Under the Mistle-Foe (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

JETT

The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party was in full swing by the time we’d arrived. I’d been excited about the event all week and, most importantly, I was going with Remy.

We’d gone on plenty of dates in town recently, but this was the first event we were attending together. It felt like we were officially announcing our relationship to everyone, which had me almost giddy.

Better yet, was the fact we were going in matching couples’ sweaters. We’d finished our ugly sweaters last night, and while my rendition of Spice had turned out looking like two pumpkins stacked on top of each other, Remy surprised me with his artistic skills. There was nothing ugly about the adorable tuxedo cat depicted on his sweater, who looked exactly like Sugar.

The place was filled with familiar people, and we were spotted almost immediately. Friends came up to chat, and I proudly introduced Remy to them as my boyfriend. My hand rested on the base of his lower back, tickling him every so often.

I couldn’t get enough of touching him. And Remy seemed to like it as well, leaning into my hand. It made me almost want to say hell to the event and drag Remy back home and have an intimate chat with our bodies.

My face heated with memories of him inside me. It wasn’t the wildest sex I’d had, but hell if it wasn’t the most passionate. Remy just did it for me, and even in his inexperience with men, he already made me feel so fucking good.

“Are you feeling hot?” Remy’s voice sounded through my fog of lewd thoughts. My face heated even more, and Remy brought his cold beer up to my cheek.

I hummed at the comfortable coolness, my eyes closing as I enjoyed the feeling. They popped open again when soft lips pressed against my dry ones. Remy’s face was close to mine, and he grinned when he saw me looking at him.

“You looked too adorable,” he said, then brought his beer to his lips for a swig. And all the heat returned to my cheeks, but all the blood drained from my face when Remy called out to a man.

“Hey, Ford!”

The man turned around at the sound of his name. His ugly sweater vaguely resembled a dog with big googly eyes and antlers that had lights wrapped around them.

He looked confused at being called out, but still gave a polite greeting. I’d completely forgotten about this little snafu since we hadn’t really had a chance to bump into Ford.

I knew I’d have to come clean eventually, and I probably should have told him earlier to avoid a situation like this. But as they say, hindsight was twenty-twenty.

Now I needed to figure out how to drag Remy somewhere quiet and explain the situation without an audience. But before I could, Remy had already pulled Ford into a conversation. I was at their side, terrified of what they would say to each other but also frozen stiff and unable to prevent it .

“I’ve always wanted to chat with you since coming back, but it seems the timing never matched up. But it’s great to finally see you in person after texting all these years,” Remy said.

Ford naturally looked confused by Remy’s statement, but thankfully, he also looked distracted and just nodded. He glanced at something over Remy’s shoulder.

I didn’t have time to worry about what Ford was thinking. A chill went down my spine at Remy’s words and had me sprinting into action again. “Babe, can I talk to you in private for a minute?”

I knew I was playing dirty by calling him babe at this moment, but I was desperate. And just as I’d expected, Remy got all soft under the term of endearment and agreed without question.

“I’ll catch you later, Ford. Enjoy the rest of your night.”

“Thanks, you too,” Ford said absentmindedly. He was already pushing past the crowd toward a certain direction, but I was too busy dragging Remy out of the pub to see his destination.

Thank god I had the foresight to grab our coats first because the night air was so freezing that I had half a mind to go back inside. But I didn’t want an audience when I’d confessed to Remy. It was already embarrassing enough.

Remy wrapped me in his arms and rubbed my back to help generate some warmth.

How was this man so fucking sweet? It made me feel bad for tricking him, though I didn’t regret what I did. I just wished I’d told him when things had gotten better between us.

“What did you want to talk about?” Remy prompted, and I knew I couldn’t hide it any longer.

“There’s something I need to tell you. I know you’ll be angry, but please know I did this out of good intentions,” I pleaded, gripping his clothes tightly to keep us close together.

Remy softly chuckled at my action and clasped his warm hand to my cheek. “What is it?”

“Well, you know how you’ve been texting Ford these past five years?”

“Yeah?” His soft expression turned into confusion.

“It was never Ford. I used his name because I thought you wouldn’t reply if I texted you under my name. I used to see him around the diner when we were in high school, so I figured it wouldn’t be too weird if he texted you after you left. He doesn’t know anything about this,” I blurted out all at once before I chickened out.

Remy just stared at me, blinking with obvious confusion in his eyes. After a minute of silence from the man, I was worried he was astronomically pissed.

“Say something,” I begged when I couldn’t take the silence any longer.

“So you’re saying you…catfished me?” he stated. I was shocked by that phrasing, but I guess it was true, so I nodded. Remy busted out in laughter. He laughed so hard it shocked the people who had just walked out of the pub.

I gave him puppy-dog eyes as I watched him. I was glad it seemed like he wasn’t angry, but I didn’t know how I felt about being laughed at either.

Remy must have seen my expression since he calmed down, wiping the stray tear that trickled from the corner of his eye. I frowned at the fact that he’d laughed hard enough for tears to leak.

“Sorry, I’m not laughing at you.” Remy cleared his throat, kissed my frown away, then said, “That was just the last thing I expected to hear.”

“I should be the one saying sorry. I didn’t mean to keep this farce up for so long. ”

“So would you have told me if we hadn’t run into Ford?” he asked with a brow raised.

I immediately nodded. “I was going to tell you after we became friends, but I kept chickening out…I’m sorry.”

In the beginning, I thought I would send him a quick message to check up on him, then never hear from him again. Then this little farce wouldn’t have needed to be exposed at all. He had no plans on returning to Christmas Falls back then either anyway.

I never expected our text conversations to go on this long. Sure, Remy thought I was Ford the entire time, but I didn’t want to let go of this last connection with him. I was greedy to hear about his life, even if I wasn’t a part of it.

Remy chuckled again. His hand slid to the back of my neck and tickled the soft hairs there. “But I’m confused. I have your phone number and it’s different from the one I have saved for Ford .”

“I used a virtual number to text you,” I said sheepishly. “I was worried you’d recognize my number and directly block me.”

His eyes crinkled with amusement. “I really might have done that. But why the insistence on texting me? We weren’t even friends back then.”

“You’d just lost your mom and had left for the big city all by yourself. I just didn’t want you to feel…alone,” I admitted.

His eyes softened as he stroked my cheek with his thumb. “Why does it sound like you had a crush on me even back then?” I could hear the teasing in his voice, but I nodded earnestly.

“I’ve liked you for a lot longer than you think.”

His mouth hanging open had me laughing. His nose crinkled the way it did when he was thinking. “Don’t tell me you fell for me when you got lost as a kid and wandered into the diner? ”

That had my laughter stopping immediately. I pressed my lips into a thin line, refusing to answer. Remy’s eyes glittered as he watched me.

“Wow, I was stealing hearts even as a kid,” he joked, obviously taking my silence for affirmation.

“I hope not,” I muttered. I wanted Remy all for myself, and now that I had him, he better not be stealing any other hearts but mine.

Remy got all quiet again as he looked at me. Emotions swelled behind his brown eyes that looked faintly familiar to my love that swelled up for him. Or maybe it was my wishful thinking.

“What are you thinking about?” I finally couldn’t help but ask.

His thumb continued to stroke my cheek. “Just thinking about how I want to drag you home and show you how happy you make me feel.”

The air hitched in my throat. The sweetness of his words heated my body. I couldn’t even feel the harsh wind blowing past us.

“What are we waiting for?” I said, tugging him in the direction of our car.

“But what about the event? You’ve been excited about this all week.”

I pressed my lower body against his, so he could feel the half-mast I was already sporting. “I’m much more excited about going home with you.”

His eyes darkened. He didn’t argue and instead was now the one pulling me in a rush. The entire drive home it took my entire will to focus on the road. Remy’s hand played with my thigh, being such a fucking tease when he knew I couldn’t do anything back.

When I parked inside my garage, I practically sprinted out of the car and dragged Remy with me. Our clothes trailed behind us in our rush to the bedroom.

Sugar and Spice meowed to get our attention, but we’d firmly shut them outside the bedroom door. That was the one bad thing about having pets. No kitchen sex, nor could I ride Remy on the couch since I wasn’t too keen on having sex in front of my fur babies.

But behind the privacy of the closed door, I could have my way with Remy. Kissing him all over and crashing our bodies together to get closer. Remy was urgent too, quickly prepping me until I easily took him.

We hadn’t said the words yet, but the way he held me, the slow thrust of his hips and each delicious slide inside of me, and the way he looked at me like I was someone precious, showed me his love.

I came to him chanting my name as he bruised my lips with kisses, but the night didn’t stop there. I couldn’t even remember how many rounds we had, but the last thing I remembered as sleep claimed me was being snuggled in his safe arms.

Ringing woke me the next morning. “Hello?” Remy’s groggy voice sounded as he answered the call. I groaned and scooted closer to his warmth. Loud purring activated behind me, so Remy must have opened the bedroom door to let the cats in sometime after I’d passed out last night.

I wanted to snuggle deeper into Remy’s arms, but he suddenly shot out of bed. I sleepily propped myself up too and squinted my eyes at him.

“Sorry, babe. It’s my office. Go back to sleep,” he whispered and plopped a kiss on my forehead before padding out of the door.

The word office had all traces of sleepiness disappearing. I quickly checked my phone and realized it was barely seven. Why the hell was Remy’s office calling him so early in the morning on a Saturday?

It couldn’t be anything good, and that had my anxiety rising so much I couldn’t stay in bed any longer.

It made sense, though. Remy only returned to town to help his dad while he recovered. And now that Adam had mostly recovered, he had no reason to stay…

I paced the room, hating the idea of Remy not being in Christmas Falls with me anymore, but I couldn’t beg him to stay when he had a whole life and job to return to in New York.

My thoughts were killing me, so I quietly sneaked out of the room and crept down the stairs to find out what the phone call was about once and for all. I wasn’t proud of the fact that I was sneaking around, but I needed to know. So, hiding around the corner of the living room, I perked up my ears to hear him say, “I’ll see you when I’m back.”

My heart stopped.

That was the confirmation that Remy was leaving.

Leaving me .