Page 13 of Forever Yours on Christmas Eve
Funny enough, his hug back seemed to reflectthe same.
Releasing him, he gave her a quick, sad smile before moving to his bike. He donned his helmet as she took a few steps back, giving him space to leave. When his gloves were pulled on, he started up the bike, a rumbling that broke the peaceful silence of a wintry night.
But as he put up his kickstand and began to walk the machine backward, she could feel panic crawl up her throat.
He was leaving!
While she knew she hadn’t been a crack shot at listening to her gut over the past few years, she’d gotten a crash course in trusting her instincts tonight. And right now, her insides were screaming at her todo something.
Do not let him go!
“Sev!” she called out to him over the motorcycle’s engine, running toward him.
He snapped his head up as he caught sight of her moving toward him, where he turned off the engine completely.
“Meet me back here in a year,” she said, the words tumbling out of her mouth, swirling around them in a fog as her warm breath hit the cold air.
“What?”
“Next Christmas Eve. If you aren’t… attached to anyone, or you’re not deployed or… whatever…” She struggled to get her thoughts out. “Meet me back at the Second Call. There’s a bench right outside that overlooks Main Street.”
He stared back at her as her confusing words landed one by one. “You want to meet up again?”
“Yes!” she said, sounding desperately enthusiastic to be in this man’s presence. But again, this was Sev, and she knew she could be herself completely unfiltered. “Maybe we can have dinner? Like we did tonight? Maybe even do some catching up. Evaluate if we’ve made good on our promises or not.”
The reference to the joke from the bar got him smiling once more, though she noticed that he never really ever stopped smiling. Not that she had seen.
“Let’s do it.”
Suddenly, the sun broke through the clouds over her heart, lighting up the world in hope. She smiled widely at him as he fired up the bike once more.
“Take care of yourself, Kels,” he shouted. “I’ll see you next year.”
“See you next year!” she called back, waving to him as he gunned the engine and roared out of the driveway. It took just a few moments before he disappeared from sight down the street, and a little bit longer before the sound of his motorcycle disappeared. But as Kelsey stood alone in the dark driveway under a canopy of bright shining stars, she knew for the first time in a long time that she was going to be okay.
Reaching into her pocket and clutching tightly at her purse, which held her roses, she realized that she’d let her true self out to play tonight, and she had missed that person terribly.
She knew that Sev was the reason for that.
If she hadn’t run into him, she knew she would have just drowned her sorrows in a drink or two, overthought the entire situation, and come home with her tail between her legs, feeling as if she was responsible for Chip’s cheating in the first place.
Instead, Sev had become a friend to her in her time of need. He kept her smiling. Laughing. And when Chip decided he was going to try to force himself back into her life? Sev took the helm and got her out of harm’s way.
She couldn’t recall the last time she’d felt so cared for.
Sighing to herself, she smiled as she took in the quiet that now surrounded her again. Taking delicate steps up to the front door, she realized that even though she may have lost her fiancé tonight, she’d also managed to find herself again.
Best Christmas Eve ever.
Chapter 4
Sev
When Kelsey had spontaneously come up with their pact, the idea had thrilled him. The offering of a no-strings-attached friendship where they popped into each other’s lives every now and again to build one another up and elicit a good laugh was too good to refuse.
It’s something Sev had never had before.
The first month of Sev’s deployment was mission-focused, which meant he was entirely off radar. By the time they moved back into a safe zone in early February, he figured Kelsey had probably forgotten about him.
