* * *
When she got up the next morning, it was the first time in for ever her leg hadn’t ached. She was so used to the feeling, it was strange, but she almost missed it. Her hand reached automatically for the painkillers she normally took first thing in the morning and then she stopped herself. She didn’t need them.
Ever since her accident there hadn’t been a single day that her leg hadn’t ached unbearably.
Maybe it was the extremely comfortable bed? But she wasn’t stupid. On average she spent six hours a day on the slopes. Yesterday had been the first time she hadn’t.
She showered and pulled on some clothes, fully expecting Leo to have left some kind of note about working today. But, instead, he was sitting at the dining table, finishing a phone call.
He looked up as she walked through. ‘I thought you promised me pyjamas and thick socks?’
She shook her head as she looked down at her jeans and simple blue jumper. ‘I’m saving them for later. After a hard day’s sightseeing—what could be more perfect than collapsing into my pyjamas?’ She couldn’t take her eyes away from the view again. Daytime New York and night-time New York were equally beautiful.
‘It’s like a window to the world up here,’ she said breathlessly. She pressed her nose against the glass and looked down. People looked like ants darting purposely beneath her in a myriad of colours.
She spun back around and leaned against the glass. ‘I thought you had urgent business to attend to. Isn’t that why we came back?’
His face was serious for a second. ‘Yeah, I’ve just spoken to Joe. He’s quite the traditionalist. He wants to meet for dinner.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘That means that we have the day free to sightsee.’
Anissa’s stomach fluttered. She liked how that sounded. She liked it a lot. ‘So, where to, then?’
He held out his arms. ‘Your wish is my command.’
* * *
The first place he took her was an all-American diner near Central Park that was his favourite breakfast hangout. It didn’t look much on the outside, but one large stack of pancakes later Anissa was convinced.
He’d been too embarrassed to tell her he had virtually no food in the house—his lone bachelor status meant he rarely prepared meals—and that included breakfast. So he’d dashed off a quick email to his housekeeping services to stock his fridge before they’d left the apartment.
She was wearing that long blue coat again, the one that brought out the colour of her eyes, and he found himself fixating on them.
Next, it made sense to go to Central Park. They tramped through the snow together across the Bow Bridge and down towards the Angels of the Water fountain. Then they wove their way through the park towards Belvedere Castle.
‘I never knew there was a castle in Central Park,’ said Anissa as they turned towards it.
‘It was renovated in the eighties. I think up until then it had been almost neglected. Now it’s one of the visitor centres.’
A huge smile broke out on Anissa’s face. ‘It’s perfect, isn’t it? Small, but there’s something so personal about it.’
‘It’s been used in some movies.’
‘Really?’ She spun around and held out her arms. ‘Just think, I wonder if a real-live princess ever stayed here.’
Leo was looking at her with an amused expression on his face. ‘I’m not sure that anyone—royal or otherwise—has ever stayed here.’
‘But isn’t it nice to imagine?’ she said quickly.
New York was sparking something inside her. Or maybe it was Leo. Or maybe it was just being away from the thing that had surrounded her for most of her life—skiing.
‘Look at the gorgeous view across the park.’ She turned around and held up her hands. ‘Not that the view from your penthouse isn’t magnificent. But this, this is just different.’
His shoulder touched hers as he stood next to her on the ramparts. ‘Don’t you get tired of seeing snow all the time? Have you never longed for a sunny beach and the lapping ocean?’
It wasn’t the strangest question in the world but it kind of took her unawares. ‘I’ve never had a beach holiday,’ she murmured, wondering what it would be like to run about in a bikini all day.
Her hand went automatically to her stomach. ‘Imagine having to think about holding your belly in all day. Or whether you had enough sunscreen on the places you couldn’t reach.’
He gave a small laugh. ‘I can assure you, you don’t need to worry about your stomach. As for the places you can’t reach? That’s what other people are for.’ His face grew serious. ‘Anissa, how old are you?’
She wrinkled her nose a little. ‘Twenty-eight. But I’m sure you’re not supposed to ask me that.’
‘You really haven’t had a proper holiday before, have you?’
Her brain flooded with a whole host of memories. Alain, her ex-fiancé and coach, had always been about the skiing. Always about the lucrative sponsorship deals he could score for her—or, now that she thought about it, for them. Any time they had gone away she’d always been training for the sport and had never had a chance to see the sights. His idea of love had been to push her to be the best skier that she could be.
At the time that had seemed right. But now, standing in Central Park, she wasn’t so sure.
She sucked in a deep breath, letting the air come back out slowly, forming steam in the air in front of her.
‘Anissa? What’s wrong?’
Leo’s arm slipped around her body, his arms overlapping hers. ‘You’re shaking. What is it?’
She couldn’t stop the tremble in her voice. ‘I’m just remembering things. I’m just realising the number of places I’ve visited but never actually seen.’ She turned around in his arms so that she was facing him. It felt safer this way. Safer than staring out into the expanse of the park.
‘I’m just wondering how much I’ve missed out on.’
She couldn’t look into those blue eyes. She didn’t want pity. Now she was feeling foolish. Foolish that it had taken her until this moment to see what had been happening in her life. She gave her leg an unconscious rub.
It wasn’t sore. It wasn’t aching. She’d thought about that this morning. The last time she’d talked about skiing to Leo she’d told him she couldn’t bear the thought of not skiing every day. But now she was here—now she had a chance to think about something other than skiing—she was wondering how she’d let her life feel so closeted.
Tears formed in her eyes as she tried to swallow the huge lump in her throat. Leo pulled her towards his chest. ‘I’m supposed to be making you happy,’ he whispered, ‘not sad.’
She did something automatic. She hugged back. And it felt good. It felt warm. Even though the temperature around them was zero.
‘It’s not you, Leo. It’s definitely not you.’
He pulled back with his hands on her arms. ‘What, then?’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t explain. But I feel like I’m just waking up.’ She gave a wry laugh. ‘I’m twenty-eight and I’m just waking up.’
She was embarrassed by how she was feeling. Embarrassed by the whole host of emotions sweeping around her.
Leo tilted her chin up towards him. ‘Well, in the spirit of waking up, how about we do something else? What do you say?’
She sucked in another breath to steady herself. ‘I say that sounds great.’ She pulled her phone from her pocket. ‘And I know exactly the place I want to go.’
Five minutes later they had coffee in their hands from one of park vendors and, after a long walk and consulting the map on her phone, she led Leo to an exit halfway up the park.
He laughed when he saw what was ahead. ‘You’re taking me here?’
She held out her arm. A little buzz of excitement spread through her. ‘Where else does any
kid want to go but the American Museum of Natural History? Dinosaurs. A giant blue whale. Meteorites. Hours and hours of fun.’ She gave another little sigh. ‘Childlike distractions. Maybe we both could do with some.’
Leo gave a slow nod of his head. ‘I’ve stayed in New York all these years and I’ve never managed to get here.’ It was almost as if he was talking himself into it. ‘One of the guys in the office raves about this place.’ He reached out and took her hand. ‘Okay. Let’s do it.’
* * *
He’d felt a wave of panic earlier when he’d seen how upset she was. But something had told him not to pry—not to press too much. Just to step back and be her friend.
But thinking of Anissa in only friendly terms was a feat in itself. More than once he’d padded through to the kitchen last night and stared at the closed bedroom door, wondering about the woman lying on the other side.
He would never have knocked—no matter how much he’d wanted to.
But even sharing his space with someone else was new to him. No one had slept overnight in the apartment before but him, and it felt different knowing someone else was there. Leo had sometimes prided himself on his own space, his own privacy, and just having her there was an adjustment. It gave him a weird vibe—one that he wasn’t quite sure about yet.
Then today, when she’d been standing in front of him in her blue coat, with the snow in Central Park framed behind her, the sight of her had made him catch his breath.
It was odd. Their meeting had been a fluke—entirely coincidental, with a whole set of circumstances they could never have predicted. Who knew he would have been in Mont Coeur at all? His parents dying had been a horrible event. The will reading in Switzerland? He would never have expected that. And for Anissa to be training and have an accident at the exact moment he’d come by...
Then there was the spark. The one that neither of them could deny. And on top of all of that was the fact she’d been sent to clean his chalet.
In another life they would never have met. But they’d met in this one. And it felt strangely right.
Part of this was probably how he was feeling right now. The flood of feelings from childhood and his insecurities had come back with a vengeance. He’d spent most of his adult life determined to shake them off, and for a while he’d thought he had.
Even having that face-to-face conversation with his mother and father would have helped. At least he thought it would have. And that constant sense of being cheated wouldn’t leave him.
‘Hey, Leo, I’ve got the tickets.’ His head jerked up. Anissa was at the desk, waving the tickets at him.
His hand went automatically to his wallet. ‘Oh, sorry, here, let me.’
She shook her head. ‘Absolutely not. My treat.’ She was smiling with the tickets held up against her cheek. There was a twinkle in her eye—one that had been missing in the park.
He crooked his elbow towards her. ‘Okay, Ms Lang, let’s have some fun.’
* * *
She’d never laughed so much. They’d spent hours in amongst the dinosaur skeletons, wondering at their size and immense power. For a few moments Leo had seemed a bit quiet. ‘Always wanted to visit a place like this,’ he’d murmured.
‘You must have gone to museums with your mum and dad,’ she’d said.
‘Not often,’ was the reply.
But the melancholy moment had left him as soon as it had arrived. If he hadn’t been to many museums in his childhood, it seemed he was using this one to make up for it.
Anissa took pictures of them comparing themselves to the huge footprint of the Titanosaurus. Then they wandered through the hall of mammals and the wonders of the ocean exhibit. She couldn’t help but gasp at the site of the giant blue whale suspended between two floors.
He nudged her as they looked down onto the floor below. ‘Do you know you can stay here? Spend the night?’
‘What? No way!’ She couldn’t hide her excitement at even the thought of it.
‘Yep. Guess what’s it called?’
Was it a trick question? ‘Don’t know.’
‘“Night at the Museum”.’
She let out a burst of laughter. ‘After the movie? Oh, I love it!’
He nodded. ‘One of the other guys at my work has two kids. When they did it, they got to go around the dinosaur exhibits in the middle of the night with flashlights. He said it was one of the best nights of his life.’
She clasped her hands to her chest. ‘Oh, I want to do it. I want to do it.’
He shook his head, smiling. ‘Think you have to be between six and thirteen.’ He leaned forward and whispered, his lips brushing against her ear, ‘I think we might have left it a bit too late.’
She scowled and stood back, looking him up and down. ‘Well, you’ve definitely left it too late. But me?’ She held up her hair in pretend bunches and gave him a cheeky smile. ‘I could maybe pass for thirteen if I tried really hard.’
He gave her a playful shove. ‘No way. If I don’t get to hunt dinosaurs at night, neither do you. We could always steal some kids if we have to.’
She nodded her head until a mother walked past with a kid screaming in a stroller. ‘Okay,’ she whispered, ‘just promise me it’s not that one.’
She slid her hand into his. ‘You know, I did do this kind of thing with my mum and dad—just not enough.’
‘Why not?’ He seemed curious.
She gave a little shrug. ‘I was so passionate about skiing. At times it was the only thing I wanted to do, and in a way I was lucky because my mum and dad supported me, but now...’ She stared back up at the giant whale. ‘For the first time I wonder how much I missed out on. I wonder if at some point they should have said no to me.’
He turned to stare at her. ‘How would you have felt if they had?’
His bright blue eyes were intense. It was almost as if he already knew the answer. She gave a laugh and shook her head. ‘Oh, I’m sure I would have been quite the little diva. I didn’t like it when I didn’t get my own way.’
He arched one eyebrow. ‘You? A diva? No way.’
She laughed and slid her arm into his.
Next, they spent time in the human and culture halls before heading to the planetarium.
‘I love this,’ breathed Anissa, as she lay back in one of the tilting chairs and looked at dark universe above scattered with stars. Music was playing around them as the show continued.
‘It is pretty amazing,’ agreed Leo as he lay in the chair next to her. She turned her head. He was staring straight up, his dark, slightly messy hair crinkling at the collar of his button-down shirt. Most men had their hair cropped quite short, but she liked the longer look. It suited Leo. And every time she looked at that hair she had to fight the urge to run her fingers through it.
There was hardly anyone around them and for a few moments it felt as if they were only ones appreciating the marvels above them.
She reached over and threaded her fingers through his. If he was surprised he didn’t show it. He didn’t pull away. ‘Thank you for bringing me here, Leo,’ she whispered.
He turned his head in the darkness and smiled at her, just as the planets appeared behind him. ‘I think you brought me,’ he joked as she let out a gasp.
It was odd. She’d seen lots of wonderful things today, and snapped a hundred photos. But this was image that would stay in her mind. Leo, lying back in the chair, smiling at her with the planets behind him.
He glanced behind him and nodded at the scene. Settling back in his chair, his thumb traced little circles in the palm of her hand as the show continued. ‘I wish I’d done this as a kid,’ he murmured. She could see him glancing at the few other people—many families—in the theatre.
‘You must have done some stuff like this as a kid?’
He shook his head. ‘No. Never. No parks. No museums. No arcades.
’ He gave a sad kind of smile. ‘Obviously, I did school trips—and we went to some fun places then.’
Her stomach rolled. It was almost like he was trying to make excuses for his parents. What kind of people had they been? It made her heart pang. ‘Not all families get time,’ she said, trying to be conciliatory.
He gave a sad sigh as he continued to trace little circles in her palm. ‘Even if they’d had the time, they still wouldn’t have brought me here.’ He turned to face her. ‘But it doesn’t matter now. Because I’m here with the right person.’
Tingles shot up her arm and straight to her heart.
It was crazy. She knew it was crazy. They’d done everything back to front. Her actions that first night had been so out of character for her she hadn’t even recognised herself. She’d thought she’d have been filled with a lifetime of regrets.
But...something, something had just clicked.
If someone had told her this time a few weeks ago she’d be in New York, staying in a billionaire’s penthouse, she would never have believed it.
She wanted to ask him what he meant about the fact his parents still wouldn’t have brought him here. And she still hadn’t really worked out why he’d only just met his brother and sister. His whole family dynamics seemed complicated and it was obvious he played his cards close to his chest. But now didn’t seem the time to ask. Not when he’d just told her he was glad he was with her.
She turned back to him and smiled again, hoping to distract him from any sad thoughts he might be having.
‘I wonder if there’s anything out there?’ she said.
‘Who knows?’ asked Leo. ‘And what do you think they’d make of us?’
Her head fell back, ‘Well, that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? We have all this beauty and we’ve ruined some of it.’
He nodded in agreement, his finger still moving soothingly in her palm. ‘You’re right. But for now let’s just lie back, appreciate the stars and try to imagine a place where everything is perfect.’
There was something about his words. It was like a warm blanket being snuggled all around her. There were a hundred things she could stress about right now. Training. Her job. Her finances. And whether she would ever have a chance of competing professionally again. Sometimes it made her brain ache.
Cinderella's New York Christmas Page 9