Happy New Year!!!!! (insert confetti throwing and horn blowing and kissing here)

The theme for today’s Snippet Saturday is quite appropriate. New Beginnings. We’re at the start of a brand new year with all possibilities ahead. Looking forward. Not looking back except… to learn from our mistakes and missteps, to remember fondly those that have perhaps come and gone in our lives.

I think I will pick from Sweet Caroline today…

Snippet:

“Did you find everything you needed?”

Caroline smiled at the clerk, Janis. No one knew her or her past or her sexual interests. They didn’t look at her with judgment in their eyes. They all smiled at her, asked about her, asked if there was anything she needed to help her get settled in their community. She felt at home, truly at home for the first time in her life. “Yes, thank you.”

“Baking something today?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve always found nothing makes a new place feel like home quite like the smell of something baking.”

“Yes, I agree.”

“You liking it up here?”

“I love it actually. It’s beautiful. I like seeing the mountains outside the windows.”

“That cabin you bought is on a really great piece of property. Too pricey for most folks here, but I’m glad to see someone sweet as you bought it. It’s big enough to raise a family in too.”

It certainly was. She’d taken the finished basement and made it her office. If it hadn’t been for her realtor’s husband helping her move things down the stairs, she would’ve had to use one of the spare bedrooms. Which she could have done, but she was glad to have separate work and living space.

She paid for her groceries and took the three bags in hand. She purposely ignored the comment about a family and tried to ignore the pang in her chest that said Buck would have been a great one to consider having a family with. She didn’t do such a good job of it. It stung and not for the first time, she mentally kicked herself for not having asked him what he was doing for the next few months, years, the rest of his life. “Thank you, Janis. I hope you have a nice afternoon.”

“I will, Caroline. You do the same.”

On the way back to the cabin, Caroline waved to other people she’d met. She’d made a friend in one of the part-time waitress’ Rosie and thought about stopping into the diner for breakfast, but the parking lot was crowded and she had a lot of refrigerated items.

Rosie had come over yesterday and helped Caroline unpack her things, carted the boxes away, bought her a welcome to Blue Ridge dinner and then they sat outside on the deck wrapped in blankets, sipping wine, looking at the stars and warming themselves by the outdoor fire pit.

Been a long time since she’d had a girl friend who wasn’t a lover, and she’d forgotten how much she enjoyed having female friendship that wasn’t hampered, hindered or all around fucked up by sex. It ruined those friendships as much as it ruined the friendships with men, which was why she never became friends with men she was lovers with or vice versa. Just wasn’t worth liking someone that much on so many levels for it to all come to a screeching halt the minute the sex stopped.

Buck though, that had been different. Nothing ever felt odd or forced before or after they started fucking like a couple of horny teenagers. They were discovering each other and what they each enjoyed, but there was something to be said for being comfortable with someone, free to delve deeper into feelings and motivations. She’d had that with him, too. Sex added fun and intense pleasure, but they were able to talk beyond the bed and the spankings, and she’d really enjoyed that.

And she had missed cooking for more than herself. Caring for someone other than her own person. She was meant for that, to be a caregiver, to do for others. It’s one of the reasons she picked baskets and gifts for her business. It was providing not only a product but a personal touch of service as well. She thrived on that most of all, knowing she was helping, giving, offering something of herself.

The small gravel and rubber lined drive loomed on the left and she carefully turned in. She wasn’t sure what she’d do when there was snow piled high, but she’d figure it out. She planned on making a couple trips into town a week to mail off packages, but to also get out of the house, to talk to people, to become part of the place she’d chosen to live.

The cabin came into view and as it had since she arrived, it made her smile. Big. Then she saw the truck. His truck. Buck’s truck. He was rocking in a chair on her front porch and stood as soon as she parked her Jeep. She turned off the ignition, and he walked down the three steps. She got out and he was there, his hands in her hair, his lips on hers, his hot solid body warming hers from the outside in.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered against his cheek as he held her head close.

He looked down into her eyes and kissed the tip of her nose. “You forgot a few things when you left.”

“I did?”

“Uh huh. You did.”

“Dare I ask what I forgot?” Not that she really cared. He was here. He’d brought whatever it was to her.

“Me.”

Okay, she cared. A lot. “I didn’t forget you.”

“You left me there, and you didn’t ask me to come along.”

“I didn’t know how.”

“I kind of figured. So, I brought me here to you.”

Caroline threw her arms around his neck and hugged him so tight he had to push her away so he could breathe again. “For how long?”

“As long as you want me to stay. I won’t push, I won’t force my way into your life. I won’t take anything you aren’t willing to give, but I want to be part of your life. I don’t want to be part of your past, a memory of a fling you had for a few weeks with the handyman. I want to be part of your now, your tomorrow, and as many days after as you’ll let me be.”

End Snippet

Again, Happy New Year! Here’s to new beginnings and new pleasures… Don’t forget to check out the following authors’ snippets…

Leah Braemel
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
Eliza Gayle
Shelli Stevens
TJ Michaels

~lissa