A Cold Creek Christmas Story

by RaeAnne Thayne

  The mantra of her parents seemed to echo in her head, almost as if they were both talking to her like the angels Olivia had imagined. If they were here, they would have told her the only way to survive heartache and pain this intense was to throw herself into doing something nice for someone else.

  With that in mind, she decided to tackle one more item on her holiday to-do list—wrapping the final gifts she planned to give her family members. It was a distraction anyway, and one she badly needed. She grabbed the gifts from her office and carried them to the living room, then hunted up the paper, tape and scissors. With everything gathered in one place, she turned on the gas fireplace and the television set and plopped onto the floor.

  Lucy instantly nabbed a red bow from the bag and started batting it around the floor while Linus cuddled next to her. She had just started to wrap the first present when the little dog’s head lifted just seconds before the doorbell rang.

  It was probably one of her sisters checking on her after her abrupt exit from the dinner. She started to tell them to come in, then remembered she had locked the door behind her out of habit she developed while away at school.

  “Coming,” she called. “Just a moment.”

  She unlocked the door, swung it open and then stared in shock at the man standing on the porch. Instantly, she wanted to shove the door shut again—and not only because she must look horrible in her loose, baggy sweats, with her hair a frizzy mess and her makeup sluiced away by the tears and the subsequent cold water bath.

  “Flynn! What are you doing here?”

  He frowned, concern on his gorgeous features. “You didn’t stick around the lodge for dinner. I tried to find you to give your coat back but you had disappeared.”

  “Oh. Thanks.”

  She took the wool coat from him, then lowered her head, hoping he couldn’t see her red nose, which probably wasn’t nearly as cute as Rudolph’s.

  Though she didn’t invite him in, he walked into the living room anyway and closed the door behind him to keep out the icy air. She should have told him not to bother, since he wouldn’t be staying, but she couldn’t find the words.

  “Are you feeling okay?” he asked.

  Sure. If a woman who was trying to function with a broken heart could possibly qualify as okay. She shrugged, still not meeting his gaze. “It’s been a crazy-busy few days. I needed a little time to myself to get ready for Christmas. I’ve still got presents to wrap and all.”

  She gestured vaguely toward the coffee table and the wrapping paper and ribbon.

  He was silent for a moment and then, to her horror, she felt his hand tilt her chin up so she had no choice but to look at him.

  “Have you been crying?” he asked softly.

  This had to be the single most embarrassing moment of her life—worse, even, than crashing her bicycle in front of his grandmother’s house simply because she had been love struck and he hadn’t been wearing a shirt.

  “I was, um, watching a bit of a Hallmark movie a little earlier and, okay, I might have cried a little.”

  It wasn’t a very good lie and he didn’t look at all convinced.

  “Are you sure that’s all?” he asked, searching her expression with an intensity she didn’t quite understand.

  She swallowed. “I’m a sucker for happy endings. What can I say?”

  He dropped his hand. “I hope that’s the reason. I hope it’s not because you were upset at me for acting like an ass earlier.”

  She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You didn’t at all. You were worried for your daughter. I understand. I was frantic, too.”

  “Before that,” he murmured. “When we were talking about Olivia’s solo in the show. I was cruel to you, and I’m so, so sorry.”

  She didn’t know how to respond to that, not when he was gazing at her with that odd, intense look on his features again.

  “You were a concerned father with your daughter’s best interests at heart,” she finally said. “And you didn’t say anything that isn’t true. I am a small-town librarian, and I’m very happy in that role. More important, I don’t have the right to make decisions for Olivia without asking you. I should have told you about her solo. I’m sorry I didn’t.”

  He made a dismissive gesture. “That doesn’t matter. While she was missing, I prayed that if we found her, I would drive her myself to acting lessons, singing lessons, tap-dancing lessons. Whatever she wants. As long as she’s finding joy in the world again and I can help her stay centered, I don’t care what she wants to do. She’s not my mother or Elise. She’s a smart, courageous girl, and I know she can handle whatever comes her way. These past few months proved that.”

  In that moment she knew Olivia would be fine. Her father would make sure of it. It was a great comfort amid the pain of trying to figure out how to go on without them.

  “I realized something else while we were looking for Olivia,” Flynn said. He stepped a little closer.

  “What’s that?” she whispered, feeling breathless and shaky suddenly. Why was he looking at her like that, with that fierce light in his eyes and that soft, tender smile?

  Her heart began to pound, especially when he didn’t answer for a long moment, just continued to gaze at her. Finally, he took one more step and reached for her hand.

  “Only that I just happen to be in love with a certain small-town librarian who is the most caring, wonderful woman I’ve ever met.”

  Nerves danced through her at the words, spiraling in circles like a gleeful child on a summer afternoon.

  “I... You’re what?”

  His hand was warm on hers, his fingers strong and firm and wonderful. “I’ve never said that to anyone else and meant it. Truly meant it.”

  She took a shaky breath while those nerves cartwheeled in every direction. “I... Exactly how many other small-town librarians have you known?”

  He smiled a little when she deliberately focused on the most unimportant part of what he had said. “Only you. Oh, and old Miss Ludwig, who had the job here in Pine Gulch before you. I think my grandmother took me into the library a few times when I was a kid, and I definitely never said anything like that to her. She scared me a little, if you want the truth.”

  “She scared me, too,” she said. You scare me more, she wanted to say.

  He leaned down close enough that only a few inches separated them. “You know what I meant,” he murmured, almost against her mouth. “I’ve never told a woman I loved her before. Not when the words resounded like this in my heart.”

  “Oh, Flynn.” She gave him a tremulous smile, humbled and awed and deeply in love with him.

  He was close enough that she only had to step on tiptoes a little to press her mouth to his, pouring all the emotion etched on her own heart into the kiss.

  He froze for just a moment and then he made a low, infinitely sexy sound in his throat and kissed her back with heat and hunger and tenderness, wrapping his arms tightly around her as if he couldn’t bear to let her go.

  A long while later he lifted his head, his breathing as ragged as hers and his eyes dazed. She was deliriously, wondrously happy. Her despair of a short time earlier seemed like a distant, long-ago memory that had happened to someone else.

  “Does that kiss mean what I hope?” he murmured.

  She could feel heat soak her cheeks and all the words seemed to tangle in her throat. She felt suddenly shy, awkward, but as soon as she felt the urge to retreat into herself where she was safe, she pushed it back down.

  For once, she had to be brave, to take chances and seize the moment instead of standing by as a passive observer, content to read books about other people experiencing the sort of life she wanted.

  “It means I love you,” she answered. “I love you so very much, Flynn. And Olivia, too. I lied when I told you I was crying over
a television show. I was crying because I knew the two of you would be leaving soon, and I...I didn’t think my heart could bear it.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere,” he said. “Pine Gulch has been wonderful for Olivia and for me. She might have been physically wounded, but I realized while I was here that some part of me has been emotionally damaged for much longer. This place has begun to heal both of us.”

  He kissed her again with an aching tenderness that made her want to cry all over again, this time because of the joy bubbling through her that seemed too big to stay contained.

  She didn’t know what the future held for them. He had a company in California, a life, a home. Perhaps he could commute from Pine Gulch to Southern California, or maybe he might want to take Rafe’s advice and open a branch of his construction company here.

  None of that mattered now, not when his arms and his kiss seemed to fill all the empty corners of her heart.

  A long time later, he lifted his head with reluctance in his eyes. “I should probably go find Olivia. I left her with Hope and Rafe at the lodge. I’m sure she’s having a great time with the other kids, but I hate to let her out of my sight for long.”

  “I don’t blame you,” she assured him.

  He stepped away, though he didn’t seem to want to release her hands. “I doubt Rafe was buying the excuse when I told him that I needed to return your coat. Something tells me he knows the signs of a man in love.”

  She could feel her face heat again. What would her family say about this? She didn’t really need to ask. They already seemed to adore Olivia, and once they saw how happy she was with Flynn, they would come to love him too.

  “Do you want to come with me to pick her up?” he asked.

  She wanted to go wherever he asked, but right now she still probably looked a mess. “Yes, if you can give me ten minutes to change.”

  “You look fine to me,” he assured her. “Beautiful, actually.”

  When he looked at her like that, she felt beautiful, for the first time in her life.

  “But if you have to change—and if I had a vote—I’m particularly fond of a particular T-shirt you own.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” she answered with a laugh. She kissed him again while the Christmas lights from her little tree gleamed and the wind whispered against the window and joy swirled around them like snowflakes.

  Epilogue

  “Are you ready for this?”

  Celeste took her gaze from the snowflakes outside to glance across the width of the SUV to her husband.

  “No,” she admitted. “I doubt I will ever be ready.”

  Flynn lifted one hand from the steering wheel to grab hers, offering instant comfort, his calm blowing away the chaotic thoughts fluttering through her like that swirl of snow.

  “I’m ready,” Olivia piped up from the backseat. “I can’t wait.”

  “You? You’re excited?” Flynn glanced briefly in the rearview mirror at his daughter. “You hide it so very well.”

  Olivia didn’t bother to pay any attention to his desert-dry tone. “This is the coolest thing that’s ever happened in my whole life,” she said.

  Since Olivia wasn’t yet a decade old, her pool of experiences was a little shallow, but Flynn and Celeste both declined to point that out.

  The girl was practically bouncing in the backseat, the energy vibrating off her in waves. Celeste had to smile. She adored Olivia for the lovely young lady she was growing into.

  The trauma of her mother’s tragic death had inevitably left scars that would always be part of her, but they had faded over the past two years. Olivia was a kind, funny, creative girl with a huge heart.

  She had opened that big heart to welcome Celeste into their little family when she and Flynn married eighteen months earlier, and Celeste had loved every single moment of being her stepmother.

  Now Olivia breathed out a happy sigh. “I think I’m more excited about the Pine Gulch premiere of Sparkle and the Magic Snowball than the real one in Hollywood tomorrow.”

  “Really?” Celeste said in surprise. “I thought you’d be thrilled about the whole thing.”

  Olivia loved everything to do with the film industry, much to Flynn’s dismay. Celeste supposed it was in her blood, given her mother’s and her grandmother’s legacies. Someday those Hollywood lights would probably draw her there, too—something Flynn was doing his best to accept.

  “It will be fun to miss school and fly out and stay at our old house. I mean, a movie premiere in Hollywood with celebrities will be glamorous and all. Who wouldn’t be excited about that?”

  In the transitory glow from the streetlights, her features looked pensive. “But I guess I’m more excited about this one because this is our home now,” she said after a moment. “This is where our family is and all our friends. Everyone in Pine Gulch is just as excited about the new Sparkle movie as I am, and I can’t wait to share it with them.”

  Oh. What a dear she was. If the girl hadn’t been safely buckled in the backseat, Celeste would have hugged her. It warmed her more than her favorite wool coat that her stepdaughter felt so at home in Pine Gulch and that she wanted all her friends and neighbors to have the chance to enjoy the moment, too.

  “Good point,” Flynn said, smiling warmly at his daughter. “The whole town has been part of the story from the beginning. It’s only right that they be the first to see the movie.”

  “Yep. That’s the way I feel,” Olivia said.

  Her father gave Celeste a sidelong glance before addressing Olivia again. “Good thing your stepmother is so fierce and fought all the way up to the head of the studio to make sure it happened this way. What else could they do but agree? They’re all shaking in their boots around her. She can be pretty scary, you know.”

  Olivia giggled and Celeste gave them both a mock glare, though she knew exactly what he was doing. Her wonderful husband was trying to calm her down the best way he knew how, by teasing away her nerves.

  She had fought for a few things when it came to her beloved Sparkle character, but wanted to think she had been easygoing. That was what the studio executives had told her anyway. She considered herself extremely fortunate that her vision for the characters and the story matched the studio’s almost exactly.

  A moment later, Flynn pulled up to the St. Nicholas Lodge, which had been transformed for the night into a theater.

  Somebody—Rafe, maybe—had rented a couple of huge searchlights, and they beamed like beacons through the snowy night. The parking lot was completely full and she recognized many familiar vehicles. Unfortunately, they couldn’t fit everyone in town into the lodge so the event had become invitation only very quickly. For weeks, that invitation had become the most sought-after ticket in town.

  Though the official premiere the next night in California would be much more of a full-fledged industry event, a red carpet had been stretched out the door of the lodge, extending down the snowy walkway to the edge of the parking lot.

  Had that been Faith’s doing? Probably. Where on earth had she managed to find a length of red carpet in eastern Idaho? Their older sister was proud of and excited for both Celeste and Hope.

  The past two years since they’d signed the contract licensing the Sparkle stories to the animation studio they had chosen to work with seemed surreal. Besides two more bestsellers, they now had a second Sparkle animated movie in the works.

  Now that she was here, about to walk into the makeshift theater to see people enjoying her story come to life on the screen—and it would be enjoyable, she knew, given what she had seen so far of the production—Celeste felt humbled and touched. It didn’t seem real that life and fate, her own hard work and her sister’s beautiful artwork had thrust her into this position.

  “A red carpet,” Olivia squealed as she finally noticed—and c
aught sight of the people lined up in the cold on either side of it, as if this was the real premiere filled with celebrities to gawk over. “How cool is that? That looks like my friend Louise from school. Oh, there’s Jose. And Mrs. Jacobs. My whole class is here!”

  “I guess you can’t escape Hollywood, even here in Pine Gulch,” Celeste said quietly to Flynn as he parked in the VIP slot designated for them. “I’m sorry.”

  He made a rueful face, but she knew him well enough after these deliriously happy months together to know he didn’t really mind. He had been her biggest supporter and her second most enthusiastic fan—after Olivia, of course.

  “For you, darling, it’s worth it,” he replied. He tugged her across the seat and pulled her into his arms for a quick kiss. “I’m so proud of you. I hope you know that. I can’t wait for the whole world to discover how amazing you are.”

  Her heart softened, as it always did when he said such tender things to her.

  Two years ago, she’d had a pretty good life here in Pine Gulch—writing her stories, working at the library in a job she loved, spending time with her sisters and her niece and nephew and Aunt Mary.

  But some small part of her had still been that little girl who had lost both of her parents and was too afraid to truly embrace life and everything it had to offer.

  Flynn and Olivia had changed her. At last, she fully understood the meaning of joy. Sparkle might have his magic snowball that could save Christmas, but the true magic—the only one that really mattered—was love.

  These past two years had been a glorious adventure—and in seven months, give or take a few weeks, they would all be in for a new turn in their shared journey.

  She pressed a hand to her stomach, to the new life growing there. Flynn caught the gesture and grinned—a secret smile between the two of them. He pressed a hand there as well, then reached for his car door.

  “Let’s go meet your adoring public,” he told her.

  She didn’t need an adoring public. She had everything she needed, right here, in the family they had created together.