Page 22 of Promise Yule Be Mine (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

22

NOVA

I opened my eyes, fearing last night had been nothing but a dream, and yet…

He was there. In bed, with me, with his hand resting on my waist as if it belonged there. It all came flooding back to me. The kiss, the dash to the airport, the truth. Admitting we were falling in love with each other.

I had been so scared that if I opened my eyes that morning I would find none of it had happened, that I'd gone back to worrying about Jenna's wedding plans and my growing feelings for her fiancé. Everything had happened so fast I was surprised I hadn't got whiplash.

Kody was in love with me. He was in love with me and I was in love with him, and admitting it or acting on it hadn't betrayed my friend's trust. He could be mine and I could be his. And there was nothing, nothing I wanted more than to be his.

As if we were even compatible in our sexual preferences, which were none with a little cherry on top of a whole bunch of nothing. We couldn't have been a more perfect match if we tried.

I didn't know how long I stayed still, watching him sleep, feeling his breath warm on my face, his hand on me making me feel safe and wanted and…cozy.

I'd never felt like this before. As if there was a future, which was a wild leap to make in my head, but…I also couldn't help how I felt.

Eventually, I managed to peel myself off him and the idea of him, of us and got up to make coffee. Jenna wasn't here. She must still be at Aunt Maria's. I felt slightly guilty at that thought, of having Jenna cast out of her own home just so her two best friends could be together. Then again, after everything she’d put me through with all the fake wedding emergencies it was the least she could do.

As the coffee maker made a fine hazelnut roast that suited the chilly Christmas Falls morning wonderfully, my gaze landed on my laptop and notebook.

"Shoot. The wedding," I mumbled.

What was going to happen with the wedding? Were they going to go ahead with it? Were they going to cancel everything? What about all the money they'd already sunk into it?

The coffee maker clicked and I poured two cups, a generous serving of sugar for Kody's and a little sprinkling for me, finished it off with cream and returned to the bedroom. Before I could wake him up, Kody stirred, opened his eyes, and smiled.

"Best morning wake-up call ever." He yawned.

He even looked adorable yawning. Lord help me.

"But I didn't say anything," I said, sitting on the bed and passing him his coffee.

He smiled and took it from me, warming his hands on the red mug. "You didn't have to. The coffee aroma did it for you."

He took a sip and with a smile, leaned into me and kissed me, taking me back to my utter disbelief about this whole situation.

"Did you sleep okay?" he asked.

I nodded. "You?"

"Best sleep ever."

I chuckled. "So in one day I managed to deliver the best sleep ever and the best wake-up? That's a pretty high standard I'm setting for myself."

"You don't need to worry about standards. Anything you do is the best thing ever." He cupped my cheek for a moment before he slid his hand to the back of my head and kissed me.

I sighed and sunk into his kiss, into this moment, into this dream.

When we separated again and sipped our coffee in silence I grounded myself back to reality so after a few minutes of hand-holding, staring into each other's eyes and enjoying the company, I spoke.

"We need to talk."

His forehead creased with worry and I couldn't help but stroke his face.

"It's nothing bad, silly man. We just…I have some questions."

"Anything. Ask me anything and I'll answer you honestly!"

I took a deep breath. "We need Jenna too for this conversation."

He cocked his head to the side, frowning. "We do?"

"We have to talk about the wedding."

Realization dawned in his eyes and his expression turned more serious. "Okay. Should we meet up with her for breakfast?—"

"It's probably best if we have it privately. Unless you guys don't mind everyone knowing your business."

"Good point," he said. "Okay then. Let's finish our coffee and we can stop by Maria's to talk."

"Won't Auntie be there?"

"She'll be at work."

I nodded and relaxed next to him. My stomach grumbled, demanding food, but I didn't have the strength or will to move. I wanted to sit here, next to him, in his embrace, in perfect, comfortable silence and pretend the rest of the world didn't exist. Just us. Just the two of us.

Eventually we had to rejoin the rest of the world, so after we dressed, we got into Kody's car and he drove to the other side of town, to Auntie's house.

"Wow. Could Jenna have found a house further from her mom?"

"She tried," Kody laughed.

"Did something happen between these two?"

He shook his head. "No. Jenna just wanted to be more independent and she thought if she lived close or still at home, God forbid, she wouldn't have it."

I shrugged. "I mean I get it, but at the same time I love living at home. I can't imagine how often I'd catch up with my brothers or my mom if I lived on my own. And how alone I would be."

"And that's why I never moved out." He smirked.

Agh. We were even compatible with that. Could we be any more cheesy?

As soon as we were at Auntie's and knocked on the door, a bark erupted from the other side that got louder and more excited the longer we waited until Jenna opened the door and a ball of fluff jumped at Kody's feet.

"Hello Mistletoe! How is my favorite niece?" Kody dropped down to pet the dog and I hopped inside to escape the cold.

"What are you guys doing here? Shouldn't you be jumping each other’s bones or talking about your feelings or whatever?" Jenna asked me.

"Yeah, well, we were," I told her with a raised eyebrow.

She looked surprised by that. Which told me she must have known about Kody.

Kody brought the dog inside and we were ushered into the living room where Mistletoe jumped onto the couch between Kody and me and begged for our attention.

"You look just like Cookie, don't you? Don't you?" I cooed at the pom, remembering how Kody said Auntie had adopted the third puppy from the litter.

"So…what can I do for you, guys? Need some couples therapy already?" Jenna sat down and clapped her hands together.

I rolled my eyes. "Is that how you're gonna be now?"

She grinned. "What? I want my two favorite queers to be happy."

Kody groaned. "Gosh, Jenna. Don't be weird."

"It's called being supportive," she said, dragging her hands above her head as if there was a banner with the word there.

"That's great, but…" I started.

"But?" she asked.

"What are we doing with the wedding? Are you guys still going ahead?—"

"No!" Kody and Jenna shouted, which was a relief.

"So…we're canceling everything? I need to know so I can start calling people and see if I can get you any of your money back."

"I doubt you can. We're way past the cut-off point for refunds," Jenna said.

"Yeah, I know, but I can try. I mean you guys are not exactly made of money. I don't want you to suffer if you don't have to."

Kody slipped his hand into mine and threaded our fingers together. Jenna's gaze dropped to our hands and her smile deepened.

"I've got an idea," she said.

Kody groaned. "God. No. Not another of your brilliant ideas," he said.

"I swear, it's not bad or ludicrous."

Even I gave her the stink eye at that.

"Well, why don't you hear me out first, dicks ?"

"Fine. What's your brilliant idea?" Kody asked.

Jenna shuffled in her seat and pulled her legs up to her chest. "Why don't you take these next couple of weeks to get to know each other properly without any of this wedding bullshit in the way, figure out how compatible you are..."

"Yeah," I raised an eyebrow sensing what was about to come out of her mouth.

"And if at the end you like each other and want to be together..."

"Yeah," Kody added in the same tone, probably guessing too.

"You can get married instead."

I knew it.

"You must be out of your mind," I said.

"Jenna!" Kody reprimanded her.

"What?" she shrugged. "A day ago you were ready to marry your best friend and give up on love for the rest of your life. Now you have a chance at true love. Why not?"

"Because!" Kody said.

"It's too soon," I added.

"You guys do know divorce is still a thing, right? It's not been banned yet."

"Oh yeah. What a great reason to get married. Let's do it because we can always split up." I said.

Jenna groaned. "Oh my God. You guys, if you'd rather waste all that money."

"That's not a good reason to get married either," Kody said.

"And the reason we were going to marry each other was better?" Jenna grimaced. "Besides, you guys told me yourselves. You've never felt like this before. You're in love with each other. I've known you both for half my life. I don't know about you Nova, but you, Kody, you've never been like this about anyone. I could sense it in the air when you saw him. I could read it in the tea leaves. You're completely smitten with Nova."

Was it hot in here? Had someone cranked up the heating?

Was he really smitten?

Gosh, get your head screwed on, Nova. Of course he's smitten. He said as much last night. He’d shown me in every possible way since then.

Kody's cheeks were red, making him look even more adorable if that was even possible, and his gray eyes bored into mine. "I am, to be honest," he mumbled.

"And you," Jenna turned to me, "are smitten with him. I don't know if you've ever felt like this for anyone, but I'm willing to bet all my money that you haven't."

I closed my eyes, bit my lip and shook my head. "I…I haven't."

"There, see? So why not take this wild chance on each other? What if the way you feel after six, seven days of knowing each other is a sign that you're meant to be together? What if this is the universe's way of telling you you’ve found the one?"

I looked at Kody and he looked at me. I tuned Jenna out completely as she went on and on before she started making sense and I took a deep breath.

Kody smiled and reached for my hand.

Oh my God. Were we really considering this? Were we going to listen to Jenna?

I squeezed his hand back and felt a tingling in my fingers. It crawled up my arm, spreading out all over my body stealing my breath—and sense—away.

"Okay. Le-let's do it," I said.

Besides, no one said we had to get married at the end of these two weeks. We had all that time to figure out exactly just how compatible we were, although from what I already knew about him, I already knew we were made for each other.

Kody just had to find out for himself too, if he didn't know already.