Page 29 of My Secret Santa Mason

She’d shared her life with me, though. It felt right to do the same. What else was I going to do? Besides, her eyes searched mine, her face open and eager to find out, and I wanted to talk to her. To give her something in return.

What the hell is going on with you?

“I wasn’t always alone,” I started. “I used to be part of a team. I was a part of a special task force while I served in the army. We were close—brothers, really. I didn’t have much family at home, and they became like family to me. We worked together, slept under the stars together, faced danger and even death together.”

I didn’t tell her the details—about Wallace, the betrayal, the mission that went sideways. But she didn’t push. She just listened, her gaze soft and understanding.

“I guess nothing good lasts forever, right? One of our team members was a bad apple and, well, shit hit the fan. In a bad way. I had to get out, and I ended up here. I’m out here to survive.”

She nodded slowly. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Losing something that was so important to you. It’s horrible.”

I shrugged. “It happens. No use crying about the past. It won’t change anything.”

“No, I guess it won’t,” she said softly, looking down at her now-empty plate.

I took it from her and put our two plates in the sink to clean later.

“I have wine,” I said.

Her face lit up. “Really?”

“Yeah, it doesn’t go bad, you know? It can stay in the pantry forever, and, well, that’s what it’s been doing.”

She laughed and the sound was pure and beautiful. Her face was bright and in the light of the fire she looked like an angel.

“I don’t have wine glasses,” I admitted. “Just cups.”

“Wine in a cup is better, anyway,” she said. “You get to pour more and no one tells you it’s wrong.”

I snorted. “There’s no one here to tell you you’re wrong, anyway. I sure as shit won’t.”

She smiled at me, and I took out the bottle of wine I’d bought years ago. I opened it and poured the wine into coffee mugs, filling them almost to the top.

I walked back to the couch and handed her one, and she sipped the wine.

“Definitely better in a cup,” she said with a smile.

I sipped it, and the whole picture in front of me was crazy. A beautiful woman, a cup of wine, a cabin decorated for Christmas.

What the hell was this alternate reality I seemed to have fallen into?

But the truth was, I liked it. I wouldn’t tell Cami, but for the first time since before I enlisted, it felt like Christmas and I realized I’d actually missed it.

13

CAMI

The fire licked around the logs in the hearth, lighting up the cabin with a golden glow. The snowstorm outside raged, but inside, everything felt cozy and still. It was strange to be so protected against the storm in a tiny cabin bang in the middle of it.

I sat on the couch, cup of red wine in hand, feeling myself relax a little more with each sip. The wine had been a good idea.

Across from me, Mason’s large hands wrapped around his cup, making it look like a plaything between his long, thick fingers. The firelight flickered over his sharp features, making him look even more rugged than usual. There was something about being here, in this small cabin with him. It felt safe. Comfortable. Like the rest of the world didn’t matter.

And right now, it really didn’t. As long as the storm raged on, there was nowhere to go, no one to see, nothing to do. It really was like we were trapped in a capsule that had removed us from reality.

---