Page 54 of His for the Holiday

In that moment, he seemed so open and so vulnerable that some of the last guards I’d built around my heart to keep him out cracked. Tears pressed at the backs of my eyes. The enormity of my feelings for him rushed to the fore and I bent over, slanted my lips over his, and kissed him deeply. Then I started moving.

Pleasure sparked deep within me. He rubbed against parts of me that made my entire body tingle and I moaned, meeting each of his thrusts when he pushed into me. Our fingers entwined, our mouths clashed together again and again. Our bodies raced to reach that delicious precipice all over again.

We flew over the edge together. Our kisses grew sloppy until neither of us could keep them up anymore. The grip of our fingers tightened as we swallowed each other’s moans. I collapsed next to him as the pleasure subsided. I slid a hand around his waist and rested my head on his shoulder.

“I’m going to try, Hawk,” I promised quietly, closing my eyes. I prayed that I would learn to trust him again before I did something to blow up what we had together over stuff that happened in the past.

He pressed a kiss to my forehead and stroked my back. “I know, baby. I know you are and I am too. We’ll work it out, okay? We’re going to be just fine.”

I nodded, cuddling into his side and falling asleep, the emotions of the evening finally taking their toll.

The next morning, I must’ve slept through my alarm because when my eyes flew open, I heard my mom and Winnie in the apartment. “I had some breakfast at Grammy’s house.”

“Eggs and toast,” my mother added for some reason. I couldn’t quite figure out why they were talking like there was someone else there, but I didn’t have time to think about that right now.

My heart started pounding in my chest and panic gripped my senses, but when I looked over, I saw that Hawk wasn’t in my bed anymore.

He probably slipped out hours ago. I rolled out of bed and quickly grabbed some pajamas, hurriedly pulling them on.

As I did, I suddenly heard Hawk’s voice join the conversation. “That’s the breakfast of champions.”

Winnie giggled. “My teacher says eggs are the best and I love her, so now I think they’re the best too.”

“Logan loves her as well,” Hawk replied. “He won’t stop talking about her. I’m glad you guys are in class together and that you’ve got her. Think she’d let me into her class too? I think I’d still fit on those chairs and you make it sound like so much fun over there.”

Winnie laughed. “You’re too big! The chair would break.”

Hawk groaned, chuckling. I raced out of my bedroom and found him dressed, drinking coffee, and chatting with my mom and Winnie. Mom was blushing happily while my daughter was jumping around in her backpack.

“Good morning, Mam.” Winnie beamed at me, rushing over to give me a hug. “Hawk wants to come to school with me. Isn’t that crazy?”

I blinked hard, still struggling to process what was going on here. “So crazy.”

He winked when I met his gaze. Then he came over. To my complete and absolute shock, he gave me a kiss on the cheek. Right in front of my mother, who he grinned at. “I’ll walk Winnie to school. Let’s go, little one. I want to get there in time to test those chairs. If they can take my weight, I’m staying.”

She bounded after him excitedly, not even giving either my mother or myself a wave goodbye as she rushed to catch up with him. Their laughter and chatter drifted up into the apartment as they descended the stairs, and Mom and I exchanged stunned glances.

Finally, Mom laughed. “Your father is going to have a heart attack when he finds out.”

My head shook slowly as I tried to process the last few minutes of my life. “You know what? I need some coffee before I even start thinking about what just happened. Would you like some?”

“Love some,” she said, taking a seat at the kitchen counter. I drifted around it and poured us some coffee from the pot Hawk must’ve made. “So, do you want to talk about it?”

I motioned at the coffee, still blinking much too hard and much too frequently. “Caffeine first. Questions later. But I will tell you one thing.”

“Yeah?” she asked, her eyes sparkling with laughter and excitement when they met mine. “What’s that?”

“I think I might have to figure out how to talk to Winnie about me having a boyfriend.” Those were words I’d never expected to say, but my heart gave a joyful little skip at admitting them out loud.

Hawk and I were together, figuring things out, and trying a relationship we’d failed at before. While I was nervous as hell, I was also cautiously optimistic about it.

What’s that saying again? If you love someone set them free. If they come back, they’re yours, and if not, it was never meant to be.

It felt right with Hawk this time. It felt good, and most importantly, it felt like it was meant to be. We’d set each other free and here we were, a decade later, our feelings still as real as ever. That had to mean something.

All that remained now was convincing myself that I could trust him enough to give us a chance of actually living out our happily ever after.