She leaned into him and whispered, “I’m ok”.
He kissed her temple and rose to go back to hanging the lights.
Once he had finished with the lights, Melanie and the girls began the process of putting all of the ornaments on the tree. Austin helped for awhile, but soon found himself sitting on the couch watching. He was tired and seeing Hannah with Melanie and Katie made him long for a family again.
After a few hours, they finally finished. Melanie stood back and admired their work, “I think it looks perfect.”
“Me too,” Austin glanced at their smiling faces.
“I know it’s late. You guys are more than welcome to stay tonight, if you want to that is,” Melanie looked over at Austin, who was yawning.
“Please Dad!!!” Hannah begged.
“That’s alright with me,” he shrugged.
“Alright then,” Melanie smiled as she glanced over at him sitting on the couch. “Katie, why don’t you and Hannah go get settled. It’s late and we’ve had a long day.”
Katie hugged her goodnight and made her way down the hall. Hannah soon followed after Austin had told her goodnight.
“You two behave yourselves,” shouted the girls as they moved down the hall out of sight. Austin and Melanie could soon hear them erupt into giggles.
Melanie shook her head as a blush crept over her neck and cheeks. Austin put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her over to lean into him. She could feel his chest and shoulders shaking from the laughter he was trying to hold inside.
“They aren’t subtle, are they?” Melanie mused.
“No, they’re teenagers,” Austin chuckled.
He swept his arm over the couch and gestured towards her, “Wanna sit?”
She nodded and sat down as Austin shifted beside her. Once he was comfortable, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer to him. She snuggled into his side and sighed. He adjusted himself slightly so he was at more of an angle and toed his shoes off. Melanie glanced around this living room. It really was beautiful in there now that they had the decorations up. She had turned off the lights except for the tree, the Christmas music was still playing softly in the background, and if you looked out the window there were soft flakes of snow falling.
“This is my favorite time of year,” she mused. “I love the magical feeling you get around Christmas, like anything can happen.”
Austin glanced down at her face and smiled, “I know what you mean.”
He leaned in and brushed a soft kiss over her lips, “Is it later yet?”
She sighed ,“Yeah.”
She turned slightly and deepened the kiss. As the kiss continued grow, Austin sat up straighter and turned to face her fully. She sighed and began to move back as he leaned into her. The next thing she knew, Austin was lying beside her with her slightly under him. He continued to kiss her, but it wasn’t rushed or demanding. It was soft, innocent almost. She sighed and shifted to give him more room. His mouth soon left hers and moved along her jaw and onto her neck.
As he reached the area near her ear he mumbled, “I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” she gasped in return.
This spurred him on and he began trailing his hand up her side from her hip and headed towards her breast. Melanie was becoming more and more comfortable being like this around Austin. He never pushed her for more than she was ready for, and tonight she just wanted to enjoy this. She was so turned on at the moment that he could have asked her for anything and she would have given it willingly. He always respected her wishes though, and when she stopped him, he understood. Other than kissing and touching, this was not going to go any further. His body didn’t understand this, but his brain did.
She groaned and rocked her hips in an upward motion causing slight friction against his jeans. He was slowly caressing her breast through her sweater when she grabbed his hand and pulled it down towards the hem. At first he didn’t respond. She’d never been this forward before, but when she began to slide his hand underneath it he growled in understanding. Her heart was pounding with excitement as her center was throbbing with need. She had no intention of having sex with him, but she wanted to get as close as she could. Austin’s chest was rising and falling quickly as he tried to rein himself in. He was going to loose it right here. She trailed her hands slowly down his chest, tracing his pecks and abs with her fingers. The long sleeved t-shirt he’d worn today fit him like a glove. Stretching over his muscles and showing off every ridge in his body. As her fingers danced lower, he sucked in a breath. He had no idea how far she was going to take this. A groan bubbled up his throat when she skimmed across his erection. It was painfully pressed against his leg in the now uncomfortable jeans. He shifted and rolled his hips into her. “Oh god Mel, what are you trying to do to me?” he panted. She smiled against his lips as she cupped him and offered a light squeeze. “I want you so bad,” he ground out as he rolled his hips a second time. Knowing that this couldn’t go any further, Melanie released him and tried to pull back slightly. Austin was in such a fog of passion that he failed to realize that she was putting the breaks on.
She turned away panting, “Austin?”
“Mmmmmm,” he groaned.
“We need to stop. I don’t think I’m going to be able to if we wait any longer,” she panted.
He backed up slightly and placed a soft kiss to her forehead, “Ok.”
She started to sit up and move away from him, but his grip was too hard for her to break.
“Where are you going?” he smiled.
“I thought you might need some space,” she looked over tentatively and skimmed her eyes down his abs settling on his crotch. She couldn’t help but notice how turned on he still was. She felt bad that she had left him that way, but she just wasn’t ready yet. That was a big step for her, one that she hoped they could make in the future.
“No, I want you right here,” he patted his chest and smiled at her. He knew he was torturing himself, but he couldn’t help it. His body was screaming for release, and he knew the after effects of leaving himself this way. But if suffering through this meant being with her later, then it was so worth it.
Melanie offered a weak smile and laid back down beside him. She placed her head on his chest and could feel his rapid heartbeat as she snuggled into his embrace. Austin reached up and grabbed the afghan off the back of the couch and placed it over them as he took several calming breaths to relax himself. He rubbed small circles on her back as she slowly drifted off. He could sense her breathing evening out and could tell that she was slowly falling asleep. He released a yawn and closed his own eyes. The two fell into a peaceful sleep as the tree twinkled in the background.
As Silent Night played on the stereo, it set the scene for a Christmas memory Melanie would never forget.
Chapter 16
Katie stretched and yawned as she forced herself awake. She crawled out of bed and made her way over to the window. It looked beautiful outside. There was a fresh blanket of snow out and it was just begging to be played in. Her mouth curled up in a childish grin as she rushed over to the bed and flopped down next to Hannah.
“Wake up!” she exclaimed as her body crashed down on the soft mattress.
Hannah jumped up from shock and glanced around, “You just about scared me to death, Katie Lewis.” Hannah clutched her hand over her chest trying to calm her racing heart and looked at Katie, “What’s the big deal?”
Katie went over and pushed the curtains back, “This!” She pointed out at the yard and grinned.
“Last one out is a rotten potato,” Hannah giggled as she bounced over to the side of the bed.
As they raced to put their warm clothes on, they couldn’t help the giggles that escaped their lips. They made their way down the hall as quietly as possible, careful not to alert Melanie and Austin that they were up. When they passed Melanie’s room, Katie noticed that the door was open and the bed was made. She placed her arm out to stop Hannah and pointed to
the open door. Hannah shrugged her shoulders with a quizzical look on her face and raised her chin to point to the family room. Katie nodded in silent understanding as they continued down the hall and peered around the corner. What they saw brought smiles to their faces. Melanie and Austin were sound asleep snuggled under a blanket on the couch. She had her head on his chest and an arm wrapped around his middle. Austin had his arm around her shoulders cradling her to him. His chin was resting on the top of her head.
“Awwww, that’s so romantic,” Katie whispered as she turned to look at Hannah.
“Shhhhhhh, we don’t want to wake them,” Hannah smacked her on the arm and stifled a chuckle.
Just then the sleeping couple shifted and sighed as their embrace became slightly more intimate. Melanie had rolled inward throwing her leg over Austin’s body in the process. He had tightened his grip on her, pulling her flush with his chest and was absentmindedly stroking her back in his sleep.
“Come on,” Katie grabbed for Hannah’s hand and pulled her in the direction of the back door.
Once outside with the door closed, they raced through the snow shouting and laughing.
“It won’t be long now,” Hannah spun in a circle throwing her head back to catch falling flakes in her mouth.
“For what?” Katie put her hand out to stop her.
“Til we’re sisters,” Hannah shrugged as if it was common knowledge.
The girls were walking through the small yard heading for the trees in the back, when out of nowhere a snowball came flying through the air nailing Katie right between the shoulders.
“Hey, watch it!” she turned on her heel and darted her eyes around the yard scanning for the offender.
While looking in the direction of where it had been thrown, Hannah was hit with one in the legs.
“Where are you?” she shouted. break
“Who did this? It’s not funny,” Katie placed her hands on her hips as a scowl made it’s way across her face.
“Oh, I think it is,” came a deep male voice from behind a tree a little ways over.
“Oh you do, do you. Well why don’t you show yourself then? Or are you scared?” she taunted.
Patrick came leaning out from behind a tree about fifteen feet away tossing another snowball up in the air and catching it. “I’m not scared. I think you might have me confused with someone.”
“Who’s that?” Hannah grumbled in Katie‘s direction.
“New neighbor,” Katie rolled her eyes. “Come on, he’s not getting away with this.”
She pulled Hannah around to the other side of the tree and crouched down to start packing snowballs as fast as she could. When Patrick saw this, he went back towards his yard where he’d made a pile of them and started heaving them in her direction. Katie and Hannah were being pelted the entire time they were working. They could hear Patrick’s cocky laugh as they worked with their backs to him to shield the snow.
“Oh, he is so going to get it,” Katie grumbled and shook her head in frustration.
By the time Katie and Hannah had a good pile of snow balls, Patrick had run out and was attempting to make more. Katie picked up as many as she could carry and made her way in his direction all the while grumbling to Hannah.
“When we get close enough, I want you to tackle him. I’ll do the rest,” Katie glared in Patrick’s direction.
“Got it,” Hannah nodded as she took in Patrick’s form.
When they were about ten feet away, Katie looked over at Hannah, “Now!” she shouted.
Hannah launched herself in the air and grabbed onto his shoulders pulling him to the ground sideways. He rolled on his side and curled into a ball as Katie began a heavy barrage of snowballs all over him.
“So you think it’s funny to sneak up on a girl, huh?” she shouted as anger blazed through her. “Well I don’t!”
“Ok, ok, ok I give up. You win!” he begged, placing his hands in front of his face to shield himself from their assault.
“That’s better,” Katie laughed triumphantly and crossed her arms over her chest.
Hannah pulled herself to a standing position and offered a hand to Patrick as a silent truce. She then moved to stand beside Katie and stare back at him.
As Patrick stood up and brushed the snow off his pants, he asked, “So is this your sister?”
“No, we’re just friends,” Katie put her arm around Hannah‘s shoulders. “Best friends.”
“I can see that,” Patrick laughed and shook his head as he continued to brush snow off his body.
“How long have you lived here?” he looked at Katie.
“We moved in about five months ago. Why?” she gave him a confused look at the sudden change in subject.
“Just curious,” he shrugged.
“I don’t know anything about you. What’s with all the questions?” she pointed and tapped her foot. Her anger was rising, and she had no idea why.
“Well, I moved here from Maine with my family, which you saw yesterday. I play hockey. What else do you want to know?” he cocked his head to the side and lifted his arms all the while grinning at her.
“How about a last name?” Katie rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe this guy, he was so full of himself.
“McKinley,” he shrugged.
Katie repeated the name and let it roll off her tongue, “How old are you?”
“I turned fifteen last week,” he looked like he was blushing. “Why, how old are you?”
“I’ll be fifteen in May,” she toed her boot in the snow and shifted her weight.
“Cool,” Hannah jumped in trying to lighten the mood. “That means you’ll be in the same grade as us. Are you going to go to St. Vincent’s too? It’s the best school around.”
“No, my mom home schools me. I haven’t been to a traditional school since I was in the third grade.”
“So is your mom a teacher?” Hannah asked.
“No, you don’t have to be to home school. She used to be a lawyer, but when Max was born she decided to stay home with us.”
“So wait, your mom used to work and teach you at the same time?” Katie raised her brow.
“Yep,” Patrick answered matter of factly. “You act like that’s unbelievable or something. Lots of women have both a career and are a parent.”
“ I know,” she huffed. “My mom is one of ‘those‘ women. Why’d you move to Boston?” she asked.
“Geez, what’s with the third degree?” Patrick’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m just curious,” Katie flipped her hand in the air and huffed.
“My dad got a better job here,” Patrick shrugged. “We’ve moved around a lot, but he says this is it, we’re not moving again. I hope he’s right. I’m tired of starting over.”
Just then Katie shivered. “Well, I’m going in,” she shrugged. “It’s freezing out here.”
She turned to walk back towards the house not giving Patrick a second glance, and soon Hannah followed.
“It was nice meeting you,” Hannah called over her shoulder as she giggled.
“Same here,” Patrick waved.
As they made their way back to the back steps, Hannah leaned into Katie’s shoulder, “He’s cute.”
“What? No, he’s obnoxious,” her eyes went wide and her face flamed.
“Ok, sure. Whatever you say,” Hannah laughed as she shouldered into Katie.
When the girls came in the house, Melanie and Austin were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Katie and Hannah gave each other a knowing glance.
“So you seem to be getting along with the new neighbors just fine,” Melanie smiled at Katie, noticing her snow covered clothing.
“Yeah. He’s ok,” Katie flipped her hand in the air.
“We should bake them something and take it over there,” Melanie suggested.
“You better let Austin help you,” Katie snickered.
“Katherine Anne, I am not that bad of a cook,” Melanie scolded playfully.
“Sure M
om, whatever,” Katie laughed as she took a seat at the kitchen table.
Hannah was busy taking her heavy clothes off and hanging them up to dry. “He seems nice.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re making friends,” Melanie shrugged.
“Did you sleep well last night, Mom?” Katie spun in her seat to see Melanie hide her face behind the newspaper that she was reading.
“Yes, very well,” she choked out.
Unbreak Me (Second Chances) Page 17
