He strode across the room, wondering why he’d made such a ridiculous statement. He wasn’t sure anything would be fine ever again.
Alissa couldn’t breathe.
By the time she reached her door and shoved the key into the lock with fingers that shook wildly, she was hauling in breath that felt too thin, utterly useless to her straining lungs.
Who were they—the woman and girl? What she’d witnessed back there was no polite “it’s-nice-to-see-you” kind of hug. Those two females were special to Scott, and he to them. He’d looked like a deer trapped in about a dozen sets of headlights when he spotted her across the lobby.
She shoved into her room, and flung herself onto the bed. The angry, self-accusatory tears she’d fought all the way up that mile-long staircase would be put off no longer. They poured from her eyes in a deluge, while deep, jarring sobs shook her entire frame.
Why had she trusted him? How could she have let all the sweet words and adoring looks get under her skin? So they’d had an incredible date last night. Scott hadn’t even tried to kiss her—not that she would have let him, knowing he had a wife. But some part of her had longed to feel the touch of his lips on hers. Just once. Even if it wasn’t right, or wise—or any other of a dozen words she could come up with if she wanted to.
Scott had a wife. Maybe even a daughter. And from the looks of things, they were anything but estranged, or separated…whatever. How would one define the situation Scott had explained to her?
And why bother anyway, since he’d clearly lied about the whole thing?
She sniffled into a soaked and crumpled tissue, then went still. After a moment, she swung her legs off the bed and sat up.
None of that made sense.
If he just wanted to play around, why would he even have told her he was married? Why not just let her believe he’s single…have some fun, and then return to his poor wife, with no one the wiser?
If his vows meant so little to him, why hadn’t he tried to kiss her last night?
Don’t look at the circumstances. Look into his heart.
She closed her eyes and hauled in a deep breath.
Despite that little scene downstairs, something within her believed Scott was good. His heart was pure. He was not toying with her emotions. The pain of seeing him with another woman in his arms had temporarily colored her sense of perception, but already she saw through the ugly green streak of jealousy.
Shame washed over her in a flood. Once again, she’d run away instead of facing whatever was going on downstairs.
She’d talk to Scott, apologize for her kneejerk reaction to seeing him with Bell—because, now that she’d calmed to think about it, she hadn’t a doubt about the identity of the lovely woman in the lobby. Could the pretty teen be Scottie, the baby who’d been given Scott’s name?
A sharp rap on the door startled her and she jumped to her feet. She stared at the entry, holding her breath.
“Lissy, open up. I know you’re in there, and I’m not leaving until we talk.”
Open the door or remain silent. If she didn’t make a sound, he’d go away, and she could deal with everything when she felt a little less vulnerable.
Another rap, and then another.
“If you don’t open the door right now, I promise I will sit out here on the floor until you do. I’m not going anywhere until we talk.”
She huffed out a sigh. Stubborn man.
Then she grinned. I think I kind of like that.
Her gaze fell on the canvas button box. She captured her still-trembling bottom lip between her teeth and stared at the small object.
“All right then. You can’t stay in there forever. When you open this door, I’ll be right here…waiting for you.”
Waiting for me.
Her heart skipped a beat, and she gasped. Hadn’t they waited long enough already…both of them?
She flipped open the box and removed the button that matched the one he’d kept all these years. Then, as if moving through a mist—uncertainty, doubt, fear, longing, love…
Love?
…she walked to the door, knelt on the floor, and used a nail file to push the bright disc beneath the portal and out into the hall. Then she held her breath, still on her knees. Would he even notice?
“Sweetheart. Your button and mine…they were always meant to be a pair, weren’t they?” He paused, and Lissy pictured him leaning his forehead against the barrier between them. “We were too, and now it’s our time. Please…open up?”
She drew a deep breath, stood to her feet, and did as he asked.
“Lissy!” He took her face between his hands and searched her eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I am now.”
“Honey, I’m so sorry. What you saw downstairs…it isn’t what you think.”
“I know.”
“That was Bell. She’s here because I—what? You know?”
Alissa nodded. “Well, I guess I don’t really know much of anything, but God does. He told me to look at your heart, and I just know that your heart is not deceptive. It’s pure and right and good.” She leaned her face into the hand against her right cheek. “I do want to know why she’s here and…well, everything about the whole situation. But until then, I trust. I trust God, and I trust you.”
He pulled her into his arms. “You just poured a healing balm on a frantic heart, my beautiful Lissy. I can’t imagine the rest of my life without you right next to me.” He nuzzled her hair, and she trembled. “I want to kiss you now, but I won’t. I can’t—not until I’m free to do so. Can you…will you wait for me just a little longer, my love?”
She looked up. Following his earlier example, she placed a hand on each side of his face.
“I’ll wait, Scott. Until those buttons wear thin, and all the color fades away…I’ll wait.”
Within the deep blue of his eyes, she saw his heart, and it held everything he couldn’t speak aloud just yet. All the love and longing that mirrored her own. The frustration of waiting. The joy of knowing they would be together soon.
He cleared his throat, stepped back and offered her his arm. “Come downstairs with me? Bell and Scottie want to meet you.”
“I want to meet them too.” She slipped her hand through the bend of his elbow and grinned as they started down the stairs. “This is a rather strange way to start a relationship, don’t you think?”
“But we’re not starting a relationship today, are we? We did that years ago, on that beach in Oregon. You know, I think we should go back there.”
She laughed. “That would be fun. We’ll bury all the extra buttons under our berry bush, and go dig them up in another fifteen years. It’ll be our own secret tradition.”
He chuckled. “That’s not a bad idea. Oregon it is, just as soon as we say—”
She broke in. “Don’t say the words. Not yet. There’s a time for everything, and it isn’t yet time for those words.”
“As you wish, my lady. But when the time is right, we’ll take our buttons back to Button Beach.”
“That’s a great name for our little stretch of the coastline!”
“Glad you like it.”
She lowered her eyelashes and hesitated. Her cheeks warmed. But she had something to say and shyness would not keep her from saying it.
“I like you, Scott.”
He didn’t laugh. “I’ll take that for now. I like you too, Lissy Neal. I like you a lot.”
As they stepped down onto the lobby floor, Scott leaned in and trailed his lips across her cheek. A tiny stream of fire followed the gentle half-kiss. Lissy gasped when an electric tingle shot all the way to her toes.
“Listen!” An excited voice—Lydia’s?— rang out across the lobby, catching the attention of everyone within earshot. “Can you hear the bells?”
Sure enough, they tolled in beautiful synchrony from the direction of the chapel.
Lissy raised disbelieving eyes to Scott’s. They’d only shared a partial kiss…but it promised a lifetim
e of more to come. Were they for whom the bells tolled?
He lifted her chin with one finger and looked into her eyes…so deeply into them she thought he might actually see her soul. “I hear them.”
Lissy managed a bare whisper. “I do too. I hear the bells, loud and clear and beautiful.”
Epilogue
“LOOKS LIKE ARIANA’S GETTING READY to start the countdown!”
Scott stood behind Lissy, his hands on her shoulders, while they waited for the big moment. Christmas Inn guests, bundled against the cold, milled around in the garden area, admiring the plethora of lights, frozen fountains and statues. Children played in the huge sleigh that served as a popular ‘jungle gym’ for youngsters.
Lydia, her husband Graham, and what had to be the biggest part of his kitchen staff, occupied the space behind a couple of portable serving stations. They’d busied themselves doling out hot dogs and hamburgers, hot chocolate and spiced cider for well over an hour, and things didn’t look to be slowing down in the least.
A fourteen-foot Christmas tree stood square in the center of the long deck. Dressed in a bright red Mrs. Claus outfit, Ariana Christmas stood next to it, the end of a cord in each hand.
All Christmas Inn guests had been invited to help decorate the huge tree a couple nights earlier. Scott loved watching Lissy, all smiles and bright eyes, just like he remembered, take full part in the event.
Prior to the decoration ceremony, she’d talked him into attending one of the crafting classes, where they each made an ornament to be hung on the tree. He’d enjoyed it, though he’d pretended reluctance when she first asked him to craft with her. Truth was, he’d do just about anything with Lissy—though he reserved the right to decline participation in one or two specifically female-oriented activities.
He hadn’t been this excited about watching a tree lighting in more years than he cared to think about. Something had been missing from his life for a long time.
Now he knew he’d been on hold, waiting for Lissy—who hadn’t put up a fuss when he asked permission to keep calling her by the name she’d gone by in Oregon, as a teen. “I don’t care what you call me,” she said, “as long as you don’t disappear again.”
Not a chance of that. He couldn’t wait to make her his wife, and if things worked out the way he hoped, that could happen soon. Very soon.
If she said yes.
As it turned out, Bell’s surprise appearance at the inn last week was her response to his frantic phone calls. She’d found the love of her life and couldn’t wait to marry the guy.
“I sent you the papers almost a month ago,” she told him. “All I need is your signature, and our non-existent marriage can be dissolved within days. I’ve done all the legal stuff, taken care of payment—everything’s done…except for your part.”
“Ahh…I see.” With three sets of curious eyes on him, he cleared his throat. Might as well have written “GUILTY” across his forehead in red ink. “I might have left a manila envelope…that might have had your name on it…in my stack of unopened mail before I came here.”
Bell rolled her eyes. Scottie snickered. Lissy sighed.
“Oh, I see how it is.” Bell grinned. “But never fear, I am nothing if not efficient. I just happen to have a whole new set of paperwork with me.”
Since neither of them were contesting the dissolution of their marriage, and they had no shared property to tussle over, the process wouldn’t take long—at least, that’s what Bell said. Scott hoped to hear from her any day, with the news that he and Lissy could legally—and morally—be together.
He couldn’t wait to kiss her. Really kiss her. He’d like nothing better than to take her home with him, straight from Christmas Inn. Lissy said he was expecting too much of the legal system, that these things tended to take longer than people were often led to expect.
But he wasn’t about to stop hoping.
“I wish Gabriel was here for this. I miss him,” Lissy said.
“So do I. But he said he’d done his job here and it was time to move along to the next one.”
“I know. Did you…?” She hesitated, nibbling at that delectable bottom lip again.
“Did I…?”
“Don’t laugh, okay? It’s just that, a couple of times I got the feeling he was here for us. I can’t put the pieces together in my mind, but I can’t shake the feeling.”
“I’m not laughing, Lissy. It’s the craziest idea ever, but you’re not alone. I kind of felt that way too. Who knows, maybe we’ll see him here again someday, and we’ll ask him. Because we will come back to Christmas Inn…won’t we?”
“Yes, please. I’d like that a lot.”
“You talked to your family today?”
“I did. They’re switching things up a little bit this year. Doug and Mimi asked the folks to come to their place. Seems strange, not having Christmas somewhere besides at Mom and Dad’s house, but I guess it’s time for us to take on the big holidays and let Mom just enjoy them—although I can’t imagine her agreeing to that.”
He laughed. “Well, what’s important is that they’ll all be together—and so will we. I’m really excited about the Christmas service in the chapel tomorrow.”
“Me too! I can’t wait. I helped decorate the sanctuary earlier today. It looks so beautiful.”
“Everybody ready?” Ariana’s voice rang out across the cold air. She held her hands up at chest level, her fingers of each wrapped around the end of a cord. “Here we go. Our Christmas tree goes live in five…four…three…two…one!”
She connected the cords and a collective gasp arose from the crowd, followed by loud hoops and hollers.
Lissy gasped and gazed at the tree as if she’d never seen one before. Scott grinned, but when she still hadn’t moved or made a sound after a full minute or so, he became concerned.
“Sweetheart?”
She pulled in a breath. Scott doubted she’d taken one since the lights came on.
“It’s so incredibly beautiful! Scott, looking at this tree that we all made so perfect with our love and creativity and labor…I just realized that I don’t think I’ve even really seen a Christmas tree in a long time—a really long time.”
“I know just what you mean. I was thinking pretty much the same thing.”
“Well, let’s not let another Christmas go by unappreciated. And I don’t mean the tree, although it’s so pretty and fun to decorate. I mean, let’s really remember the meaning behind the holiday. The birthday of our Lord…and He’s been so good to us!”
“He has indeed.”
Lissy had finished her crossword obligation and submitted it to the publishing company. As he’d promised, Scott worked with her. They made a game of the words, and the job was done in mere days, leaving them the past week to spend time together. Hours and days filled with fun, serious conversation, quiet reflection, and reacquaintance.
What they’d discovered in that time was that they still felt that crazy, trembly, tongue-tied excitement when they were together. Their hearts still yearned toward one another.
And Scott still ached to kiss her.
Especially in moments like this, when her eyes shone with life…with excitement…and maybe even love.
Did she love him? He hoped she did. He dreamed of a life together with her. Sometimes he thought he caught a glimpse of the same crazy adoration he felt for her peeking out from her eyes, trembling on her lips, and lingering behind when her fingers touched his.
But he couldn’t know for sure until he was free to tell her he loved her…and she could affirm or deny her feelings for him.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, and the cheerful notes of “Jingle Bell Rock” rang out. Everyone looked their way and chuckled. A few even started dancing to the beat.
Shaking his head, Scott jerked the device from his pocket. “Yeah?”
He listened for a moment, unable to contain the smile that spread across his face.
“Thank you. Thank you more than you can possibl
y know!”
Lissy’s brows drew slightly together. “Sounds like you’re okay, anyway—you’re smiling. Anything I should know about?”
Scott didn’t say a word. He hauled her into his arms and lowered his face to hers—almost touching her lips with his own.
Almost.
“Alissa Mary Neal…you are the love of my life. I’ve loved you since I met you on that beautiful beach on the West Coast. I think I’ve loved you forever. Maybe I even loved you before I was born. Now I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me, sweetheart? Please…please say yes!”
She blinked, clearly shocked by his sudden declaration, but then she smiled—a slow, beautiful smile that did all kinds of weird things to Scott’s heart.
“You’re free?”
“As a bird.”
“Then yes, Scott…I adore you! I was born loving you.”
Could a heart actually burst with joy? Scott pulled her closer and lowered his lips and closed the space between his and hers by the barest fraction.
“You’re sure that’s a yes?”
She laughed—a low, husky sound that landed on Scott’s heart and then traveled all the way through his body.
“That’s a positively, absolutely, without a doubtly…yes!”
“Without a what? A doubtly? That’s not a word, Miss Crossword Queen.”
“Prove it.”
“Nope. Cause I don’t care, as long as it means you’ll be my wife.”
“That’s what it means. Now will you just…kiss me already?”
Scott grinned. “I was gonna get around to that, right about now.”
He touched his lips to hers—gently at first, and then deeper. Could Heaven really be better than this?
Another round of hoops and hollers, accompanied by enthusiastic applause, reminded them they had an audience. Laughter filled the air, and Ariana’s voice rang out across the air again.
“Should we be offering congratulations, Scott and Alissa?”
For some reason, every guest in the inn seemed to know they’d been waiting on a phone call to seal the deal on their unspoken—but apparently quite obvious—feelings for each other.
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