The little boy’s mom smiled back gratefully. “No, this is wonderful, just what we have. Thank you.”
“Merry Christmas,” Emmie said.
They all said back to her at the same time, “Merry Christmas.”
Emmie moved over to the next table and was picking up their empty plates when she bumped into someone behind her. “I’m sorry,” she said as she quickly turned around. She almost dropped the plates when she saw the person she’d bumped into was Sam.
“Emmie?” Sam looked equally shocked to see her.
She blinked several times, making sure she wasn’t seeing things. “Sam, what are you doing here?”
Sam laughed and held up some empty plates he was carrying. “Apparently, the same thing you are, volunteering.” He took the dishes she was holding and added them to his pile.
Emmie shook her head, stunned. “How did you know I’d be here?” Her heart was racing.
Sam looked surprised. “I didn’t.”
“Then how . . .”
“I was at the family shelter, and they said volunteers were needed here, so I came to help.”
“You met Lynn?” Emmie asked, still confused.
“During the scavenger hunt.”
“Oh,” Emmie said. “Of course. I keep forgetting you did that, not Grant.”
Sam looked around the dining room. “Where is Grant?”
Emmie shrugged. “Probably working.”
Sam nodded. He didn’t look surprised.
“We broke up,” Emmie continued.
Now Sam looked surprised. “Really? I’m . . . sorry.”
Emmie walked over to another table and picked up some more empty dishes. “Don’t be. You were right. He wasn’t going to change. He’s a great guy, but when it came to what mattered most, we didn’t want the same things.”
She stopped what she was doing and looked into Sam’s eyes. “I’m really sorry.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m sorry for what I said to you at the tree lighting. I was upset and confused, and I took it out on you. It’s no excuse. I know it wasn’t right.”
“I also said a lot of things I regret,” Sam said.
“Oh.” Emmie didn’t know what to say. What she remembered Sam telling her was how he’d always choose her over anything else. At the time it had scared her, but she hadn’t been able to get what he’d said or him out of her mind. But now here he was, saying he regretted it.
Emmie quickly looked away from him. She didn’t want him to see the disappointment on her face. The fact that he had opened up to her meant so much, but now he apparently was having second thoughts.
“I understand,” she said quickly, not giving him a chance to finish. She knew it would hurt too much to hear him say the actual words. “I really need to get back to work.”
“Before your app goes off?” Sam asked in a joking voice.
But Emmie didn’t smile back. “I’m done with that.”
Sam looked surprised. “Really?”
Emmie nodded. “I think I was overscheduling myself, because I thought that was what I needed to do in order to have a successful career and a relationship.”
“And now?” Sam asked.
“I just want to try to live a little more in the moment, go with the flow, see what happens. Even if it’s not on my schedule.”
Sam looked impressed. “Well, that’s a big change.”
Emmie nodded. “Sometimes you need a big change.”
When she looked up at him, the full impact of what she’d had with him and what they’d shared at Christmas Point, and how special it was, hit her full force. She knew now the right guy had followed her scavenger hunt to Christmas Point, but she’d been so focused on her need to stay on track with all her perfect plans that she’d missed what was right in front of her. Now it was too late.
When she felt the tears start to come, she panicked. She couldn’t break down in front of Sam and everyone else, so she looked away.
“Thank you for volunteering,” she managed to get out before she hurried off, escaping just in time before her first tear fell.
“Emmie!” Sam called out to her.
But Emmie just kept walking as she hastily wiped off her face and took a deep breath and tried to pull herself together. She knew people were counting on her to be cheerful and upbeat. That was who she was. She was the girl who loved Christmas. She was Miss Christmas, and she knew that even if her own heart was breaking, she owed it to everyone, and to herself, to continue to be thankful and grateful for all that she had.
When she got back to Denise, she handed her the plates. “Can you take these?” she asked. “I need to go get some fresh air.”
Denise gave her a concerned look. “Is everything okay?”
Emmie forced a smile and nodded. “I just need a second.”
“Who was that guy you were talking to?” Denise asked. She looked over at Sam again and her eyes grew huge. “Wait, is that the wreath guy who came to Christmas Point? Sam? The guy you did all the Christmas activities with?”
Emmie also looked over at Sam and saw he was talking to a cute little girl and her mom who were wearing matching hats and scarfs. The little girl’s were pink and the mom’s were red. She recognized the scarf sets right away from Sandy’s shop at Christmas Point and knew Sam must have bought them for them.
She shook her head, wondering how she could have been so blind.
“Is that the guy?” Denise asked again.
Emmie nodded. “Yeah, that’s the guy.”
They both watched as Sam hugged the little girl and pulled a candy cane out of his pocket and gave it to her.
“He didn’t know I’d be here,” Emmie said. “He’s just volunteering because he heard we needed help. Can you believe it? What are the odds? How crazy is that?”
Denise smiled a knowing smile. “That’s not crazy, that’s Christmas.”
Chapter Forty
At the end of Christmas night after all the families were gone, Emmie and Denise did one last lap around the room, making sure everything was cleaned up.
“I can’t believe we served nine hundred and thirty-four meals,” Denise said, and then collapsed into a chair. “I think I’m going to sleep for a week.”
Emmie laughed as she picked up another empty plate. “Get your rest, because starting in January, we have to begin planning for next year.”
Denise dramatically dropped her head to the table.
“We broke all our records this year,” Emmie said. “We did a record number of meals . . .”
Denise lifted her head up. “. . . and we had a record number of volunteers.”
Emmie smiled and looked over at the last group of volunteers who were saying goodbye to one another. She loved how so many of the volunteers who came to help didn’t know anyone else, but after spending the day together, they had formed new friendships.
“Looking for someone?” Denise asked, watching her closely. “Perhaps a ruggedly handsome volunteer named Sam?”
“No,” Emmie said a little too quickly. But that wasn’t even close to being true. She’d been watching Sam all night. She’d admired how thoughtful and caring he was with everyone and how he seemed to genuinely be enjoying himself, but she’d lost sight of him about an hour ago.
“Oh, that’s good,” Denise said. “Because he left.”
Emmie struggled to hide her disappointment—even though she wasn’t surprised after the way she’d walked away and avoided him all day. It still hurt.
“And because you don’t care,” Denise said, “I guess you won’t be needing this.”
When Denise pulled a little white scroll with a red velvet ribbon out of her apron pocket, Emmie gasped.
“Where did you get that?” Emmie asked. But when she tried to take the scroll, Denise moved it out of her reach.
“So you do care.” Denise gave her a look as she stood up from the table. “I thought so.” She walked over and gave Emmie a hug before giving her the scroll. “Merry Christm
as, Emmie.”
As Denise walked away, Emmie called out after her. “Merry Christmas!”
Emmie then turned her attention to the scroll. Her fingers trembled as she slipped off the red ribbon and carefully unrolled the scroll, reading out loud what it said.
“In this Christmas Scavenger Hunt, this clue will take you to where you need to be.
Where there’s music, there’s joy, underneath the stars, by the tallest tree . . .”
Emmie felt a rush of emotion, and most of all hope, as she held the scroll to her heart, and looked up at the white twinkle lights above and whispered the words “Thank you.”
SAM’S CHRISTMAS CLUE was an easy one for Emmie to solve, because the annual tree lighting with Christmas carolers at Lake Union Park had been at the top of her Christmas list of things to do in Seattle. It didn’t surprise her at all that this would be a place Sam would also think of.
But when she arrived at the park, she found herself feeling nervous. She didn’t know what she was going to find or how it was going to turn out. All she knew was that she was following this Christmas clue, and she was going to trust that, as it said, it would take her to where she needed to be.
As she made her way to the corner of the park, where a line of trees was decorated with white twinkle lights, she followed the voices of the Christmas carolers over to the giant Christmas tree that was about to be lit up for the annual Christmas night tree-lighting ceremony.
The carolers were all dressed up in vintage clothing. Their voices were pure and full of Christmas spirit, as they led everyone gathered around in singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
Emmie couldn’t help but sing along with them:
“We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring
To you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas
And a Happy New Year.”
Emmie sang the last line extra loud. “And a Happy New Year!”
When the song ended, she clapped along with the crowd, and that’s when she saw Sam walking toward her.
He was clapping and smiling, too.
Her heart raced. She took a deep breath, and when she smiled back at him, her heart was filled with hope.
She started walking toward him, and they met halfway. When she was standing in front of him, she held up the little scroll and looked into his eyes. “How did you know I wanted to see the carolers?”
Sam smiled back at her. “Because you love everything Christmas and this is a Christmas night tradition in the park.”
Sam reached into his coat pocket and took out a beautifully wrapped silver box with a white satin ribbon. He handed it to her.
“For me?” she asked.
“It’s something I saw up at Christmas Point, and it reminded me of you.”
When Emmie opened the box, her heart filled with joy as she held up a beautiful silver heart ornament decorated with red crystal.
“Because you’re the heart of Christmas,” Sam said. Looking into her eyes, he took her hand. “I know this isn’t what you planned for Christmas, but I believe we end up where we belong, and I feel like I belong with you. Wherever you are for Christmas is where I want to be.” Sam held her hand to his heart. “You helped me find the heart of Christmas again. I don’t want to let that go. I don’t want to let you go.”
Emmie stepped closer to him. “Then don’t. Let’s go find Christmas together.”
When they kissed, Emmie knew without a doubt that she’d found the right person to spend Christmas with, now and forever.
One Year Later
The sun was setting as Emmie and Sam stood inside the gazebo behind the Christmas Point Inn. The white twinkling Christmas lights were on and a silver moonbeam was leading a path up the gazebo steps to where they were standing by a beautiful Christmas tree.
As they worked together to put the finishing touches on the tree, adding beautiful red glass ball ornaments, Dasher stood at Emmie’s feet, wagging his tail.
When Sam looked at Emmie, you could see the love. “Are you ready for the last ornament?” he asked.
Emmie responded with a kiss before looking into his eyes and smiling. “I am.”
When Sam handed her the same little box he had given her a year ago, she opened it carefully and held the heart ornament up to the moonlight. When the crystals caught the light and sparkled, it was like Christmas magic.
“I love this new tradition of coming to Christmas Point and always hanging our heart ornament on this tree together,” Emmie said.
Sam kissed her. “So do I.”
Together they placed the ornament right in the center of the tree, making sure one of the white twinkle lights illuminated the crystals.
When Dasher barked, they both smiled down at him. “We love you, too, Dasher,” Emmie said.
As they walked back to the inn together hand in hand, Emmie felt grateful that she’d finally allowed herself to trust and follow her heart, even when she had no idea where the journey would take her.
The last year with Sam—learning more about each other and themselves—had been filled with adventure. Every day they’d found new ways to show their love and appreciation for each other.
When October had rolled around, Sam had helped her decorate for Christmas. Together they had started creating new holiday traditions while still honoring their own family traditions. It was everything Emmie could have hoped for and more.
She was so thankful that the wrong guy had gotten her first scavenger hunt clue. The mix-up had changed her life for the better. It had shown her that sometimes the detour in your journey is the path to true love.
When they got to the inn, they both smiled at the giant Christmas Spirit Wreath hanging on the front door. It had a beautiful red-and-green-plaid bow, exactly like the one they had originally fought over when they met a year ago.
Now special-ordering a Christmas Spirit Wreath together was one of their new traditions, and they’d decided to get one of their signature wreaths for all their friends in Seattle and at Christmas Point.
When they walked into the inn, a party was just getting started. Everyone was holding a glass of champagne.
There was Ruby and Steve, who were holding hands and looking so happy together. Betty was sitting next to Mayor Thomas on the couch, and they both looked smitten. Sandy was also there wearing an adorable heart sweater she had knitted. Even Candace and Denise had made the trip up from Seattle.
Candace walked over and handed glasses of champagne to Emmie and Sam. “There you two are,” she said and smiled. “It’s time for a toast!” She motioned over by the fireplace where there was a giant blown-up picture of Sam’s new book cover proudly displayed on an easel.
It was a magical book cover inspired by the gazebo behind the inn. The gazebo was covered with white twinkle lights, and a dog that looked just like Dasher was sitting inside the gazebo next to a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. On the tree, you could see a silver heart ornament catching the light.
The book was called Finding Christmas.
When Candace lifted her champagne glass, everyone followed. She turned to face Emmie and Sam. “To Sam’s new book, Finding Christmas, and to Sam and Emmie, who have found each other.”
“And,” Sam continued, “to all of our friends and family who are with us here today and to those who are always with us in our hearts.” Sam kissed Emmie. “Merry Christmas!”
After everyone toasted, Sam led Emmie over to the fireplace. There on the mantel was a framed print of the selfie they had taken last year with the snowman family they’d created outside the Christmas Cabin.
“To our families,” Sam said, holding his champagne glass toward the picture.
“To our families,” Emmie said, clinking her glass to his. As she sipped her champagne, she looked at the two stockings that Ruby had embroidered for them
hanging from the fireplace, side by side.
In each stocking, there was a little white scroll tied with a red ribbon, peeking out.
Emmie looked into Sam’s eyes. “And to always Finding Christmas together.”
Acknowledgments
For as long as I can remember, every single year, I’ve always done a scavenger hunt at Christmas. My dad, Harry Schaler, is the one who hides all the clues, leading me to my Christmas present. Of course, as a child, all I wanted to do was rush through the hunt and find my gift. As I grew older, I would tease my dad that I thought I had outgrown the whole scavenger hunt thing, but that didn’t stop him. Last year, my dad, at seventy-eight years young, had my first clue waiting as always. I honestly think he gets more excited to do this every year!
So I would like to give a heartfelt thank-you to my dad for inspiring me to write this Christmas movie and novel, Finding Christmas. I hope it might inspire other families, friends, and loved ones to start their own scavenger hunt traditions.
My Christmases have been a whirlwind these last few years, writing the Netflix hit A Christmas Prince, which is now a series; Christmas Camp, the Hallmark movie and novel; and Lifetime’s Every Day Is Christmas, starring Toni Braxton. I honestly couldn’t have done all this without the support of my mom, Lao Schaler, and bonus mom, Kathy Bezold, who are always the first to read and help edit anything I write, and my cherished friend Heather Mikesell, who does my first copyedit, catching all the commas I missed, before I turn anything in to my editor.
When it comes to the publishing world, I definitely won the lottery working with the incomparable, creative, and clever executive editor May Chen at HarperCollins, president and publisher Liate Stehlik, and associate publisher Jennifer Hart. The entire publishing team has been a dream team, including associate editor Elle Keck, copy editor Nancy Inglis, Amelia Wood in marketing, publicist Pamela Spengler Jaffee, and art director Elsie Lyons, who created this amazing cover, inspired by the Christmas town I grew up near, Leavenworth in the state of Washington.
There aren’t enough white twinkling Christmas lights to thank my literary editor with Foundry Literary + Media, Jessica Regel, for taking a chance and believing in me, and entertainment attorney, Neville Johnson, my gladiator, whom I trust to advise and protect me on my career journey.
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