Page 45 of Hensley Manor
I slid off the couch and stood up. My legs were a bit wobbly, and I couldn’t tell if the nausea bubbling in my stomach was from the hangover or from the fact that it had all been a dream. All of it.
Ian wasn’t real.
“No, no, no.” I pushed my hands through my hair, gripping the strands. Refusing to believe it.
Hehadto be real. It couldn’t have been a dream.
Spotting my phone on the table, I grabbed it and looked at the date. At the manor, we would’ve been preparing for Christmas Eve today. But the digital calendar showed it was only December fifteenth.
“What the hell’s goin’ on?”
Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed the snow globe and peered into it.
The manor looked so lonely now. No lights shining from the inside, no lit Christmas trees twinkling in the windows. I upturned the globe to cause the snow to move and then watched it. Tears blurred my vision, and I prayed I’d wake up fromthisdream.
I needed Ian. Needed his warm smile, comforting arms, smooth voice, and raspy laugh.
Goddammit, I loved him.
And I never got the chance to tell him.
Holding the snow globe in my hands, I closed my eyes and made a wish.Please take me back. Please.I repeated the words over and over in my mind. I imagined Ian’s lips pressing a soft kiss to my temple, imagined his arms around me.
Please take me back to him.
When I opened my eyes…I was still in my living room, staring into a snow globe that was supposed to have made the pain inside me go away. But it didn’t. The pain remained in my sternum as my heart shattered.
Ian isn’t real.
The thought drew a sob from my chest and I hung my head, feeling lower than I had in a long time.
Someone knocked on my door, a loudthump thump.
“Cole? Get up, you bum.”
In a sort of daze, I walked over and opened the door. Lance shuddered on my doorstep as he was pelted with sleet and snow. I stepped aside so he could get out of the cold then shut the door behind him.
“You look like hell,” he said, eyeing me. Then, his gaze lowered. “Make any Christmas wishes like I told you?”
I looked down to see the snow globe still in my hand.
“Cole, are you okay? You seem out of it.”
Everything had seemed so real; walking through the manor, feeling the warmth on my skin from the fire, tasting the wine off Ian’s lips, and having him inside of me. For over a week, I had woken up in Evergreen Valley. I’d had conversations with interesting people, eaten dinner with them.
And I’d fallen in love.
“I…” My heart was in my throat and my eyes stung. “I don’t know what’s happening.”
My legs gave out, and I caught myself on the back of the kitchen chair.
“Dude, what the hell?” Lance threw an arm around me and guided me over to the couch. Once I was seated, he let go and watched me with a deep frown. He touched the whiskey bottle on the table and tilted it up, shaking his head. “How much did you drink last night? You can’t keep doing this, Cole. You’re a wreck.”
“Lance, it’s not like that.” I was panicking now. It felt like the rug had been pulled out from underneath me and I was mid-fall, desperate for something to grab onto before I hit the ground.
“Then tell me what it’s like,” Lance said. “Because all I see is you hungover from another drunken binge.”
“You’d think I was crazy if I told you.”
