Forever & Always

1. Hot Chocolate & Grilled Cheeses

It started out just like any other Friday night in early December, freezing cold, half drunk and just exhausted by the crap storm my life has become over the past couple of months. I stumble in the dark my broken left high heel shoe causing me to trip on the welcome mat I know is below my feet and I dig blindly in my purse for the emergency key that Tess gave me last year. I groan leaning against the siding of the house and try to remember the last time I saw the key jumping back as a dog suddenly starts barking from inside the house and I knock over the potted plant with a crash. I wince at the porch light being turned on and step back nervous now that I realize I have showed up yet again at my best friend's house in the middle of the night because I got in a fight with my boyfriend, Dylan. I quickly take off my heels despite the freezing cold to turn away from my best friend's perfect family home and get halfway down the sidewalk when I hear the voice of someone who has always made me swoon.

"Lindsay?" Kyle Blake Anderson asks and I spin around to see my best friend's older brother by two years standing in the now open doorway with a confused look on his face. "What are you doing here? It's like two in the morning."

"I-I um..." I stammer my brain addled by the sight of the boy I fell for years ago, not to mention the numerous shots of vodka I had at the party I was at just hours before and my head spins at the chaos of today.

"Come on, get in here. It's freezing and you're hardly wearing any clothes." Kyle says motioning me closer and I glance down at my very short skirt and low cut tank top covered by a light weight jacket that I thought was cute with my outfit but turned out not to be very practical during the snowy night.

I quickly walk back up the porch steps and squeeze past Kyle now seeing that he is only dressed in a pair of plaid pajama pants. I feel a blush rush to my face as my eyes trail over his athletic body and quickly force my eyes up to his face, which isn't much better with his gorgeous blue grey eyes and his normally tamed hair sticking up in all directions from being in bed. My heart races at the thought of him in the bed I know for a fact smells like fresh linen, spearmint toothpaste and the unique smell of spices from the body wash I smell from him.

"I-I thought you had gone back to Columbia?" I finally manage to ask and cross my arms over myself as I realize just how cold I was outside looking at him as he locks the front door back.

"And I thought Tess gave you a key?" He asks raising a brow and quickly reaches for the collar of the family's German Shepard. "Down, boy."

"Hi, Duke." I say and reach to pet the dog I remember they got for Christmas five years ago making me jealous of how the Anderson family always had it all. "And I was looking for the key when this big monster scared me."

"You of all people know that he's a big old goof ball." Kyle says and rubs the dog's ears looking at me with a grin that makes my insides just melt. "Oh you're soaking wet and have to be freezing."

"Um, well..." I say looking down at myself to see that my party clothes are actually wet from being out in the rain that turned to snow as I walked the few blocks to this house and shrug my shoulders. "I'll be fine."

"Fine? Lindsay, you're shaking." He says and steps forward to take my heels and purse from my hands that are trembling to put them in the floor by a bench that sits in the entryway of the home.

"Is Tess upstairs?" I ask as he gently reaches to lower my jacket from my shoulders and I bite back a gasp at the feeling of his warm hands trailing my arms making a shiver run down my spine that has nothing to do with how cold I am.

"No, she went over to Kat's to study tonight and text around ten that she was spending the night." He answers and I suddenly remember Tess mentioning a study night with our friend when I asked if she wanted to come with to Josh Weston's party.