Roman’s Firecraker
The Holiday Firecrackers, Book 2
Rachelle Stevensen
Copyright © 2020 by Rachelle Stevensen
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover created by Megan Wade © 2020
Created with Vellum
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also by Rachelle Stevensen
Blurb
Roman Galloway has been in love with Cecilly Thompson for years. But he is her exact opposite. Introverted where she is extroverted and he longs to make her his. He watches her from afar and learns all he can about her from his brother. When he sees her again, he knows it's a sign and time for him to make his move.
Cecilly Thompson has been in love with Roman Galloway since she was sixteen. She has watched him from afar and knew without a doubt that he was meant for her. And seeing him in the grocery store just days before her favorite holiday, the 4th of July gives her the courage to finally talk to him. To finally make him hers.
Chapter One
Roman
Being a computer genius wasn’t always as cracked up as everyone made it out to be. It was actually quite lonely.
When you graduate from high school at sixteen and then go to college directly after for six years to get your master’s in computer engineering and coding, that didn’t exactly call for any kind of social life, especially dating.
Roman laughed, knowing he hadn’t dated in college. He was the epitome of a nerd then and still was one today.
Even though he'd bulked up when he was in college and worked out even more after, his reputation as a nerdy guy was already put in place.
Not that there was anyone who had caught his eye when he was in school. Okay, maybe one had but she hadn’t gone to school with him.
She was too young for him, having seen her for the first time when he had come home from college for the summer and there she was, 16 and new to their town and since then as the years had passed he had only seen her around town on the few times he needed to get groceries or supplies.
Which wasn’t often, he was a homebody to his core. Although he always hoped deep down that she would be in town, even though he knew it would have been impossible for them to be there at the same time. But he secretly had hope, nonetheless.
Whenever he left and he hadn’t seen her, he would always be disappointed, but then he would purposely drive past where she worked just to catch his tiny glimpse of her.
It always kept him going. Those small glances of her. He would keep her face in his mind during his long hours alone and it helped.
Working on computers with no human interaction day in and day out made him lonely, so having her image in his head helped pass the time quickly...
He would try to go out more, but big crowds of people, hell, even small ones, made him uncomfortable. He didn’t know why they did, but even when he was a little kid, he didn’t like crowded places.
Lately it felt that anytime he went somewhere with a lot of people they stared at him. Like he was an alien or something. He didn’t understand why. He never did.
He didn’t like people staring at him. Because they did. Wherever he went, they stared at him without fail.
He wore his thick glasses most of the time because he would forget to put his contacts in and didn’t care if he had them on or not. But they were just glasses. So it couldn’t be that it could be that he was physically strong, solid and thick with muscles, but he saw nothing wrong with his appearance, but people still stared at him.
He didn’t understand it. He was only 6’5. He wasn’t that tall, and he didn’t have any tattoos or anything that would attract attention like he seemed to do without fail.
He had a short beard and he kept his hair a little longer than was necessary, because he didn’t always have time to get it cut and when he did, he just had his mom cut it.
But once again, he still didn’t get why they stared. It could be because he didn’t go into public much. It probably didn’t help.
He rolled his eyes, hating that people still made him uncomfortable and that they stared. If he could, he would tell them to take a picture, it lasted longer. But he wasn’t the sort to do that.
Grunting, he pushed his dark brown hair out of his eyes and got back to work. Done with his line of thinking. It helped nothing.
His stomach rumbled and he knew he needed to take a break soon. He had a bad habit of working through lunch and then through the night and knew it was a habit he needed to work on stopping.
He looked down at his watch and saw that it was past 6 p.m. He shut down the program he was working on and sighed.
He had been at it all day with very little breaks writing new codes for a company he worked for.
They were a white hat kind of company that kept people from hacking in and stealing information from big companies.
He loved his job, made good money and could work from home which were all good things for him, but he hated to admit that it was lonely.
He knew it was his doing, but some days were harder than others.
He didn’t like anyone in his space. With good reasons why he didn’t. He wasn’t comfortable with messes and everything had its designated spot and things like that. And aside from his parents and younger brother, no one else had ever been in his home.
He'd bought the house with his first bonus from work and loved having his own space.
He hadn’t done much decorating, though his mother had put a few things up on the walls and had tried to put some pillows on his couch.
But Roman had quickly put a stop to that. He didn’t like a lot of clutter and was very OCD with the cleanliness of his house.
So she had quickly given into his demands for no other decorations.
Pushing back from the desk, he stood and cracked his back as he stretched.
He hadn’t had the chance to buy groceries this week and knew that he would need some.
Sighing and wishing his mother could just do it for him, as she always had due to his unease and not wanting to be in public, he pulled out his phone and sent her a text.
Roman: Hey mom. I need some groceries. Is there any way you could do a run for me?
Mom: Sorry hun. Your father and I went out of town for the evening. It’s our anniversary.
Roman: Oh, that’s right. Happy Anniversary.
Mom: Thanks. Have a good night. Love you.
Roman: Love you too.
Putting his phone back into his pocket Roman cursed.
He would just have to deal with the stares and his feelings to get some damn groceries.
Making certain he had his wallet; he walked towards the door and grabbed his keys off the hook.
He put a baseball hat on his head hoping it would hide his appearance somewhat, though he knew it was futile.
As he drove to the store, he made a mental checklist of exactly what he needed and where it was in the store so he could get in and out quickly.
Once he was inside the store, he grabbed a cart, keeping his head down as he shopped. His phone vibrated in his pocket and when he looked down to pull it out to see who it was, he ran his cart right into someone else's.
Cursing under his breath, Roman kept his phone in his pocket and looked up to see who he had run into.
Cecilly.
The woman who owned his heart and didn’t even know it stood in front of him. Her eyes were wide.
“Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry Roman. I didn’t mean to hit into you.”
He held up his hand, “You didn’t. I hit you. I was trying to see who texted me and I wasn’t looking where I was going. I'm sorry.”
She bit her lip and a blush ran over her cheeks.
“It’s good to see you, it's been a while since you have come into town.” She said as she pulled her cart away and didn’t look him in the eyes again. Though he longed to see her light green eyes again.
He stood there, silent and not sure what she meant with her words, as it was unexpected that she had noticed his less than frequent trips to town.
She maneuvered her cart in a new direction, the opposite of where he needed to go. He was still standing there shocked that he had run right into her.
“Right. Well, I'll see you. Um, later I guess.” She turned and walked away, her long dark brown hair, that almost reached her perfect ass, swishing behind her.
His eyes went straight to her ass and he had to clench his fist to keep from reaching out to her. To stop her from leaving.
He watched her as she turned to look down an aisle. She reached up and brushed her hair back from her face and that's when he noticed the bright colors of blue and purple mixed in with the brown strands.
He loved it and he wanted to run his hands through it to find all the colors that were hidden throughout her waterfall of hair.
Watching her disappear down an aisle made his heart clench and made him think of the first time he had ever seen her. How she had made an impression on him from the very start.
When he'd first seen Cecilly years ago, her family had just moved to their small town.
She had two older brothers and an older sister.
She was just a teenager then. Sixteen years old to his twenty, and he had tried his best to not seek her out when he did go to town.
Knowing she was too young for him.
It was inevitable though. He was drawn to her like no other and as soon as he had come back to town after graduating from college, he knew she was of age, but he held back and never let her know of his attraction to her.
He was different, with his OCD tendencies and how he preferred to be alone and he knew that a normal woman wouldn’t want to be saddled with that.
So he left her be. Even though with each day that passed he longed for nothing more than to have her in his life. As his everything.
He made himself stop thinking of her that way by making up scenarios in his head where she found someone to love and he would have to be a silly love struck fool pining away after her as he watched from afar.
Roman hated it. And he knew he would never be okay with her loving someone else. He knew he would never let her be with someone else and he would kick any man’s ass for even daring to look at her.
And as far as he knew, Cecilly had never looked at another man. Nor had she dated anyone, at least that’s what Rhees had said.
He was never in town much but he did check her social media religiously, and found nothing, which confirmed what Rhees had said, and he hated himself for it. It was beneath him to use his computer abilities to stalk her like this, but he couldn’t help himself.
He knew that she had gone to cosmetology school and that she loved cutting, coloring and styling hair.
That was another reason why he didn’t go into town to get his haircut.
She worked in the only salon they had and he was always so flustered around her, that he couldn’t even speak to her in more than a few sentences.
And he didn’t want another woman to cut his hair other than her, so he left it long most of the time, only having his mom trim the ends sometimes.
Cursing, and hating that he still hadn’t even talked to her once again, he finished up with his shopping while mentally kicking himself. She had been right there. And he had stood there like a loon. Just staring at her.
Spotting Cecilly as she practically flitted around the store while she finished her shopping.
Out of everyone he longed to see but yet still also hoped to avoid, she was it. She was the only woman to ever catch his interest.
But with him being an introvert, his OCD and his issues he had with crowds and people, why would she, -the most beautiful and social girl around- want to be with someone like him?
Those were the questions he wanted answers to but knew deep down that they would be forever the ones that would stay unanswered.
He grabbed the rest of the groceries quickly, needing to get out of the store. Now.
When he stood in line, he remembered that his phone had vibrated earlier and he finally checked it.
It was a text from his younger brother, Rhees.
Rhees: Hey man if you aren’t busy do you want to get some dinner?
Roman: I just bought groceries. But sure. I just have to run home real quick to put them away.
Rhees: Sweet. Pizza?
Roman: Meet you there in 20
Putting his phone away, Roman quickly paid for his groceries.
He walked out to his truck, putting everything in the bed when he saw Cecilly come out with her few groceries in her hand.
She flipped her long hair over her shoulder and bent down, picking something up off the ground.
He didn’t see that it was, but her face lit up like a firecracker on the Fourth of July.
Which was pretty ironic since the fourth was this coming week and it made him smile.
Watching as she got in her car and drove away, Roman wished he could have spoken more to her. Or had done pretty much anything besides stand there.
He had to stop being such a coward.
Chapter Two
Cecilly
Seeing Roman at the store tonight was not something she expected.
Oh boy did she have a crush on that man. Not just a crush. A crush was for a teenager with the first cute boy she saw. Nope it was way more than a crush. She had been in love with him for years. But had kept that small tidbit of information to herself.
Well, her sister knew about her crush, but she didn’t know how in love Cecilly was with someone who had barely even spoken to her.
He was tall, and so handsome, with his rippling and muscled physique that made her drool just a bit when she saw his arms move and flex.
And he was also quiet and reserved and she wanted nothing more than to get him to come out of his shell.
She wanted him to notice her. Wanted him to see she was all grown up and all woman now.
She knew she was too young for him when she first moved here, but now? What she wouldn’t give for him to see that she wasn’t that sixteen-year-old any longer. He hadn’t noticed her then and still hadn’t noticed her now.
It was a little discouraging, but she would figure something out.
She hurried away and finished her shopping.
She knew he was still in the store and would catch glimpses of him here and there. She was so embarrassed at running into his cart, she tried to avoid him as much as possible afterwards, not wanting him to think of her as an airhead who didn’t pay attention to her surroundings and rushed to get the rest of her things.
She had a lot of stuff to do to get ready for the fourth of July party her family was throwing soon.
They always had the biggest party in town and then they would all watch the fireworks afterwards.
It was her favorite time of the year. She loved how everyone came together as a community. And she loved the parade, their party. All of it.
She had even done her hair in the spirit of it. Well sort of. She wanted to try something new she had seen on Pinterest and she did put a lot of blue in there to seem patriotic.
She loved the look of the colors playing peekaboo with her regular hair. She hoped Roman would see it and
ask her about it. Not that he would. Darn it. And she wished she had been brave enough to ask him to the party tonight.
His parents and brother had come in the past without him and were planning on attending this year again.
But she knew Roman didn’t like a lot of people and was kind of shy and introverted. So she knew he wouldn’t attend. Even though it was her wish, she knew it would never happen.
Walking out of the store, she saw something shining on the ground. Bending down, she saw a penny facing heads up.
Picking it up and knowing it was good luck, she grinned and stuck it in her pocket.
This was a sign. She knew it. It was like the universe was letting her know it was finally time. Seeing Roman here tonight and finding this penny clenched it. She needed to stop being a coward. It was time.
She was resolved now and would finally get her man.
Getting into her car, she drove to the house she shared with her parents.
Dancing into the house with the groceries loaded on each arm, her new resolve making her want to fly, she singsonged, “I am back! With the groceries!”
Her mom came in the kitchen and grinned. “Hey there Ceci. How did it go? Did you get everything?”
Cecilly nodded, “I sure did. I even got more than I thought I would.”
Her mother laughed, “Oh yeah? And what was that?”
Cecilly just shrugged, “Oh just a few things not on the list. Like for example, I ran into the love of my life and found a lucky penny. I just know this year is my year for love.”
Her mom laughed again. “Oh you sweet, sweet girl. I didn’t know you could pick up true love at the store like you do shampoo. This is why I love you. Your unwavering faith that he is meant to be yours. How did he look today?”
Roman's Firecracker Page 1
