She licked her bottom lip, trying to think of a way to deflect his praise. “There you go, talking about me in your clothes again.”
He laughed. His smile was a burst of sunlight on a wintery afternoon. It sizzled through the remaining chill in her bones.
“Speaking of which,” she said, “I still need to get those back to you.”
“We have time,” Hawk said with a shrug.
Happiness radiated through her body. Her heart drummed in her chest. “We do?”
“Sure. I don’t want this—” He gestured to her and back to himself again. “To be over. That is, if you’re willing to give me a second chance.”
Her thoughts scattered as trembling overtook her. “Give you a second chance? Hawk, the fact that you’re even talking to me now means so much.”
He reached for her hand. His warm touch made her sing. “I want to spend every second I can with you. To talk to you,” he said with a promise. “Every day, for as long as you want. As long as we both want. I want to get to know you, to hear more about your life and have you become a part of mine. We don’t have to limit it to talking, either,” he added with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.
Still reeling from their kiss, Ella couldn’t stop her smile at the suggestion.
He went on, his thumb making light circles on her hand. “That is, if you’re in favor of the occasional interruption.”
“I’m absolutely in favor.”
They shared a secret look that burned with a thousand hints and suggestions and hoped-for moments alone.
“Are you hungry?” Hawk asked.
“Starving.”
He extended his hand. Ella’s fingers prickled as she slid them across his soft skin. He wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest.
His apology, his earnest words, his request to continue what they started; his faith in her good name and the spark that had flared in his eyes seeped into their embrace. It coursed through her with vindication. It ignited yearning within her, to be held like this by him for the rest of her life.
The scent of his cologne teased her darkest thoughts as his heart pounded promises to her ear. Possibility. Longing. Redemption. And more midnight kisses. Each was a trumpet blast with every lub-dub. Hawk had forgiven her, and not only that, he wanted her for who she was.
Christmas miracle, indeed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-Three
Ella thought keenly of the last time she’d stood on the step of her father’s home. It’d been Christmas morning, two years ago, right after she’d started dating Derek that Stina had opened the door with a smile only to have the expression flip like a pancake into a grimace. That she’d demanded to know what Ella thought she was doing there.
And that she’d refused to let Ella speak with her father and instead dismissed her before slamming the door—Ella’s door—in her face.
Memories didn’t hold onto pain after a while, though, and Ella was pleased to discover she could lift her heart as she elevated her hand toward the doorbell.
Dad answered, wearing a striped sweater, jeans, and socked feet. His surprise was evident in his lifted brow.
“Hey there,” he said. “How’s my girl?”
She was still his girl? That was promising.
Dad hadn’t called or stopped by to visit again since she’d asked him to leave her apartment. She hadn’t been sure about stopping by, but he was her father. Ella had allowed Stina to stand between them for too long. She wanted to make things up with her dad, and this seemed like a good start.
“Hi, Dad. Can I come in?”
“Sure, but…”
“Stina’s here?” Ella suggested.
“Yeah,” he said with defeat.
This didn’t bother her as much as it might once have. It shouldn’t surprise her that her dad had offered whatever bail had been posted for Stina’s release from jail. She still couldn’t completely grasp what had happened. Stina and Pris being arrested. Serving time in jail.
“That’s okay,” Ella said. “I’m here to see you.”
Her father stepped aside and invited her in. The house looked Stina-fied. After Stina had married Dad, she’d swept through, taking down pictures and souvenirs from family trips, decorations and quotes Ella’s mom had picked out and displayed. She’d renovated the place completely with her own yuppie style.
Ella had resented her for it but saw it in a new light now. Had it been hard for Stina to move into a home where another woman’s touch was everywhere she looked? Regardless, she didn’t need to try and erase Ella’s mom completely from the picture the way she had.
“How are you doing with all of this?” Ella asked her father there in the entryway. The cream carpet had been updated since the last time she’d been here.
“I’ve been okay. We’re getting by, though it’s difficult without Stina’s income.”
Part of her was startled that he decided to stay with the woman after all she’d done to emotionally blackmail Ella, but she’d long since known her father’s weak character. She pitied him for it now. Partly because she knew from her own fear of confrontation how hard it must be to be with someone so strong-willed.
Ella attempted a kind response. “I’m sure it’s hard for her to find work after having such a black mark on her record.”
“Listen, Ella,” Dad said with effort, as though the words were difficult. He held his arms rigidly at his sides. “I never should have taken her side all this time. I should never have let her push me around the way she always did.”
Surprise gripped Ella. Wasn’t Stina around to overhear?
“Dad, it’s okay. I forgive you. I love you.”
Tears welled in his eyes. He pulled her into a hug. “You don’t know how it feels to hear that.”
She embraced her father for a few more moments. Her gaze drifted up the stairs behind him, to the landing where the bedrooms were. It was too quiet.
“Dad,” Ella said carefully. “Where is she? Where is Stina?”
He pulled away with a smile and wiped his eyes. “Hiding, probably. She’s not exactly happy with me right now.”
“What else is new?” Ella hoped the words, and her accompanying smile would be enough to lighten his mood.
They weren’t.
Dad shook his head. “The truth is, she won’t be here much longer. I kicked her out.”
A battering ram may as well have struck her. “You what?”
Taking her hand, Dad led her to the exorbitant, white leather couches covered in leopard-print pillows. He sat, guiding her to take the cushion beside him. He stared at her hand in his.
“I couldn’t stay with her after what she did to you. How she could ever think that was okay, I’ll never understand. I told her as much.”
Happiness blossomed within her. It’d been such a long time coming. The relief that he’d finally done it was overwhelming. “Daddy. I’m so proud of you.”
He beamed at her. The expression took years off of him. She hugged him once more, and he laughed at the gesture.
“Where is she now?” Ella asked. “Is she moving out? I mean, are you guys divorcing?”
Behind her, the front door crashed open. Stina stumbled through with her arms full of boxes. The sound of her entrance was broken by Pris’s hysterical exclamations. She followed after, phone to her ear.
“Derek, don’t do this. You know I never would have if it hadn’t been my mom’s idea. Derek. No, wait!” Pris held the phone aloft, staring at it as though it’d insulted her.
Her gaze drifted from her mother’s scowl first, and then to the living room where Ella sat beside her father.
Stina dropped the cardboard boxes to the floor. She glowered at Ella, sniffed, then turned to the decorative wall hanging, lifted it from the wall, and slammed it into the nearest box.
Pris didn’t take such a cold-shoulder approach. She lowered her phone and stormed into the room.
“You,” she said through her teeth. Mascara made black rivers down her cheeks
. She was crying? “You did this.”
Did what?
“Hi, Pris,” Ella said, standing. She had a feeling she’d need her footing.
“Don’t hi me. First, you have me arrested. Then you tell Derek?”
Ella lifted her hands. “I haven’t talked to Derek in over a year.”
“He ended our engagement!” With a shriek, she rounded, jettisoning her phone at the wall and releasing a sob at the same time. “After all I did for him. All that crap I stole to get extra money for him, and he didn’t even care.”
That was a bombshell. “You stole those items for Derek?” Had he even known?
“I put my whole life on the line for him, and he dumped me for it.”
“Sounds typical,” Stina said, glaring at Ella’s dad as she removed a few more items from the shelf and dropped them unceremoniously in the box.
“What do you expect?” Ella said, unable to contain her shock. It sounded to her as though he’d found out the truth of what Pris had done and was none too happy about it. “Wasn’t it you who always told me behavior has consequences?”
“Oh please,” Pris said, rolling her eyes. “Don’t even.”
“Why shouldn’t I? You both blackmailed me. How could you think you could just go on with your lives after something like that?”
“It wasn’t blackmail,” Pris argued.
Taken aback, Ella gaped at her. “No? What would you call it, then?”
“Retribution. After the way you ruined things for me with Derek, how could I help but take advantage of an opportunity?”
There was no reasoning with her. With either of them. Dad lifted a palm as if to speak, but Ella quieted him with a hand on his shoulder before approaching Pris.
“I didn’t ruin anything with you and Derek. You ruined things between you and Derek. He knew how you treated me, Pris. And if he heard about you stealing? About the way you tried to peg it on me? Why do you think he’s ended things again now?”
Pris sniffed, but to Ella’s surprise, she didn’t argue. She folded her arms, refusing to meet her gaze.
In any other instance, Ella might have allowed her behavior and accusations. She might have given in or apologized, but pity took place of whatever fear would have driven her to that point before.
The realization startled her. She pitied Pris. Pris had been so insecure about her relationship that she had to steal? To threaten Ella just to keep the man she wanted to be with? That didn’t sound like any kind of relationship Ella ever wanted to have. And if that was all Pris could hope for, she definitely needed to rethink things.
Ella wasn’t about to say as much, not when Pris was in this kind of mood. Then again, when was she in any other mood? Much as she wanted to make things right, to have some kind of resolution between them, she had to accept that it wasn’t going to happen right now. Maybe not ever.
Ella peered in the direction Stina had been standing, but she’d disappeared into the kitchen, boxing things up as haphazardly and noisily as possible. Clearly, she wanted to be out of Ella’s dad’s house as soon as she could be.
Though an apology from the two of them would have been welcome, she knew she wouldn’t get one. And that was okay.
Forgiveness came easily for Ella. It always had. “Sorry Derek ended things with you,” Ella said.
Pris sniffed and scuffed a hand under her nose. “Yeah, well. Looks like that’s over for good this time.”
They stood before one another awkwardly before Pris made her way over to retrieve her phone and headed up the stairs.
It was enough. She didn’t need any more words. Something told Ella Pris’s relationship with Derek wasn’t the only thing that was over for good this time. She hoped her own relationship with her wicked stepsister—such as it was—was over as well.
Ella turned to her dad and gave him a final hug.
“You want to come over for dinner on Sunday?” he asked.
Nearby, Stina slammed a cupboard.
“Sure,” Ella said, recovering from her brief wince. “As long as you don’t mind if I bring someone.”
Dad’s brow crinkled with surprise. “Oh? Are you dating someone?”
Another cupboard slam. Evidently, Stina was protesting in whatever way she could. Now was probably not the best time to go into details, though Ella was ready to shout them from the rooftops. She was dating someone. A handsome someone, and she couldn’t wait to have him be part of her life in every way he could be. If that meant meeting her dad, all the better.
“Yeah,” she said. “His name is Hawk.”
Pris or Stina would have heralded Hawk’s billionaire status. They would have crowed of his successful candy company, of how she had managed to snag him before anyone else did.
Ella might tell her dad all of that. Sometime. But for now, it was enough to have a man like Hawk care about her. To want to be with her. When she was with him, all those other details didn’t really matter. Even if he had no money, no status—no candy, she thought with a chuckle—she’d want to brag about him anyway.
He was a good man. Generous. Thoughtful. Open and forgiving. She couldn’t have asked for anyone better.
Epilogue
Ella couldn’t stop staring. The designs had turned out even better than she’d hoped. She flipped through the pages, one after the other, taking in the fringe on the sleeves of one outfit, the contours of the skirt on the next. This was brash and bold. It was delicate and unexpected. Her portfolio was finally ready to be presented to the head of fashion at Garson’s School of Fashion Design.
She’d gotten the email only yesterday. After a year of preparation, after applications and interviews, the Dean of Fashion Design had replied stating how impressed the team was at her submissions—one of which included the gown she’d finally finished.
They wanted to consider her for their program. Ella had only to present her portfolio during a final interview with the department head.
Singing came from down the hall. Charlotte had taken the third room in the apartment Ella and Chloe shared, and she often hummed to herself or belted the latest Taylor Swift hit at the top of her lungs. It wasn’t as annoying as she remembered Charlotte’s spontaneous singing to be. She’d improved a lot in the years since Ella had left their home. She found she didn’t use her earbuds quite as much these days.
Today, the serenade was a chorus from The Messiah, the oratorio Charlotte’s choir was preparing to perform for the Christmas season. For some reason, it jarred Ella into motion. She had to hurry. If she wasn’t careful, she’d end up answering the door in her jeans and t-shirt once Hawk came to pick her up.
Something told her he wouldn’t mind, but she didn’t want to miss the look on his face when he saw her newly made gown, finished with Grandma Larsen’s help.
Carefully, she placed the designs in their folder and set it on the shelf near her closet. She then dodged around the maze of piles on her floor to where her gown hung. Quitting custodial and focusing on selling her designs instead hadn’t changed that much about her. But she was happier than she could ever remember being. Happier than she’d been since before her mom had died eleven years ago.
“If only Mom could see you,” Ella cooed to her halter-top gown in all its teal, spangled glory. The base layer was a curve-hugging underdress that cut to her thighs and was softened by a much longer, translucent A-line overlay of such thin fabric it made her feel as though she were floating.
Charlotte poked her head in. Fake lashes made her eyes pop. “You say something?” Her dark hair was already curled in a tasteful pile atop her head. She’d clearly been ready for some time now. Hawk was setting her up with his security guard, Ethan, and Charlotte was over the moon about it.
“Just talking to my dress,” Ella said, shrugging it off. “You look beautiful, by the way.”
Charlotte pinched her pink lips together in a pleased stupor. “I can’t wait. I’ve always had a thing for security guards, you know? I’ve wanted to get to know him since I saw h
im during your disastrous accusation.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ella said. “Being accused of theft is the prime matchmaking setup.”
Charlotte laughed. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant he’s hot. I couldn’t help but notice, regardless of the circumstances.” She shrugged.
Ella returned her laughter, playfully pushing her out of the room. She dressed as quickly, but as carefully, as she could. Chloe helped twist her hair into a French knot at the back of her head as Ella powdered and plucked and got her makeup in order just in time for a knock to sound at the door.
Charlotte squeaked. “Is that him? I mean, do you think Ethan is with him right now?”
“Not sure,” Ella said, her own heart chiming as well. It didn’t matter how many dates she went on with Hawk, or how long the distance was between seeing him from one time to the next, her heart never failed to flutter at the prospect of more. Time, dates, hugs, kisses; she would always want more everything with him.
Barefooted, she padded across the hardwood, steeling herself before answering.
Hawk wore a suit like no one else could. He somehow managed to make it look natural and yet suave all at once. His blonde hair gelled in obedient delectability, and his eyes flicked down her body and back up again.
“Wow,” was all he said before slipping his hand around her waist to draw her in closer.
Her grin refused to fade. She relished the feel of being held by him. “Wow? Is that good?”
He smelled amazing, like winter spice and temptation. He drew away from her just enough to place his lips near her ear and whisper, “You take my breath away.”
Ella’s stomach curled at the low timbre of his voice. Like always, she didn’t know what to say in return but saying nothing seemed to be enough.
She pulled back. “We’re almost ready. Is Ethan here? Charlotte is dying to dance with him.”
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