Back To You This Christmas

by Sterling, S. L.

"Where is she?" I asked, shrugging my coat off and hanging it on the corner of the banister, kicking my wet shoes off.

  "Upstairs. She said she had a phone call to make to her landlord and her boss," Ann Marie whispered, her eyes full of tears as well. She curled herself into Zach's side and buried her face in his shoulder.

  My heart thudded in my chest. I couldn't lose her. I ran up the stairs and threw her bedroom door open. She jumped as the door banged against the wall and frowned at me as she continued speaking to someone on the other end of the line.

  "That's right, I sent the down payment through e-transfer. I will send the remainder of the rent tomorrow afternoon via e-transfer as well. Great, okay, I guess I will see you in a couple of days then, and I will pay you the rest at that time." She hung up her phone and threw it down on her dresser.

  "What's going on, Lex?" I asked, stepping into the bedroom and looking around at the now-empty space. "Where are you going?"

  "Now isn't the time for this, Drew. I have to get ready to go. My cab is here to take me to the airport."

  My heart sank. She picked up her purse and placed the strap across her shoulder and pocketed her phone.

  "Lexi, please..."

  "I have to go, Drew." She reached up and placed a kiss on my cheek, lingering there for a second. "I left your gift in your room. I hope you like it, and I wish you both all the best."

  I couldn't find the words as every part of me ached. She slipped past me and walked down those stairs. I leaned against the doorframe unable to move, and when I heard the front door shut and saw the cab back out of the driveway from the upstairs window, my heart shattered into a million pieces. I slid down and sat on the floor, my arms resting on my knees.

  I had no idea how long I had sat like that, but the next thing I heard was my name being called. "Drew...Drew?"

  I blinked hard as Barbara came into view. She was kneeling beside me, a worried look on her face.

  "She left." Those were the only words I could get out before the first of the tears slipped down my cheek. I felt utterly embarrassed. There had only been one other time in my life that I had cried, and that was when I was six, the day my mother had walked out on Dad and me.

  Barbara wrapped her arms around me and pulled me against her, and then the tears just poured. "She can't be gone," I murmured through heavy sobs. "She didn't even give me a chance..."

  "I know, sweetie. It will be okay. She will come to her senses, I promise you. Now Zach is downstairs and waiting out in the car. He's going to drive you to the airport to get her."

  "I can't." I sniffled. "I can't take another rejection."

  "You won't have to. I know my daughter."

  I looked up at Barbara. She looked down on me with a soft smile on her lips and eyes full of tears.

  "She loves you. I could see it on her face. Go, go get her." She leaned in and placed a kiss on the top of my head. She backed up and cupped my cheek. "Andrew, even though I already think of you as my son, I can't wait to have you marry my daughter."

  Chapter 26

  Alexa

  I ran down the front stairs of the house fighting the tears all the way. The look on Drew's face as I kissed him good-bye broke my heart. I didn't give him a chance to explain, because I think it would have killed me to hear the words that he was going to say. It would kill me to know that he had taken Laura back. So I did the only thing I knew: get into the cab and go. This life worked for me, as lonely as it was, and packing my things up was the only way I now had of protecting my heart.

  As soon as I was in the safety of the back seat of the cab and had told the driver what gate to drop me at, the tears started to pour. I studied the landscape through watery eyes as we passed through town. The first intersection we came to was where Drew and I had shared our first kiss. I could almost see us standing on that corner, the snow falling around us as his lips met mine. I remembered the way his lips grazed mine, cautiously at first, and then hard and with purpose. I could feel his hand at the back of my head, as his fingers wound through my hair. I could still feel the warmth his body gave off on my cold skin that night.

  I blinked hard and quickly shoved that memory to the back of my mind as the cab pulled away from the intersection where we had stood.

  I really wished he had taken the other way out of town, that way I wouldn't have been subjected to this drive. He pulled up to the next light, just outside of the little cafe. I looked at the front window where we had sat and had our hot chocolate, where he had surprised me with a hot cup full of those mini marshmallows. We hadn't seen one another in a few years, and yet he still remembered.

  As we started to move, the cab stopped in front of the other window of the cafe, the scene I had watched through that window just a couple of hours ago that had broken my heart in two. Seeing him kiss Laura had just about swallowed me whole. It was amazing to me how one building could hold such two different memories for me. I wiped the stray tear from my cheek as the cab began to move again. I needed to get out of this town.

  I glanced out the window and to my left as the cab stopped at the next light, just in time to see the sign of the bookstore as the cab pulled away. My mind flashed to Drew's face as he looked at the book I had chosen to give my mother. That sexy half-smirk as he had caught me in my lie. The memory of him turning that book around to show me the title and how he had struggled not to laugh brought a soft smile to my lips.

  I remembered that night as we made love in his bed, the feel of his hands caressing my body. The familiar scent of his cologne as he lay on top of me, gently pumping into me until I could no longer hold back. The way he held me as I came undone in his arms. The gentle caresses and kisses he had bestowed upon me afterward as he held me in his arms, never once letting me go. The sound of his sleep-filled voice as he whispered into my ear how beautiful I was.

  "Do you think you could hurry up? The airport is bound to be busy tonight, and I don't want to miss my flight," I said to the cab driver through tears, as I felt my heart start to break again at the thought of not having Drew anymore.

  He looked at me through his rear-view mirror, concern lining his face, and passed me a handful of tissues over the seat. "Sure thing, miss. Are you okay?"

  "Fine." I sniffled as I grabbed the tissues from his hand and sank into the back seat in time to feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it from my pocket, almost afraid to look at the screen. Ann Marie's name sat on the screen.

  Ann Marie: Lexi, you going to be okay?

  I couldn't text her back right now. Was I going to be okay? Who knew? All I knew was my heart had just been shattered into a million pieces, and the farther I could get away from Drew and Denver, the better off I would be.

  When we arrived at the airport, I pulled my bags from the trunk of the cab and handed the driver a handful of crumpled bills, while stacking my bags on one of the luggage carts. My body ached as I lifted the last of the heavy bags and wheeled the cart inside and wandered over to the check-in. My phone was still going off in my pocket, but I now chose to ignore whomever it was. The sooner I was on the other side of everything, the happier I would be.

  Chapter 27

  Drew

  I sat in the front seat of the car watching as Zach weaved in and out of traffic. We were both quiet as he concentrated on the road in front of us, coming to a halt as the car in front of us jammed on its brakes. Zach swore under his breath, coming just inches from rear-ending the guy in front of us.

  "Thanks for doing this. I know you probably hate me right now."

  "Drew, I don't hate you. You're like a fucking brother to me, man," Zach said, once again slamming the brakes on and laying on the horn. The guy in front of us flipped us the bird as Zach drove around him.

  "I know. It's just you didn't seem too thrilled to see—"

  "I was worried you were going to hurt her, man. I was worried you weren't over everything with Laura is all. It’s just an instinct for me to protect her."

  "I've told you I'm ove
r her, but no one seems to believe it." I chuckled.

  "Well, I was wrong. Ann Marie kindly pointed that out to me, and basically I would have blue balls for the rest of my life if I didn't help you today."

  "Ah, so you were bribed."

  He chuckled again, slamming on his brakes and swearing under his breath at the car in front of us. "Something like that."

  "You know, she's been out of my life for six months and she is still managing to fuck everything up for me," I said aloud as Zach started driving again.

  "Not this time. I've seen our lives flash before our eyes more in the last five minutes than ever before, she isn’t going to win. You, my friend, are getting Lex back!"

  An ache in my gut started at the thought of holding her in my arms once again and smelling her vanilla-scented hair as she tucked her head under my chin and rested her cheek against my chest. I couldn't wait to hold her against me and kiss those beautiful, soft lips. I needed her in my arms more than I had ever needed someone before.

  Zach finally pulled into a parking spot at the airport and we both jumped out of the car and ran into the building. We approached the checkout counter, pushing people who were waiting out of the way and making our way right to the front of the line. The lady behind the counter looked at us with disapproval as we stood on the other side of the counter.

  "Gentlemen."

  "Sorry, but it’s an emergency. We are trying to find a passenger who may have already checked in."

  I just happened to look up at the ticker board and saw the only flight to Italy was already in boarding status. I tugged on Zach's coat sleeve as he gave Lexi's name to the agent behind the counter.

  "Forget it, man, we're too late. She's boarding." While the words fell from my lips, the agent behind the desk confirmed what I had just said.

  Zach looked to me and then back to the agent. "You need to get her off that plane," he said sharply and forcefully to the agent behind the desk.

  "Excuse me?"

  "We've got a family emergency. You need to get her off the plane."

  "Sir, her luggage has already been put on the plane."

  "That doesn't matter. We will deal with that later. My sister needs to come home with us right now." Zach kept his cool while dealing with the agent and was relentless, until she finally succumbed and paged for Lexi to come to the main information booth at the front of the airport.

  I stood off to the side with him and waited for what felt like forever, until I caught a glimpse of her dark-brown hair. She came running from the secured area and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of both Zach and me.

  "What the hell?" she demanded.

  I went to approach her, but she held her hand up and started to back away, tears instantly streaming down her face.

  "Alexa, just fucking listen. I didn't almost kill us to watch your stubborn ass get back on that plane," Zach called out from behind me, halting her in her tracks. He had never spoken to his sister that way.

  I took a step forward, holding my hands out in front of me in a gesture of truce, finally getting close enough to grab hold of her hands.

  "For the past week and a half, I have been trying to wrap my head around my growing feelings for you. I really wasn't sure how I should feel about you, especially after everything that I've gone through. Part of me wanted to be cold and detached, but that isn't who I am. Once the feelings really started, I became so afraid of them. I was mostly afraid of having my heart broken, but I was more afraid that I was going to let you down, partially because I couldn't understand why I was left at the alter. When Laura called today and asked me to come and meet her, I couldn't say no. It was my chance to find out why.”

  "You kissed her. I saw it all through the cafe window. It tore my heart out, Drew, seeing you with her after everything." Lexi sniffled and turned away from me.

  I put my hand on her arm, praying that she would turn around and face me. When she finally did, my heart wasn't prepared for what I saw: her beautiful eyes watery with tears so up close and personal.

  "No, you're wrong, she kissed me," I said, placing my hands on her hips and pulling her toward me. "I'm a lot of things, Lexi, but one thing I am not is a cheat. She left me for another man because she felt like she was missing out on something with me."

  "But you are unsure of your feelings for me...you just said it."

  "No, not anymore. I know how I feel about you. Yes, at first, I didn't want to ruin our friendship or turn out like my mother, a commitment-phobe. I was so afraid of letting you down because I felt that I had let one girl down, but now I know it was her own insecurities, not me, that caused her to run." I took her hand in mine and pulled it up to my mouth to kiss the back of it.

  "I don't understand. You’re afraid of those things, but how does this end with you locking lips with your ex?"

  "As I told you, she kissed me, and if you had snooped just a little bit longer, you would have seen me pull away. You also would have seen me tell her to her face that she and I are over and that there is someone else. Someone that I am totally head over heels in love with. Then you would have seen me leave the cafe and run across the road to the jewelry store and buy this." I reached my hand into my pocket, producing the little white box.

  Her eyes locked with mine, and for once Lexi was speechless. I dropped down on my knee in front of her and she looked down at me, shock and awe in her eyes.

  "What...what are you doing?" she murmured.

  Chapter 28

  Alexa

  I stood there blinking hard, his words washing over me as I tried hard to digest them. He was in love with me? He loved me. The realization of what he had just said hit me. "But, Drew, you went to see her."

  "I went to see her for closure, nothing else. She's my past, Lexi, but I'm hoping that you will be my future."

  I studied his eyes, as he held up a little white box wrapped neatly with a red ribbon, the look in his eyes saying everything. "I planned to do this a little bit later, and in private, but there doesn't appear to be much time, since you’re planning on leaving the country."

  "I don't think I will be. My plane and my luggage just took off."

  "Well, I think I'll do it now anyways, before I lose the nerve," he said as he looked around, and that was when I realized that the entire airport was watching us.

  "Okay." I giggled, my cheeks heating in anticipation.

  He quickly untied the ribbon and opened the box, holding it up to me. "I'm used to women walking out on me, Lex, and never turning back, but I'm really hoping that you will be the one woman that stays with me, forever and always. I love you, and I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you."

  I looked down into his blue eyes as he stared up at me with a look of want and hope. Through tears, I nodded as my hand went to my mouth to stop the sobs that were surely going to start if he didn't kiss me soon. He pulled the ring from the box and slipped it onto my finger and stood.

  "No tears, Lex, unless they are happy ones."

  "They are. They so are," I said, quickly wiping them away as he pulled me against him, devouring my mouth. In an instant, I was lost in his kiss, his hand cupping my cheek and his tongue making its way between my lips, sweeping through my mouth.

  "Yes, yes, yes," I moaned into his mouth, his lips meeting mine again.

  This time the airport erupted in loud claps as people cheered for us. I looked around, first in shock and awe, and then in deep embarrassment as the people continued to clap, some women even crying.

  I wrapped my arms around Drew and hugged him tight and saw my brother standing there watching us, a soft smile on his lips as he held his phone up to his ear, surely speaking with Ann Marie.

  * * *

  "She said yes!" Drew shouted as we walked through the door.

  "I knew it!" Mom said from where she sat on the couch. She got up and came over, wrapping her arms around me, and then Drew followed by Dad and Ann Marie.

  "I just put a pot of coffee on and have so
me cinnamon rolls in the oven. This calls for a celebration," Mom called out, rushing into the kitchen.

  "Welcome to the family, son," Dad said, smacking Drew on the back as he too followed Mom to the kitchen.

  Ann Marie hugged me and then Drew before she disappeared with Zach into the kitchen, leaving us in the living room. I hung up my jacket in the closet and felt Drew slip his hands into my front pockets and kiss the back of my neck.

  "Happy?" he murmured as he continued to trail kisses to the top of my shoulder.

  "I am. Are you?"

  "More than you'll ever know."

  "All right, you two, break it up before I get sick," Zach said, coming down into the living.

  Drew let out a laugh. "That so reminds me of the night of your junior prom, Lexi."

  "You remember that?" I asked, somewhat shocked.

  "How could I forget the first time I ever told you that you were beautiful." He leaned in and kissed me again.

  "My God, man, you lay it on thick...Please stop." The three of us laughed, and we headed up to the kitchen to join the rest of the family.

  Chapter 29

  Drew - 2 months later

  I was walking by my receptionist’s desk on the way back to my office when Sophie stopped me. "I have a couple things I need you to sign before you leave for tonight."

  "No problem, Hazel. Let me know when Sophie is back." I opened the door to my new office. The words “Junior Partner” never looked so good written under my name.

  "Of course, Drew. Oh, and Alexa is on line one for you."

  "Great, thank you." I pushed the door open and grabbed the phone on my desk. "Hey, sexy," I purred into the receiver.

  "Mom and Dad sold the house." Lexi's strained voice came over the line, and I could tell right away that she had been crying. "Set to close in two months." I heard the sniffle as she held back tears.