmas though,’ she admitted. ‘Usually I’m highly organised with a schedule of events including the optimum time to watch Elf and Die Hard.’

  ‘You know Die Hard isn’t a Christmas film, right?’

  ‘Wash your mouth out!’ Lara ordered, her face turning serious.

  Seth laughed and spooned some mashed potatoes between his lips.

  ‘So, the holidays are coming, as Coca-Cola says,’ Lara commented.

  ‘Should I have got you the whole Coca-Cola trailer to go on the back of Austin?’

  ‘Oh no,’ Lara replied. ‘I think we might have then been followed by marching bands and cheerleaders.’

  ‘It hasn’t taken long, has it,’ Seth remarked wistfully. ‘For Christmas to be almost here.’

  ‘No,’ Lara replied. He saw the reticence in her expression, mirroring what he was feeling himself. The closer Christmas got, the nearer they were to Lara leaving for the UK.

  ‘Big turkey feast in your barnpartment?’ Seth asked, trying to keep the mood upbeat.

  ‘Oh no,’ Lara said. ‘I love my place but it’s too small for a whole gang.’

  ‘A gang?’ Seth said, almost spitting out his beer.

  ‘Me, Aldo, my dad, Mrs Fitch, sometimes Flora pops in for tea and Susie, if she isn’t visiting relatives in London.’

  ‘I guess, this year, I have to think about my other mom and Dwight.’ He smiled. ‘I have a stepdad as well as a birth mom.’ He put down his beer bottle. ‘If they haven’t already made plans.’

  ‘Listen,’ Lara said, inching a hand across the table.

  Seth looked at her fingers, there was a little hesitation in her movement, as if she wasn’t quite sure she was doing the right thing. He waited for her to continue. Didn’t want to push things. He had done a little too much of that already …

  ‘Your mom sounds so nice. I think she’s going to want to spend as much time with you as she can.’

  ‘She’s gonna come to the shelter fundraiser so you’ll get to meet her,’ Seth informed. ‘Kossy invited her.’

  ‘Your Kossy-mum is amazing too,’ Lara stated.

  ‘Yeah,’ Seth agreed. ‘She is.’ Lara still hadn’t moved her hand any further and her fingers were now just a few short centimetres from his on the slightly scuffed and beaten-up Formica diner table. He really wanted to make the connection. She was looking at him now, a tiny spot of ketchup at the corner of her mouth …

  He cleared his throat. ‘You have a little ketchup, just there.’ Seth pointed to the spot on the edge of his own lips.

  ‘I do?’ Lara said, not making a move for a napkin.

  ‘Yeah,’ he replied, his voice sticking a little.

  ‘Well,’ Lara said quietly. ‘You could just … kiss it away.’

  Here was his opportunity. She was letting him in again, giving him permission to get closer, rekindle the relationship, like he hoped she would.

  He didn’t waste any time, leaning over the table, uncaring for his plate of food or the condiments that were set between them. He reached for her, his hand cupping her face and drawing her towards him. She was looking at him, eyes so full of affection and desire it was all he could do to hold back, but hold back he did, just fo
r a moment, his tongue catching the spot of sauce. ‘There,’ he whispered.

  Then, suddenly, he was jolted back, as her lips crashed against his and they began making out like the world was going to implode. God, he loved her. He loved her so much and whether she was going home in a few days or not, whether it lasted, that love was more important than anything.

  He broke off, needing to breathe, one jumper sleeve getting in the black bean taco on his plate. ‘I’ve got dessert,’ he said, eyes not leaving hers. ‘In Austin, the truck, not the state.’ He swallowed.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Lara said.

  Sixty-Eight

  East River State Park

  With shaking hands – and trembling other body parts – Lara had driven Austin, under Seth’s directional guidance, to the almost sandy edge of the East River. Parking up, no one else anywhere around, there was the most wonderful view of the city across the water. Tall smoke-stacks emitted funnels of grey into the night, bricks, glass and steel rising up into the stars, their pinpricks of light white, orange and gold. The Empire State’s pinnacle flashing red, white and blue in turn.

  ‘I got us something Puerto Rican.’ Seth broke the tense silence by reaching to bring something out from the bunk behind. He began to pull at the wrapping over a bowl. ‘It’s called tembleque and it’s a creamy coconut pudding.’

  ‘It sounds nice,’ Lara said, inhaling the scent as the dessert was revealed.

  ‘I’m told, by the Puerto Rican lady who works at the restaurant near my apartment who made it, that tembleque means “wobbly”.’

  ‘We might need a spork,’ Lara said, smiling.

  Seth produced two spoons. ‘Spoon?’

  ‘I thought you’d never ask,’ she answered with a grin.

  He handed one of the spoons to her and she dug in, quick to bring the delicious-looking pudding to her lips. It tasted of the coconut Seth had told her about but also cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg. ‘It’s so good,’ she said, enjoying all the flavours.

  She watched Seth take a mouthful and he nodded in agreement. ‘It’s real good.’

  ‘You’ve never tasted it before?’ Lara asked.

  ‘I’m a very new half Puerto Rican.’

  Lara put her spoon in the bowl he was holding and took a breath. ‘It’s a great pudding,’ she said. ‘But I don’t want to eat any more.’

  ‘No?’ Seth said, looking up from the dessert and meeting her eyes.

  Her gaze moved just a fraction, to the space behind where they were sitting. To the cabin bed, covered by a cheap blanket, before looking back to him. ‘No,’ she answered. ‘I want to, climb onto the bed and … take off my clothes.’

  Seth wanted not to be holding a Puerto Rican pudding right now. He wanted to be holding her. He leant forward in his seat, jamming the container and spoons between dashboard and windscreen.

  ‘Is it too forward?’ Lara asked, her voice catching a bit. ‘To say that?’

  Seth shook his head. ‘No.’ He swallowed. ‘Because I feel exactly the same way.’

  ‘I keep thinking,’ Lara said, slipping out of the driver’s seat and manoeuvring herself onto the bed. ‘That I shouldn’t be feeling this way, you know, being fresh out of a break-up and only here for a little bit longer and a hundred other reasons but …’

  ‘But?’ Seth replied. He really wanted to know what the hundred other reasons were, but he definitely wanted to hear about the ‘but’.

  ‘But as hard as I try to tell myself I can’t feel real feelings for you, my heart is telling me something very different.’

  ‘It is?’ Seth said, watching her remove her jumper, his heart close to high-level palpitation.

  ‘Yeah, it is,’ she answered. ‘And I think you feel the same way too.’ Her fingers were at the hem of her T-shirt now, easing the fabric upwards, a little teasingly. Even if the teasing wasn’t deliberate it was certainly hitting the spot with him.

  ‘Lara,’ he said, the emotion in his own voice surprising even him. ‘You have no idea how I feel about you.’

  ‘Oh,’ Lara answered, her T-shirt coming up and over her head. ‘I think I might.’

  God, she wasn’t wearing a bra! And the sight of her naked upper body was doing crazy things to his already heightened arousal.

  ‘I never wear a bra,’ Lara said with a shrug. ‘Not since I was suspended from the top of a fork-lift.’

  ‘You … seem to get in a lot of scrapes,’ he said, unable to look at anything but her soft, beautifully rounded, perfect breasts.

  ‘What can I say?’ she said, shrugging. ‘I’m a little incident-prone.’

  ‘So it would seem,’ Seth answered. He was stripping himself of his jumper now, then his fingers were at the buttons of his shirt.

  ‘But, what can happen to me here?’ Lara asked. ‘In this small cab?’

  ‘Oh,’ Seth answered, removing his shirt. ‘I think you’d be surprised.’

  Lara was trembling as she unfastened her jeans and shed them, letting them pool on the floor of the lorry. She was trembling, not because she was in any way nervous about the decision she had made, but because she was watching him, watching Seth remove his clothes, and anticipating what was going to happen next. What she so desperately wanted to happen next.

  ‘Is this OK?’ he whispered, his fingers poised at the fly of his dark jeans.

  She nodded, sure. ‘Yes.’

  She swallowed, watched him shift in the limited space they had, edging the denim from his form. Then his underwear came off with the jeans. Lara bit her lip. He was perfect, in every way, no body double required here. From his gorgeous dark eyes and those full lips, down over his muscular chest and defined torso to lean athletic legs. And what lay between those legs was looking pretty amazing from where she was sitting.

  He moved to sit next to her, his hands in her hair, smoothing it back from her face, fingers shaking a little. ‘You are so beautiful, Lara,’ he whispered. ‘I thought that from the minute I saw you.’ He kissed her cheek. ‘Then, when I started to get to know you, I realised that that beauty on the outside was nothing compared to the beauty on the inside.’ He kissed her lips, the lightest of touches, when really she wanted so much more.

  ‘I wanted the timing to be better,’ Lara breathed, her hand finding his, squeezing hard. ‘I thought that, to be right, everything had to be in place and, I don’t know … conventional, I suppose.’

  He kissed her neck, his lips finding her pulse point and applying the most sensual pressure with the tip of his tongue. ‘And now?’

  ‘Now I’m thinking … and feeling … and remembering that … life doesn’t really work that way, like ever.’ She closed her eyes as his mouth explored, lowering, leaving her neck, tracing the line of her collarbone and dipping down onto her chest.

  ‘And you’re not conventional,’ Seth reminded her. ‘At all.’

  ‘I hope that’s a compliment,’ she replied, a smile on her lips as he turned his head slightly and met her gaze.

  ‘The highest of compliments,’ he reassured her. ‘I think you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met.’

  She swallowed, his words wrapping themselves around her heart. ‘Seth,’ she whispered. ‘I know you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met.’

  He moved to kiss her then and it was a kiss filled with heat and passion. The sensation of his mouth on hers, the scent of his skin, the touch of his fingers as they wound a trail lower, slipping under the fabric of her underwear, was making her head spin.

  ‘I need to tell you something,’ he whispered, his fingers starting a delicious slow dance over her labia.

  ‘Make it quick,’ she breathed. ‘I have better things for you to do with your mouth other than talk.’

  ‘Open your eyes,’ Seth said.

  She did as he asked and when she lifted up her eyelids, there he was, admiring her, looking at her like no one had ever looked at her in her whole life. It was as if she was being honoured, inside and out, by his gaze.

  ‘I’m i
n love with you,’ he said, his voice sounding close to breaking.

  A sound rose up in her throat and she had to clamp her lips together to stop an audible outpouring. Trent had told her. She had wanted to believe it, and here it was, from his own heart.

  ‘I know, how that’s gonna sound to you,’ he breathed. ‘After so short a time, after Dan …’

  Lara palmed his face, needing to touch skin on skin. ‘Don’t say his name,’ she begged. ‘Because he isn’t part of this.’ She swallowed. ‘He has never, really, been part of this at all.’ She brushed her thumb over his bottom lip, her insides frothing like mulled wine left to boil. ‘What started out as a mission to show him what I could do without him, turned into a holiday where I showed myself what I could do without him.’ She smiled. ‘And then there was you. Part of the plan but equally not part of the plan. And I tried really hard to tell myself that these feelings I was having were rebound rumbles, that it wasn’t possible for there to be anything genuine between us but …’ She stopped talking, just gazed at him, this gorgeous man with the sweetest soul.

  ‘But?’ Seth asked.

  ‘I was missing the point,’ Lara admitted. She took a breath. ‘Because, I think, with love, you don’t get to choose when it happens. It just takes over, and happens all by itself.’

  Seth shook his head, a smile on his lips and tears in his eyes. ‘Someone else told me that today,’ he replied. ‘And I believe that too.’

  ‘I love you, Seth,’ Lara told him, without any further hesitation. ‘I really love you.’

  He kissed her then, full and hard, edging her back down onto the bed of the truck and Lara suddenly felt like she was exactly where she was meant to be at this moment in time. Not in Appleshaw, but in New York, at Christmas, with the absolute love of her life.

  Sixty-Nine

  Seth spooned some tembleque into Lara’s mouth and she closed her eyes, savouring all the delicious tastes as it hit her tongue. They had just watched the sunrise over the city – a clear blue sky overhead, frosty snow on the ground, blankets around them – and she knew they would have to leave this truck sanctuary soon before the whole of New York came to life and the park got filled up with walkers and cyclists and people minding their own business not expecting to see a lorry with a naked couple inside. Last night had been filled with the most erotic experiences of her entire life, but not in a Christian Grey way, in a deep, intense, soul-touching way. When Seth had moved inside her she had felt it absolutely everywhere and, when she had crawled on top of him, he was there, strong and hard and sexy, his gaze and his whispered words empowering her to be her, to do what she wanted to do, to be who she wanted to be. It had been such the biggest turn-on she had come without any warning and screamed like a barn owl.