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

Chapter 2

Bing Crosby warbled on loop and notes of cinnamon filled every room as we got a whirlwind tour of Gray's childhood home. His mom had great taste and clearly spent a lot of time fitting her holiday décor to their shabby-chic-farmhouse style.

We'd just finished admiring the updates the Meyer's had made to their kitchen when his mom caught me staring at their spiffy new chrome fridge. On it, I'd found a family photo in a homemade frame featuring a very young, and much skinner, Gray, alongside the rest of his siblings.

"So now you know what Gray looks like under all those crazy drawings," Gray's dad, Bill, snorted. I spun around to see him hitch his ruddy nose in my boyfriend's direction. "Must be quite the shock."

It was, but so was the hint of disappointment in Bill's tone.

Personally, I loved the living canvas of Gray's skin. Every one of those tattooed illustrations had meaning to him and some he'd even drawn himself. 

"Not as shocking as the braces I saw in Gray's eighth-grade photos upstairs," I smiled as my boyfriend shifted uncomfortably at my side. "That was some serious headgear."

Gray's' brother, Ezra couldn't hold back his laughter, which earned him a playful nudge on the arm from his big brother. Both boys were a mismatched combination of their mother's smile and their dad's eyes.

"Does anybody want eggnog?" Gray's mom, Judy asked the room. "Or some water?"

"Beer," Ezra and Bill answered together, a united front of red and white striped wool.

"Water for me, please," I giggled watching Gray's mom shoot a look of loving exasperation at them.

"At least someone here remembered to mind her manners," Judy remarked as she turned to open the fridge.

"I'll take water too, Mom," Gray said. "Please."

"I'm in my own house," Bill chuckled. "I'll mind whatever I please."

"Aw," Judy stuck her blonde bouffant out to smile at her husband as she handed him a frosty bottle of beer. "At least you said please."

"One way or another," Bill accepted his libation and tipped the neck in mock gratitude. "You always get what you want, honey."

Judy handed a second bottle to Ezra, then set about getting glasses for Gray and me.

"So, Isla," Gray's mom beamed at me. "Gray told us the commercial you worked on together won some kind of award recently?"

"Oh," heat blossomed on my cheeks at being the sudden center of attention. "Yeah, it was a global campaign we shot for Microsoft together about this time last year."

"And Isla won a Glass Lion at Cannes this past summer for her brilliance," Gray finished the part I had the hardest time saying.

It's not that I wasn't proud of the achievement, it just felt strange to brag about something that only people in our career field really cared about.

"We all won, really," I snuggled into Gray's warmth. He never missed a chance to talk me up, which kept me in a constant state of blushing. "Gray's work was instrumental to the final product."

"Well, I have no idea what a Glass Lion is," Judy smiled while filling our cups with ice. "But I'm sure yours was the best of the bunch."

Gray sighed and offered me a look of apologetic irritation.

"It's one of the most prestigious awards you can take home from Cannes, Mom," Gray explained as Judy handed us our full-to-the-brim glasses of water. "Hell, it's one of the most prestigious creative awards given in the world!"