The tears were flowing down April's face as she stared at me, and her bottom lip was quivering. It took every ounce of restraint I had not to kiss that full perfect lip.
Soft strains of “Silent Night” were coming in through the cracked window beyond where we knelt on the floor, and it felt as if everything in the world had frozen still, waiting for a response from April.
"Can I talk now?" April asked, and I laughed, thankful for the break in the tension.
"Yeah, sorry."
She sniffled and pulled a hand free to wipe her face. Then she cupped my jaw, leaned forward slightly, and pressed her lips to mine softly.
I forced myself to stay still, to kiss her back softly, but not to give into the wild urge to pull her into my arms and never let her go. The tentative kiss was a tease, but I pushed my desire down as far as I could. There were still things to be said. And goodbye was still a possibility, but God, I hoped she wouldn't say it.
April pulled back and released me, her hands returning to mine. She dropped my gaze and giggled. "Sorry, just needed to do that once." Then her eyes rose to mine and her face was serious. "I love the picture of the future you painted. I love that you think I could be a part of that. I grew up without a family—no cousins, no aunts, no big gatherings. So you know that's something I've always wanted."
I stiffened, feeling a "but" approaching.
"But I don't know how we could really do it. I mean, I have an apartment back in Los Angeles. Friends, my mom … I have a really big armoire …"
"An armoire?"
"Yeah, it's really hard to move."
Was she just finding excuses because she didn't want to tell me she didn't feel the same way? "Oh, well—"
"And the thing is … I don't want to haul that thing all the way across the country just because some movie star offered me a job and a really hot guy needs extra people to help populate his holiday gatherings."
I squinted, tilting my head to the side. "You don't?"
"No," she said, smiling. "I mean, it's tempting, because he is really hot."
"He is," I agreed, my hope buoyed by the hint of a smile playing in the corner of April's mouth.
"But it’s not enough. I mean, if the hot guy just needs bodies to seat around the holiday table … I guess he could find anyone really." She looked meaningfully at me, and I frowned.
"April," I said, suddenly terrified she really was about to say no, but then I realized I’d left out one very important thing. "I'm in love with you. I think maybe I have been from the moment you walked into my house. The future I'm imagining is everything I want—but it only works if you're a part of it. Please stay. Please give us a chance." I squeezed her hands tightly and said the words once more, to be sure she heard them. "I love you, April."
My heart was in my throat and I was finding it hard to breathe as I watched her, her dark lashes lowering in an arc against her rosy cheek for a beat. And then she looked up, her eyes gleaming and a smile on her beautiful lips. "I love you too," she whispered.
My entire body zinged to life as if I’d been hit by lightning at the words and I gripped her hands tighter. "Say you'll stay."
"I mean, the armoire is pretty heavy."
"I'll go get it myself if you'll stay."
April nodded, and as I finally gave up my efforts at self-control and wrapped her in my arms, pressing my mouth firmly to hers, she managed to say, "I'll stay."
The kiss that followed was long, sweet, and equal parts demanding and frantic, and slow and languid. It started with both of us on our knees and ended with us on the floor, arms and legs wrapped around one another, both of us breathing heavily and me so close to coming in my pants that I had to roll away from her, taking some deep breaths on my back while focusing my mind on something decidedly non-sexual.
"Are you reconsidering your armoire offer?" April asked.
"No, I was thinking about Mr. FluffyNuts."
"Why?" April laughed.
"Because you've got me a little bit excited over here, and I don't want to humiliate myself by messing up my pants."
April burst into laughter, and she rolled closer to me, laying her head on my chest. "I'd think you would just use magic to calm yourself down. Being a dick wizard and all that."
It was my turn to laugh. And then I just held April against my chest, loving the easy feeling between us, and the soft curves of her pressed against me. As we lay on the floor, I realized we could still hear the carolers singing outside. I hadn't given them the signal to stop yet.
I moved, getting slowly to my feet and pulling April up with me, tucking her against my side with an arm around her. If I had my way, I’d never let her go again. We moved to the window and pushed it open farther, leaning through and waving down at the crowd of people with pink noses below.
"Oh, I forgot something," I said, pushing my hand into my pocket and retrieving the small package there. I handed it to April, watching her face light up at the sight of the small red box.
"What's this?" she asked, looking back up at me.
"If you open it, you'll find out," I said, nodding at the box.
She did, and when she lifted the little lid to find a gold heart gleaming with a diamond at its center, her face crumpled and she let out a strangled sob.
Oh god, I’d wanted to make her happy, not make her cry. "Oh, I um …"
"It's perfect," she said, pulling the necklace from the box. "I love it. It's exactly like the one I got all those years ago … I never knew what happened to it." She held it out to me and then turned, lifting her hair. After I fastened it around her neck and she turned back to me, I kissed her gently.
The crowd broke off in the midst of “Jingle Bells” and cheered when they saw us kissing.
"Thank you," I called down. "Thanks for all your help."
"Come down for some hot chocolate at the cafe?" Lottie Turner called up hopefully, and then turned to the crowd. "Everyone's welcome. Come have a drink!"
The crowd made a rolling noise of assent, punctuated with laughter and smiles, and they moved around the sidewalk toward the cafe across the square.
"I had kind of hoped to keep you up here for a while," I said, leaning down to bite the shell of April's ear.
She shivered against me and moaned. "We'll just go for a bit."
I nodded and helped her into her coat after closing the window. Downstairs, Annabelle broke into tears when she saw us and came running around the desk to pull us both into a hug.
"Come to the cafe for a drink?" I asked her.
Annabelle glanced around the empty lobby and then nodded, first putting up a sign that read: "Be right back."
25
Festooned for Good
April
The town square gleamed and glowed as I crossed beneath the huge sparkling tree with Callan and Annabelle, and for the first time in my life since I’d been very young, Christmas felt a little bit like magic. I held Callan's arm, Annabelle's arm linked with mine on the other side, and a crowd of people moved into Lottie Tanner's bakery and cafe ahead of us—a crowd of people who felt more like family than anything I had experienced before.
It was a lot to process, I thought, because so much had happened in a very short amount of time. From the devastation of my last television implosion to the idea of moving across the country for my fantasy job and the man of my dreams. The words Callan had given me, along with the heart necklace, closed the open wound I’d been carrying for two decades, or at least went a long way toward healing it. I smiled up at him as he held open the door and wondered if I could possibly be happier. I didn't think so.
Maybe if Lynn and my mother were here, I thought, but as soon as I’d had a second to think this, I was swept up in the excited greetings of the townspeople who'd been caroling out in the cold beneath my window.
"Oh, look at this," Mrs. Wentworth beamed, stepping in near to see the little heart hanging around my neck. Her husband was at her side, nodding knowingly. "It's beautiful dear," the older
woman said, and then she turned her gaze to Callan, letting her eyes travel slowly the length of his body, roving down and back up, hanging for just a moment longer than necessary right around his waistline. "And you've done very well for yourself here," she said, her voice deepening slightly.
"Indeed," her husband said. "You know," he added, giving me a lascivious grin, "sometimes it can be fun to switch things up, do a little sharing, if you know what I mean."
I did not know what he meant, but I had a feeling I would if I thought enough about it. Had we just been invited to swing? "Erm," I managed to say.
"That's very flattering," Callan said gallantly, and I wondered if he’d gotten Mr. Wentworth’s full meaning. "But for now, we're happy just having each other." Yep, he had.
Mr. Wentworth nodded. "Of course, my boy. Of course you are. Well, you enjoy this spicy little tamale, and if you start to need another flavor, you know where to find us!"
"Sure thing," Callan said, tightening his grip on my arm.
"Oh my god," I laughed, my body warming as he met my eyes and grinned.
We got our coats off and went to sit down on a low couch where Lottie was directing us to go. Cormac and the girls were in the chairs next to us, and the entire cafe was noisy and warm and full.
Before I had a moment to think about what I might like, a mug of steaming chocolate was pressed into my hand, and Lottie gave me a wink. “Hot chocolate," she said.
"Thank you, Lottie!"
Callan and I touched our mugs together before taking a sip, and our eyes locked for a long moment. I felt my stomach tighten as I stared into the deep coffee eyes I loved, and inside them I saw everything Callan had talked about—friends, family, future … love.
Cormac leaned over the back of the couch and said, “The chocolate packs a punch.” He stared down into his mug after taking a sip. Like everything else, the hot chocolate tasted like it had met the HalfCat. Then he looked up suddenly, and his gaze traveled between Maddie and Taylor, both drinking greedily from their own mugs. "You don't think she might have …"
"I'm sure theirs was undoctored," Callan assured him. "But they might sleep extra well if not."
Annabelle came to sit on the arm of the couch. "That was really so romantic," she gushed. "It was very exciting to get to help a little bit."
"Thank you for that," I said. "Thank you for everything."
My friend smiled and squeezed my shoulder. "Of course," she said. "It's been amazing having you at the inn. I feel like I gained a friend."
"You did," I assured her.
"And you're staying in town?"
"I might need to go home for a little bit, just to tie up loose ends and talk to my mother in person," I told her. "But after that, yeah. I think I am."
Annabelle grinned and stood up to go mingle just as Maddie scooted closer to my knee, glancing up at me and then staring down at her shoes, suddenly shy.
"Hey you," I said, leaning forward to greet the little girl.
Maddie looked up at me then with a careful smile, chocolate covering her upper lip from one side to the other like a well-groomed mustache. "Hi Ape-will."
"Did you have fun singing?" I asked.
Maddie nodded, and then gave me another searching look. There was something she wanted to say, but hadn't found the courage to get out, I realized. As the tiny girl stood, one hand on my knee, her fingers absently exploring my denim-clad leg, Taylor stood and came to her side.
"Hi Taylor," I said.
Taylor glanced at her uncle, who was deep in conversation with her father, and her face relaxed a little bit as she leaned in to speak. "We are glad you're staying," she said quietly. "Uncle Callan needs you."
My heart warmed even further, threatening to melt altogether. "I'm glad to be staying," I said.
"But we wondered something," Taylor said, and Maddie's big eyes found her sister's face, expectant. "We wondered if now that you and Uncle Callan are going to be together, are you going to get married?"
I glanced at Callan. "Maybe someday," I said quietly. "I hope so."
"So you might have little kids of your own," Taylor said, nodding sagely.
"Well, I mean, not anytime soon," I said.
"Well," Taylor said slowly. "Do you think that until you have your own kids, that maybe you'll still want to see me and Maddie sometimes?"
That was it. My heart turned to complete mush. "Of course I will," I told them, putting down my mug and gathering both girls in my arms and pulling them onto my lap. "I will want to see you all the time," I continued. "Any time you want to see me!"
Maddie didn't say anything, but her little fingers wove into my thick sweater and after giving me one more long searching look with those huge blue eyes, she pressed her blond head into my shoulder. Taylor did the same thing on the other side, and moments later, my arms were full of warm, sleeping little girls.
"You've got friends for life," Cormac commented, nodding at his daughters. "Need me to rescue you?"
I smiled down at the sleeping girls, and then around at the friends gathered with me inside the cafe. From across the room, Helen Manchester gave me a little salute from her seat between Ryan McDonnell and Juliet Manchester. Lottie Tanner leaned against the counter of her shop, a tall girl with soft brown curls at her side—her daughters, Paige, and Amberlynn, I thought. I’d seen photos at Lottie's house. The cafe was filled with people and noise and so much love, I wished I could stay there, just like that, forever.
"I think I'm good," I told Cormac, hugging my twin burdens just a little tighter. My mind went back to Christmastime the year before, when I’d been busily ignoring everything related to Christmas, and spent the actual day with my mother at the movies, trying to pretend I didn't care. This was so much better. This was what this time of year should be. I thought of my mother and of Lynn, and wished they could be here. But there would be time to see them—and I thought I might convince my mother to come live here too. I could see my mom hanging out with Lottie and Helen, maybe finding a happier life for herself in this funny little town.
As I turned my gaze back to Callan's, meeting his eyes over Taylor's head, I felt a tear tracking down my cheek.
"Are you okay?" Callan asked, concerned.
I nodded, wishing I had more arms so I could pull him into me too. "I'm so much more than okay," I told him. "I didn't know it was possible to be so happy."
"You have a whole future filled with happy," Callan told her, wiping the tear away. "I promise."
I felt the promise of his words skitter through me like glitter sprinkling down from the ridiculous bow on the basket Annabelle had given me when I first arrived. And this time, I hoped the glitter would stick to everything because I never, ever wanted to be rid of it.
"I love you," I told Callan.
He kissed me softly, leaning over the sleeping girl in my arms. "I love you too," he said.
And just like that, I decided I loved Christmas too.
Epilogue
Callan
One Year Later
I stood in the parlor near the soaring tree, watching April spin through the house like some kind of dervish, her red sheath dress hugging her curvy figure and making my trousers feel a few sizes too tight every time she passed. "You're making me dizzy," I told her as she sped by, stopping to fluff one of the shiny red pillows on the living room couch once more.
"I just want it all to be perfect," she said, finally stopping in front of me. Her cheeks were flushed, and her blue eyes glittered in the sparkling light from the tree.
"It is perfect," I assured her. "Besides, no one really cares if it's perfect. Christmas parties are about being together, not about the decorations."
April narrowed her gaze at me. "They are about decorations," she insisted. "Which is why I've spent the last two months decorating for this."
I rolled my eyes, but pulled her into my chest, my entire body still thrilled every time she was close enough to touch. "And they're about love," I whispered, tucking my head so
I could nibble the shell of her ear, which sent her skin rippling with goose bumps every time.
Tonight, especially, was about love, I thought, only April didn't know it yet. When she'd moved permanently in January, she'd spent a couple weeks at the inn before I’d finally convinced her just to move in with me. "The house is too big for me alone anyway," I had insisted. "And then you'll always be around to help me remember the gate code when I forget my remote."
She'd agreed, and she'd convinced me to change the code to something I’d remember, and we had finally settled on 1225, a number I hadn't quite understood at first. "Christmas," April had said with a smile. "The day that brought us together."
In the year since I’d met her, April had gone from being the most anti-holiday person I’d ever met to embracing all things glittery and festive with such enthusiasm sometimes all I could do was sit back and sigh. Between April and my nieces, Singletree Manor had been decorated to within an inch of its life this year, and April had insisted on hosting a Christmas party to show it off.
"I do love you," April said, relaxing a bit in my arms and sliding her own arms around my neck. The doorbell rang just as she pressed her lips to mine, and I regretted setting the gate open tonight for the guests. At least if they'd had to buzz from the gate, I would have had time to kiss her.
We went to the door together, and pulled it open to find Samuel Bass and his two twin boys standing in front of us, looking starched and uncomfortable in red and green bow ties. Their mother dashed up behind them, carrying a wrapped gift. "Hello Coach Whitewood," the boys said in practiced unison.
Mrs. Bass beamed. "This is for you," she held out the gift to April. "Thank you so much for inviting us to your home. It's lovely."
"Come on in," I said, waving the family toward the living room. The boys relaxed visibly after delivering their rehearsed line, and within five minutes of entering, there were no bow ties in sight.
Shaking the Sleigh Page 24