“Clearly.” Even after the garage door was up, she stood back as if taking in the look of the pickup. “It’s nice that it’s white. It will show off the colors well.”
This had better not turn out too cutesy, or he’d get ribbed by the guys. “What are you thinking?” He allowed his wariness to show.
“Would you prefer a reindeer look, since you are Santa and it would be fitting for Santa to ride around on Rudolph, or are you thinking more traditional?”
With the use of the same word he insisted Christmas had to be, she was goading him, he was sure of it, and that was all the challenge he needed. “Why not both?” That was the wrong thing to say, and he wanted to pull it back. “As long as it’s not overdone. Tasteful,” he emphasized with a nod.
“Tasteful,” she scoffed.
His point exactly. Were Christmas decorations on a pickup ever tasteful? “I’m going to have to bow to your decorating prowess.” He nodded toward her parents’ home, which he had to admit had turned out beautifully. “I wouldn’t have a clue. I’ve never even been in a parade, let alone decorated a vehicle for one.”
She smirked at him.
“Seriously, though,” he continued, seeing his opening. “I was also told that every member on the team is required to decorate a Christmas tree for auction at the gala, and I have no clue where to start.” He stopped explaining when a thought occurred to him—something he hadn’t even considered before. “I’ll pay you to do it. Name your price. Anything to have you do it for me.”
Her eyebrows drew together with confused surprise. “Me?” Looking away, she began pulling supplies out of the bag. Along with the wreath she’d set down, there was a garland, lights with huge bulbs, and even strips of fluffy white stuff. “You want me to decorate your Christmas tree for the auction and gala.” She shook her head. “I know which gala you’re talking about, and it’s a pretty big deal.” She swallowed hard.
She’d better not be rethinking attending with him. He needed her.
She grimaced. “With a little holiday attitude adjustment, you might be able to enjoy decorating a tree on your own.”
His skepticism must have shown.
“Okay, fine.” She huffed out a breath. “How about I help you?” she offered.
“Deal.” He wasn’t sure what she was getting out of it, but he wasn’t going to say no to that.
“Here.” She tossed a red puff ball at him. “Rudolph’s nose. Wrap the wire around the top of the grill.”
He started to work, following her instructions. “I thought that was where the wreath was going.”
“Not if you want both traditional and reindeer.”
He had his doubts.
“The antlers are easy. They just go at the top of your windows and stick out the side of the truck.”
Made sense. It was the white stuff he was confused about. It turned out it was what Talia called quilt batting, and it was attached to the top rail of his pickup bed with the same wire that attached evergreen garlands and the Christmas lights with gigantic multicolored bulbs.
“Power source?” He held up the plug end of the light strand.
“Lighting them would be illegal. I don’t want to get you in trouble with the law. Being levied a fine isn’t conducive to the Christmas spirit.”
“No, it isn’t.” He didn’t need anything else that sniffed of scandal.
The finishing touch was the burlap wreath dangling over the tailgate. Even Camden had to admit he was feeling happier than he had in days, though he suspected it had more to do with the joyful Talia than any colorful decorations.
Talia stood back to look over their finished project, arms crossed and head tipped to one side. “I think it looks pretty good. Tasteful and not too much. What do you think?”
“Reindeer in the front and traditional in the back, but it works.” The lights would have looked good lit up as well, but overall, it was better than he’d anticipated.
With the task done, Camden didn’t want Talia to leave. He had to come up with something to get her to stay. He was about to ask if she wanted to show off the truck and go out to dinner when she picked up her now-empty grocery sack with purpose.
“Hey, I’ve got to get to work,” she said quickly, and she checked her watch. She walked to the end of the driveway, still talking. “We should start your Santa training as soon as possible. You said you wanted to experience a true Texas Christmas? There’s a tree lighting on Thursday. I’ll meet you here, and you can drive Rudolph.” She waved at his truck.
Oh no, she was not naming his truck Rudolph. And who said anything about Santa training? That gig was up. Unless she meant it figuratively.
He nodded his acceptance anyway, his eyes never leaving her as she smiled back at him and then twirled away to skip back over to her parents’.
After a moment inside, she came out without the grocery bag and climbed into her car, driving away as she bobbed her head to the beat on her radio. With the knowledge that he’d see her in a couple of days, maybe he could survive his imposed exile from Cobble Creek. Maybe spending some of the Christmas season in Texas wouldn’t be all that bad.
11
Talia stood on Cam’s front porch, another Christmas gift in hand. She almost felt ridiculous about it, like it would appear she was trying to buy—or bribe—her way into his life.
She’d actually been sent over on orders from Patricia. She suspected her mother was deliberately making up ways to get her only daughter onto the gorgeous neighbor’s front porch. Okay, so the gorgeous part was Talia’s opinion, and her mother’s exact words might have been something more like “thoughtful and upstanding.” Either way, it wasn’t like Talia was complaining.
It was fortunate her mother hadn’t seen the video in front of Buster’s. Yes, Talia wasn’t ashamed to admit—at least to herself—that she’d googled the man. A woman couldn’t be too careful with her personal safety these days, but her motives weren’t even that pure. If she was going to propel her MyHeartChannel forward based on the videos she uploaded, she’d better be aware of how the public perceived him.
Uploading the videos of Camden as Santa with the kids hadn’t been her original intent when she’d made the deal with Ed to include video releases for her channel. Her intent had had everything to do with digging into Hartford Hope.
At the event, parents of the children who came to visit Santa signed releases allowing Talia’s exclusive use of the videos for her MyHeartChannel. She suspected family members’ curiosity originally propelled her “Santa Cam” video series forward. When she sent parents video links in the email with their kids’ digital photos, views boosted higher. In less than three days, the number of views expanded at an exponential rate, and she was getting hits from more than her subscribers and those who had attended the event.
Then, that morning, she’d had several advertisers come to her, ready to pay handsomely to share in her success. With the seasonal nature of the videos, both she and potential advertisers were aware it wouldn’t necessarily have long legs. Hopefully, the series would resurface the following Christmas as well, but for now it was worth jumping on while it was hot.
For the first time in her life, she had enough advertising options that she could sift through, choosing the best for her and the direction she wanted to go with her MyHeartChannel—if only she knew what that was. Regardless, it was a nice feeling to go from wondering if there would be another paycheck to strategizing how to maximize profits. No, not maximizing, but carefully pruning her career so it would grow in the direction she wanted. Acting rather than being acted upon.
And the kids in the videos were just so dang cute. She herself could watch them over and over again.
From the comments, it wasn’t just the kids that viewers were responding to. Tuesday, after she and Camden had decorated his truck, she pulled up the next video that would release.
“Hey, DFW,” she said to amend the end of the video, now that she knew she’d be seeing more of the soccer player,
“Santa is new to Texas this year. How ’bout y’all give him a big Texas welcome? What are some of your favorite Texas Christmas traditions? I have a few ideas, places in the DFW metroplex where I might take my new friend, but I’d love to hear yours. Share your own posts and videos with #SeeTheGood and keep following my channel to see if your suggestions make my list.”
Her viewers loved the idea that she wanted to show “Santa” the joy of a Texas Christmas. Which was why she was here, standing at his front porch, holding a barbed wire wreath for his front door, ready to take him to the Christmas in the Square for some real Texas Christmas tradition.
The series she’d started at the Hartford Hope event had done so well, she needed to get more footage to work with. Her viewers were depending on it. At least, that’s what she told herself.
It didn’t have anything to do with how he brought flutters of excitement every time they matched wits, or the smile that melted her when he teased her, or the sound of his voice, low and encouraging, that she wanted to hear again and again. It didn’t have anything to do with how he put his heart and soul into everything—playing Santa, decorating his truck, even heading off to some crazy Christmas festival he knew nothing about with a woman he’d only met a week before. It didn’t have anything to do with the way he’d been kind to her mother, neighborly to her father, helpful with Ed and Zeke, and adorably sweet with the kids.
Except it did. It had everything to do with those things.
She rang the doorbell, and in the moments while she waited for him to answer, listening to him yell “Just a minute!” followed by banging as if tidying up last minute, she realized she had to tell him about her MyHeartChannel. She couldn’t let him learn about it some other way. No, she’d learned her lesson in Seattle when she’d blindsided Mary Alice Howe and Ryland Neilson. They’d been decent people, and her “investigation” had almost ruined them professionally, if you could ruin a billionaire—which, granted, might not actually be possible. But if she could prevent future shame and guilt from how she handled a similar situation, she would.
Talia had seen enough romance movies and read enough books to know she shouldn’t even think of moving a relationship along without being honest. That was the reason she’d left her network job, after all, and if she wanted a friendship with this man, not telling him about the videos she’d posted would be the way to doom it before it even started.
She heard the dead bolt click, and the door opened.
“You know I would have picked you up.” His voice was a warm breeze wrapping around her, and his smile made her insides go gooey. “I’m actually a good driver. You’ve seen me. I didn’t even get into an accident when this amazingly beautiful woman distracted me.” He gave her a knowing look and then lifted his hand to shield his mouth, like a coach on the sideline trying to prevent eavesdroppers. “I think she wanted to pick me up for my dance moves,” he whispered. He did a little dip dance move.
She laughed, as she assumed he’d been angling for. “Can’t blame her. You are pretty good,” she whispered back. “Having me meet you here wasn’t supposed to be a slight.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder. “Dad picked me up for dinner tonight. But just to prove I trust you, I’ll let you drop me home later.”
A rush of panic ran through her, thinking of the video she’d seen of him. She’d never been one for the late-night dance scene other than during college, and even then, she hadn’t frequented places like Buster’s. Could she trust a guy that had gotten into a fight in front of a honky-tonk? And yet, the person in that video hardly seemed to be the same one standing in front of her. And that scared her even more. But her gut said to trust him, so for now, she would go with that.
“What’s this?” Camden motioned toward the wreath she was holding. “Should I bring a first aid kit along just in case?”
Talia raised it from her side and pushed it toward him. “Not as long as you’re careful. Are you current on your tetanus shot? Besides, it’s for you, so no ‘taking a first aid kit’ anywhere required.”
“Oh, no.” He raised his hands in front of him, warding it off. “I’m not putting that on my truck. No way, no how. Do you know what it would do to my paint job?”
She laughed. “It’s for your front door, you goof.” She flipped it over and flicked on the battery pack. Tiny white lights illuminated and then started to blink.
“I have to say, I wouldn’t have expected something this country in a Dallas suburb. It looks more like Cobble Creek than I want to admit.” Camden chuckled as he reached out to accept the gift. “I mean, there are how many millions of people living here in one of the biggest cities in the nation? This is far from country. I have yet to spot a longhorn, and the only horse I saw was when I got lost in Argyle.”
Happiness bubbled through her. He was so easy to talk to, so easy to tease. “I figured with moving here from New York City . . .” She hadn’t really. Well, at least not consciously. “I lumped you in with every other visitor who thinks Texas is all cowboy. I kind of forget that you grew up where there really are ranches and barbed wire fences.”
“Hey.” His voice was full of hurt. “I’m not a visitor. Even if I wasn’t born here. Isn’t there some saying . . .”
“‘I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could,’” Talia supplied for him. “Except, if I remember correctly, as recently as a couple of days ago, you couldn’t get out of Texas fast enough.”
“That was before.” His sheepish look was the cutest so far. “Thanks for the gift, but you didn’t need to do this.”
Talia made a show of looking past him into his still-barren holiday-free living area. “Oh yes, I did. I’m going to make a holiday celebrator out of you.” She sobered slightly. “Mom convinced me to go to one of those craft classes yesterday, but I already have a wreath on my front door.” She turned to angle towards an exit. “You ready?”
“I’m ready for you to show me how awesome Christmas is in Texas.” His sarcasm was soft, even if it wasn’t veiled in any way.
“As long as you keep an open mind.”
“If I have to keep an open mind, it must not be all that great.” He placed a hand briefly on the small of her back. Feeling it was a guide, she stepped through the open front door again, and he closed and locked it behind them. “Also, I have to warn you. I’m an athlete. I’m not known for having the best of imaginations.”
“Whatever.” She had a feeling there was nothing wrong with his. So far, she couldn’t find anything wrong with him. But she was going to call him out on his comment, joking or no. “I can’t believe you’d say something so stereotypical and just plain . . .” In her indignation, she lost all word-finding ability.
He held up a hand to stop her. “Don’t stress. I was just kidding.”
He helped her into his truck, and thirty minutes later, they were driving into a shopping district so overburdened with cars, they were behind a long line of red taillights.
“Anywhere you see a parking spot, grab it,” Talia encouraged Cam, who drove like an eighty-year-old grandma. She itched to get out and move a little faster. “It won’t hurt to walk a little, and you won’t find anything closer anyway.”
They parked and followed the rest of the crowd crushing toward the shopping center. If he wanted Texas, this was it, but it was much more popular than she’d expected.
“So how many times have you come to this, this—what is this again?”
Talia loved the cadence of his speech, the timbre of his voice. “Christmas in the Square is a big deal around here.”
He sidestepped when a young couple pushed past. “I can see that.” His voice had an edge to it. The growing crowd of strollers, excited families, and boisterous teenagers all combined to give Talia a sense of community that apparently Cam didn’t feel.
“Tonight’s the tree lighting, so there are probably more people than usual,” she rushed to explain. Maybe she should have chosen a different night, but she’d figured if they were going to do
it, they were going to do it right. “At least I would assume. This is actually my first year coming here.”
Camden gave her a sideways look. “Where did you get the idea, then? I thought you were showing me your Texas Christmas traditions.”
By now, they’d reached the knot of people gathering for the big event. Talia shook her head. “I’ve always gone to something a little closer to home. Something a little smaller.”
“Then why are we here this time?”
She hesitated momentarily, but this was the perfect in. “I got the idea from my viewers. More people suggested it.”
She’d expected a reaction, and he gave her one. He stopped in the middle of the busy walkway, turned toward her, and put both hands out to grab her upper arms, gently stopping her. “Your what?”
“Viewers.” She let that sink in. “You and I never talked about my job,” Talia gently reminded him. “My real job.” If Ed’s was any indication, playing elf didn’t pay well. Or at all.
She started walking again, and he dropped back into place at her side. “One of the things I do is run my own MyHeartChannel. The reason I was playing elf—other than helping out my brother—was so that I could investigate the legitimacy of Hartford Hope. You know how so many charities crop up over the holidays.” She rolled her hand in front of her, but he didn’t seem interested in that part of what she was saying.
“Huh.” He was so quiet, not giving her a hint of what he thought. “And what did you decide?”
About what? About him? Her mind caught up to the conversation. About the charity. “Pssh. That Hartford Hope is the real deal. And that it’s awesome and amazing, of course.” She had no doubts.
His head bobbed with certainty. “What I think too. Zeke said I could help out on their spring fundraiser. Said he didn’t trust me with a hammer, but he’ll let me ref some games at the tournament.” His chuckle made her think he was probably overqualified for either job, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Santa Cam (MyHeartChannel Romance) Page 8