Ribbons of Love Read online

  My mother gasped, her overdramatic technique of manipulation seeping through her stoic face. “Cancel the date, Bryson. Those people treated your sister horribly. I’m not happy with my brother right now either. Support your sister.”

  For reasons I didn’t understand and decided I never would, Mom continued to placate, emotionally and financially, my neurotic sister. The rest of the conversation about the newest and best nail places was only white noise while I finished eating.

  After dinner, I was replacing burnt-out lightbulbs in the house when Emerson cornered me in Mom’s bedroom.

  “Quinn really misses you.” She stared up at me while I climbed the six-foot ladder to reach the light fixture above the bed.

  “No, she really misses my bank account.”

  “Guys are supposed to buy their girlfriends stuff, Bryson.” Emerson examined her white-tipped fingernails.

  “Without expectation, Emie. She was always expecting and demanding more and more. I’m looking for someone who appreciates more than my bank account, which is just starting to recover post-Hurricane Quinn.” I screwed in the new bulb.

  “You think you’re funny, but you’re not. Quinn and you were good together, like Dolce and Gabbana.”

  “Who the hell are they?”

  “Tell me what you know about this other girl. I bet she’s really fat. You know Presley used to be huge, right? They all stick together, like sticky buns in a pan … so gross.”

  “There’s more to a person than their weight.” She started to open her mouth, but I cut her off. “I’m done talking about it. My life, not yours.”

  “If you go on that date, I’ll never talk to you again!” Her blonde hair whipped through the air as she exited with a huff.

  If I could only be so lucky.

  ****

  I glanced at my phone as it buzzed on my nightstand. An unknown number flashed and I opened the text.

  Unknown: Hi. I’m Avery. Guess I’m your date Friday night with Presley and Jude.

  I rolled over onto my back and adjusted my pillow to get comfortable.

  Bryson: Hi, Avery. I’m Bryson. You probably already knew that. How are you?

  Avery: Good. How are you?

  Bryson: Tired. Put up holiday lights for my mom tonight.

  Avery: That was nice of you. I love holiday lights.

  Bryson: Maybe we can walk around downtown after dinner and look at the lights.

  Avery: Maybe. You probably need sleep after all that hard work. We can just talk on Friday.

  Don’t go.

  Bryson: I got a second wind. What are you up to tonight?

  Avery: I’m babysitting my nieces. They’re asleep. I’m bored.

  Bryson: Then let’s get to know each other a little.

  Getting over any nerves before we saw each other on Friday would help the date feel more like our second or third.

  Avery: What do you want to know?

  Bryson: I’m 24. You?

  Avery: I turned 21 in July. I’m a Leo.

  Bryson: March. I think Aries? What do you do?

  Avery: Aries if late March and Pisces if early. I answer phones and handle the front desk where Presley works.

  Bryson: Then Aries, the 26th. That’s an important job.

  Avery: Sometimes. Most of the time it’s just a job. What do you do?

  Bryson: I work in security.

  Avery: Are you a bouncer?

  I chuckled. People always thought muscle and force when talking security.

  Bryson: Installation of security equipment (cameras, mics, alarms), visual surveillance and physical protection.

  Avery: Sounds dangerous.

  I was typing when she texted again.

  Avery: Feels like we’re playing an odd game of Twenty Questions.

  Bryson: Job isn’t dangerous. Are you a bouncer? was number 7. 8-What else do you want to know about me?

  Avery: 9-What’s your favorite holiday song?

  Bryson: Usually the one that’s not playing.

  Avery: 10-You don’t like Christmas music?

  Bryson: Some. 11-What’s yours?

  Avery: “All I Want for Christmas” by Mariah Carey

  Bryson: I’d listen to that one, but not on repeat.

  Avery: :-) 12-Your favorite holiday movie?

  Bryson: Christmas Vacation

  Avery: That’s a funny one.

  Bryson: 13-What’s yours?

  Avery: Elf

  Bryson: Excellent movie. 14-Hobbies?

  Avery: Reading and being outdoors. When it’s not so flipping cold! ;-) I love spending time with my family. And I have a black belt in Kombatan. 15-You?

  Bryson: Hunting, fishing, and going to University football games.

  Avery: I like to fish with my youngest brother.

  Bryson: 16-Kombatan, that’s stick fighting right?

  Avery: Yes, stick combat. Protection, not provocation. 17-Your favorite guilty pleasure?

  That sounds like favorite sex position.

  Bryson: Not sure I know what that means.

  Avery: Like mine is chocolate covered strawberries. Dark chocolate, not milk.

  I stopped for a moment to linger on the image of a certain redheaded girl eating one of those. How her bright red lips would mimic the strawberry coloring and how she would lick them after each bite.

  Get it together, Welch, this isn’t fantasy time.

  Bryson: I see what you mean. A really big steak off the grill in summer.

  I waited for another question.

  Avery: Can’t think of anything else to ask.

  Bryson: 18-Send a picture of ourselves but not of our faces?

  Shit!

  Bryson: I realize how that sounded. Not a naked picture or anything sexual. Like something unique. Here’s mine.

  I snapped a photo and sent it to her.

  Avery: 19-Is that your ear?

  Bryson: Yes, my sister got mad and hit me with a plastic sand shovel when I was six and sliced off the top portion of my right ear.

  Avery: Ouch! I don’t know what to send you. Sorry.

  Bryson: That’s okay. Don’t worry about it.

  As I was about to do a send-off for the night, I received a text that was a picture. I opened it and saw peach skin and the image of a fish.

  Bryson: 20-Is that a tattoo?

  Avery: Yes.

  Bryson: I think there’s a story behind that bluegill.

  Avery: A horrible bet with my youngest brother and the tattoo was the stupid price for losing.

  Bryson: 21-What was the bet?

  Avery: Sorry, that’s over the twenty questions for tonight. ;-)

  I laughed. She was quick. And I liked it.

  Bryson: LOL. Looks cute to me.

  Avery: Stupid cute.

  Sexy cute.

  Bryson: Just cute.

  Avery: Thanks. Please get some sleep so you’re rested for our date.

  I reread that line a couple of times. It was sweet and honest, and caring. Things that were missing in my last relationship, but I hadn’t realized they weren’t there until it was over.

  Bryson: Sounds good. Can’t wait to meet you.

  Avery: Me too. Goodnight, sleep well.

  Bryson: Sweet dreams, Avery.

  Dreams of the redhead from the gym filled my head while I slept.

  Chapter Four

  Avery

  The other front desk staff called in sick today, which meant I had to answer and transfer phone calls one after the other. It was amazing how talking all day could exhaust a person. And now I agreed with Bryson. Seemed like all the irritating holiday songs had played on a repeating loop today. If I hear “Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer” one more time I might just jump in front of a reindeer myself.

  I dragged my feet to my car, and as I was putting my lunch bag on the passenger floorboard, my workout bag taunted me. I could go home, make dinner, and veg-out in front of the television. Or I could go through a drive-thru, pick up something greasy and calori
e-laden, then go home and veg-out in front of the TV.

  Or I could go to the gym.

  I blew out a big breath and remembered my date with Bryson.

  Gym it is.

  Inside of Triple R, a poster in the locker room advertised a new Vinyasa yoga class that would begin in ten minutes. I need a Zen moment.

  I grabbed my mat from my bag. Across the gym floor, I thought I recognized a familiar blond head. I stopped as he turned. The brown eyes that glanced my way disappointed me, and I was pretty sure he saw my reaction by the way he scowled.

  Oooops.

  I hightailed it into the yoga room while giggling to myself. I was rarely a gawker, but that blond, blue-eyed guy from Monday kind of had my interest.

  Really had my interest.

  I smiled through the yoga class and a burst of energy surged through me, so I decided to run for a few minutes. One open treadmill sat lonely on the other side of the room. As I moved toward the machine, my body tingled. The lingering energy from yoga felt more like a magnet tugging my body toward a blond guy who was strutting the aisle toward me. The right blond guy.

  His gaze was kind, and yet the crystal-blue intensity had me feeling exposed in my formfitting workout clothes. I dropped my eyes as my skin started to heat. When I reached the treadmill it was clear what was really happening.

  I pulled out my earbuds and he did the same. “Sorry. You can have it.” I backed away when his cologne entered my nose. My workout towel slipped from my hand to the floor as the faint scent of cedar took me back to Christmas on my parents’ farm.

  “No problem. You take it.” He motioned toward the machine. “I’ll do some more lifting and come back in thirty to see if you’re done. No big deal.”

  “I already did yoga. I’m pretty spent from my day. Thanks, though.”

  “Here’s an idea. Why don’t we use those two elliptical machines over by the window and that way we’ll both get some cardio in?”

  “Um…” I brought my eyes up to his. His eyelashes were the longest I’d ever seen on a man. They made his eyes look almost … pretty. I sighed.

  I’m going to call you Mr. Eyelashes.

  He broke the connection of our eyes, leaning over to swipe my towel off the floor. He held it out. “I’ll assume ‘um’ means the idea sounds good to you?”

  “Yes.” I tugged on my towel, but he didn’t let go. I tugged again while smiling and he released the towel with a chuckle. Walking beside me toward the bank of elliptical machines, the intimate sound of his stride right next to mine had my heart pounding even before I stepped onto the machine.

  He inserted his earbuds and stepped on his machine first, starting a reasonable pace. Even though there were a few open, I took the elliptical to his left and started listening to my workout playlist. Soon our pacing matched each other’s. Ten minutes into the workout, my phone rang. I checked the caller.

  It was my brother, Aidan. I let the call roll over to voice mail, then glanced at the phone-holder on my arm as it buzzed and a text from him flashed on the screen.

  Aidan: Hey, Ribbons! Call me ASAP, please.

  Aidan, I think I’m in the middle of something. I’ll call you back … later.

  I glanced up to see Mr. Eyelashes reading my phone, too. His eyes flicked to mine with guilt creasing the edges, and I gave him a sideways look that I hoped indicated my displeasure. I clicked the message away and completed another ten minutes of cardio. Another message interrupted my music.

  Aidan: Before you talk to Mom, I want to talk to you.

  When I clicked away the message, I witnessed Mr. Eyelashes checking out my phone again. He faced forward and pretended to be watching the evening news.

  Bringing my machine to a halt, I reached over and touched his arm, drawing back when the feeling of warm sweat dampened my fingertips and a zing of electricity rocketed up my arm.

  He jerked out his earbuds and slowed his pace. “Hi.”

  “Were you reading my text messages?”

  “No. I wasn’t.” He paused his machine.

  My heart thumped a frantic rhythm as I stepped down between the machines. My hands fisted. “It’s not polite to look at what might be private to someone.”

  “I promise. I wasn’t looking at that.” His tenor voice resonated through me, and my nipples hardened.

  “Whatever.” I scurried into the locker room to hide my physical reaction and dialed my brother, sinking to the floor with my back against a fake wood locker door.

  “Hey, Red Ribbons, what’s up?” Aidan had called me the nickname since I was five.

  I wiped sweat from my forehead. “Nothing. So, what’s so important that you called once and texted twice and interrupted my workout?”

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I wasn’t getting anywhere on the elliptical anyway. What’s up?”

  “I wanted you to hear it from me, not Mom. I’m not going to make it back for the holidays.”

  The air rushed from my lungs. There had never been a Christmas when all the siblings weren’t together.

  “Aidan, I need you there. Can’t you come back for just a few days?”

  He was a buffer between Adam and me. He would rescue me when I was about to lose it on our big brother.

  “No can do. It’s my bad, but I waited too long to get a ticket and they’re just too expensive. Plus, I’m working for a new lawyer. This could mean the difference between a job right out of school or sending out hundreds of applications and resumes, never to hear back from one. Soon I can afford to come back to Nebraska whenever I want.”

  I rocked my head against the locker door. “Why do you have to make sense and be so logical all the time?”

  He chuckled. “The lawyer in me.”

  “I love you but really dislike that part of you right now.”

  “I love you too, sis. I need to get back to my research. I’ll call you before Christmas.”

  “You better.”

  “Bye, Ribbons.”

  I wrapped my emotions like the presents under my tree and smiled while I mumbled, “Bye, Aidan.”

  His news wasn’t totally unexpected, but it still hurt. Tears ran down my cheeks faster than my pace on the elliptical. I grabbed my bag to leave Triple R.

  I glanced to the ellipticals, but he was gone.

  Just my luck.

  Chapter Five

  Bryson

  I watched her red ponytail swing through the air as she stomped away. Shoving my earbuds back into my ears, I concentrated on finishing out my last ten minutes on the machine.

  When we chose the same time to do cardio, I thought it was also the right time to make a move, but I made the mistake of glancing at her while she was working out next to me on the elliptical. The way her breasts swayed as she moved the machine’s arms back and forth was hypnotic. I was wrong for saying that I hadn’t seen the text messages, but humans have been trained. Our eyes are automatically attracted to the flashing. It’s Pavlovian at this point.

  Had to admit, she was damn cute when she was all riled up. Her cheeks flushed with anger, and her breaths quickened, forcing her chest to heave in a way that made me remember why I had been glancing at her in the first place. I didn’t expect her to take off so suddenly, and I couldn’t shake the memory of how her eyes disclosed her disappointment.

  The machine slowed. My thirty minutes were up.

  Grabbing my towel, I wiped off before tagging my bag from the locker room to leave Triple R. I was almost to my Jeep when I noticed a red sedan with a license plate that read “RDRIBNZ”.

  The redheaded young woman who had laced her way through my thoughts the last two nights was crying with her head leaning back against the headrest.

  Nice job. Don’t know her name and I’ve upset her to the point of crying. Great.

  I walked to the driver’s side door and tapped lightly on the glass. She jumped at the sudden intrusion. I gave a wave and small smile.

  Her sad eyes held to mine. The color appeared dar
ker filled with pools of reflective tears. Witnessing her hurt had disappointment in myself ratcheting up about ten thousand notches.

  She rolled down the window and shivered at the rush of cold air.

  “I’m really sorry if I upset you.” I squatted next to the window so we were face-to-face.

  “I’m not crying because of you.”

  “Oh. Well, I’m still sorry for upsetting you at the elliptical machines. Can I ask what’s wrong?”

  She sniffled. “My youngest brother won’t make it back for Christmas. It was hard to hear. I’m sorry I accused you of looking at my phone.”

  “Sorry to hear about your brother. To be honest, I did see the flash of texts but I wasn’t looking at your phone … technically.” I swallowed as my heart crashed through the pulse point in my throat. “I was looking at you.”

  “Me?” The word created a mist of breath as it escaped from her crimson lips. Her gaze scanned my face as if memorizing every feature, and stopped at my eyes.

  “Yes … you. But now that I’ve admitted to being a creeper you probably want to run me over with your car.”

  She smiled and a rosy blush tinted her already flushed cheeks. “Not really. I was kind of, maybe a little, checking you out, too?”

  “So we’re both kind of creepers?” I laughed. “Interesting.”

  “I’m sorry for getting upset at you.”

  “I’m sorry for inadvertently seeing your texts when really all I wanted to see was you.”

  Her breaths increased in pace, filling the air with a halo of white between us.

  “Are you sure you’re going to be all right?” My hand moved from its hold on the open window toward her face to wipe away the final trail of tears that trickled through her copper lashes. I pulled back when her eyes opened wide.

  She shivered again. “I’ll be okay. I should get home and you’re probably getting cold.”

  My body heated from being close to her. The freezing weather was insignificant.

  I stood and backed away. “As long as you’re all right?” She nodded. “Okay, then have a good night.”

  “You, too. Bye.”

  She smiled behind the closing window and her eyes fluttered as she pulled from the parking space. My lips and cheeks seemed frozen into a smile as her red car disappeared onto the main street.