A Break in Communications

Chapter 13

Lucy

I had sex with Anna Preston.

If I lived to be a hundred, I’d still be there on my deathbed repeating that to myself in awe. I tried not to spend the whole rest of the day walking around with my chest puffed out looking like I’d pulled off the greatest miracle known to humanity, but, well, I did.

Even when she’d said she wasn’t looking to date me, she still blushed, squirmed trying to resist me, and she admitted she was attracted to me. Anna Preston. Thought I was hot. I must have been a fucking masterpiece.

That would have been enough to content myself on for the rest of time—could have died that evening and been satisfied with how my life had gone—but then I got to text Anna Preston while she got herself off in the shower and I did the same in her bed. And I was sure it was written all over my face when I saw her again in the kitchen just a minute later, stepping in to find Anna making coffee and talking with her father, and she blushed violently when she saw me, looking away.

Which meant she was still thinking about the whole thing. Which meant maybe I could make her blush and squirm again later. If I got to have sex with Anna Preston a second time in my life—that was just victory laps at that point.

“Good morning, gorgeous,” I said, my voice low as I came up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and kissing her neck. The whole time it felt like my head would explode, just the keen awareness of the fact that I was actually able to do that—just walk up to Anna Preston and kiss her—even if we weren’t dating, I was living in my wildest fantasy. “You look nice in that outfit.”

“Ah… I have nothing on you. I didn’t even know you’d packed that shirt. I’d forgotten you even had it.”

She’d forgotten? Did that mean she’d paid enough attention in the first place to even notice I’d owned it, and then remembered it even when I hadn’t worn it for months?

Was it because she thought I was hot? Because I felt like the hottest person in the universe. Second to Anna Preston.

“I always keep a sneaky change of clothes. Spilled coffee on a white shirt before a big meeting one time and I never emotionally recovered.”

“Ever the practical one, darling.” She turned back and kissed me over her shoulder, and I reeled, seeing the ends of the universe and beyond.

God, I wanted to fuck her again. I’d never seen anyone look so pretty begging to get fucked as Anna had, and all I cared about in life, suddenly, was getting to do it again.

“I’ve heard you find my competency attractive…”

She rolled her eyes, smiling. “Well, I wouldn’t date Kelcey, let’s say that and leave it there.”

She was so cute. Couldn’t ever compliment me directly. I never wanted her to change.

I spent all of breakfast with the family in some wild blissful state, sitting next to Anna and sneaking little looks at her to find her looking at me, and every time, it felt like I’d won a jackpot on a slot machine. I knew my sense of self-satisfaction was probably visible from space, even through the rest of the day and once we piled into our respective cars and, one way or another, wound up at the tree farm upstate, because I was gazing adoringly at Anna when Veronica caught me and gave me a look.

“I can’t read you,” she said, and it was only then that I even realized she was there, turning and looking at where she folded her arms, scowling at me.

“On the contrary, I think I’m an open book,” I said, after taking a second to shift my mind away from Anna. “Something specific you have questions about?”

She studied me, giving me a long once-over before looking back at Anna, down at the front of the farmhouse with her parents, talking to the proprietor, old man Gunner with his stocky build and thick gray beard. The farmhouse was a cute place, all cozy and warm, an old wood-cottage style building lit up with a big fireplace next to where the windows were frosted over with the thick snow that had been falling since sunrise. We’d gotten in and took the most important things first, getting our gingerbread lattes and spiced cider, sitting around the heavy old oak tables by the fireplace to have gingerbread and marzipan with our drinks and talk about nothing, and I’d scored a table with just me and Anna where I got to flirt with her and see how many veiled sexual comments I could slip into a conversation before she called me out.

Turned out, it was only twice. But I knew the look on her face was less of an ugh, stop and more of a stop that, you cannot turn me on here , and I was cherishing that win until the end of time.

Of course, I’d been so engrossed in hitting on Anna that I’d kind of forgotten about the rest of the entire trip until she’d gone with her parents to talk to Gunner about picking out a tree for her place, and I’d fully forgotten Veronica was even there until she’d leaned against the wood paneling next to me and spoken.

She shrugged. “I dunno, you’re just gazing at my sister like she’s off-limits. Plus everything you were doing last night… like, I know you only just got together, but, like, she’s your girlfriend, not some unattainable goddess.”

“That’s your opinion,” I said, letting my gaze move back to Anna, where she stood with her hands in her pockets, leaning casually. “Seems like an unattainable goddess to me.”

“Ugh, I guess whatever. To each their own. How long have you known her?”

“Two years, one hundred and two days.”

“Damn, that’s specific. How long have you wanted to get with her?”

“Two years, one hundred and two days.”

“What do you think it would take for her to date you?”

“Hell if I know.” I stopped, looking at her, only really processing the conversation once I stopped gazing at Anna. “Wait, what?”

She scowled. “I knew it. There is something fishy. What, is this just a fling Anna’s presenting as a happy relationship so Mom leaves her alone?”

I stared at her for a second before I turned fully away from Anna-watching, squaring my shoulders with her. “You’re not as dumb as Anna said you are.”

“Wow. After how much I’ve hyped her up?”

Well, Veronica seemed to know her sister better than Anna realized. Doubted we’d be able to keep up the charade around her anyway. She knew a little too much about us anyway, after last night. I leaned back against the wall, kicking one foot up over the other. “Actually, yeah, basically. Don’t tell anyone, though. Anna would kill you and me both.”

She scrunched up her face, stepping in closer to me, almost confrontationally. “So you were lying about it being love at first sight? After I got my hopes up thinking maybe it was cute?”

I laughed drily. “Look, I’ve been wildly in love with her since the moment I first laid eyes on her, but that’s been one- sided. It was kind of just one thing led to another that ended up with us here like this…”

“You actually mean that?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Yes? What are you, the love police?”

“Ew, fuck the police. Nah, I just don’t want Anna in love with someone who just sees her as a fuckbuddy.” She stepped back from my personal space bubble, relaxing. “Well, you seem chill. I take it back then.”

I pursed my lips. “I’m actually pretty sure I’m in love with someone who just sees me as a fuckbuddy, but I’m okay with that. I mean, I’ll take all of her I can get.”

She laughed, eyes sparkling. “Oh, you actually are psyched about her. Okay, that’s pretty cool. So did you actually get together that night where Kelcey found you, or did you only finally do it for the first time last night?”

Well, I didn’t see the point in lying to this woman. She was strangely perceptive in her own way, anyway. “Well, you know how it is. All the kissing and gazing into one another’s eyes for the family, we couldn’t really help it.”

“Ew.” She wrinkled her nose. “I had to hear Anna’s first time with you?”

“That’s where you draw the line? So you do get icked out by your family having sex.”

“It’s not the sex, just the… first-time of it all. Like, that’s so… romantic.” She waved me off. “Gag.”

A person could write dissertations on this woman’s thought process and not cover it all. “It wasn’t exactly romance.”

“Yeah, filthy fuckfest I guess is more accurate.”

“More in that… we’re not getting romantically involved now or anything.” I turned back away, focusing on the little square window dressed up with tinsel and puffy snow. “We had a whole conversation about how she’s physically attracted to me, but not romantically… and that it wouldn’t be fair to me to only give me half of what I want. I tried to protest that part, but, well, you know Anna. She’s pretty stubborn once she’s got her mind set on something. It’s cute.”

She grinned. “You are such a sucker for her. She could punch you in the face and you’d thank her.”

“Anna described you as clueless, but you’ve picked up in a couple days what she couldn’t tell for almost a year and a half.”

She scrunched up her face. “Anna’s always been talking about you. Like, way too much for someone she supposedly hates. And weirdly always found a way to work you into conversations whenever the topic of dating came up, like, Mom’s all, you should get a girlfriend, and she’s all, I’m too busy with Lucy never leaving me alone, like, okay, you useless woman, maybe we can address the fact that Lucy comes to mind every time someone mentions a girlfriend?”

Did she do that? I didn’t dare read into why. It felt too good to be real, almost comically so, like a Nigerian prince scammer. No Nigerian princes were actually trying to offload their fortunes onto me, and there was no way Anna Preston had actually been longing for me all this time. I’d believe the Nigerian prince first. “Anna is not useless.”

She rolled her eyes with the drama only a youngest sister could conjure up. “Okay, not exactly the important part, was it? Jeez, you’re just as useless as your girlfriend. Anyway, point is—” She put her hands on her hips. “Anna sucks at feelings, so if you really want to date her for some reason, you’ll have to make it clear.”

I shoved my hands in my pockets, looking around the room, focusing on anything other than Anna or Veronica. “I know how to respect her answer… as much as I might be in love with her, no means no, and I’m not going to sit around waiting for her to change her mind.”

“Okay, well, if that’s how you want to go about it, you know she wants to fuck you, so just keep fucking and I’m sure she’ll come around.”

Wouldn’t that be nice? Sit on Anna Preston’s face and it would make her want to be my girlfriend. That sounded like the good life. “We’ll play it by ear,” I said, pushing away from the wall. “Thanks, Vern. I’ll let you know if we actually get together. Please don’t tell anyone. Anna would never look me in the eye again, and I wouldn’t be able to bear that.”

She laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Wouldn’t want to tear you away from the goddess you’re so obsessed over. Hey, is it true that Kelcey’s family is loaded?”

I was pretty sure I saw where this was headed… I plastered a patronizing smile on her way. “Pretty much, yeah. Her grandfather’s a hospital director. Don’t try it. She’s hopeless and she’ll fall in love with you and you’ll never get her off your back.”

“Hospital director? Seriously? Damn, that’s gotta be good money.”

She only heard the parts she cared about. I sighed, putting my hands up. “Okay, sure. You know? Do. Go ahead. Maybe it will keep Kelcey busy trying to win you over with love sonnets instead of volunteering to clean up the database system and almost losing half our data.”

She lit up. “Great, I’m taking that as my go-ahead. I already grabbed her number from the company website and we’re getting dinner tonight.”

Woman moved fast when she saw a rich person whose heart she wanted to break. I guess we all had our priorities. “I’m sure we’ll all hear about it tomorrow,” I said idly, turning back to where I pushed across the room to where Anna was arguing about tree sizes with her parents, and I interrupted by coming in and slipping an arm around Anna’s waist, where she jumped a little, turned to look at me, and softened into that cute little look with a furrowed brow but that wasn’t angry, not really.

“Would it kill you to say something before you grabbed me, sweetheart?” she said lightly.

“Sometimes I’m so starstruck by your beauty that I can’t find words and can’t help throwing myself into your arms.”

She rolled her eyes, looking away, but not without a little smile and a blush. I thought I might have a heart attack and die. I’d never be this in love with anyone again. “You’re such a flirt…”

“The space at the end of your side table could fit a forty-inch tree at the base, if you slid the couch over.”

She turned to give me an incredulous look, jaw dropped. “Lucy Masters. When did you measure my living room?”

I raised my eyebrows. “I told you the place could use a little Christmas cheer. Besides, you know I want to know everything about the love of my life.”

“Unbelievable.” She turned back to the others, shaking her head with a dry smile. “Well, you heard her. My girlfriend’s never wrong about these things, even when I want to disagree.”

Ah—she called me her girlfriend. I forgot how to breathe for a second.

We went out into the farm together with Gunner, letting him show us around the place and how to pick a good tree, even though I already knew the process—Grandma and I were regulars at this place, and Gunner had lit up when he’d seen me. Anna’s parents and Veronica came with, Veronica bundled up in so many layers I could have forgotten it was Veronica in there and not a winter clothes laundry pile, and we roamed the rows of trees together, interspersed with the occasional other people out in the fields, but we split up when it came time for Anna to pick between the selection of trees she liked for her place while her mom picked out a bigger one for the massive house.

We were secluded under the pine boughs just behind a low ridge and next to a small wooden fence glowing with rustic lanterns, far away from everything else in the drifting snow, when Anna turned to me with a wry smile, standing in front of the tree we’d measured.

“Seriously, though, when did you measure my living room? Should I be worried what other measurements you’ve taken?”

I raised my eyebrows, letting my eyes move pointedly down to her chest. “I think they’re the perfect size, darling.”

“Lucy—” She swatted me, but she laughed, huffing and turning back to the tree. “You’re disgusting,” she said, but she couldn’t keep the laugh out of her voice. I sidled up next to her, looking at the tree with her.

“I mean, you seemed to like me enjoying them.”

“Jesus Christ, Lucy,” she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Masters…”

I was going to talk about sex even more if it was going to get her to keep calling me Lucy. “Didn’t you, dearest?”

“That’s hardly the point.”

“It was when I brought cookies. While you were in the shower.”

“Ah…” She pursed her lips, flushing harder. I smiled wider, shoving my hands in my coat pockets.

“Darling, you always get so flustered when that comes up. How much time did you spend thinking about my offer to join you?”

“Fuck off,” she mumbled, looking away.

“Add in this morning… you have a thing for shower sex, don’t you?”

She put her hands up. “Apparently? I don’t fucking know. I’m finding this out now too. Anyway—the tree?” She gestured helplessly at it. “The… the tree.”

“It’s very festive. It’ll look great in your apartment.” I finished my nominal look at the tree, turning back to her. “Just saying, you can ask me to join you in the shower anytime you like. I’m sure you look great slick with running water.”

“Lucy—for crying out loud.” She put a hand over her face. “We’re not doing this in a tree farm.”

“Hey, we’re all alone up here. Doesn’t seem like anybody’s coming this way much. I’d do anything you liked in a tree farm.”

She made a noise in her throat, turning away. “I’m, er… we should… the tree. Yes. I like this one.”

I stepped up closer to her side, slipping a hand inside her coat and down to the band of her pants, playing a fingertip along it. “I like this one a lot,” I said, my voice light, and she growled, looking away.

“Lucy…”

I tugged lightly on the band of her pants. “Yes, Anna?”

“Ugh—” She put a hand over her face. “How do you just… do that?”

“Do what?”

“Just…”

Oh, she was red. I didn’t think it was just the cold. I slipped my hand a little lower, teasing under the band of her pants. “Just what, Anna?”

“Ugh—Lucy—”

“Go ahead and tell me.”

“Just—the way you—get me to react like I don’t even have any… power…”

“The way I get you turned on,” I said, voice low, and she whimpered—as if I wasn’t gone enough already, Anna Preston with a needy little whimper. Jesus Christ. I thought I’d die on the spot.

“Lucy… you can’t do this here…”

Which meant she wanted to do this. Anna Preston did. With me. Maybe the whole romance thing wasn’t that farfetched—not because she seemed like she had a lot of romantic feelings, but because if this was possible, anything was.

“Nobody’s coming this way, darling,” I whispered, stepping in front of her, and I bent to press a kiss to her neck. She whimpered again, and I felt the muscles in her hips tighten under my fingers, and it was a miracle I didn’t spontaneously come on the spot just seeing that. “We’re at the very edge of the whole lot… and we can see anyone who’s coming long before they can see us.”

“Jesus Christ, Lucy,” she murmured, but she didn’t fight it, burying her face in my shoulder. I stepped close enough to her that, with our coats draped together, it looked like just a close embrace as I roamed my hands over her body, feeling through the coarse texture of her wool sweater, teased over her pants.

“So, you have a thing for this too,” I whispered against her neck, and I felt her swallow.

“A—apparently.”

We were all learning so much about each other and ourselves. Me, I was learning that I was some kind of sex icon if I could get Anna Preston turned on enough to let me get her off in a field in the middle of the snow.

“Remember to be a good girl and stay quiet,” I whispered, slipping a hand to the front of her pants. She nodded wordlessly, her breath quickening, and that was all the encouragement I needed.

This was going to be a very special Christmas tree.