EroticReverie

Ginger Noelle Snow... the next day

"Oh and don't forget the nutmeg!" My mother chirps as I pull on my my jacket. 

"Got it." I say, and pull out my phone and add it to the mile long list of ingredients she's sending me into town for, so we can start making the billion different cookies she makes for platters that she hands out to people in town. 

"Sweetie! The nutmeg!" She calls again.

"Got it mom!" I say louder. Because i'm pretty sure she didnt hear me over Bing Crosby crooning about a White Christmas at full blast. 

I walk out to my car, and grab a snow brush and begin to wipe of the three inches of snow that we got overnight when I hear the crunch of snow under tires and turn my head. To see Kristoffer in his Escalade with Jack in the passenger seat. Our parents were old fashioned, so even though my sister Merry and Jack were engaged, they still didn't live together. Honestly, I cringe at the idea of having to have quiet sex constantly, because the only place for them too bump their boots was either at our home, or the Frosts's place. Yikes. No thank you. 

"Hey Ginger! Where ya headed?" Jack yells out the window and then I watch as he smacks Kristoffers arm to get him to stop. I snicker to myself. 

"Grocery store. Mom gave me a mile long list of shit to get for her cookie platters." 

"I love those damn cookies." I hear Jack groan and watch him lick his lips and I laugh. Yeah mom was a favorite around town for her cookie platters. An assortment of every single damn christmas cookie you can think of. And she made hundreds upon hundreds of cookies, one year she made fifty platters. Fucking fifty. She was out of her mind. 

"We're headed there too, ride with us!" Jack says and I watch as Kristoffer nudges him and Jack lets out a "ow" and then nudges him right back and says something to Kristoffer I can't hear. I just laugh and keep brushing off my car, because I know he's rather eat shit in the snow bank with the front end of his car before giving me a ride. Which reminds me....

"that's alright! I said I had to go to the grocery store, not the nearest snow bank!" I yell, making sure he hears me. And oh he does. That grumpy face leans forward to peer around his brothers head and scowls at me. I laugh, so does Jack. 

"Oh come on, that was funny" Jack says and gives another "ow" , probably being assaulted by his brother again. 

"Cmon! No sense in you wiping that all off and waiting for it to heat up." He says. 

"I don't wait. I just drive it." I say with a shrug, and hear Kristoffer huff and I smirk. Because I remember him giving me a ten minute mansplaining lecture when I was sixteen and had just gotten my license that I needed to stop driving right away, that even in warmer weather, i should always let my car run before driving. But i took the advice and applied it and still do. But he doesnt need to know that, and I'll say just about anything to annoy him. 

"Get in the fucking car." Kristoffer grumbles and I smile. Dropping the snow brush onto the hood of my car for later retrieval.

"Only because you asked me with such festive cheer." I say loudly and then walk down the driveway and pull open the back door and get in. I shut the door a bit too hard, on purpose of course. 

I can feel the grin on my face as I look to the tick of his jaw under that facial hair. Another point for me. I say as he turns his head and glares at me and I bat my eyelashes at him. 

"Oops." I say with a little shrug and throw my green mittened hands in the air. 

His nostrils flare and then he glares at Jack. 

"Just drive." Jack says with a laugh. 

It's silent for about fifteen seconds before I grow bored and decide to play my favorite game of How Much Can I Piss off Kris? 

"Careful, there's a snowbank ahead." I say. 

His jaw ticks and I smile to myself as his big hands grip the wheel. Oh , he makes it too easy. 

"There are snowbanks EVERYWHERE." He growls.

"Mm, yeah, guess you better be extra careful then." I say and Jack snickers to himself, Kristoffer shakes his head and exhales like he's trying to keep himself from turning around and wringing my neck. I dare you , you big grumpy Grinch, I think to myself as I picture Kristoffer's hands around my throat. Oooo, that'd be fun. I look at his hands, locking the sight of them away for later when Im able to get some alone time. 

"Soooooo, you excited to be my brother in law?" I ask. 

"Oh, fucking thrilled." He says and I smile as I look out the window at the houses in the neighborhood, all decorated with lights that the even keep on during the day, some with blow up christmas lawn ornaments. 

"Wait!" I screech. Kristoffer jerks to a stop and curses as he skids. 

"Jesus christ, what?!" He says annoyed and I just look at The Bernard's house. 

"Where is the manger? Where is the sleigh? Why isn't their yard decorated?! What the hell Manny!" I say , knowing every year Manny Bernanrd lights the house up like the fucking sun, and him and Mildred will spend hours rearranging the manger seen , arguing over who goes where, or where to put it in the yard. 

"Oh, your mom didn't tell you? Or Merry?" Jack asks. 

"Tell me what?" I ask. The Bernanrd's not having their yard display was just not acceptable. I loved the Bernard's , okay maybe it was mainly because they didn't send me to jail when I'd stolen baby jesus from his manger when I was seven years old.  Okay, they wouldnt have sent an eight year old to jail. But I'd cried when my mother made me walk the big plastic baby jesus back to their house and sweet Mildred just laughed as I cried and handed over her stolen property while asking her not to tell the police. Then , for Christmas, they'd left an identical baby jesus on my door step, in a basket, with a big red bow from "Santa". I loved the Bernards, they were a cute old couple that were as nice as could be, and let me put MY baby jesus in their manger in their yard every year. Sure, two baby jesus's in one bed didn't make sense, but they let me put it there anyways, every year. 

The car is silent. 

"Tell me what? Did they move?" I ask, but Manny's old dark green four door sits in the driveway. 

"Ginger.." Kristoffer says. And he looks at me. For the first time in years, his face isn't filled with annoyance, or that grumpy scowl I know so well. I don't like it. 

It's Jack who speaks next though. 

"Manny passed away in October." Jack says softly, and my heart drops into my stomach and right out of my fucking ass, and my eyes well with tears and I look away from Kristoffer who is still looking at me. Immediately, Im choking back a sob and my lower lip trembles and I can feel Kristoffer's watching me still. Silent, neither of them speaking. 

"Oh." I croak as tears slip down my cheeks. Fuck. I can't hold it back. I drop my face into my mittens and let it all out. Crying as quietly as I fucking can into my hands while Kristoffer watches. 

"I'm sorry Ginger" Jack says. "I thought your mom would have told you, or Merry." he says.  "I know how much you love them." He says and turns and reaches back and pats my knee. 

I was going through my breakup with my ex, had found him in bed with a friend of his. You know the kind of friend, the one they tell you "Not to worry about." Yeah. They probably thought it was best not to tell me. But how could they not? How could they not fucking tell me? 

"Ginger." Kristoffer says gently. 

I shake my head. "Can...we just...go?" I say and close my eyes as tears pour down my cheeks. 

"Yeah. Okay." Kristoffer says and the car starts to roll away slowly, and I open my eyes and look at the bare lawn covered in snow. Mildred inside, all alone. No Manny. No husband to argue over where you put the manger, no decorations at all. My heart fucking hurts. I didnt even get to go to his funeral.  I wipe my running nose with my mitten. 

The rest of the drive is silent. I go my own way in the store, picking out all the things on the list, in a daze as I think of all the memories I had at their house growing up, them caroling at our doorstep with others, and us caroling on theirs, and always having cups of cocoa at he ready for any kids who knocked on their door in winter. Extra mashmallows. The real kind, not the hard mini ones that come in those lame packets. 

I load my bags into the backseat when all three of us are done. The ride home is silent, and Kristoffer takes the backway into the nieghborhood to avoid passing the Bernanrd house, and I close my eyes. Because him being kind and thoughtful is really weird, and also because avoiding it just makes it worse. 

"I'll bring these in for you." Jack says as I get out of the car. I nod and say thank you and start to walk up the driveway behind him. 

I dont even hear Kristoffer get out the drivers side. 

"Ginger." He says and I stop, sniffling and turn slowly and look at him, and he's right there, looking down at me and my lip wobbles. 

"Do you....um....do you....need a hug?" He asks and I cant help it, I laugh , but barely, through my tears and wipe my eyes, because he looks so uncomfortable right now. 

"YOU want to give ME a hug?" I say, trying to make a joke but it falls flat, and his head just tilts as he looks at me like he never has before.

"If it will make you feel better. Then yes." He says. and I sniffle, my lip wobbling more and I give a little nod.

"Okay" I croak and he immediately opens his arms, and I'm given the best god damn hug I've ever had. My hands grip the back of his jacket as I bury my face in chest. He hugs me tight and even cradles the back of my head as I cry into his chest. 

"I would have told you. I thought you knew. I know how much you love the Bernards." He says and ...did he just kiss the top of my head through my knitted hat? 

I just nod against his chest. Because he did know. One of the few times we ever joined our evil forces as kids was finding out who had egged the Bernards house. We decided if it was girls that had done it, I'd kick their ass. If it was boys, then he would kick their ass. Thankfully, because I cant throw a punch for shit, it was boys. And true to his word, Kristoffer Cole, got suspended for two weeks, for punching three boys, giving a total of two black eyes and three bloody noses. Because he loves the Bernards too. It was the one thing we had in common, we loved Mildred and Manny Bernard. 

"Do you, want to go somewhere?" He asks. I nod. Because I knew I didnt want to go into the house, I didnt want to be mad at my mom for not telling me even though she was probably trying to keep me from spiraling. 

"Can we go see Mildred?" I ask as I lift my head and look up at him. God he's so tall, and so beautiful, and he smells really fucking good, and he's really warm, and his hugs are pretty fucking amazing. 

"Sure." he nods and then lifts his hand and wipes his thumb over my cheek. Then the other thumb, over my other cheek, and he stares at my cheeks as he clears them off tears. his hands on my face.

"I think you gottem all." I say and watch his eyes snap to mine. A small smirk on his lips, he nods.

"Im not wiping your snot. That's on you." he says. I smile softly, thankful for the return to semi nemesis territory.

"No Kristoffer Cole...it's on you. Literally. I point to his shirt and he looks down and flip my finger up and flick his nose. He growls. 

"Get in the car Ginger." he says and I give a little laugh. He opens the door for me and I lift my brow at him.

"Kristoffer Cole? A Gentleman? Miracles DO exist." I say and he rolls his eyes, shuts my door and then walks back around the driver side, and we drive the few streets over to see Mildred.