Once Upon a Second Chance (Once Upon a Holiday Story #1)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Daniel

I could stay inside Aaron forever. Watching him fall apart on my dick was euphoric. I pumped slow, then fast. My grip on his waist was punishing, and I loved that there would be marks and every time he looked at them he’d remember this…us.

“Shit, Daniel, I’m gonna…”

“Do it. Come for me, Aaron.”

His neck arched and I latched on to the skin, sucking and biting, leaving another mark. I chased his orgasm, finding my own in the process.

After I cleaned us up, we walked naked to the living room. I wrapped us in a large blanket and with the fire crackling, the tree lights twinkling, and Nat King Cole singing in the background, I embraced the man whom I realized I couldn’t let go.

I’d felt this way only one other time in my life, but that time…I’d stepped away from love. Love? I didn’t know if that was what this was, but it was strong.

“Can you tell me who he was?” Aaron asked, as if he were reading my mind.

I rubbed my chin against Aaron’s hair as he hugged me closer, and decided to tell him—not because he had a right to know, but because I actually wanted him to.

“His name was Cole. He didn’t grow up in Everlasting Springs, but his sophomore year of high school, his father got a job in construction. We met at lunch. He was sitting alone with a scowl on his face and repelling everyone within a ten-foot radius. Naturally, I went right over and sat down beside him.”

Aaron snorted. “Of course you did.”

“We didn’t hit it off right away. He was bitter that he’d had to leave all his friends he’d known since he was born to come to a tiny town that, in his words, was not normal.”

Aaron chuckled. “I get that. You’re all unbelievably nice; it’s unreal.”

I supposed if I examined it from an outsider’s perspective, I could see it. “Anyway, it took three weeks before he finally smiled, and another week until he laughed, and as soon as he did that, I was a goner. I fell in love with Cole in four weeks.”

“That’s sweet,” Aaron whispered.

“I was lucky because he loved me in return, and throughout high school we were inseparable. We even went to the same college. I never got sick of him, and he never got sick of me. Once we graduated, I wanted to come back to Everlasting Springs. It was my home, and I always knew I’d grow old here. I’d explained that to him, and he always swore he understood.”

My voice cracked, and Aaron squeezed me a little tighter.

“He came home with me but a year in, he got restless. He wanted to travel the world. His dream was to be a photojournalist, and he didn’t believe he could do that in a little town. I got it—after all, I needed to be in this town, and he needed to see the world. He asked me to go with him, and I did. I followed him to England, Australia, and Iceland. For two years, we explored and the more we did, the happier he became and the sadder I did.”

“Oh, Daniel…”

“We needed a compromise and I told him that, told him I wanted to return to Everlasting Springs, and I thought since I’d followed his dream for two years, he’d understand. But he didn’t. I mean, he came with me but he hated it. The town stifled him. We started fighting a lot, and one night out of the blue he walked up to me and got on one knee. He said he loved me more than anything in the world and wanted me to marry him, choose him, and live and love his dream with him.”

Aaron released a shaky breath; there was no questioning what my answer was and how things had ended.

“I asked him, ‘What about my dream?’ and he accused me of loving this town more than him. I told him this town was part of me and that every time I left, it was as if someone were tearing at my skin. I reminded him that I followed him for years and explained that I’d be here when he returned from his adventures—I just couldn’t go on all of them with him.”

I closed my eyes; I could still see the look on Cole’s face.

“He asked me to choose. Begged me, even. He despised Everlasting Springs, probably since he’d stepped foot here. For him it was the place that took him from where he set up roots and now it was holding me here, away from him and the great big world. He’d never be happy here even for a day, and I didn’t want to stay away. It wasn’t that I loved this town more than him, but he didn’t understand.”

“Your family built it. It’s your soul, and he was your heart, and you had to decide which to live without.”

Aaron understood. I hadn’t been sure he would. “That was exactly it. I told him I couldn’t marry him because to marry him would tie one of us to a life we didn’t want.”

“Oh, Daniel.”

“He packed up everything, and a week later he was gone.”

“You haven’t seen him since?”

I blinked away tears as I answered Aaron’s question. “I often wondered if we would cross paths again and what would happen. But five years after Cole left, he was on a safari in Africa, taking photos for National Geographic. He’d sent me postcards here and there. Anyway, there was an accident; I’m still unsure of all the details. Cole and a couple of the crew were killed.”

Aaron sat up and straddled my lap, wrapping his arms around me in the tightest hug. “That’s so awful, Daniel. I’m sorry.”

“There are nights I lie awake thinking that if I were with him, would I be dead too or if I was there, would he have lived?”

“No.” Aaron sat up a little, his face inches from mine. “I used to live in the land of what-ifs. Every choice I made, every thing that went wrong, I’d get consumed with thoughts of what if. Sometimes it just is, Daniel. Questioning it is pointless, all it does is drag you into the darkness and grip you with its thorns. Cole lived his dream, and you are living yours. Neither one of you was wrong or right. It just is.”

I cupped his face in my hands and pressed my lips to his. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve this man, but I didn’t want to watch him walk away like Cole. Some would ask if he was a replacement for him, and I knew without a doubt he wasn’t. Aaron was what I’d been waiting for my whole life.