Diana remains frozen in place, her pot of clam chowder steaming between them.
“Di,” Colleen says. “Maybe you should give me the pot. You’re not looking right.”
“Um…I…aren’t you…have we met?”
A smile lights up Jake’s face as he looks down on the tiny woman with the Christmas meal in her hands. He takes the pot from her and nods to Colleen that he’ll carry it into the house. Then he studies Diana’s face and says, “Uh, this is insane, but I think we met at UConn a long time ago. Freddy’s. Sticky floors, dark wood, total dive.”
Diana chuckles and flings her hair behind her shoulder as a smirk crosses Colleen’s face. “Yes! I knew I’d seen you somewhere before.”
Jake laughs. “Not a sports fan, huh?”
“What? Um, no,” Diana says. She’s confused but doesn’t get the chance to ask for further explanation when Teyler Walker appears.
Jake bends to put the pot on the floor and he and Teyler engage in some sort of male hand slapping, hug thing that might include a few cheap shots to each other’s groins.
Colleen and Diana watch with puzzled expressions, they’d never understand the male species.
Colleen manages to get everyone inside and into the kitchen without dropping the chowder or her flowers.
Taylor, in the kitchen frying the shrimp, comes to her mother’s rescue with a knowing look to her honorary Aunt Diana. The guy standing next to her dad might be old, but the man was incredibly handsome. “Aunt Di, you’re looking as red as the lobsters for dinner, you feeling okay? I mean, I hear that time of life can really suck the life out of you.” She giggles as Diana flips her off and moves into her space.
Diana gives the underside of Taylor’s toned arm a sharp pinch and twists. “Mmm, shut it, wise ass. Don’t make me use my stockpile of ammunition.”
Diana might not have remained in Falls Village and might only have returned for the holidays with her best friend, but she was a constant in Taylor’s life. Colleen had raised her daughter without a father, but Diana and Kim had played the role well from time to time.
Colleen finally sends Teyler and Jake into the living room to catch up so she can interrogate her best friend while they finish up the meal preparations.
Before leaving, Teyler pulls Colleen into his side and whispers, “I’m not going to come off really well in the story. Just remember, you broke my heart and I was a kid being led around by his dick,” he warns after he knows Diana is about to tell Colleen about his less than admirable behavior.
“It still enters a room a good second or two before you,” Colleen quips.
Teyler roars with laughter then gives her a gentle kiss to her forehead. “You’re the best damn thing for a washed-up athlete’s ego.”
Colleen rolls her eyes. The man is not washed up. He could probably still run circles around the Maritime Academy’s team and she’s seen his abs up close and personal; washboard is more like it.
After the guys retreat into the living room, Colleen sends Diana a glare.
“Shut up before you even start. I’m trying to fix this goddamned chowder and now I can’t even fucking think. Maybe I didn’t add enough clam juice.”
“Don’t set me up for clam jokes, Di. You make it too easy.”
Taylor fake gags before taking the shrimp from the frying pan and placing them in the heating drawer to stay warm. “I’m putting the stuffed breads in too. Appetizers should be ready in about ten minutes. I need to make a quick call.”
The older women hardly acknowledge her absence. Colleen, staring at Diana for an explanation, forces Di to look her way. “What? I met him when I was with Becky at UConn. I told you about that and you told me to never mention it again. I’ve held up my end of the bargain.”
“Did you guys hook up? There were lightning bolts shooting between the two of you. That kind of chemistry usually takes a good romp first.”
“No, I didn’t sleep with him because your ex, at the time, cockblocked me and pulled him out of the bar. All Becky knew was that he played on the team with Teyler.”
“Hmm, unresolved sexual tension. You might just have a merry Christmas after all.”
“Please don’t embarrass me tonight. I’m so far removed from the game; I wouldn’t even know where to begin. And did you look at him? Fucking Christ, he’s still hot. It’s so not fair that men age better than us. They get a little sexy salt in their hair while we grow a second chin.”
“Yup, and by our age, they know how to use what their mamas gave them while we’re still not comfortable in our own skin.”
Diana tastes the chowder and smiles. “You look great, Coll. Have you been working out? This finally tastes right, thank God.”
Colleen shrugs. “Sort of. I mean, with Teyler.”
Diana hums a bow-chicka-wow-wow tune.
“Not like that, well…okay, maybe a little like that. But we do sunset yoga on the beach together and go for walks. I’ve been doing a little light weight training. It’s not about my weight with him. He says he just wants me healthy. He’s the only man that’s ever made me feel sexy. Even when I know I’m fat, he makes me feel desired.”
The Christmas Eve meal is delicious and by the time dessert is being packed away, Taylor is making her exit for the night. “Don’t wait up for me. I’ll be home before Santa comes.”
“I’m doing my best not to make a comment,” Diana whispers to Colleen. “You think she’s got some kind of Christmas Eve fetish after that year with Cody?”
Teyler growls. “Not a name I want to hear.”
“Him either,” Colleen states. “Taylor says, he’s making everyone call him by his middle name now.”
Jake pats his old friend on the back and stands. “I’ll see everyone around one, right?”
“Ah, yeah,” Colleen says shooting Diana a look.
Diana clears her throat. “Um, where are you staying?”
“At the only decent hotel in town.”
Teyler had asked Elliot Montgomery to put Jake up at his B and B but he and Courtney had their families spending the holidays and staying with them so there were no extra rooms.
“Me too.”
“Great,” Teyler says. “Jake, dude, can you give Di a lift back, so I don’t have to leave just yet? I want to help Coll in the kitchen.”
“I’d be happy to, Diana,” Jake says extending his arm for her to take.
“See you two tomorrow,” Colleen singsongs before Teyler pulls her into his side and taps her on the ass.
After a whirlwind few days with Teyler and Colleen and a few steamy nights together in a hotel room, Jake and Diana bid their friends and each other farewell to return to their lives.
Jake feels like a dick and Diana wishes their lives intersected more. But it is what it is. They’re both adults who knew what they were getting into when they shared a bed on Christmas Eve and every night thereafter until it was time to leave Falls Village. They shared a sex-filled holiday season, nothing more, nothing less, and now reality has returned.
Speaking of returns, Callan Black returns to Falls Village a happy man after a holiday vacation with Jordan. They worked their troubles out and Callan is moving into the B and B to be close to his woman. They also found Colleen and Teyler’s castle and are thinking about buying it. Once they heard the stories of the Ingram and Charleston families, Jordan and her sisters have become obsessed with the fairy-tale element and Jordan has insisted on Callan buying it.