The echo of laughter in the hallway woke me a few hours later. Turning to face Grant, I saw he was already awake and watching me.
"What?" I asked, self-consciously pulling the blanket up to cover my breasts.
"I'm just basking in the glory of finally having you in my bed," he said, tightening his arm that was wrapped around my midriff.
"Well, technically, I was in your bed last night too," I teased. "Oh crap, I keep forgetting to call my mom. She's going to kill me," I said, sitting up in a sudden panic.
"Relax. I called her last night while you were whacked out on your happy pills," Grant said, placing his hand on mine before I could dial my parents' house.
"You did?" I asked, touched that he had the foresight to do that. "Wait, what did you tell her?"
"I told her about the snowstorm and our accident," he said, chuckling as he ticked off everything that had happened in the last day. "Oh, and your ankle. She said with the luck we're having, her advice was to stay put, but of course, that was before the fire here this morning too," he added as we both started laughing at the hilarity of the situation. We regained our composure and Grant got up to start a bubble bath in the big claw-footed tub. Trying to take a bath with him while also trying not to get my bandaged ankle wet was quite a feat. Still, our two slippery bodies combined with his roving hands made it the best bath I had ever taken. We didn't make it back to the bed before he took me again on the bathroom counter.
Once we got cleaned up, I finally called my parents to make sure they were really okay with me missing Christmas with them. My mom reassured me it was perfectly fine. At first I was confused about her complete one eighty until I pieced together she was tickled pink that I was cooped up with Grant. I'm sure she wanted nothing more than for Grant and me to have a real relationship. I knew her too well and in her mind she saw it as a way to get me back to Woodfalls on a
permanent basis. I hung up the phone, reassuring her I would call again tomorrow and then again on Christmas Day.
Grant and I finally made an appearance downstairs in the late afternoon when Doc Jones came by to check on my ankle. It was still horrifically swollen and more discolored than the day before, but I turned down more of his happy pills, settling for ibuprofen instead. He stuck around for dinner, which was steaming bowls of stew and homemade bread followed by cherry cobbler. During dinner, I learned the three other couples knew each other. They were older than we were and had no family to speak of, so they spent the holidays at Maggie's Bed and Breakfast every year.
"It's because her cooking is out of this world," one of the husbands said, winking at Maggie, who blushed.
"Even if I do set a few fires," Maggie joked, clearing the table. The rest of us laughed as we headed out to the living room with the coffee Maggie had prepared.
Doc Jones excused himself after one cup. "I'll come check on you again tomorrow."
"You don't have to. It's Christmas Eve," I protested.
"Darling, why do you think I'll be coming by? I'm hoping Maggie will invite me over for Christmas Eve dinner," he said, winking at me as Maggie came in drying her hands on her apron.
"Oh, posh.
You know you're always invited. Aunt June and Uncle Tim wouldn't have it any other way," Maggie said, walking him to the door.
After Doc left, the rest of us sat around chatting well into the night. The other couples were all hilarious as they regaled us with their own mishaps over the years. Grant kept an arm around me the entire evening, like he was afraid I would disappear if he didn't hold me. I didn't mind at all, especially since his fingers played with the hairs at the back of my neck the entire time. Maggie noticed our closeness and gave me a wink when no one was looking. I returned her grin enjoying the moment.
Retiring for the evening, Grant and I made love for the third time on the plush carpet in front of the fireplace in our room. Unlike the previous two times, this was more of a sensual dance as we used our hands and mouths to explore each other's bodies and discover our hidden pleasures.
The next morning the sun was shining brightly for the first time in three days. I bathed solo in the tub as Grant washed my hair while I worried about keeping my bandaged foot dry. Once we were dressed, he carried me downstairs and deposited me in the living room, claiming there were a few things he needed to do. Perplexed but also intrigued, I let him have his secrets while I helped Maggie prepare some of the food for the evening. We had learned the night before that Maggie hosted a Christmas Eve party for friends and family members before they all headed off to midnight mass. She put out a buffet spread that everyone else contributed dishes to as well.
Maggie turned on Christmas carols while we worked. Even though I wasn't home in Woodfalls, it still helped make it feel special. I even found myself humming along. It was funny to think that like a Scrooge, I had fought my mom tooth and nail about coming home for Christmas. I had my reasons, but none of them seemed to matter as much anymore. That was the irony of Christmas this year. Now that I really wanted to be home, I couldn't get there. Sitting in Maggie's kitchen preparing cake pops and decorating Christmas cookies, I was reminded of the true importance of Christmas. It was all about spending time with loved ones. The essence of Christmas was happiness and togetherness. I would never forget that again.
Grant returned to the house a few hours later with a silly grin plastered to his face. He wouldn't tell me what he was up to. "You have to wait," he said, smiling the entire time. I grumbled my displeasure, but it was an act. The guests began to arrive before I could quiz him any further. I was pleased to see June again, who greeted me like an old friend. She clucked sympathetically over my foot, though she pointed out if we would have listened to her in the first place, it wouldn't have happened. I had to agree with her, although having a bum ankle definitely had its perks, like being held in Grant's arms.
I lost track of Grant as more and more people came and went. Maggie and June introduced me to everyone, which was a bit overwhelming. After a while, I stopped trying to remember their names. I was in the middle of discussing my food blog with Maggie and her friends when Grant found me.
"Are you ready for your surprise?" he whispered in my ear.
"Yes," I shivered as his breath tickled my ear.
"I'll bring her back in a few minutes," he told Maggie and her friends, scooping me up in his arms. They all sighed collectively. We paused in the hallway and he set me down to help me into my jacket before carrying me out the front door. I'm not sure what I had been expecting when he told me he had a surprise, but he managed to shock me.
Parked in front of the inn was a gorgeous Clydesdale horse attached to a beautiful carriage. Tim sat at the reigns, giving me a small wave.
"Your carriage awaits my lady," Grant said, placing me in the seat before joining me on the other side. He tucked a couple blankets around our laps as Tim urged the horse to move.
"How did you know?" I asked.
"Know what?" he asked, placing an arm around my shoulder.
"This has always been my Christmas dream."
"I knew that, Jams. Haven't you been paying attention? I remember everything, including in fourth grade when Ms. McMillan had us all write our Christmas wishes on the board. Your wish that year was to ride on a horse-drawn carriage on Christmas," he said.
Tears welled up in my eyes. "You made my Christmas wish come true," I said, enchanted as I looked up at him. Who would have thought? Gran
t—
the boy who had teased me and driven me insan
e—
remembered something I had wished for almost fifteen years ago. A tear escaped my overflowing eyes. Grant caught it with his thumb.
"Jams, I want to make all your wishes come true. Merry Christmas," he said, capturing my mouth with his.
I didn't tell him he already had.
Cross Country Christmas is proud to be part of
The Twelve NA's of Christmas
.
12 New Adult Novellas. 12 Best Selling Authors. November 2013.
Enjoy this special preview of the first two chapters from Tiffany King's upcoming Woodfalls Girls novel
Available May 6, 2014 from t
he Berkley Publishing Group. Penguin (USA) Inc.
Misunderstandings
A Woodfalls Girls novel
By Tiffany King
Just when she thought things were going up…
Two years after a devastating breakup, Brittni Mitchell has moved on from Justin Avery—or so she tells herself. But when she returns to Seattle for her best friend’s engagement party, Brittni finds herself the victim of a disastrously timed elevator breakdown. She’s trapped with the last person she wants to face, and forced to recount the past she desperately wants to forget.
She’s going to have to look back…
When Brittni left her podunk hometown for a big city college experience at the University of Washington, hooking up with a guy like Justin Avery was not part of her plan. Between Justin’s attention-grabbing tattoos, cigarette smoking, and bad boy attitude Brittni quickly chalked him up as “Mr. Wrong.” But his charm was unrelenting, and Brittni’s decision to give Justin a chance quickly turned into the worst choice she ever made.
So that she might be able to move forward.
Now she’s stuck with Justin—literally—and the complicated web of misunderstandings that tied up the truth for two years is about to unravel.
“Super sweet and swoon-worthy!”— #1
New York Times
Bestselling author
Jennifer L. Armentrout
“Funny, real, moving and passionate, Misunderstandings is a MUST-READ for NA contemporary romance fans.
"
--
New York Times
bestselling author Samantha Young
Continue on for first two chapters…
Present Day
11:02 am
The rain was coming down in steady sheets as I stepped from the yellow taxi that had deposited me in front of Columbia Center in Seattle. "Keep the change," I said to the driver as I reached back inside the taxi to pay my fare. I stood momentarily with the rain pelting my face, tilting my head back to see the top of the tallest building in the state of Washington—all seventy-six floors of it. I knew that fact because I looked it up on the Internet. I needed to get an idea of what I would be dealing with. Not that my friend Rob, who I was here to see, worked on the top floor, but it was close. His office was on the fifty-second floor, which meant a long tortuous elevator ride. Something I wasn't looking forward to at all. Back home in Woodfalls, the tallest building was the three-story Wells Fargo bank they had built across from Smith's General Store a few years back. I was attending college at the University of Washington at the time, but back in Woodfalls it was big news. My mom, the town's resident busybody, made sure I received daily updates about the construction. Now, standing here, the building in front of me made our little bank back home look like a dollhouse.
The rain was beginning to find its way down the generic yellow raincoat I had purchased from the Seattle airport just that morning. The pilot had gleefully informed us before landing that Seattle was having its rainiest September in years. The irony that the rainiest state in the country was having its rainiest year in history was not lost on me. Why wouldn't it be cold, rainy and miserable? It matched the way I felt about this place. Of course, that wasn't always the case. When I first arrived in Seattle three years ago, I was a greenhorn from my Podunk hometown. That's why I had chosen UW. It was as far away from Woodfalls as I could possibly get without applying to the University of Hawaii. Three years ago, I had decided that nine months of rainy weather was a fair trade-off to finally be surrounded by civilization. That and it was hundreds of miles away from my often annoying but well-intentioned mother. The endless array of restaurants, museums, stores and the music scene had tantalized me, making me vividly realize just how lacking and uncultured Woodfalls was. Everything about Seattle intrigued me, making me never want to leave, but Puget Sound was by far my favorite thing about being there. On the weekends I would haul my laptop and textbooks down to one of the cafés on the waterfront. I would spend hours drinking coffee and working on schoolwork. That is, when people watching didn't distract me. That trait is something I had obviously inherited from my mom. Still, everything had been going along just the way I had imagined it would. It was liberating to be out from under my mom's thumb and the prying eyes of everyone back home. Here I could be my own person, with my own life. Then everything went to hell. I met Justin Avery—the whirlwind hurricane who left my head spinning and my stomach dropping to my knees like I was on a roller coaster.
My thoughts were broken when a wave of water splashed up from the road, soaking my pants from the knees down. "Terrific," I grumbled, looking down at the ruined pair of strappy sandals I had just bought. This is what I got for abandoning my typical attire of jeans and Converse shoes.
Stepping away from the offending curb before another rogue wave of nasty puddle water could finish the job, I focused on making it into the building without busting my ass, or worse yet, breaking my neck. The fake leather that had seemed so smooth and comfortable when I bought the sandals was now doing a great impersonation of a roller skate. My toes were also threatening mutiny from the cold, only adding insult to injury. This was the gagillionth reason why I had vowed never to return to Seattle. The city and I had bad blood between us.
The only reason I was standing here now was for Melissa and Rob, my two best friends from college who demanded that I be here for their engagement
party. I tried every feasible excuse I could come up with—"I'm sick," "I'm out of the country," "I can't get off work." No excuse seemed to stand up to Melissa's bullshit meter.
"You're one of our best friends. You have to be here," Melissa insisted.
"No. I hate you. I'm not your friend. I never was your friend," I said.
"I wish you could see the world's smallest violin I'm playing for you right now. Come on. Pull on your big girl panties and stop hiding."
An uncomfortable silence interrupted the conversation before Melissa finally spoke up again. "I'm sorry, Brittni. I'm a bitch for even saying that. I just mean you can't let what happened dictate your life forever," Melissa had reasoned. "Besides, you're my maid of honor. I need you. Just think of this trip as a test, like dipping your toes in water. Chances are you'll hardly see him, and if you do, it's not like you guys even have to talk."
"Maybe," I said. "I'll talk to you later."
"You mean you'll see me lat—" Her words were cut off as I ended the call.
"Maybe" was the best answer I could give at the moment. The only hope I had left was my boss.
"It's a good time to go since I'll need you more next month," Ms. Miller, my principal at Woodfalls Elementary, had stated. "Mary Smith has her wrist surgery scheduled for October, and won't be able to return to work until February. I swear, I've never seen someone so damn gleeful over a surgery. I'm sure it has something to do with that godawful book-reader thingy she got for Christmas. She's always crowing about some new author she's discovered," Ms. Miller added, looking perplexed. "Me, I need an actual book in my hand, not some electronic doodad that will most likely come alive and kill me in my sleep."
"I'm thinking now might be a good time to lay off the science fiction flicks," I had countered dryly as I tried to squish the unease that had settled in the pit of my stomach. That was that. Ms. Miller was the only obstacle left. It seemed fate wanted me in Seattle.
Now, two weeks later, here I was with my shoes squishing across the tile floor of Columbia Center. It was glaringly obvious that nothing good could come from me returning to Seattle. I skirted around a security guard and headed for the women's bathroom so I could survey the damage.
"Holy shit," I muttered when I took in my appearance in the long expansion of mirrors that lined the wall. I looked like a drowned rat. My long hair that I had painstakingly straightened earlier had been replaced with my typical corkscrew curls that were the bane of my existence. "Damn," I sighed as I pulled my compact from my purse so I could repair my makeup-streaked face. This was just another sign I shouldn't be here. If my friend Rob wasn't expecting me for lunch, I would have chalked it up as a lost cause and headed back to my hotel. At the moment, I'd gladly trade my soaked clothing and frozen toes for solitude in my hotel room.
"Get a grip, wimp-ass," I chastised myself out loud, ignoring a startled look from a form-fitting suit-clad woman before she hustled out of the bathroom. "Yeah, keep moving. Nothing to see here but the freako talking to herself in the bathroom," I said, grabbing a handful of paper towels to mop up my feet and legs. Tressa, my best friend back in Woodfalls, would have a field day if she saw what a mess I was; and Ashton, my other friend, would laugh and make a joke about it. I was supposed to be the one who never got frazzled and always held it together. Tressa was the more dramatic one of our trio. She made snap decisions often, never giving any thought to the consequences. Growing up, I was often left holding the short end of the stick in most of her escapades, but I didn't care. I envied her fearless attitude. I could have used an ounce of her fearlessness at the moment. I was the cautious one. The overanalyzer, skeptical, glass-is-half-empty kind of girl. Only once had I thrown caution to the wind, and it had bitten me in the ass. That one mistake was never far from my mind. How could it be? I left town and ran back home because of it. Being back in the scene of my troubles didn't help the situation. I needed to get my act together. Two years was a long time ago. I needed to buck up or whatever shit they say to get someone to stop freaking out.
I pulled my brush from my bag and ran it through my damp blonde locks, cringing as it tugged through the tangled curls that had taken over my head. After a futile moment of trying to make it look more dignified and less like a refuge for
wayward birds, I gave up and threw it in a clip, which at least made it so that I no longer looked like the Bride of Frankenstein from those cheesy black-and-white movies. I added a layer of my favorite lipstick and finally felt halfway normal.
"You got this," I said, pivoting around and striding out of the bathroom. I ignored the eruption of laughter from the two giggling girls who were entering as I was leaving. Obviously, I would be their comedic relief for the day.
I straightened up, finding the backbone that had liquefied and all but disappeared the moment the plane's wheels had touched down on the wet tarmac that morning. "Screw him. He doesn't own the city. I have every right to be here," I told myself as I headed for the long bank of elevators to the right of the bathrooms. A small crowd of people hurried onto one of the elevators as the doors slid open. I declined to join the overflowing box, waiting instead for the next elevator that would be less crowded. Being closed in with a group of strangers wouldn't cut it for me. I couldn't stand being in confined spaces anyway, but elevators and I had a hate/hate kind of relationship. I hated them, and if the seventh grade hand crushing incident was any indication, they hated me too.
"No problem. The doors will open and you will step inside. Nice and easy," I whispered to myself. I knew it would require all my will and strength to remain sane on the elevator as it carried me up fifty-two floors to Rob's office. As is always the case with my luck, he couldn't have been on the first five or so floors, making the stairs a viable option. N-o-o-o-o-o, it had to be practically up in the clouds.
The ding signifying the arrival of the next car prompted me out of my inner whine-fest. I took a deep breath as if I were about to jump into water before cautiously stepping aboard the elevator. I exhaled a sigh of relief as the doors slowly closed and I found myself alone for the impending ride up. This was a good thing in case my hyperventilating-I-wish-I-sucked-my-thumb-or-at-least-had-a-stiff-drink elevator behavior decided to surface.
My relief was short-lived when a hand reached between the closing doors, causing them to reopen.
"You know, sticking your hand in like that can result in serious injury." Personal experience had me pointing that out before the words locked in my throat.
All the air escaped from my lungs and I wheezed out a startled swear word as the elevator doors slid closed, trapping me inside with him. I would have gladly shared the ride with a couple of brain-starved zombies instead of him.
Our eyes locked as all the animosity and hatred from two years ago radiated off him in waves.
"Justin," I squeaked out in a voice that was totally not my own.
"Selfish bitch," he greeted me with venom dripping from each word as he punched the button for the fifty-second floor with the side of his fist.
I cringed as the elevator walls began to close in on me. I knew he hated me. He had all but shouted it in my face the very last time we'd been in the same vicinity. His eyes and words had cut me like razorblades. Every syllable had traveled across the quad until all the students who had been lounging around had turned to stare at us with morbid fascination.
Justin was the love of my life.