It Starts With L (The Letters of Love Series Book 1)

  “I’m not any boy.” Blake puffed his chest out. “I am your boyfriend.”

  She smiled, loving the sound of that word floating from his lips. “You are. And have I told you how happy I am about that?”

  His eyes glittered back at her. “I could say the same thing.” She didn’t stop him when he pressed his lips against hers.

  She couldn’t catch her breath when she pulled away, but after a few seconds she could breathe like a normal person again. “Better walk while we can. It’s almost dark.” She stood and started to cross the street. Before she could, Blake came up behind her and lifted her, spinning her around.

  “I’m so glad I met you, Ari,” he said.

  She slapped at his arms as her heartbeat sped up because she was way too heavy for him to pick up. “Put me down. Now!”

  “I don’t think I want to. You are amazing.”

  “I hope you’re still saying that in a few weeks.” She smacked his hands. “Now put me down, he-man.”

  He set her back on her own two feet, no strain showing on his face. “Oh, I will be. Don’t you worry.”

  ***

  They met up with Jess and Damien in front of the ice cream shop. Jess was licking a strawberry cone. Blake pulled on the sleeve of her shirt. “Want some ice cream?”

  Arielle shrugged. She didn’t have the confidence Jess had, and eating in front of a boy made her nervous. Although, she did want a cone.

  “Okay, what flavor?” Blake asked.

  “Vanilla.”

  “Bo-oring,” he drawled.

  Arielle dropped her mouth open and put her hands on her hips. “Vanilla is so not boring. There are more different vanilla flavors than…like…any other flavor.”

  Blake chuckled. “Oh yeah?”

  She stuck her chin in the air. “Yup.”

  “Okay. Remind me never to argue with you.” He put his hands up in surrender, bowing down to her. “Arielle is always right.”

  She reached over and tickled his sides. “Something you should always remember.”

  As he went to get her an ice cream, Jess joined her side. “Are you guys having fun? I’m sorry I ditched you two, but Damien wanted to be alone. You understand, right?”

  Arielle smiled, wrapping her arm around her friend. “Of course I do. I’m glad you guys are doing better after your last party.”

  “He’s perfect. But not as perfect as you and Mr. Dreamy there. Are you two perfect together or what?”

  Arielle shrugged. Then she squealed with excitement. “We are, right?”

  Jess nodded and pretty soon the two of them were jumping up and down together, shrieking like a bunch of cheerleaders.

  Blake handed her the vanilla cone. “What did I miss?”

  Jess grinned with mischief. “Don’t you wish you knew?” Then she walked away, joining Damien at the wooden picnic table.

  “I’m guessing Damien is going to be taking your friend home,” he said.

  Arielle nodded. “I’m guessing you’re right. Which means you’ll be giving me a ride home.”

  “Oh, does it now?”

  She nodded again.

  His phone rang then. He pulled it from his jacket. “Hello.” A pause. “Oh. Crap. I didn’t know that was tonight.” Another pause. “Sure. Arielle’s with me, so you’ll get to meet her. We’ll be there in about five minutes.”

  He smiled. “So, I wanted to do dinner and a movie tonight, but my aunt just called and the Christmas Trail decorating is tonight. I forgot all about it. You don’t mind doing that, do you?”

  Arielle shook her head. “Not one bit. In fact, I think it might be fun.” She held up a finger. “Let me just tell Jess.”

  “I like how chill you are when plans change.”

  Arielle chuckled. “That’s me, so chill I could freeze an icicle.” She ran over to Jess and told her about the change of plans. Jess had already planned to leave with Damien, as Arielle had thought, so it worked out perfectly.

  Blake held her hand all the way back to the car, not letting it go until he had to get in. It took six minutes before they arrived at the house. Arielle’s stomach fluttered as she got out of the car and followed behind Blake toward the front door. He rang the doorbell then glanced back at her. “Ready for this?”

  “Sure,” she replied, her stomach fluttering. She knew his aunts and his grandma would be there, and she’d never met either of them before, so she found herself hesitating behind him, scared to go inside even when the door opened.

  When the door opened, Blake showed not even an ounce of nerves. He went right in, so Arielle had to follow. What would it look like if she stood on the steps but never went inside?

  The warmth of the fireplace hit her in the face as she walked into what looked like a living room. A TV hung from the wall, a big one, and a gray sectional took up the middle of the room, but a lot of room still remained. Arielle had never seen such a large living room. When her eyes landed on the Christmas tree, she couldn’t believe what she saw. The tree actually made the room look small.

  Blake took her hand and pulled her to his side, where three older women stood with smiles on their faces. Two were short with dark gray hair at their shoulders. They looked like sisters, with the same tiny nose and thin lips. The other had curly silver hair, cut short but fashionable. She was taller than the other two, with fuller lips and big blue eyes.

  “Arielle, this is Aunt Mo, Aunt Bev, and Grandma.” The shorter ones were his aunts and Grandma was the taller of the three.

  Arielle took her hand back as she crossed her arms over her stomach, then uncrossed them and kept them at her sides until finally she settled on pulling her hands up and picking at her nails. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

  Aunt Mo grinned. “You too, even though we feel like we know everything about you. You are all this boy talks about.”

  Blake’s cheeks turned the color of strawberries ripe in the field. “Aunt Mo. Come on…”

  Aunt Bev laughed. “Well, it’s the truth. You wouldn’t want us to lie to your girlfriend, would you?”

  Grandma took Arielle’s hand in hers, covering it with her other hand. “Don’t mind the aunts, dear. They have no manners. It’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”

  “I’ve heard so much about you too. I’m glad we could come and help.”

  “And help you will.” Aunt Mo pointed at the tree. “We have to decorate the tree tonight, and this room. Then we will come back to do the rest of the house and the outside.”

  With that, they got to work. The theme of the house was Santa’s workshop, so she found all the tree decorations with Santa and elves and set them aside. She found some Rudolf decorations too. First, they strung the lights on the tree. Blake stood on one side and Arielle on the other so they could wrap the strand around the whole tree, but it got difficult when they hit the bottom since it widened so much there. At one point, Arielle almost fell into the tree, but luckily Blake steadied her before she took the dive.

  Laughter carried through the whole house. There was something about decorating for Christmas that lightened Arielle’s heart. The holidays were such a fun time full of family and friends. Her favorite time of the year.

  After the lights, they wrapped candy red garland around the tree. Once they finished, the decorations went up. Placement was key, and by the end, as Arielle stood back and examined their work, she realized it looked perfect.

  “This looks awesome.” Arielle rolled her sleeves up. “I can’t believe we did this.”

  Blake stepped to her side and wrapped an arm around her. “We make a great team.”

  She felt the blush creep into her cheeks as Blake touched his lips to hers. When she looked up, both aunts and his grandma were peeking around the tree, grinning. So much for privacy.

  Not caring one bit, he took both of Arielle’s hands in his and brought them to his lips. “I really like you. You know that? I don’t want this thing between us to fizzle out before it even has the chance to begin.”
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  Arielle’s insides were like cheese on a stove as she melted. Blake sure knew how to say the right things. “Me either. I haven’t been this happy in a long time.”

  “Same for me. Now let’s finish decorating.”

  Arielle followed Blake and got to work again. The whole time, her thoughts swarmed inside her head. Never had she met a guy like him. They must breed them different down in South Carolina because these Ohio boys sucked…no manners and complete doucherockets. But Blake, he had her swooning, and she saw no signs of stopping in the near future.

  He was almost too perfect, which reminded her the other shoe hadn’t dropped yet. Hopefully, it wouldn’t crush her when it did.

  Chapter 8

  That Darn Shoe

  It was almost time for Thanksgiving and Arielle was excited, even though she wouldn’t see Blake for a few days since they didn’t have to go to school. It was a win for her, even with the loss.

  Blake took her home from school Tuesday. In the car, it was so quiet the sound of a feather swaying through the air would have been loud. She couldn’t take it anymore.

  Arielle touched his arm. “What’s wrong?”

  He shrugged. “Nothing.” He reached over and turned the radio up. “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses blared, making Arielle chuckle since November had come and still it rained. Her mind went back to the last time she’d heard this song with Blake and she smiled.

  As soon as he heard the song, he hit the power button, turning the radio off.

  Arielle took a deep breath. “I can tell something is bothering you. You might as well tell me.”

  Blake pulled into her driveway and parked the car. He twisted in his seat so he could face her. “Listen. I can’t…not right now. I’ll talk to you about it later, okay?”

  Arielle’s heartbeat quickened. She didn’t know what had happened. Her fingers shook with nerves at the thought of what this “talk” would be about. She unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the car door. “Sure.” Before she got out, she leaned over to Blake to give him a kiss, but he turned his head at the last minute so she hit his cheek. “Okay, then. Bye.” She climbed out and shut the door before he had a chance to say a word, not that it looked like he would.

  Arielle wrapped her arms around herself as she walked into the house. She didn’t know how to get him to talk, but hopefully she’d be able to when she saw him later. Something serious had to be going on. Even though everything had been great between them, the what-ifs invading her mind might swallow her whole, so she went inside and ran up the stairs without saying anything to her dad. She closed her door, locking out the world, then turned her stereo on to a random station, sat on her bed, and wrote in her journal.

  After that, she lay down and stared straight ahead, trying to let the music take her mind off things, but it didn’t work. She couldn’t stop thinking about Blake. It almost seemed like he didn’t want to be around her, but that couldn’t be true. Before this, he’d given her no inclination that his feelings had changed. In fact, quite the opposite. Even still, her heart hammered in her chest. She curled her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

  Hours later, a car horn honked, and she jumped, still sitting in the same spot she’d been in.

  “Arielle, your boyfriend’s here to pick you up. At least I guess he is since it must be him honking instead of comin’ to the front door,” Dad yelled upstairs.

  She stood on weak legs, hobbling down the stairs. “Thanks, Dad. I’ll be back a bit later.”

  “Ten. I know it ain’t no school night, but it’s still ten.”

  Arielle nodded, then flew out the door, ready to get this out of the way. She jogged to the passenger side of Blake’s car through the cold drizzle and slid inside, a bit damp. Darkness had already chased away the brightness from the sun, but when Arielle opened the door, the light inside the car popped on, showing Blake’s pale face. “Okay, what the heck is wrong with you?”

  He held up a finger, motioning for her to wait. As soon as she closed the door, he pressed the gas pedal down, throwing up dirt and loose stones from Arielle’s driveway. Her back slammed into her seat, her seatbelt locking up against her chest.

  She bit her lip to keep quiet and stared out the window, watching the rain stick to and slide down the glass, which stopped her from giving Blake an earful. Letting him have it before she knew the whole story might be harder than she thought, but she would try to let him explain himself. Maybe something happened with his dad. They had a lot of issues and didn’t get along well. Maybe he didn’t want his son to go home for the holiday or something. She needed to somehow turn her mind off because it wouldn’t stop reeling.

  Blake pulled into the back of an abandoned parking lot, the first one he’d ever taken her to, and parked the car. “Ari, I’ve got to talk to you.”

  “I could kind of tell, so what’s up?”

  He sighed. “Listen. I’m sorry, but I have to break up with you. I…I can’t do this right now.”

  Arielle’s heart dropped to the floor and all the breath rushed from her. She touched her lips together, then opened her mouth back up, not able to even form words. None of this made any sense. They’d been happy, at least Arielle had thought they were, and now, for no reason, he wanted to break up.

  Before she could stop them, tears welled over her eyes and slid down her cheeks like the rain she’d watched fall down the window.

  Blake cleared his throat. “I’m sorry…”

  She turned, glaring at him. “Yeah. Thanks. But you already said that.”

  “Ari, I’m into you. Like a lot.”

  She chortled. “Great. It seems like it.”

  He touched her arm and she yanked it into her lap, moving as close to the door as she could. She couldn’t get far enough away.

  He winced. “I am. Believe me, I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think I had to. But since I won’t be here more than a year, there’s no way this will work when I go back to South Carolina.”

  Arielle couldn’t hear any more. She opened her door and got out, right into the cold rain. She wrapped her arms around herself as the drops soaked into her long brown sweater and she ran, but she had no idea how to escape this.

  The sound of a car door slamming followed her, which made her run even faster. She had to get away from him. She couldn’t face him.

  She started crying harder, which slowed her down even more. It didn’t take long before Blake grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him. She fell into his chest, crying, and he wrapped his arms around her.

  She jerked away. “Don’t touch me. What is wrong with you? You break up with me and then try to hold me?”

  Blake’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry…”

  “Quit saying you’re sorry!” she screamed, her words echoing through the darkness.

  “I don’t want to lose your friendship, Ari. You mean too much to me.” Blake ran a hand through his hair.

  Arielle took a deep breath. “I don’t think I can be just friends with you Blake. I lo—” She almost said it, but somehow stopped herself before she could make even more of a fool of herself. She couldn’t tell him she loved him after he’d broken up with her.

  He walked forward, closing the distance between them. Cupping her cheek, he wiped his thumb across her face. Back and forth. Over and over. She leaned into his touch then stopped herself.

  Being his friend would hurt. She had feelings that ran all the way to her core, but if she could keep him in her life, maybe she should. Even if it was as a friend.

  Maybe she would learn to stand on her own two feet, not lean on someone else all the time. She’d always had Jess, now Blake. She’d never had to be alone. By herself. Never had she had to find her own inner strength. Maybe now she could.

  She stepped away from his touch. “Fine. You want to be friends? Great! But that means no more touching. No more hugs. No tickling. No flirting. Nothing.” She backed away from him, putting her hands on her hips. “I don’t know if I can
be your friend. All I can do is try. But if you think you can keep everything as it was, you’ve got another thing coming.” Arielle sighed. “Can you take me home?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, an early night would be a good idea since I have a long drive to South Carolina ahead of me tomorrow.”

  How perfect for him. He broke up with her and would be able to disappear for a few days while she had to stay behind and live with all the memories and be in all the places they’d been together.

  If only she’d trusted her instincts before when she’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop…but no…she didn’t listen to herself and the damn shoe smacked her right upside the head on its descent to the ground.

  She climbed back in the car, stapling her lips together. She had no more words to say. Not tonight, at least. He’d broken up with her out of the blue. She hadn’t seen it coming and still didn’t have a clue where it had come from. It made no sense. But she couldn’t say any of those things yet unless she wanted to sound like a crazy, clingy person, and she had never been that kind of girl.

  How could she move forward as his friend? They went together like Cheerios and bananas. A perfect match. She might not know everything about love, but she knew enough to know she loved Blake. And now they were friends. A word she had started to hate.

  Sometimes, life sucked.

  Chapter 9

  Preparations

  When Arielle walked into her house, the tears she’d somehow dried up when she’d been with Blake fell harder.

  Mom stood from her reclining chair and rushed to her side, wrapping her arms around Arielle. “What’s wrong, honey?”

  “He broke up with me, Mom.”

  “That no good…” Dad said.

  “Dad, don’t.” Arielle stopped him. “He wasn’t mean about it. He wants to be friends because he’s leaving at the end of the year. It’s fine, but it hurts…a little.” Or a lot.

  “Honey, boys are going to come and go from your life. Don’t take this one too hard. It was your first boyfriend.” Mom tilted her head to the side, then pulled Arielle close for a hug.