by Dani Collins
She didn’t have to spend a year in Texas to bask in the accomplishment of being cast. She would always have the knowledge that she had measured up. She could easily move on to making a life with Quincy without regret for what might have been.
Poignant sweetness expanded in her. A sense of peace with her past and optimism for her future.
She reached to turn the key, eager to go back and tell him she would look for work in Marietta. They could see what happened. She wouldn’t regret staying either way.
Her car made one coughing noise, then sputtered into nothing, refusing to turn over.
*
Quincy was keeping his phone handy, waiting for a text or call from Nicki. She would be out of range for a lot of the mountain driving. It would probably be hours yet, so he wasn’t exactly concerned by the silence, but he wanted to hear from her.
He shouldn’t have let her leave without telling her he loved her. If anything happened, he would never forgive himself.
They were about to sit down to dinner when his phone buzzed and her name came up. He found himself fumbling it. “Hello?”
“It’s me.” She was breathing as though walking briskly. “I’m not at my dad’s. My stupid car broke down again.”
“Where?” He rose and hurried to the back door, taking his keys off the hook as he scuffed into his shoes.
“Just outside Marietta. I wound up having a bite with the Tierneys before I left, so I was barely past town limits, thank goodness. But I didn’t want you worrying that you hadn’t heard from me—”
“Where exactly? I’m coming to get you.”
“Quincy, I’m fine. It’s not that cold. It’s actually kind of peaceful. I’ve left a message for the Tierneys. I’m sure they’ll let me use the flat again tonight, but if not, I’ll go to one of the hotels.”
“You’re not getting a hotel. Are you kidding me? I’m coming to get you.” He motioned to his father to start eating without him. “Where are you? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
*
She was relieved to see him. She hadn’t wanted to leave her laptop in the car, dinosaur that it was, so she was carrying that with a change of clothes and her purse. It was a heavy load.
Nevertheless, she claimed, “You really didn’t have to do this,” as they stood at the back of the SUV, stowing her things.
“Of course I did. You’re not going to a hotel, either.” He slammed the back and came with her to her door.
“I don’t want to impose—”
He paused in opening the door for her.
“Are you serious?” He looked baffled, more than a little impatient with her, but his gaze was grave as he searched her expression. “Do you remember where we were this afternoon? I’ve been kicking myself for not—Damn it. I love you, Nicki. It scares the hell out of me, but I do. And I sure as hell am not about to leave the woman I love by the side of the road on Christmas Eve.”
She wanted to admonish him for swearing, tease him and ask about other days of the year, but all she could do was stand there and tear up afresh. She touched her mouth as it formed a soft, “Oh.”
“Am I reading things wrong?”
“No. I mean, I hoped that you felt… Oh, Quincy!” She threw herself into his arms. “I love you so much!”
He muttered something that might have been, “Thank God,” as he closed his arms tight around her. “We’ll figure something out,” he promised. “Long distance isn’t great, but—”
“No, I was coming back.” She pulled back to set her feet fully on the ground. “I’ve decided not to go. I’ll find a job in Marietta. We can date and see what happens—No?”
He shook his head, making her heart stop and drop.
He hugged her again, hard, then let her feet touch ground again. “You really want to stay?”
“Yes.” She said it firmly, without any doubt.
“Then can’t we just get married?” His hand went into his hair. “That was a terrible proposal. But I want you in my house, Nicki. Every night when you leave, I’m disappointed. In the morning, I’m waiting for you to come back. If you don’t want to live with Pops, I get it. We can find our own place, but spending time with Atlas is how I began to feel like a father. I want to live with you, so we’ll become a husband and wife. I want us to be a family.”
Her breath thinned out like smoke that dissipated until it was gone. Her smile wobbled.
“That was actually a really good proposal.” She blinked, trying to catch back the happy tears forming in her eyes, barely able to speak. “I want that, too.”
She stepped into him. When she turned up her face to kiss him, tiny flakes of snow floated in the glowing light above his dark hair, turning the moment fairy tale perfect. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Christmas Day
“Mmm,” a male growl sounded against her neck and firm arms hugged her naked back into his naked front. “You are here. I was afraid it was a dream.”
She smiled sleepily, not even opening her eyes, but whispered the incantation that only came once a year. “It’s Christmas.”
Behind her, she felt Quincy lift his head to look at the clock. “Is he up? Or can we steal some adult time?”
Maury and Atlas had been thrilled to see her come in with Quincy last night. Maury went over the moon when Quincy told him they were engaged. Atlas had hugged her and stuck pretty close the rest of the evening, sitting in her lap as they lit the candles in the bowl, then asking her to read to him at bedtime. He had gone to bed later than usual, but slept solid.
An hour later, they heard him stirring and pulled their satiated bodies from the covers, smiling lazily at each other as they dressed. Her heart was so full she could hardly bear it.
“They stiw goin’,” Atlas said as they went downstairs and found the four candles in the globe still floating and burning.
Nicki took it as a sign that they were all being blessed by their mommas, her decision to stay with Quincy especially. Her father had passed along a similar blessing last night, when she had called to tell him she was staying in Marietta for the night and why. They were all going to drive down tomorrow for a proper introduction and visit.
As Maury ambled down the stairs, Atlas went to the Advent calendar and pointed out there were no more spots to fill.
“It’s Kwissmass! Cahr-ismas.” He corrected himself, trying hard to get the R sound, but he was too excited after that. “We can open da pwesents!”
Nicki laughed with equal excitement, delighted to see how big he smiled and how bright his eyes shone. “Stockings first. That was always our tradition.” She glanced at Quincy.
“Us, too,” he confirmed, then caught her hand, tugging her down beside him on the sofa, pulling her in close against his side. “You’re the best present I could have this morning, you know that?” he said into her hair.
“You, too.” She gave his beard a little rub with the tip of her nose. She didn’t care one iota that there was nothing under the tree for her.
“But what’s this?” Maury said as he helped Atlas take the stockings off their hooks. “Looks like Santa brought you something, Nicki. Forgot to put your name on it, but at least he found you. He’s a clever one, that ol’ St. Nick.”
He handed a gray woolen sock with white trim to Atlas and told the boy to give it to her.
“Thank you,” she said, wanting to make a joke about seeing Maury buy these socks a week ago, but not wanting to spoil the magic for Atlas.
“What could it be?” she murmured, glancing at Quincy for a clue.
He shrugged in the most painfully nonchalant way while Atlas said, “Open an’ see,” making them all smile at his earnest answer.
“Well, um, Santa.” She glanced between the men. “Thank you. I didn’t expect this.”
Atlas attacked the contents of his stocking with enthusiasm, making excited noises of discovery as he revealed little building block kits and action figurines.
Both men ignored t
heir own stockings in favor of watching her, making her all the more self-conscious. Nicki dug for the one item. It was a velvet box.
Seriously? The stores wouldn’t have been open.
She drew out the indigo-colored jeweler’s box with the gold-embossed marking. Something about it struck her as old fashioned, but quality. Little trembles took over her nerve endings.
As she licked her lips and told herself it was probably earrings, Quincy slid off the sofa beside her and onto one knee.
She dropped the little box into her lap and clapped her hands over her mouth. Then moved them to her hot cheeks and was tempted to hide her dampening eyes. Her heart took off in a race inside her chest.
“Nicole Darren…” His voice was so strong yet tender, deep and sincere.
“Oh, Quincy.” Her eyes filled so fast they stung. Her mouth began to tug every which way, wanting to smile, but emotion made her lips quiver. “How—?”
She could barely hear him as he continued speaking, sounding equally overcome.
“It was my mother’s. Pops gave it to me last night, while you were reading with Atlas.” He opened the little box to reveal a princess-cut solitaire in a yellow-gold setting. It was simple and pretty and now she couldn’t see it because her vision had completely blurred.
“I mean all of this.” She pressed her hands to cheeks that were hot and round with her huge smile. “I love you so much, all of you. How am I this happy? How is this so perfect?”
“It’s Christmas.”
Of course. The obvious answer. They both laughed.
“Will you marry me, Nicki?”
“I would be so honored, Quincy. Yes,” she managed in a trembling voice. Then sniffed and had to wipe the tears that were dripping down her cheeks.
Maury chuckled and reached out with a clean handkerchief. “I brought this down thinking we might need it.”
Nicki laughed through her tears, gulping back her sniffles as Quincy slid the ring onto her finger. It was a tiny bit loose, but she would put a bit of tape on it until they could get it sized. No way was she not wearing it today. Christmas Day. The day he proposed. She had never been so happy in her life.
“I’ll ask your father for permission when we see him,” Quincy said.
“He’ll love that.” She hooked her arms around his neck and leaned to kiss him.
They kept it chaste, on account of their audience, but held onto each other for an extra second, trying to pull themselves together.
Atlas, caught up in his own special day, unwrapped the tear-off calendar she had put in his stocking. “What’s diss?”
It was the distraction they needed.
“That’s so you can learn to read. Each day has a word.” She helped him turn it over. “See. January First says, ‘Pop!—goes the fireworks. It’s a New Year!’”
Atlas ran his finger under the words, repeating carefully, “Pops goes da fi-ahhrr wahhrrks.”
“Not Pops—” Nicki teased.
They all laughed, even Atlas, proving there was a sharp sense of humor under that quiet exterior.
The calendar was discarded, and Nicki picked it up. “It’s a little advanced for him, but he seemed to like the countdown of the Advent calendar,” she said in an aside to Quincy.
“Were we counting down? I think I was counting up. Twenty-five of the best days of my life.” He sat beside her again and centered the ring on her finger. “Christmas elf,” he murmured. “More like my Christmas miracle.”
“Aw.” She smiled, deeply touched.
“I mean it.” He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckle. “I’m looking forward to spending the rest of the year with you. All the rest of the years of my life.”
“Me, too. Merry Christmas.”
December 14th, Two Years Later
“Hey, babe?” Quincy called as he came up the stairs. “That was Joan on the phone. She said she and Dad are at the church. The nativity thing is going to start soon. Are you almost ready?”
Nicki flung open the door to their small en-suite bathroom and gave her husband a helpless look. He wore his winter jacket and held his phone. His eyes widened when he saw she wore a towel and wet hair. Her face was rinsed clean of the makeup she had applied an hour ago.
“Small change of plans. We’re staging our own nativity play. My water just broke.”
“Are you serious? I—” He took a step toward her, then backed out of the room to look down the stairs. He lifted his phone, started to swear, bit it back, sent her a dumbfounded look, then called, “Atlas!”
The boy charged up the stairs wearing his own jacket and a woolen hat. “Are we going? What’s wrong?”
“You have to stay with Pops and Grandma Joan tonight,” Quincy said, plainly trying to grasp order out of chaos. “Mom says the baby is coming. I have to take her to the hospital.”
Atlas blinked bewildered eyes at her. “You said the baby would come after Christmas.”
“That’s what the doctor told me, but babies are pretty notorious for not looking at calendars.” She wrinkled her nose at him, trying to ignore the small contraction working its way across her back. “Can you go find pajamas and pack clothes for two nights into your school bag? I’ll help soon as I’m dressed.”
“I got it,” Quincy said in the easy, tag-team rapport they had developed even before they admitted they had feelings for one another. “Do you have your own bag packed?”
“I was going to do it this weekend.” She opened a drawer and pulled out clothes to wear to the hospital. “Once December hit, I got so caught up in Christmas I let all the baby prep slide… I kept thinking I would be overdue and have time after Christmas to organize everything.”
To her husband’s credit, he did not say, “I told you so,” even though he had asked a few times about whether he should assemble the change table and whether she had pre-registered at the hospital.
She sighed, overwhelmed as she realized how much she hadn’t done.
He came across and took her into a comforting embrace. “You okay?”
“A little bit freaked out,” she admitted, resting her wet head against his jacket. “But it’s only two weeks early.”
“I’ll be with you the whole time.” He kissed her forehead. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Her husband had been her rock through two years of changes. After they married, she had taken a part-time job in Marietta and went through the process to adopt Atlas. Quincy had kept his travel to a minimum, so they could give Atlas all the support he needed as he started school and speech therapy—both of which had been a rousing success. Maury had also married and moved with Joan into a nice apartment in town, making room in the house for Quincy and Nicki to grow their family.
They increased it by one girl, they discovered twelve hours later.
“I know we talked about your mom’s name or mine if we had a girl,” Nicki said as they gazed at her tiny, perfect little face, finally alone in their private room after a textbook delivery. “But yesterday, Atlas said he liked the name Natalie. I looked it up. It means, ‘Born at Christmas.’ That’s ten days away, but—”
“I love it.” Quincy dragged his wonder-filled eyes from their daughter to hers. “She obviously didn’t want to wait a year to have Christmas with us. She wants to be part of it now. Yes. Natalie. What time is it? I want to phone Atlas and tell him.”
He patted his pockets, then went to find his jacket where he fished out his phone and placed a face call. “Hey, Pops, is Atlas up?”
Maury called Atlas over to look into the screen. Atlas was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he leaned into his grandfather. “Hi, Dad.”
“Hey, champ. Guess what you got for Christmas? A sister. This is Natalie.” He showed his son their newborn.
“Yessss!” Atlas high-fived with Pops.
“You’re happy we’re using your name?” Quincy guessed dryly.
“I’m happy I have a sister.”
“Oh.” He exchanged a how-abo
ut-that look with Nicki.
“How’s Nicki? When can we come to the hospital?” Pops asked.
“Both are doing great. We’re going to see if we can sleep, but everything went really well. They might be discharged later today. Let me call you back in a few hours.”
“Hmph. Not the way it was done when you were born, but okay. We’ll be home all day. You let me know.”
Quincy ended the call and scratched his cheek. “I was never going to be this guy. A dad. Having a son was a shock. Now I have a daughter, and I’m so delighted to have two kids… Is it too soon to talk about another one?”
“Way too soon,” she assured him, making him chuckle.
“I was joking.” He cradled her jaw as he looked into her eyes. “Mostly. I am happy. And grateful.” His expression grew reflective and sincere. “I don’t say that enough, but I am incredibly grateful to you, Nicki. Making a baby is not the accomplishment. You helped me become a father in the way that matters most. I love you so very much for that.”
“You had good genes,” she tried to say dismissively, but she teared up. “And you’re the best father I could imagine for my children. I have never once regretted not going to Texas. I want to be here, with you, every single day.”
They kissed, and it was filled with celebration and gratitude, sweet passion, and renewal of vows. It brimmed with love. Lots and lots of love.
The End
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed HIS CHRISTMAS MIRACLE. Would you like to make a calendar similar to the one Nicki made for Quincy and Atlas? I’ve designed a printable Advent calendar with suggested activities that you can print, color, and customize for your little elves. Download the file here:
danicollins.com/download/405930003
It’s my gift to you and you must open it before Christmas!
Enjoy the season,
Dani
Enjoy USA Today Bestselling Author Dani Collins’ new series…