A Holiday to Remember by Lynnette Kent Read Free Book Online Page A

town?”
    He finished his chips, balled the bag and tossed it toward the trash can, praying for a basket. But the bag bounced off the rim and fell on the sidewalk. Feeling his ears heat up, he retrieved the trash and dropped it in the container.
    As he sat down again, though, he managed to casually turn his body toward her and prop his elbow on the back of the seat. In a few minutes he would stretch out his arm behind her shoulders. If he was really lucky, some of that shiny red-brown hair would brush his hand.
    “I’m Chase,” he told her.
    “Juliet.” She crushed the candy wrapper and pitched it at the trash can, where it landed without a sound.
    “Are you from around here?” he asked, to distract from his hot, red cheeks.
    “No way. I live in New York.” She tossed her hair back over her shoulder. If he’d had his arm stretched out, he could have caught some across his palm. “Manhattan, where there’s shopping and music, plays and people and a hundred things to do.”
    “So why’d you come to the mountains?”
    “My grandmother. She’s sick and she said she wanted to see me before she dies.” Juliet rolled her eyes. “She never wanted to see me before. I barely know the old bat, but I’m forced to spend a whole week trapped in the middle of nowhere.” Head bowed, the girl sat and sulked.
    Chase took the chance to lay his arm across the back of the bench. “I’m here for the whole winter break. Got here on the twentieth and I’m stuck for three weeks.”
    Finally, she seemed a little curious. “You’re not from here? Where do you live?”
    “Philadelphia.”
    “So you’re a prisoner, too.”
    Chase shook his head. “Nah. In Philly I’m the prisoner. I get free when I come to visit my granddad.”
    “Parental marriage issues?”
    “Big time. At least here nobody’s fighting World War III. My granddad’s a pretty cool old guy.”
    She tossed that hair again, but it missed his hand. “My parents basically live on different planets. My granddads both died before I was born and this is the first time I’ve met the grandmother here. The one in New York, my dad’s mother, is a first-class bitch.”
    “You should meet my granddad. You’d like him.”
    Juliet bounced off the bench to her feet. “Okay, let’s go.”
    Chase stood up more slowly. “You want to go see him? Now?”
    “Sure. Why not?”
    “I…” He couldn’t think of why not, except…“I only have one bike.”
    “Cool,” she said. “‘You can ride me on the handlebars.”
    And that’s what they did. Juliet sat in front of him and Chase pedaled for all he was worth. Going up the hills nearly killed him and he nearly killed her as they flew down the slopes. Good thing his granddad lived only three miles outside of town. Chase didn’t know if his heart would last any farther.
     
    When he stopped at the end of the long dirt driveway, Juliet dropped off the front of the bike and looked around at his granddad’s place. “Beverly Hillbillies, anyone?”
    He surveyed the junk-cluttered yard with a smile. “Yeah, Granddad likes to tinker with engines, and he’s not much on mowing grass or pulling weeds.” Chase stomped up the rickety steps to the front porch. “Inside’s better, ’cause he has a lady come clean every week. Except for his workshop, which is a danger zone all by itself.”
    He held back the screen door and pushed the front door open. “Come on in.”
    “Don’t mind if I do.” She stepped past him, brushing her shoulder against his chest and her hip against his legs.
    Chase felt every cell in his body go on alert. He was a goner from that moment on.
     
    Chris doubted any of the girls heard that last part. All of them appeared to have fallen asleep, which was exactly what he’d intended.
    Jayne Thomas stirred in her chair. “That was quite an opening chapter.” He could barely see her in the near-dark, and her voice sounded calm. Had he not stirred a single memory? “Do you include ‘novelist’