My Holiday Reunion: A Second Chance Holiday Romance Read online

  We slipped out of her bedroom and downstairs, where her mother was waiting for us in the kitchen to drive us to David’s house. Mrs. Rollins was a sweet woman with a fiery attitude like I had never seen before. When I first started living with her family three weeks after my twelfth birthday, Mrs. Rollins had brought me into the formal living room. They had two living rooms, something else I had never seen before. She sat me down and told me that things were going to be hard for awhile. Weeks. Months. Maybe even years. But she promised that no matter what, she would be there for me. To talk, to drive me to dance class, to teach me how to make her famous banana bread, to help me with my homework. And she had kept her word. She also made me swear to stop calling her Mrs. Rollins and call her Judy instead.

  I was lucky to have them in my life, and I knew it just as clearly as I knew I was in love with Callum Gabriel.

  We pulled up out front of David’s single-story rancher just after nine. The sun had just set, and the air was still pleasantly warm for the middle of June. Judy rolled down the window of her Volvo after we got out. “You girls have fun! Don’t hesitate to call if you need a ride. I’ll be up reading my latest romance novel.”

  Kelli shushed her mom. “Go away! Nobody cares about your Harlequin romances, Mom!”

  Judy only spoke louder. “I’m about to get to the best part, where they make love for the first time!”

  “Mom!” Kelli’s cheeks turned a vicious shade of red as I doubled over laughing. Kelli jabbed me in the hip, but I only laughed harder and scurried away from her as Judy waved and drove off.

  “Your mom is awesome,” I said.

  “We will agree to disagree on that front.”

  I grinned. “Like the boobs?”

  “Yes,” Kelli said, straightening her black leather jacket. “Like the boobs. Now come on. Let’s go get ourselves some drinks.”

  David’s parents always went away this time of year. His mother was a travel agent, so she got awesome deals. They were currently doing a tour of the Galapagos Islands—a trip that I researched when I found out they were going and discovered it cost an average of ten thousand dollars per person for ten to fourteen days. Being a travel agent certainly had perks—and it benefited us, too. We had a house to throw parties at every summer.

  The house had an open concept layout, so no matter where you stood, you could see the dining room, kitchen, and living room. The back walls were floor-to-ceiling windows that opened up to a view of a massive patio and an in-ground pool, heated year round, and an outdoor kitchen with marble countertops that the family had added two summers ago. At the time, they probably didn’t realize they were paying twenty thousand dollars for a feature a bunch of teenagers were going to use more than them.

  They also probably had no clue their pool was going to be five percent alcohol by the time we were done with it.

  As Kelli and I crossed the front lawn, Cal and David came out the front door. Cal’s long legs made quick work of the porch, and he hurried down the stairs and across the grass to greet me. He wrapped me up in his arms, spun me around in a circle, and set me back down before holding my hands and stepping back to look me up and down. “Damn. You look good, Lina. That dress is perfect.”

  “Thank you.” I blushed, shyly drawing my right shoulder up to my cheek.

  Cal smiled back, and the dimple in his left cheek winked at me. He was a looker and always had been. When we met on the first day of high school, I’d been drawn to his sharp features and bright blue eyes. They looked even bluer in contrast to his black hair and tanned skin. I’d also been drawn to the distinct smell of his deodorant and cologne: pine and sandalwood mixed with a bit of classic teenage boy musk.

  Cal tugged me up the lawn, his fingers still woven between mine, as David hovered around Kelli. “Beer pong?” he asked several times over.

  Kelli waved him off. “Chill, David. I’ll get around to kicking your ass at that stupid game soon enough. For now, let me worry about mingling and getting my drink on. Did you guys manage to get what we asked for?”

  We followed Cal up the steps onto the porch, and he nodded at us as he pushed the front door open. “Yep. Your drinks await you in David’s room.”

  Kelli arched an eyebrow. “Is that a ploy to get a girl in your bedroom before high school is officially done, David?”

  David scoffed. “Please. I have plenty of ladies in my room.”

  “Your mom’s cats don’t count,” Kelli said dryly.

  Cal and I snickered, and he put his hand in the small of my back as we slipped down the hall toward David’s bedroom. We followed David in, and Cal went to a cooler pushed up against the end of the bed. He popped it open and held up a chilled bottle of rosé. Then, like the gentleman he was, he grabbed a red solo cup from where it sat in its wrapping on David’s dresser and popped the cork. He poured me a glass and held it out to me.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  Kelli peered into the cooler and grabbed her beer. David watched her all the while, and she straightened up to give him a snarky look. “Can I help you?”

  “Why are you always so mean to me?”

  Kelli smiled. “Because it’s fun.”

  “But it’s graduation night,” he said. “If you’re going to be nice to me, now is the time for it.”

  Kelli pursed her lips and pressed her finger to her chin. “No promises, but I’ll see what I can do. Come on, losers. Let’s go get wasted.”

  I made to follow Kelli out of David’s room, but Cal caught my wrist. “Can I talk to you alone for a minute, Lina?”

  “Of course,” I said. Kelli had paused to look back at us. “Go ahead, Kelli. I’ll catch up.”

  David and Kelli left, and Cal closed the door behind him. I cocked my head to the side, confused. “Is everything okay, Cal? You seem off.”

  “I have to talk to you about something.”

  “Okay,” I said nervously.

  He sat down on David’s bed, and I sat beside him. Then, sensing that I wasn’t going to like what he had to say, I drained the contents of my pink wine, winced, and dragged the back of my hand across my mouth.

  Cal was wringing his hands, and he wouldn’t look at me when he started speaking. “I haven’t told you something. Something big. I—I didn’t want things to change.”

  “Just spit it out, Cal. You’re scaring me.”

  He sighed and lifted his blue gaze to meet my stare. “I got into Harvard.”

  I blinked. “Harvard?”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Cal… that’s great! Wait, why are you upset about this? This is what you’ve always wanted! It’s your dream school!”

  “Yeah, I know. But it’s in Boston.”

  I licked my lips and leaned over to put my empty cup on David’s nightstand. “That’s okay. We can work around it. I can come with you, even.”

  “Lina…”

  A gave him a firm look. “What? Don’t give me that tone, Callum.”

  “What tone?”

  “That ‘I know what’s best for you’ tone.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not—”

  “You are,” I said a little too fiercely. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Cal, I turned down my acceptance to the Pratt Institute for you. Because I thought you were staying in Pittsburgh.”

  Cal pinched the bridge of his nose. “I never asked you to do that.”

  “You didn’t need to ask me. I wanted to. I can’t picture my life without you in it. I can come to Boston with you. Get a job. We can rent a place. A shitty studio or something and make it ours, and—”

  “I’m living on campus,” he said.

  “Oh.”

  Cal let his hand fall to his lap. “I should have told you as soon as I got the letter, Lina. Instead, I waited to the last possible minute because I didn’t want our time to be ruined by thinking about it ending.”

  “Ending?” I breathed. My heart fluttered, and my palms started to sweat. “What do you mean, ending?”


  “My flight to Boston leaves tomorrow at seven o’clock.”

  “At night?”

  “Morning,” he said.

  I swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in my throat. It was hot, and it hurt, and a pressure formed behind my eyes. Don’t cry, Lina. Don’t you dare cry. Not here. “Do you not want me to come with you to Boston?”

  Cal didn’t say anything for what felt like an eternity. When he did finally speak, his voice was steadier than mine would be if I were him. “I think you should apply to Pratt’s winter semester. You shouldn’t pass up on your dream just to follow me.”

  “But you’re my dream, Callum. Don’t you understand? I want to be with you. Nothing else matters if I’m not with you.”

  “Lina,” he said softly, reaching out to put a hand on my knee.

  I jerked away. I wasn’t sure if it was instinct or not. It felt like someone else was in control of my body. I stood up, and the bed creaked. “How could you make a decision like this without talking to me about it? We had plans, Cal. We were going to travel. To work. And then go to school. Together.”

  He spread his hands helplessly. “But this is Harvard.”

  “I get that,” I snapped. “But this is me, too. If you’d given me a bit of time, we could have worked this out. But all of a sudden, you’re leaving tomorrow. We didn’t have any time to plan. What is this going to look like? Am I going to drive up to see you one weekend, and you drive up to see me the other? That’s not enough time!”

  Cal frowned and looked at his hands. “With my course load, I don’t think I can give up my entire weekend to see you.”

  “Wow,” I breathed.

  “Lina, that’s not what I meant. I just mean that I’m going to be buried beneath stacks of books. The first few years of pre-law are the hardest, and I don’t think I can give you what you need while I’m studying—”

  I held up my hands to silence him. It worked. He was looking at me like I was a puppy he’d just kicked. “I get it, Cal. Believe me. I fucking get it.”

  I marched over to the cooler where my bottle of wine was sitting, scooped it up, and marched out of the bedroom. Cal was hot on my heels, asking me to stay. To talk it out a little longer.

  I shook my head. “I have nothing else to say to you, you asshole.” The tears were starting to cling to my lashes. I only had seconds left before I lost control and was reduced to sobs. I didn’t want to do that in front of him.

  Kelli saw me coming. She was standing with David near the front door. Her eyes widened a little. “Lina, what’s going on?”

  I grabbed her elbow. “We’re leaving.”

  “Okay,” she said, pushing her beer into David’s hands. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  We stepped out onto the porch. Cal was right behind us, and David was following him out.

  I spun back to face them. My hair whipped around and got caught in my lipstick. I jabbed a finger at Cal, who still stood at the top of the stairs on the deck. “Screw you for making this my memory of graduation, Callum. You ruined everything!”

  The sobbing started as soon as I turned my back to him and took my first step off the curb.

  3

  Callum

  15 Years Later - Present Day

  It was raining. Soon, the pattering of raindrops on my bedroom window would be replaced with the soothing silence of snowfall. It was Christmas time in Pittsburgh.

  I threw my blankets off, and the cool air bit at my skin. I hurried to the bathroom to shower and warm up. The hot water filled the glass-walled stall with steam in a matter of seconds and pulled the chill right out of my bones.

  By the time I stepped out and wiggled my toes in the plush bathroom rug, I felt refreshed. I shaved, slicked my hair back, and brushed my teeth before walking through a spritz of cologne.

  Then I headed back out into the bedroom to get dressed. I was in court today, so I dressed sharply in a dark navy suit. I matched my tie to my pocket square and my brown shoes to my brown belt, and then I slapped on my watch before opening the door and heading downstairs.

  I made sure to tread lightly and stepped over the third step from the top—the one that squeaked. I descended quietly and emerged in the living room, which sprawled out to the back of the house and boasted a view of the greenbelt behind. I padded past my home office, where the computer light blinked loyally, and went into the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee. While it started to pour, I put down a piece of bread in the toaster.

  I went about my normal routine of eating my toast and peanut butter and sipping my black coffee. As I was chewing the last bite, the doorbell rang.

  I glanced at my watch. Seven thirty. Right on schedule.

  I stood up. The kitchen table chair scraped against the tile. I put my dishes in the sink and went to the front door. I unlocked it and pulled it open.

  My father stood there smiling. He was dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a green pullover, and a Carhartt jacket. He tugged it closed around his softening middle and nodded at me. “You gonna let me in or what? It’s freezing out here.”

  I stepped aside to let him pass. He shrugged out of the jacket and hung it on the hook behind the door. Then he ran his fingers through his hair, shaking the rainwater out.

  “Why do you ring the doorbell every morning, Dad?”

  He shrugged. “I’m being polite.”

  “I gave you a key so that you could let yourself in.”

  “I don’t want to disturb you if you’re, you know, with company.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “When on earth would I have time to entertain company?”

  My father passed me, and I followed him down the hallway into the living room. “I don’t know. You could break your own habits one of these days and surprise yourself. Now, where’s that grandson of mine? Shouldn’t he be out of bed by now?”

  “Grandpa!”

  Both me and my father looked up the stairs where my five-year-old son Asher was standing. His black hair was a thick mess atop his head, and I could see his big front teeth from where I stood.

  Asher hurried down the stairs, his heels landing heavily for a kid of his tiny size, to throw his arms around my father’s legs. My dad ruffled his hair and dropped to a crouch. His knees cracked loudly, and he groaned. “Getting old sucks. Morning, kiddo. You ready for school?”

  Asher looked down at himself. He was wearing his pajamas, which were a bit short on his wrists and ankles. He’d had a growth spurt in the last few weeks that I’d been unable to keep up with. “I have to change.”

  “You most certainly do.” My dad chuckled. “Run along back upstairs. And brush out that hair of yours. Then we’ll have breakfast. What do you say?”

  “Okay,” Asher said before stifling a yawn. His hair swished across his forehead when he looked up at me. “Do you have to go to work right now, Dad?”

  “Unfortunately, I do. I’m in court today, Ash. But if all goes according to plan, I’ll be home before dinner, and the three of us can eat together. What do you say?”

  Asher nodded. “Okay. Can I ask you a question?”

  “Of course,” I said.

  Asher licked his lips. “How long can a killer whale hold its breath for?”

  “Uh,” I stammered, glancing at my dad. He only shrugged. “I don’t know, Ash. How about I find out and let you know the answer tonight when we have dinner?”

  Asher frowned. “Okay. I think it might be twenty minutes. Wouldn’t that be cool? Being underwater for twenty minutes?”

  “Very cool,” I said.

  “It would be cooler to have gills,” my father added.

  “Like fish!” Asher cried.

  My father nodded. “Exactly like fish. And sharks.”

  Asher had recently become fascinated with every living creature on the planet. It was rare to last five minutes in the room with him without him picking your brain about some animal or another. He was full of random facts. Where he got some of them, I had no idea, and he had recently taken it upon h
imself to try to educate my father and me on all varieties of wildlife. Today, it would seem, was a day about whales.

  “Go get ready for school, Ash,” I said, nodding up the stairs.

  Asher didn’t need to be asked twice. He shot up the stairs and raced into his room, where we could hear him rummaging through his drawers to pick out his clothes.

  My father chuckled. “He runs as heavily as you did when you were young. You couldn’t sneak up on anyone.”

  I smiled. “So you’ve told me.”

  “I’m getting forgetful, apparently.”

  “I think the word you’re looking for is senile, Dad.”

  My father threw his head back and laughed. I found myself staring at the gray whiskers on his jaw that used to be jet black. When he pulled himself back together, he gripped my shoulder. “It’s a good thing you’ll be here to take care of me when I’m in diapers and can’t feed myself.”

  “Not funny.”

  He grinned. “It’s a little funny.”

  I chuckled and shook my head. This was not the first time we’d had this conversation. I teased him about his age all the time, and he liked to flip it on its head and remind me that he would become my responsibility.

  I had no issues with that.

  “There’s fresh coffee in the pot, Dad. Help yourself. And Asher’s cereal is on the counter. He may not want it. He’s been eating toast with strawberry jam lately.”

  “Weird kid.”

  “He’s our blood,” I said. “He’s bound to be a little weird.”

  My father nodded. “Absolutely true.”

  Asher came back down the stairs so fast, it was almost like he was sliding down them. His socked feet slid across the hardwood when he hit the main floor, and he scampered into the kitchen on mine and my father’s heels as I poured myself a second cup of coffee in a travel mug. My father fixed himself a cup as Asher opened the fridge, grabbed the orange juice, and poured it into one of his glasses that I stored in a lower cupboard so he could reach it. He sipped it and flinched.

  “Why is orange juice so bad after toothpaste?” Asher grimaced.