“Fine,” he answered. “You win. I’ll bring her to the next one. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
She glanced at his daughter playing with the puppies a dozen feet away, then turned back to Flynn. “Why do you have a problem with her performing?” she asked, her voice low. “Especially when it seems to be something she enjoys?”
“I don’t want her to enjoy it,” he answered in an equally low tone. “If I had my way, I would have her stay far away from any kind of stage or screen.”
She frowned at the intensity of his words. “Because of your mother or because of Elise?”
“Either. Both. Take your pick.” He watched as a puppy started nibbling on Olivia’s ponytail, which only made her giggle again as she tried to extricate it from the little mouth.
After a moment he spoke with fierce resolve. “I want my daughter to find happiness in life based on her own decisions and accomplishments, not because of how many pictures of her holding a latte from Starbucks showed up in the tabloids this week. There’s an artificiality to that world that crumbles to nothing in a heartbeat. Take it from someone who grew up on the edge of that spotlight.”
She thought of what Aunt Mary had said about his grandmother’s pride in him for staying grounded. Unlike his mother or his wife, he hadn’t sought that spotlight. He had gone into a career outside Hollywood and had built a successful business on his own merits. She had to admire that.
“That must have been tough for you,” she said.
He shrugged. “How can I complain, really? It sounds stupid, even to me. I grew up with the sort of privileges most people only dream about. A-list celebrities hanging out in my swimming pool, a BMW in the driveway on my sixteenth birthday, vacations in Cannes and Park City and Venice.”
By worldly standards, her family had been very poor. Her parents had given everything they had to helping others, to the point that she remembered a period in their lives when she and her sisters each had had only two or three outfits that they swapped back and forth.
She hadn’t necessarily enjoyed moving from country to country, never feeling as if she had a stable home. In truth, she still carried lingering resentment about it, but she had always known she was deeply loved.
She had a feeling that for all his outward privilege, Flynn had missed out on that assurance, at least from his parents. She was grateful he had known the unwavering love and devotion of his grandmother.
“We don’t get to choose the circumstances of our birth families, do we?” she said softly. “The only thing we have control of is the life we make for ourselves out of those circumstances.”
His gaze met hers and the intensity of his expression left her suddenly breathless. Something shimmered between them, something bright and fierce. She couldn’t seem to look away, and she again had the oddest feeling he wanted to kiss her.
Now? Here? With his daughter just a few feet away? She must have been imagining things. Still, the idea of him leaning forward slightly, of his mouth sliding across hers, made nerves jump in her stomach and her knees feel suddenly weak.
She felt as if she stood on the brink of something, arms stretched wide, trying to find the courage to jump into the empty space beyond.
She could lose her heart so easily to this man.
The thought whispered into her mind and she swallowed hard. With the slightest of nudges, she would leap into that empty space and doubtless crash hard back to earth.
Careful, she warned herself, and looked away from him, pretending to focus on his daughter and the cute, wriggling puppies.
After a long pause, he finally spoke. “Despite everything you and your sisters have been through, you’ve made a good life for yourself here in Pine Gulch.”
“I’d like to think so.” Okay, maybe she was a little lonely. Maybe there were nights she lay in bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering if she was destined to spend the rest of her nights alone.
“I guess you know a little about being in the spotlight now, don’t you?” Flynn said.
She forced a little laugh. “Not really. My particular spotlight is more like a flashlight beam. A very tiny, focused flashlight. That’s the nice thing about being only a name on a book cover.”
“That will change when the Sparkle movie hits the big screen,” he predicted.
Oh, she didn’t want to think about that. Just the idea made her feel clammy and slightly queasy. “I hope not,” she said fervently. “I like being under the radar.”
He frowned. “Why agree to let someone make the movie, then? You had to know that’s only going to increase your celebrity status. You won’t be able to stay under the radar for long.”
In her heart, she knew he was right. What had she gotten herself into?
She hadn’t had a choice, she reminded herself. Not really.
“I love my family,” she said. “They’re everything to me.”
“It only took me a few minutes at dinner tonight to figure that out. You have a great family. But what does that have to do with signing a movie deal you don’t appear to want?”
For someone who loved the magic and power in words, sometimes in conversation she felt as if she never could manage to find the right ones.
“Things haven’t been...easy around here the past few years, even before my brother-in-law’s accident. My uncle was a wonderful man but not the best businessman around, and the ranch hasn’t exactly been thriving financially.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“The, um, increased interest in The Christmas Ranch after the first Sparkle book came out last season helped a great deal but didn’t completely solve the cash flow woes.” She felt her face heat a little, as it always did when she talked about the astonishing success of the book. “With the deal Hope and I will be signing for the movie rights, we can pay off the rest of the ranch’s debts and push the operation firmly into the black, which will lift considerable pressure from Faith. How could I turn down something that will benefit my family so much?”
He studied her for a moment, that funny intensity in his expression again. “So it’s not necessarily what you really want, but you’re willing to go through with it anyway for your family.”
“Something like that,” she muttered.
“If having a movie made out of your book doesn’t sit well with you, couldn’t you have found an alternative revenue stream?”
She shrugged. “Hope and I talked at length about this. Our agent and publisher were clear. Someone was going to make a Sparkle movie—which, believe me, is an amazing position to find ourselves in. The terms of this particular deal were very favorable for Hope and for me, and we were both impressed by the other projects this particular production company has engineered. The moment seemed right.”
“I’m glad they’re making a Sparkle movie,” Olivia said suddenly. Celeste had been so busy explaining herself, she hadn’t realized the girl had left the puppies on the floor of the stall and rejoined them. “I can’t wait to see it.”
Flynn smiled at his daughter with that sweet tenderness that tugged at her heart. “We’ll probably be back in California, and you can tell everyone else at the movie theater that you actually had the chance to meet the real Sparkle and the women who created the fictional version.”
“I guess.” Olivia didn’t look as excited about that prospect as Celeste might have expected. In fact, she appeared downright glum.
Why? she wondered. Was the girl enjoying her time in Pine Gulch so much that she didn’t like thinking about their eventual return to California?
“Maybe we could come back and see the movie here,” Olivia suggested.
“Maybe.”
Celeste felt a sharp little kick to her heart at the noncommittal word. They wouldn’t be back. She was suddenly certain of it. After Flynn sold his grandmother’s house, he
would have no more ties here in Pine Gulch. She likely would never see him or his daughter again.
This was why she needed to be careful to guard her heart better. She already hurt just thinking about them leaving. How much worse would it be if she let herself take that leap and fell in love with him?
He stood up and wiped the straw from the back of Olivia’s coat where she had been sitting on the floor of the stall.
“We should probably take off,” he said. “You need to tell Celeste thank-you for bringing you out here to meet Sparkle and to play with the puppies.”
“Do we have to go?” she complained.
“Yes. It’s late and Celeste probably has to work at the library tomorrow.”
She nodded and was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of fatigue. The day had been long and exhausting, and right now she wanted nothing more than to be in her comfy clothes, cuddled up with her animals and watching something brainless on TV.
“Okay,” Olivia said in a dejected voice. “Thank you for bringing me down here to meet Sparkle and play with the puppies.”
“You are very welcome,” Celeste said. “Anytime you want to come back, we would love to have you. Sparkle would, too.”
Olivia seemed heartened by that as she headed for the reindeer’s stall one last time.
“Bye, Sparkle. Bye!”
The reindeer nodded his head two or three times as if he was bowing, which made the girl giggle.
Celeste led the way out of the barn. Another inch of snow had fallen during the short time they had been inside, and they walked in silence to where his SUV was parked in front of the house.
She wrapped her coat around her while Flynn helped his daughter into the backseat. Once she was settled, he closed the door and turned to her.
“Please tell your family thank you for inviting me to dinner. I enjoyed it very much.”
“I will. Good night.”
With a wave, he hopped into his SUV and backed out of the driveway.
She watched them for just a moment, snow settling on her hair and her cheeks while she tried to ignore that little ache in her heart.
She could do this. She was tougher than she sometimes gave herself credit for being. Yes, she might already care about Olivia and be right on the brink of falling hard for her father. That didn’t mean she had to lean forward and leave solid ground.
She would simply have to keep herself centered, focused on her family and her friends, her work and her writing and the holidays. She would do her best to keep him at arm’s length. It was the only smart choice if she wanted to emerge unscathed after this holiday season.
Soon they would be gone and her life would return to the comfortable routine she had created for herself.
As she walked into the house, she tried not to think about how unappealing she suddenly found that idea.
Chapter Nine
She didn’t have a chance to test her resolve, simply because she didn’t see Flynn again for longer than a moment or two over the next few days.
At the Thursday rehearsal, he merely dropped Olivia off and left after making sure to give Hope—not Celeste—a card with his cell phone number on it.
She supposed she should take that as some sort of progress. From what she gathered, he hadn’t let Olivia out of his sight since the accident. She had to feel good that he felt comfortable enough with her and her family to leave the girl at The Christmas Ranch without him.
On the other hand, she had to wonder if maybe he was just trying to avoid her.
That really made no logical sense. Why would he feel any sort of need to avoid her? He wasn’t the one who was developing feelings that could never go anywhere.
Still, she had to wonder, especially when he did the same thing Saturday morning for their final practice before the performance, just dropping Olivia off as most of the other parents had done.
She should be grateful he’d brought the girl at all, especially when he obviously wasn’t thrilled about the whole thing.
It was too bad, really, because Olivia was a natural in front of an audience. She seemed far more comfortable onstage than the other children.
The performance was nothing elaborate, a rather hodgepodge collection of short Christmas skits mixed with songs and poems, but considering the few practices they’d had, the show came together marvelously.
When they finished the second run-through Saturday morning, Celeste clapped her hands.
“That was amazing!” she exclaimed. “I’m so proud of each one of you for all your hard work. You are going to make some people very, very happy next week.”
Jolie Wheeler raised her hand. “Can we take the costumes home to show our moms and dads?”
None of the costumes was anything fancy, just bits and pieces she and Hope had thrown together with a little help from Faith and a few of the parents. “We need to keep them here so we can make sure everyone has all the pieces—the belts and halos and crowns—they need for the performance. When you take them off, put your costume on the hanger and everything else in the bag with your name on it in the dressing room. Remember, you will all have to be here at five thirty sharp so we can get into costume and be ready for the show. We’ll have the performance first, and then you are all welcome with your families to stay for dinner with our guests, if you’d like. There should be plenty of food for everyone.”
“Then can we take the costumes home?” Jolie asked.
She smiled at the adorable girl. “We need to keep them here just in case we decide to do another show at The Christmas Ranch next year.”
“Rats,” Jolie complained and a few others joined her in grumbling. What they wanted to do with a few hokey costumes, Celeste had no idea, but she had to smile at their disappointment.
“You’ll all just have to be in the show next year so you can wear them again,” she said.
Not that she intended to be part of it, even if Hope begged her. Writing the little show had taken her almost as long as a full-fledged children’s book.
“Thank you all again for your hard work, and I’ll see you Tuesday evening at five thirty if you need help with your hair and makeup.”
The children dispersed to the boys’ and girls’ dressing rooms—really just separate storage spaces that had been temporarily converted for the show. She cleaned up the rehearsal space and supervised the pickup of the children.
Finally, only Louisa, Barrett, Joey and Olivia were left. They didn’t seem to mind. Indeed, they had gone to the game drawer Hope kept in her office to keep the children occupied when they were hanging out at the lodge and were playing a spirited game of Go Fish with a Christmas-themed deck of cards.
Though she had a hundred things to—including finishing the paint job on the backdrop for the little stage they had rigged up—she sat down at the table near the refreshment booth where they were playing.
“You did so well today. All of you.”
“Thanks,” Louisa said. “It’s really fun. I hope we do it again next year.”
Not unless Hope found some other sucker to be in charge, she thought again.
“I’ve had lots of fun, too,” Olivia said. “Thanks for inviting me to do it.”
“You’re very welcome. How are things going at your great-grandmother’s house?”
As soon as she asked the question, she wished she hadn’t. It sounded entirely too much as if she was snooping. She might as well have come out and asked when they were leaving.
“Good, I guess. We have two more rooms to do. My dad said we’ll probably go back to California between Christmas and New Year’s.”
She tried to ignore the sharp pang in her chest. “I’m sure you’ll be glad to be back in your own house.”
“You’re lucky! You can go swimming in the ocean,” Louisa said.
“Sometimes. Mostly, it’s too cold, except in summer.”
“And you can go to Disneyland whenever you want,” Joey added.
“No, I can’t,” she protested. “I have to go to school and stuff.”
They talked more about the differences between their respective homes. Olivia was quite envious that they could ride horses and go sledding all winter long while the other children thought California was only palm trees and beaches.
While the seasonal staff of The Christmas Ranch started arriving and getting ready for the busiest day of their season, the children continued their game, and Celeste sat at the table next to them working on a drawing for a complicated part of the stage she was hoping Rafe could help her finish later that day.
Finally, about forty-five minutes after practice ended, Flynn burst through the front doors looking harried. “Sorry I’m late. I was taking a load of things to the county landfill and it took longer than I expected.”
“Don’t even worry about it. The kids have been enjoying themselves. Haven’t you?”
“Yep,” Barrett said. “’Cause I won Go Fish three times and Joey and Olivia both won once. Louisa didn’t win any.”
“Next time, watch out,” his sister declared.
Flynn smiled at the girl, that full-fledged charming smile Celeste remembered from when he was a teenager. She had to swallow hard and force herself to look away, wondering why it suddenly felt so warm in the lodge.
“How was practice?” he asked.
“Good,” she answered. “Great, actually. Everyone worked so hard.”
“I can’t wait for you to see the show, Dad,” Olivia declared. “It’s going to be so good. Celeste says all the ladies will cry.”
He looked vaguely alarmed. “Is that right? Will I cry, too? I’d better bring a big hankie, just in case.”
She giggled hard, then in the funny way kids have, she looked at Barrett and Louisa and something in their expressions made her laugh even harder, until all three were busting up. Their laughter was infectious and Celeste couldn’t help smiling.
A Cold Creek Christmas Story Page 11