by Rye Hart
“You deserve someone who believes in you, and that person isn’t Logan.”
“Landon.”
“Whatever,” he said.
I smiled and giggled before I leaned over and kissed his cheek. The two of us stepped out of the truck, my eyes sweeping over the vast view of the mountains from our porch. The Trents and my family were the only people settled on this mountain. I drew in a deep breath as I panned my gaze over to their house. I knew they were here. I could tell by all the pictures they had been sending me over the course of my plane ride.
But something inside me was disappointed they weren’t out here to truly welcome me home.
I had missed all of them when I moved to the city. We were very close growing up. Partially because we were neighbors, partially because of the death of my mother and the toll that took on all of us, and partially because we were thirty minutes outside of town and no one ever wanted to trek up the mountain to visit us. The heavenly peaks reached for the skies, displaying their light gray cascades and their dripping white snow havens, but these picturesque hills were no match for the beauty that was the Trent’s home.
If only because I knew who was already there.
In high school, I had a crush on all of them. Not one of them, and not some of them, but all of them. They were gorgeous, but I had to admit that Carol was right about that picture they sent me. Their muscles had bloomed, and their strength had grown. The beards on their faces accented their eyes and lips in ways I didn’t really know were possible. I missed their closeness and their unique personalities. Each one of them always had a way of making me smile and laugh in the best ways possible. It’s what made all of them so important to me.
It was the bond I realized I was missing with Landon.
“You coming?” my father asked.
I let out a sigh, watching the steam rise from my lips before dissipating into the cold, winter dusk that was settling over the mountains.
“Yeah. I’m coming.”
I knew my old bedroom was waiting for me to unpack my things, and as my eyes lingered on their house outside my window, I couldn’t help the tears that rose to my eyes as a thought crossed my mind.
I don’t want to go back.
CHAPTER TWO - OWEN
I’d been watching the windows for the last fucking hour. The moment I heard Mark’s battered fucking truck echoing down the crevices of the mountain, I’d settled onto the couch and silently waited for them to pull up.
All I could think about was Kyra coming home.
I’d had a crush on that fucking woman for years, ever since puberty did her body some good. She was petite in areas that were delicate, and filled out in areas that called to my fingertips, and there were nights where all I could do was have wet dreams of the things I wanted to do to her.
When I figured out she was getting married, I was depressed for days. I automatically didn’t like the guy. Not one fucking bit. He was tall and lanky. A typical city boy with no strength or smarts about him. His worth to a woman was dependent upon how much money he could make in an hour, which didn’t mean shit when it came to a woman like Kyra.
She didn’t care about money or gifts or expensive shit. What she needed was someone who gave a shit and supported her. Someone who could take care of things around the house when she broke them and kept apologizing. She needed a man who wasn’t afraid to slide his hand along her ass in the middle of a store just to make her feel beautiful, and she sure as hell needed someone who had no issues running his lips along every other crevice of her body when they weren’t in public.
I watched Mark pull up into the driveway, and the moment Kyra got out, my heart started to race.
“Guys! Tinkerbell’s home!”
I went running through the house, knocking on the doors as the guys slowly rolled out of bed. We all told ourselves we would take a nap so we could stay up and chat with Kyra into the early morning hours. That was the thing she loved to do the most. The window of her bedroom faced our home, and it was easy to climb up onto the second-story wrap-around porch that led into her bedroom. As kids, all of us would use a ladder to get up there, throwing ourselves over the balcony before knocking on her door to wake her up. We’d all gather around and sit down, talking for hours until the morning sun started piercing through the trees.
We didn’t have to pull that shit now, but we still wanted to stay up and talk with her.
I made sure all of them were up before I strode across the lawn. I’d traversed these lawns on countless occasions, walking these same steps during our childhoods. Back and forth, we would all go between the two houses, always up to something and always getting into trouble. We called ourselves the Lost Boys, too wild to be tamed and too loud to be silenced. And Kyra had been our fairy princess.
Our gorgeous guide.
Our strong, unwavering Tinkerbell.
The nickname was cheesy as fuck, but the best one to describe her.
Small in stature, but she was powerful as hell beyond her size. She grew into a strong woman, bypassing that ‘girly-girl’ stage altogether. Makeup was never her thing, and she didn’t give a fuck about what her hair looked like. She’d rather lounge around in sweatpants and a t-shirt without a bra on than wake up an hour early just to piece herself together.
And trust me, I didn’t mind the times where she was braless – not one damn bit.
The moment I discovered girls didn’t have cooties, I was all over Kyra. Not physically, but in my mind. I kept my crush a secret because I didn’t want to be teased about it, but I also kept it close to my chest because I didn’t want to be rejected by Kyra.
I strode right up to the front door of Kyra’s home and knocked on the door with my knuckles.
Mark answered the door immediately as my brothers ran up behind me. I could hear them panting and heaving, the cold air causing them to wheeze as Mark shook his head. He stepped off to the side and invited us into his home, silently ushering us in from the cold before he shut the door behind us.
“Honestly, I’m shocked you boys weren’t already waiting outside like a pack of dogs,” Mark said.
“Where’s Kyra?” I asked.
“Hold on. Kyra! Where are you?!”
“In my room, Dad! What’s up!”
“The gaggle of gossips are taking up my foyer!”
Yep. That was the nickname Kyra’s mother bestowed upon us. While most women just saw a bunch of rowdy boys, Michelle had seen a bunch of gossips in the making. And she wasn’t wrong. We all took after our own mother in that respect. But the term of endearment shot my mind back to a time when Kyra’s mother was still alive.
Her death affected all of us, and there wasn’t a holiday that went by that I didn’t miss that woman’s laughter.
The moment Kyra rounded the staircase with a smile on her face, I was transfixed. Her smile lit up her large brown eyes, and her honey-blonde hair was almost down to her luscious breasts. It seemed that a year in the city had only made her more gorgeous, and my heart was pounding in my chest so hard I couldn’t even hear the words she was speaking.
My eyes feel to her left side. There was no ring, and for a second, I had to digest that little piece of information. She’d sent us all a picture of the ring when it happened. You could fucking see that thing from Mars.
But as I stared at her left hand, taking in the sight of her bare skin, I felt that same spark reignite in my gut.
“Hi,” I said.
She threw her arms around my neck, and I had to talk myself through my breathing just so I could wrap my arms around her in return.
She was warm and inviting, and she smelled like lilacs and raspberries. I wanted to hold her closer. I wanted to rip her clothes off. I wanted to pin her to the wall and devour her body, licking up her tantalizing juices and freeing those beautiful sounds I’d dreamt about for years.
But she let go of me too quickly, and just like that, the greeting was over.
“Tinkerbell!” Ethan exclaimed.
/> “Oh, my gosh, how’re you doing?” Kyra asked.
“Better now that you’re home,” Ethan said, grinning. “Now, where’s that massive rock you took a picture of for us?”
“What?” she asked.
I tried to get Ethan’s attention, and the look on my face was what prompted the other guys to look down at her hand.
“Your engagement ring. You know, that massive thing you could see from—”
Ethan grasped Kyra’s left hand and felt the bareness of her skin, and I watched his entire face fall. He slowly brought her hand in front of him, his fingers encircling the place where that ring should’ve been. There was the faintest of tan lines, just enough for someone to know something had been there if they looked hard enough, and suddenly, I watched every muscle in Kyra’s body stiffen.
“Well, that isn’t really something I have anymore,” she said.
“What did he do?” Ethan said.
“It’s not important,” she said as she ripped her hand from his. “All that matters is that the wedding’s off, so no one has to worry about it.”
Fireworks exploded in my head. Assuming was one thing, but hearing it from her lips was another. My hands slid into the pockets of my pants as my right hand grazed across the small jewelry box, and suddenly, all my hopes and dreams were finally coming alive again. Hope filled my chest at the idea of being able to tell her how I truly felt about her, how I could give her all the things this asshole ex of hers never would be able to.
She greeted the rest of my brothers in haste before she stepped back and took a deep breath.
“So, who wants beer?” she asked.
Everyone nodded in approval, and I stepped forward from the pack and found my voice again.
“I’ll help you get everything. No use making two trips.”
I followed her into the kitchen, not able to take my eyes off the sway of her hips. She opened the fridge and started pulling out beers, passing them to me so I could open them. I twisted my hand around the cap, popping the tops off and setting them on the table. But then her beautiful giggle rose from behind me as I turned to grab the last one.
“What?” I asked.
“Those aren’t twist-top beers,” she said. “I was about to hand you the bottle opener.”
I smirked at her, and she simply shook her head. The callouses on my hands from rebuilding my father’s shed while I was here were more prominent than I realized, I guessed, but the fact that Kyra was giggling was enough for me.
“I have a gift for you,” I said.
“Oh?” she asked. “What is it?”
I pulled the jewelry box out from my pocket and handed it to her. I held my breath as her eyes looked down into the palm of her hand. Then I watched as she slowly pried the lid open. I watched her beautiful brown eyes light up as she pulled the rose gold locket from the box, and the moment she popped it open, I saw tears rise to her eyes.
“Oh, Owen,” she said, whispering.
Inside was a picture of all of us when we were children. We were all gathered around after her last day of eighth grade, and we had all just got done teasing her about entering high school at an early age. Kyra ended up skipping fifth and sixth grade, which meant she was two years younger than anyone else in her class. She had always been incredibly bright, and I could remember the moment she looked up into my eyes just after that photo and smiled.
She told me it was the best day of her life, and I wanted her to hang that day around her neck for the rest of her life.
“I love it,” she said.
“You do?” I asked.
“‘The best day of my life’,” she said, grinning.
“Would you like me to put it on you?” I asked.
“Would you?”
“Of course.”
I took the locket from her and stepped around to her back. She lifted her hair up for me as I put the necklace around her neck, and I leaned in to get the faintest smell of her shampoo as my skin grazed hers. Her hair smelled like the beach, a scent I would fall asleep remembering tonight as I clasped it around her neck.
Then, I bent down to her ear as my hands traveled around the curves of her shoulders.
“Merry Christmas,” I said.
And I could’ve sworn her body leaned into mine.
I allowed my hands to trail down the softness of her arms before I wrapped them around her body. Her hands crooked up and grabbed onto my forearms, her fingernails lightly tracing the veins bulging from underneath my skin. I allowed my nose to nuzzle up her neck, testing my boundaries while her body physically fell back into mine, but before I could kiss her beautiful skin, we heard someone coming.
And just like that, Kyra stepped away from me and went to go grab the beers.
“You coming?” she asked breathlessly.
My eyes held hers for a beat and a half before I nodded reluctantly.
“Right behind you.”
CHAPTER THREE – ETHAN
“Where the hell’s the beer?”
Mark shrugged, and the guys simply stared at me, so I went to go see what the holdup was. I was ready to share a beer with Kyra and figure out what her ex fiancé did to hurt her, so I could kill the bastard. I walked down the hallway and pushed through the kitchen door, looking around for where her and Owen had gotten off to.
“What’s the holdup?” I asked. “No one likes a lukewarm beer!”
Kyra threw her head back and laughed before she handed me one.
“Here you go, oh impatient one,” she said, grinning. “A cold one just for you.”
“Oh, how thoughtful,” I said.
I took a long pull from it while Owen gathered up the other open bottles. I smiled at Kyra, winking in her direction while Owen pushed past me. I leaned against the kitchen table, my eyes scanning Kyra before stopping off at her left hand one last time.
That ring didn’t suit her anyway.
She blushed underneath my gaze, and I watched as her lips wrapped around the bottle. She was even prettier now than she had been last Christmas, and I had no idea how she did that. How she just popped in after all these months with ragged jeans on her little legs and a shirt that draped over her fabulous curves and simply took me to my knees. Seeing her again filled me with the same lust that grabbed at my cock ever since I figured out what the hell my dick was supposed to do, and all I could do was latch onto the one thing that gave me hope.
The one thing that signaled to me I might still have a chance.
“So… it’s over?” I asked.
I watched the smile fall from her face as she grasped her beer bottle tightly.
“I think so,” she said, sighing.
“What went wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t really wanna talk about it.”
“You know I’m here for you, right?” I asked.
She shrugged, and it killed a part of me inside that she didn’t feel she could talk with me about this.
“He’s a dick,” I said. “You know that, right?”
“You haven’t even met him,” she said.
“Doesn’t take knowing a man to know when he fucked up something good for him.”
She flashed her eyes over at me, giving my body a once-over as a smirk crawled across my face.
“I’m here to enjoy the holidays, Ethan,” she said. “I could really use a break from the drama.”
“Then you’ve come to the right place, beautiful. We specialize in getting away from it all.”
“Being thirty minutes outside of town will do that to you,” she said, grinning.
“See, now there’s that beautiful Kyra I know and remember,” I said. “You remember when we were eleven? How you dared all of us to sled down that hill out behind the elementary school?”
“Butt naked?” she asked, giggling. “I sure do. I remember you and Chase actually had the guts to take off all your clothes in the freezing cold and do it.”
“It was a dare! What were we supposed to do?”
“Keep yo
ur clothes on like the rest of the sane brothers,” she said.
“Not a chance when it puts a smile on your face.”
“You both got into a fight at the bottom of the hill because Chase thought you touched his junk, and you both ended up with hypothermia for Christmas,” she said.
“Well, at least I had the upper hand in that fight. Nailed him right in the dick.”
Kyra almost spit out her beer, she was laughing so hard, and her voice filled me with a warmth that tugged at my balls and rattled my spine.
“You were a scrawny eleven-year-old with a taste for puffing out your little chest,” she said. “Chance was almost twenty, and he was built like a brick house.”
“Yeah well, that just means I’m still young and spry while he’s old and wilting away with his salt and peppered hair,” I said.
She rolled her eyes at me before she took another swig of her beer, and I took the chance to leap into action. I set my beer down onto the kitchen table and lunged at her, my hands dancing all along her stomach and her sides while she giggled and jolted.
“You think you can roll your eyes at me and get away with it?” I asked, smiling.
“Ethan! No! You know I hate this!”
“Apologize,” I said.
“Never,” she said, laughing.
“Apologize!”
The both of us were laughing hysterically, and soon, she collapsed into my arms. I caught her and held her, feeling her chest panting against my arms as I held her closely to me. I couldn’t believe how good she felt. How the excess of her breasts pressed into me while her toned stomach taunted my pelvis. I wanted to hold her like this forever… hold her the way I knew that asshole ex of hers wasn’t.
But the moment was ruined when Chance strolled into the room.
“No wonder the beers are late,” Chance said. “Owen only brought the first four.”
Kyra stepped out of my arms at that very moment, and that was when I noticed it. The rose gold locket around her neck.
