Kristmas Cavanagh Was My Everything. She's been my best friend and my next-door-neighbor since we were 6. For 8 years we were inseparable. She was the center of my universe. Nothing made sense without her, and I was sure it would be that way forever. Everyone in our tiny Connecticut town just assumed that we'd grow up, fall in love and get married... until our parents did instead. Suddenly, Kris wasn't my best friend anymore. Wasn't the person I was supposed to fall in love with. She was someone I couldn't have. Someone I wasn't supposed to love. And that drove me nuts. Turned me into someone neither one of us recognized. And that tore us apart. We were 18 when I finally told her how I felt. What I wanted, but it was too much. Or maybe I was just too late to repair the damage I'd done. It's been 10 years since I left. I've written her 120 letters, and every single one of them have come back to me, unopened. I'd resigned myself to the fact that she was gone. That I'd never see her again. Never get another chance... and then there she was, standing right in front of me. I can't say I handled it well. I can't say I was a gentleman. But I can say Kristmas Cavanagh got away from me once. I'll be damned if I'm going to let it happen twice. Second chance/stepbrother/bully-light/new adult/friends-to-enemies-to-lovers