Free Good Enough to Share (Good Enough, Book 1 - Christmas) by Zara Stoneley

eating and
I was itching from the inside out. I’m one of those people who want the full
story, all the facts, and I’m not very patient when I’ve just been served
crumbs. Charlie finally took pity on me on my state of ignorance.
    “It was this girl
called Anna.” He took another good mouthful of food and chewed slowly, being
polite and not saying a word until his mouth was empty. Completely empty. “We
were best mates at school and then we made the mistake of dating.” I’m sure the
next look he gave me was pretty pointed. Friends to lovers, mistake, hmm. “It
was great at first because we got on so well, we knew everything about each
other and it seemed—” He took a swig of wine and cleared his mouth, his throat,
and my own ached a little for him. He looked so well, I suppose forlorn is the
word. “It seemed great for quite a while.” The gentle drift of his voice told
me this hurt. “Then I guess she got bored of it all, of me. I thought it was
all good, but seems I was wrong.” He did that shrug again. “A Dear John was all
I got.”
    “A Dear John?” I
couldn’t quite believe it, even if a beautiful friendship had turned into
disaster as a romance surely it deserved more than a letter goodbye.
    “Yup. One note
saying I have to go, it’s for the best, trust me and one day you’ll be
pleased I did . Anyhow it’s water under the bridge, it was ages ago.”
Another swig of wine. “You live and learn as they say.”
    But it obviously
wasn’t water under the bridge or he wouldn’t remember word for word what she’d
said. “Why did she say it’s for the best?” It seemed a weird choice of words to
end something that had obviously meant so much. I mean, even if the girl had
decided that he wasn’t her type as a lover, they’d been close. Charlie might
seem the most laid-back guy in the world, but I bet he could spot a fake at
fifty yards, so Anna had been no fake.
    “Leave it, Hol.”
Dane’s voice was a soft warning. “Come on guys, we’ve not pulled the crackers.”
He waved his, and Charlie somehow resurrected his grin.
    “A three way pull?” I looked from one to the other of them and they
both waved a cracker in my direction and after a moments hesitation I picked
mine up, wondering what I was letting myself in for.
    ***
    “And now it’s time
to play the party games.”
    “What?” I
stretched out on the sofa and even though the turkey had been settling for a
couple of hours I still had that after dinner laziness. We’d slobbed in front
of the TV for a while, but now it seemed action man Dane was getting twitchy.
“You mean like charades?”
    “Twister is more
my style.” I groaned, right now lying flat on my back seemed far more
appealing. My groan turned to a shriek as he tickled the sole of my foot.
    “Stop it.” I tried
to kick out but he held my ankle with one strong hand. “I mean it, stop it, you
sod.” I could have said I had very ticklish feet, but it was kind of
unnecessary. “I’m not one of your nephews.”
    He grinned. “Oh,
I’m well aware of that.” One finger traced a line the length of my foot, then
slowly, excruciatingly back making every muscle in my legs tense up. His thumb
pressed firmly down on my insole and suddenly I didn’t know whether I wanted
him to stop or carry on, he massaged across the ball of my foot and I stopped
fighting. A little shimmy zigzagged its way up my leg all the way to the top
and a new set of muscles clenched. This time with want. His grip on my ankle
eased and he held my foot in a gentle embrace as his other rubbed over every millimeter
of my foot with firm strokes that were a lifetime away from ticklish. My knees
dropped apart when he started on my other foot, both thumb easing their way up
the length of my sole, circling, pressing. “Nice?”
    “Yes.” It was a
croaky, weak squeak of a response but it seemed to be what he wanted because
the warmth of his hand started to move up my leg, firm fingers kneading