All of Me: A Holiday Bites Novel Read online

  My Book

  heather

  Copyright © 2021 by Heather Young-Nichols

  1st Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever including Internet usage, without written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover by Sassy Cat Creative

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Harrison

  2. Luna

  3. Harrison

  4. Luna

  5. Harrison

  6. Luna

  7. Harrison

  8. Luna

  9. Harrison

  10. Luna

  11. Harrison

  12. Luna

  13. Harrison

  14. Luna

  15. Harrison

  Chapter 16

  17. Harrison

  18. Luna

  19. Harrison

  20. Luna

  21. Harrison

  Also by Heather Young-Nichols

  Untitled

  Pushing Daisies

  Harbor Point

  The Empowered Series

  About the Author

  1

  Harrison

  The Bell Jar was hopping tonight.

  My best friend Beck was there with a date, so I wanted to make sure everything was taken care of for him. However, knowing him the way I did, it was easy to see he wasn’t feeling it. Wasn’t clicking with the woman sitting before him.

  Being back with Luna Love, surprisingly her real name, made me appreciate the fact that I didn’t have to date anymore. But if she knew my plans for Valentine’s Day, she might’ve bolted given that we hadn’t been back together long.

  Which was why I wasn’t telling her.

  I knew that Luna loved me. That wasn’t in question. Her issue was more about being in a vulnerable place right now. Her mom hadn’t been gone a year yet and since then she’d moved back to Lake Shores, opened a business, and gotten back with me. She’d had a lot of major changes in a short amount of time and this would be another big one. A good one, but a big one.

  Assuming she said yes, this would hopefully give her the stability she needed and make her understand that I wasn’t going anywhere. Because there wasn’t a thing on this planet that could drag me away from her.

  “How is everything?” I asked Beck and his date whom he’d yet to introduce me to.

  “So good,” she said with a breathy voice.

  This woman, whose name I didn’t know because he hadn’t told me before he arrived, had brown hair with lots of blonde highlights. She was hot and the type that Beck normally went for.

  Yet she was clearly having a better time than he was.

  I bit back a laugh and focused on Beck. He and I looked like we could be brothers with our dark hair and hazel eyes just like Killian and I had. We’d joked for years that Dad had a secret he wasn’t telling anyone from around the time I was born. Mom didn’t appreciate that joke, of course.

  “Yup. It’s good.” He stood to his full height, which matched my own. “Can I talk to you privately for a second?”

  I nodded and led him to a little alcove area by the restrooms. His date wouldn’t be able to see us there.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “How mad will you be if I fake food poisoning?”

  I chuckled. “Pretty fucking mad. That shit gets around.”

  “I really want this date to end.”

  “Why? What’s wrong?”

  He groaned. “She talks about nothing but getting her nails done. That’s fine, but not what I wanted to do tonight.”

  “Why’d you ask her out then?”

  He threw his hands in the air. “She’s hot and I didn’t really talk to her first. I saw, I liked, I asked, we’re here.”

  That was very Beck. He’d jump in with both feet in these situations without thinking about it which was why he hadn’t had a regular girlfriend in a while.

  “Might want to talk to them first sometimes.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He brushed me off. “Got something awesome planned for the big ask?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “Yup. It’s all set.”

  “Think she’s actually going to say yes?”

  I chuckled again. Beck had given me some shit about dating an ex when I’d first seen Luna at the Christmas dinner two months ago. But once I’d made it clear being with her was going to happen, he’d gotten on board and had been supportive ever since.

  The same couldn’t be said for my brother. He was another story.

  Dating an ex-girlfriend didn’t normally work out but I’d known before Luna and I broke up two years ago that we were meant for each other. She’d known it too. Time and distance had made that impossible then but it wasn’t a factor now. We were both in Lake Shores to stay.

  “Of course she’s going to say yes,” I snapped. “But remember, you’re the only one I’ve told, so keep your mouth shut.”

  He moved back and slapped a hand over his chest. “I’m offended. I’d never say anything.”

  “Shut the fuck up and get back to your date.”

  He groaned. “She’s not even interesting enough for me to want to have sex with her.”

  I snorted. That normally wasn’t much of a problem for him. “Get.” I gave him a shove and went about my business.

  The rest of the shift remained busy, but at least time passed quickly. There was always so much to do and that was part of what I loved about my job.

  Since I worked the late shift most of the time, Luna usually waited up for me. It was one of the ways we got to spend time together. That and she was trying to arrange things at the spa so she’d have Mondays off with me since the restaurant was closed on Monday. To do my part, I got up early to have breakfast with her before she went to work. If I had to, I’d go back to bed once she left.

  It was a lot to juggle, but we were doing it.

  And if the winery took off the way I hoped it would once summer rolled around I might not be at the restaurant too much longer. I’d still want to get my master sommelier certification, though. The winery wouldn’t change that and I’d been working too long to achieve that goal, had almost lost Luna over it, so I was going to finish. I’d bought the winery not even two months ago and Luna had thought I’d been leaving Lake Shores to do it. That miscommunication had also cost me her again.

  First, I’d never leave her again. I did that once and it’d been the worst mistake of my life so far. Second, I knew me leaving was an insecurity she had from when I’d left for Oregon two years ago, which had led to us breaking up. I wasn’t doing that again but it was something I could only prove over time.

  Tonight when I got home, Luna was in bed. That wasn’t unusual. Sometimes she’d watch TV in there until I got there. What was unusual about the scene I walked in on was that the bedside light and TV were on, but Luna was snuggled down into the bed with her impossibly long, blonde hair around her like a fucking halo.

  She’d fallen asleep waiting up for me.

  I leaned over and kissed her gently on the forehead. My girl didn’t fall asleep like that unless she was exhausted. I was disappointed that she was asleep but I understood.

  That gentle kiss was enough to stir her, which I hadn’t meant to do.

  “Oh, damn.” She blinked a bunch of times before her eyes fully opened. “I fell asleep.”

  “That’s OK,” I told her,
running the back of my hand down her soft cheek. “You don’t have to wait up for me.”

  “I wanted to.” She let out a big yawn and stretched her body in a totally innocent way that had me thinking not so innocent thoughts. “It was just a long day.”

  “Anything you want to talk about?”

  Luna opened her own spa when she came back to Lake Shores last year. She’d been a massage therapist before and still did that work, but she’d opened a spa where yes, people got massages but there were other services as well. It catered to the town but also to the tourists we got up here. I could see it becoming a destination spa like the one she’d worked at in Arizona. I’d only heard about that one.

  I was so fucking proud of my girl.

  “No.” She shook her head. “It was a normal day, just a lot of appointments both for me and for the spa. I guess people are prepping early for Valentine’s Day next week.”

  “Ah, right,” I said as if I’d forgotten exactly when that was. “I need to shower. Want to join me?” I asked after pulling some pajama bottoms out of the dresser and dropping them on the bed.

  “I showered earlier.”

  “Pity.”

  Luna giggled. “Seriously, Harrison. You know it takes my hair forever to dry.”

  I climbed onto the bed and crawled across until I was hovering over her. “What if I promised to keep your hair perfectly dry?”

  She bit at the corner of her mouth. That was the first sign she was going to give in. Still, she shook her head as if she couldn’t believe she was about to do this then popped up off the bed, pushing me to the side at the same time. Her pajamas weren’t anything special, a long-sleeved thermal and cotton pants, yet I found them incredibly sexy. The way those bottoms hugged her ass as they’d been made just for her and the thermal clung to her perky breasts… It just worked for me.

  Everything about her worked for me.

  “I’ll put it up in a bun,” she finally said, making me grin. I gave her ass a tap and followed her into the bathroom.

  While she took care of her hair, I started the shower so it’d warm-up, then stepped in as soon as it was ready. It only took a few moments before her hands slid up my back, then over to my chest, where she wrapped her arms around me and set her cheek against my skin.

  Luna didn’t have to get in that shower with me and I probably shouldn’t have asked. A better man might’ve appreciated her beauty while she slept then went on with his business. But having her close was what made everything else worth the trouble.

  And I didn’t let her hair get wet.

  2

  Luna

  I’d say that I didn’t understand how Harrison had talked me into the shower with him last night, but he hadn’t talked me into anything. I’d known as soon as he’d asked if I wanted to join him that I’d be taking a second shower. When I’d stepped into the water spray, it hadn’t come as a surprise to me. Probably not to him either. I’d been serious about not getting my hair wet. Damp was fine, but I just didn’t want to deal with the crazy rat’s nest it would’ve been this morning.

  I would’ve gotten in with him either way because I almost never wanted to say no to him. He didn’t like telling me no, either, so we worked. We were both doing our best to be there for each other and while he might not have had any hang-ups about us getting back together, I still did.

  Not because of him but because the memory of how much it hurt to lose him was still very clear in my mind.

  I was working on it.

  Two and a half years ago, Harrison and I met at a job fair. We’d both been there representing our former jobs and happened to have been placed in stalls next to each other. After a little song and dance because neither of us had known if the other had a significant other and not being able to ask him out when I did finally figure out he’d been single because I’d been at work at the time, we’d finally gone out. Then we’d fallen in love.

  Hard love. The forever kind of love. But six months into our relationship, Harrison had gotten the chance to go to Oregon to study for his sommelier certificate. That was what he’d wanted long before I’d come along and I hadn’t been about to stand in his way. So he’d left.

  Then I’d gotten a high-paying job in Arizona that would’ve allowed me to save up money for my own spa and I’d left.

  The distance had sucked and we’d broken up.

  My mom’s death brought me back to Lake Shores last year. The rest, as they say, was (recent) history.

  I was sitting in the break room at The Right Retreat, the spa I now owned, where I was supposed to be eating lunch, but instead, my fork was paused in my salad as my mind was currently replaying everything with Harrison in the shower. The way he knew my body and just how to elicit the most pleasure from me was an extra turn on. As I daydreamed about it, I could still feel his hands on my body. My skin flushed as I remembered exactly what those hands had done last night.

  “Uh-oh,” my best friend and office manager, Jessica Burnett, said, which snapped my memories away. “Someone’s thinking something dirty.”

  “Am not,” I said quickly.

  She snorted. Jess’s brown hair was past her shoulders now and more times than not she wore loose waves. Jessica said her having brown hair and brown eyes meant she didn’t stand out like me. Sure, my eyes were the color of sapphires but everything about Jessica stood out. “Yeah. You were. I know you, Luna. Your dreamy boyfriend did something dreamy, didn’t he?”

  I shook my head. Jess had been there for me through everything. She knew literally everything, so there was no reason to hide anything. “Not specifically.”

  “Ah, so he did something hot with his magical hands?” she asked. Now my face blushed. I didn’t know why I still sometimes blushed at these things. I blamed my pale skin. “I wonder if his brother has hands as talented.”

  “Ew.”

  Killian and I hadn’t exactly been friends since I’d come back into Harrison’s life. But he had helped us paint the house several weeks ago, so he was trying. He’d been angry with me for breaking Harrison’s heart, which I understood. What he’d failed to realize was that Harrison had broken mine too. “And how do you know Harrison has talented hands, huh?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Because you’ve told me, dummy.”

  “Oh.” My shoulders deflated. “You’re right.”

  “So… spill the details.” She dropped into the seat next to me and pulled a sandwich out of her lunch bag.

  “No way. Those details are just for us.”

  “You’ve told me before. What makes this time special?”

  I shrugged because I didn’t really have an answer to that but sometimes I didn’t want anyone else in on our relationship. Like it was a secret just for us. “All I’ll say is that he’s even talented when wet.”

  “Oh, shower sex. Good one.” She took a bite. “Though I’ve always found that shower sex is pretty underwhelming. Kind of like you’re just standing there being rained on.”

  Once I stopped laughing, I said, “I think you’ve been doing it with the wrong person.”

  “Then who is the right one?” She threw her hands in the air. “I blame you. I’ve never cared whether I had a steady boyfriend before. A hookup here and there between boyfriends has always been a way to scratch the itch and now I’m just kind of… eh.”

  “How is that my fault?”

  She flapped her hands in front of me as if she wanted to indicate all of me. “Look at how happy you are. It’s annoying.”

  “Sorry, Jess,” I said with a laugh. “When you find the right one, you’ll be annoying too.”

  That night at home, I wasn’t tired enough to fall asleep before Harrison got home. I stayed awake, as I did most nights. He came up, took a shower—alone this time—then both of us went downstairs for a snack.

  It might’ve been winter in Michigan, but I’d wanted ice cream and we had some.

  Harrison went for the pint of Mackinaw Island Fudge while I went for spoons without ta
king my eyes off of him. We could share the pint. Harrison was so tall, over six feet, with an amazing body of muscles that were earned by going to the gym with his brother. He even had the much sought-after lines that began at his hip bones and pointed you in the direction of his good parts. Who was I kidding? They were all good parts. His dark eyes were sometimes unreadable but they flared when he was aroused.

  I knew all of these little things about him that almost no one else knew. It was like being in on something very private. Something that was just him and me.

  We sat at the island facing each other as we dug in.

  “Jess thinks you have talented hands,” I told him.

  He snorted. Around the spoonful of ice cream, he asked, “Why? What have you told her?”

  “Everything,” I admitted.

  “Then she knows what she’s talking about doesn’t she?” The sound of our laughter in the quiet room was almost startling. Harrison didn’t care what I told my best friend especially since he knew she was the person who got me through our breakup.

  Without her, I’m not sure I would’ve come back from that the way I had.

  “Yeah, but she asked if I thought your brother’s hands were as talented.”

  That stopped the spoon that was halfway to his mouth. “What did you say?”

  “Ew.”

  He finished the bite of ice cream but didn’t so much as chuckle. “Good. I don’t know that I’m comfortable with you thinking about what my brother’s hands can do.”

  “I’m not comfortable with thinking about what your brother’s hands can do.”