Candy Cane Kisses {A Holiday Romance Novella and sequel to 'Hate or Fate'}

Chapter 1

My nose hairs burned with every shallow breath I fought through. There was no turning back, and since we were in a car, there was literally nowhere to run. I had to face my fate.

Besides, almost everybody spends the holidays with their partner's family at some point, right?

The air surrounding us was so thick with inexpressible fears, unspoken tensions, and methane that I felt close to passing out. 

If my overactive anxiety didn't smother me dead, then the unholy stench of cow poo from outside was definitely going to finish me off.

My boyfriend shifted in the driver's seat, flexing his powerful thighs in a pair of dark wash indigo jeans. His tattooed hands kneaded the leather steering wheel like it was a circular stress ball (or he was giving it a Swedish massage).

Though Gray's iridescent eyes were fixed on the road, his peripheral vision was on me. Probably waiting for me to back out at the last minute.

His jaw tightened with the thoughts clouding his handsome features, but he remained pensive and so did I.

The Drifters crooning White Christmas filled the background with a jolly soundtrack as we passed the invisible olfactory threshold into farm country. According to Gray, the cows start to outnumber the people the further out in the country you got.

Outside the car, empty ditch-lined fields dusted in muddy snow rushed past the windows. I tried counting the barns, but large swaths of undeveloped land and patches of dense trees made that impossible.

As we neared the Meyer's house, I couldn't remember why I was so fixated on meeting Gray's family in the first place. They were partially estranged from him and mostly indifferent about me, so it wasn't like we'd been holding them off.

Maybe it was because I'd lost my family at such a young age. Or perhaps it stemmed from missing the warm and fuzzy holidays I'd spent with my ex-boyfriend's family.

Not my psychotic ex, Elijah, who choked my lights out, mind you, his family. Which also happened to be the same family that adopted Gray's son, Lucas, to raise as their own.

Gray's parents were convinced that Elijah's mom moved Lucas out of Kent to keep them from their grandchild. I wanted to believe that Julie Wagner was just trying to shield Lucas from his painful past, but it wasn't my place to have an opinion about any of that extremely sensitive situation.  

Basically, we were never going to be The Brady Bunch. So, why in the jingle bells did I think it was a good time to meet Gray's parents?

"You sure you want to do this?" Gray's deep voice was laced with apprehension.

I sucked in a deep breath and leaned over the center console to squeeze his knee.

"No," I admitted. "But also, yes."

"So, let's cancel," Gray suggested quickly. "Let's go home and order dinner. Then, I'll strip you naked and worship your body in front of the fireplace, and in bed, and in the shower, and anywhere else we want to make a lot of noise...You don't have to do this, you know, Isla."

"I know," I reminded him gently. "I want to meet your family, Gray."

"And they desperately want to meet you," he replied with an understated snort.

There was only so much Gray was willing to talk about his past. The years of unresolved anger and emotional trauma he'd gone through made his family a very difficult subject for him. Especially if the conversation involved his little sister, Molly, or his son. 

"You say that like it's a bad thing," I choked through my self-doubt.

I didn't have the strength to get through the holidays with his parents if he didn't, and I certainly didn't want to force him into anything he wasn't ready for.

"I'm sorry, baby," Gray reached over to lace his fingers through mine and brought my knuckles to his lips for a tender kiss. "It's not you that I'm worried about, it's them."

His unintentionally obtuse answer stirred the acids inside the adorable mohair turtleneck sweater I'd borrowed from Rebecca, my bestie-slash-roommate.

Gray sighed heavily, "I haven't been home for Christmas in, like, four years, Isla."

"Oh," I tried to keep the shock out of my tone.

"And they haven't met anyone I've dated since I was in high school," he continued.

"Oh," I whispered.

He was referring to Melanie, of course, Lucas's mother and Gray's deceased ex-girlfriend. 

Gray numbed the tragic losses by immersing himself in drugs and an endless parade of beautiful women. I know because I watched his caustic cycle of self-harm while I was being duped into a relationship with his best friend, Elijah.

The fact that Gray's family hadn't met anyone since the mother of his child, really put things in perspective. 

"And my family, like everyone's weirdo family, are an acquired taste," Gray pressed his mouth into a scowl that marred the glory of his gorgeous features. "They seem fine, at first, on the surface. Like everyone else's family, really. But none of it is real."

I stayed quiet, processing the vague information.

"It's hard to explain," Gray's dark chuckle rumbled his pecs under his charcoal sweater. "Which is why I'm actually really happy you're about to meet them...And worried to death they're going to scare you away."

The car veered off the main road into a long, pebbled driveway. Tiny rocks assailed the undercarriage of Gray's BMW like spitfire until he slowed us to a meandering pace.

My eyes bulged and I forgot to give my boyfriend a kiss to assure him that there wasn't anything that he, or his family, could do to scare me away. Not after everything we'd already been through together.

Sprawling fields covered in idyllic blankets of snow glittered on either side of us.

A lovely three-story home, complete with a picturesque porch swing and a shingled roof lined with fat multi-colored holiday lights grew larger and larger. Thick red ribbons adorned the wrap-around verandah as well as the potted poinsettias decorating the steps up to two inviting carved wooden doors. 

I was too shocked to even speak. Everything was so cheery and bright. A genuine winter wonderland in the middle of cow-town USA.

Gray's guarded warning had made it sound like we would be walking into some sort of gingerbread house of horrors.

A plump, middle-aged woman with blonde hair and the same cheekbones as Gray materialized at the front doors. Her thinning lips were arranged into a tight smile that glowed in the blinking lights overhead.

Behind her, a solid-looking man and his much younger doppelganger were vying for a view of us as Gray pulled the car to a stop in front of their attached garage.

"We're here," my boyfriend whistled under his breath. "And it's matching sweaters this year. Nice touch, Mom."

"Aw," I pushed my lips into a supportive smile to hide the surge of fear in my chest. "I think the pattern is, festive."

No one looked particularly excited about their identical candy cane sweaters as they crowded onto the porch.

"You know you're getting a sweater too, right?" Gray snorted and arched his brow piercing "That you will be expected to wear without question."

"Well, then, it sounds your mom went out of her way to include me," I smiled. "So, I'm going to suck it up, and I'm going to dress like a woolly candy cane."

Gray kissed the tip of my nose before undoing his seatbelt to let himself out of the car and stroll to the passenger side.

"In that case," he opened my door and offered an inked hand as I stepped into the crisp winter air.

"So will I, baby." Gray smiled as he hooked his arm around my waist protectively. C'mon, they're going to love you more than me."