The Bad Boy's Girl (Now Available as a Paperback and ebook)

A letter to Santa, from Cole

Dear Santa,

It's been a while since I did this so forgive me if my letter writing skills are a bit rusty. I've created the right environment for it though, my girlfriend raided Target yesterday and I came out with a much lighter wallet. I'm now the proud owner of a five foot five Christmas tree that's sagging to the floor under the weight of all the decorations Tessie loaded it with. She's baking in my parents' kitchen right now, something to do with gingerbread. My first wish is that I'm not putting out fires at the end of the night. Suffice to say, Christmas is in the air. But even as I attempt to collect my thoughts I can remember the gist of it and the past ten years don't seem to matter. I've written letters to you before, it's the earliest memory I have associated with my mom so it's nice to remember those times even though she's not with me anymore. I know it's been a long time but I hope you still remember me and I hope you read this and think, "Well he's grown up to be a pretty great dude." I don't know, would you even use the word dude? How about gentleman? Yeah I think I like that better. 

If I remember doing this correctly, I'm supposed to tell you whether I've been naughty or nice and then grovel for that skateboard I'd been drooling over for months. But I'm nineteen now not nine and I like to think I've bigger things to ask for, more meaningful so the stakes are higher right? I've finally come to point in my life, and jeez that sounds depressing but I know Christmas is about more than the presents...or the chocolate, as much as Tessie likes to think it is. I caught her emptying out the huge advent calendar I hunted down for her yesterday. Yeah-you need to put her on the naughty list pronto. But let's get back to topic at hand shall we Mr. Claus? What I want to ask for, well I'm not going to get it just because I've been watering my roommate's dead cactus the entire semester. But I'm not a snot-nosed kid anymore, I like to think I've done some good this year along with just a little bit of bad because my girl likes it when I'm both, and you've got to appreciate the commitment to her happiness right?

The past year I finally got the girl of my dreams after years of chasing after her. Actually I didn't chase her all that much at first, I ran. I ran away from rejection because I was a stupid, cowardly kid. Had I just manned up and told her how I felt I'd have saved myself about fours years of heartache and my dad a lot of money on the expensive military school he had to pay for. Things got better this year though; I finally got my act together and went after my girl. I was determined; she wasn't going to get away from me this time around. Tessa likes to say that I saved her whereas I like to think I bulldozed into her life and didn't really give her an option, I was hers to keep. When she heard about me writing this letter, she put that as a tick in the 'nice' column. She says I saved her from herself, made her feel brave and free and that I make her feel loved. So Santa, I found a girl this year and I put her broken pieces back together, and that's not something I've done for any ulterior purpose-not even the skateboard I never got. I did it because Tessa is who I am, she's an extension of who I am and if I saved her then I saved myself as well. This year, the nicest thing I've done is become a better man for the girl who makes me want to do everything I can to be worthy of her. I've locked her in closets, covered her in blue dye, and pranked her more times than I can count but she still sees something good in me and I hope you do too.

I've gotten into a good college, and studied like my life depended on it to make that happen. I'm doing well, my old habits haven't come back to haunt me...yet. I haven't been in touch with anyone from my past apart from the friends that kept me sane, and only party on weekends. I'm playing college ball too and pretty good at it. It's becoming a huge deal; people are talking about me going pro. I don't know, I'm just trying to keep my head above water. I train hard, practice my butt off and find time to study. You get my drift right? Would it be too much to ask in the spirit of the holiday season to get that second quarterback permanently out the picture? I hear strep is going around.