My One Night: An On My Own Novel by Carrie Ryan (life books to read .txt) 📕

easy for most people, and I knew they wouldn’t ever be easy for us. Pacey was in pain after losing Corinne—we all were. I just hoped he found someone to talk to about it soon. Yet only a blink of time had passed since the loss, and I didn’t know what would happen next.

We all had memories and entanglements when it came to this time of the year, and finding joy in it was sometimes the only thing we could do.

Mackenzie walked in, a cheese board in her hand. “Hi there, have you seen Sanders?”

I looked at the small group of people who had come to celebrate a semester and a girl we all missed and shook my head. “No, he might be up in his room.”

Mackenzie nodded, her smile a little forced. “Thank you again for hosting.” Her eyes filled with tears, but she quickly blinked them away. “I just...thank you. It’s nice to be included.” She leaned in, kissed me on the cheek, and then did the same to Elise before setting the cheese board down. People attacked it with gusto, and Mackenzie smiled softly. She liked taking care of people, even if it was usually in her orderly way. I didn’t mind, though, because I liked it when she cooked, and she was taking care of Elise, too. That was a plus for me.

Elise leaned into me again, and I looked down at her. “Hey,” I whispered.

“Hey, there. I can’t believe I kissed you in front of everybody in this room,” she mumbled.

I raised a brow. “If I remember right, I’m the one who kissed you.”

“But I asked.”

“Maybe. Or perhaps we did what we should have.”

“I still can’t believe you’re also the guy I saw across the coffee shop.”

“When your mouth went slack, and you just couldn’t help but fall in love with me?” I teased.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, sure, that’s exactly what happened.”

I snorted and kissed her softly. “Merry Christmas, Elise.”

“Merry Christmas, Dillon. I got you a gift, you know.”

“I thought you were my gift.”

“And what? Are you going to unwrap me later?” she asked, her voice low.

My dick went hard, and I swallowed. “Well, if you’re going down that path…” I began and laughed. We’d been together the night before in quiet peace, but the teasing was slow to come. It would take time. We’d been through too much in the past month, and we were still finding our footing. But we would. Because we’d found each other. “I love you,” I whispered.

“Hey, I love you, too. Now, let’s get some cheese before the rest of the horde steals it.”

“You always say the sweetest things.”

I kissed her again before we went to join the others. I hadn’t meant to fall in love at my age. Hadn’t thought I ever would. I’d always been the one who helped my family when I could and watched my brothers fall in love one by one, each under harder circumstances than the last as the years went on. They had each come to me for and with advice. It had taken falling in love myself to realize the chance they had taken for that hope.

A chance I had freely fallen into.

One I would take again and again when it came to Elise.

She was more than my one night. She was my everything.

Mackenzie

After fifteen years, you would think I would be used to searching out and finding my boyfriend. However, it seemed to annoy me more and more these days. Mostly because finding Sanders sometimes took an act of God. My heart hurt too much at the moment to focus on others.

I knew he had to be in the house somewhere. After all, this was his holiday party—his and his roommates’. I just needed to find him. Even though he was usually the life of the party, he sometimes liked to step away and give himself some space. It made sense. He was great at being the center of attention until it got to be too much, and he needed a break. Just to breathe. I was the same way, so I knew I would probably find him in his room as Dillon had said.

I waved at the others, though I didn’t recognize a few. This wasn’t my home, even though I had been staying here for the past week. I needed to find a new place to live, and through the worst set of unimaginable circumstances, I might’ve found some new roommates. But I didn’t want to think about that right now. I didn’t want to think about the fact that I would be a replacement. A placeholder for someone I truly adored and would rather have in my life with me living in a box on the street. I missed Corinne.

I shoved those thoughts from my mind and walked up the stairs. Sanders’ room was in the center of the five bedrooms upstairs. Apparently, the guys had all drawn straws or something to find out which one of them would get the biggest room. I remember Sanders grumbling that he’d wanted the largest room, mostly because he had the most stuff, but he hadn’t minded in the end. As long as he had had a place to sleep so we could go to class, he said he was fine. And that was good with me.

I heard rustling inside the room and figured he must be changing or something. I opened the door, a wide smile on my face.

And then the floor fell out from under me. I didn’t know if I saw rage, anger, sadness, or an end of everything that I had thought purposeful.

Sanders sat on the edge of the bed, his pants down to his knees, his head thrown back in ecstasy. He’d tangled his fingers in the hair of some redheaded girl I had never seen before, and her lips were around my boyfriend’s cock—around my future husband’s cock.

Tonight was a holiday party. A party to say goodbye to a semester and a friend we