“You look beautiful.” Jaime leaned forward and brushed a light kiss on her lips. When he pulled back, Liza’s cheeks were pink.
“Thank you,” she said breathily. “You look mighty handsome yourself.”
“Okay, lovebirds,” Reuben interrupted. “Be careful, and watch for black ice.”
“I will. Have a nice night, Adina. Keep Reuben out of trouble.” Jaime winked and helped Liza out to his pickup.
“My parents really like you,” Liza said. Jaime thought he detected a wistful tone in her words.
“The feeling is mutual.” He recognized that this could be an opener for more heavy subjects, so he deftly changed gears. “Ugly sweaters and then Kenworth’s?”
“I know we need to drop into the thrift store, but then can we walk down the street and look at the window displays?” Liza tapped the heated seat of his pickup and grinned like a kid on Christmas Eve. “I love seeing what they do every year. Oh, and we just have to get a piece of chocolate penuche from the Candy Counter.”
Jaime found himself smiling and filled with a Christmas spirit that he hadn’t experienced in a long time. Liza was infectious. “I love all of your ideas. Just tell me what to do and I’m ready to celebrate Christmas—Echo Ridge style.”
“Thanks for being a good sport about the ugly sweater party. I’m so glad that you’re coming with me.”
“I wouldn’t want to miss it,” Jaime said.
“Well, you are about as far from the ugly sweater caliber as one could get,” Liza replied. “You always look so good.”
“Thank you. You look stylish and beautiful. I love the silver threading in your sweater.”
Liza looked down at her sweater and smiled. “I love that you noticed that detail.”
“I notice a lot about you that is to be admired.”
Liza squeezed his hand. “Same.”
There was a little black ice on the road at the base of the canyon, and Jaime slowed down as they turned onto Center Street. He parked in front of the run-down thrift shop, and Liza almost got out of the pickup before he could get her door.
“Come on. Let’s go pick out ugly sweaters!” Jaime said as he helped her out of the pickup.
They made a beeline for the sweater racks and Liza pulled out a hairy sweater and started laughing. “How about this one?”
“That looks like a stuffed tabby cat,” Jaime said.
Liza covered her mouth but couldn’t hide the snort that escaped amidst her laughter.
Twenty minutes later, they had purchased three of the ugliest sweaters they could find.
“I’m going to add a few touches to mine, and it will be ready.” Liza squeezed the bag of sweaters to her chest.
“Well, which one are you wearing?”
“Both.”
Jaime furrowed his brow. “Won’t you get too hot? The party is indoors.”
Liza smiled. “You’ll see.”
“Okay, park on the street here.” Liza indicated the one empty spot in front of Kenworth’s.
Jaime opened her door and held tight to her hand so that she wouldn’t slip on the ice in her low-heeled black boots. They walked about twenty paces to the front of the biggest window at Kenworth’s.
Liza gasped and clapped her hands, her breath billowing out in frosty clouds. “It’s the Christmas village patterned after Echo Ridge! I love this one.” She pulled on Jaime’s arm. “Look, there’s Kenworth’s and Chickadee Lake with the ice skaters. Oh, and there’s the Emerald Inn, and they even have Fay’s Café!”
Jaime followed her pointing finger, recognizing some of the places he’d visited in Echo Ridge. Liza was beaming as she chattered away. Her smile made him smile, and he stopped looking at the window display and just noticed her. She was beautiful, but it wasn’t just her body; it was the light in her eyes, the vibrant music of her voice, and the way she experienced life—and all of that was only the beginning of why he was falling in love with her. Wait, could he say that? Was he really in love with her?
She turned in that moment and caught him staring, so Jaime did the only thing that seemed natural: he kissed her, and it wasn’t a peck. She responded, and he put his arms around her and held her close. Could she feel his heart beating through the layers of their winter coats? When he finally released her, Liza looked up at him with a question in her eyes. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but that look made him question his own feelings.
“You’re magical, Liza,” he breathed. “Don’t ever change.”
Liza stood close to him, not moving away, and her eyes flicked to his lips. She leaned forward, and he thought that she might kiss him again. She placed a feather-light kiss on his cheek and then squeezed his hand.
“I never want to forget tonight,” Jaime murmured.
Liza leaned toward him. “Then don’t.”
Jaime inhaled the fresh coconut scent of her hair and then bent to kiss her again. He pressed his lips to hers slowly, caressing her lower lip with his as he pulled her closer to him. Liza gave a soft sigh and threaded her fingers through his hair.
“Hey, lovebirds, better save some for tomorrow night at the party,” Nita crooned. “I’ll have mistletoe.”
“That was perfect timing,” Jaime whispered. “Weren’t you just telling me how hard Nita is to convince?”
Liza nodded, and in a breathy voice she said, “I don’t think she has any doubt now.” When she spoke, her eyes didn’t sparkle the way they had a few moments earlier.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing,” Liza replied. “It’s just hard to remember how to keep the act up in front of everyone.”
Her words ripped open a hole in his chest. Hadn’t she felt anything in those last few moments? Jaime thought of how Alex had said he shouldn’t have a girlfriend. Maybe his son knew something he didn’t.
23
Liza’s heart must have pumped all the blood to her lips, because her mouth still tingled where Jaime had kissed her. Oh, and his kisses were delicious. She wanted more of them. For a moment there when Jaime had first kissed her in front of the window display, she had thought he really meant it. She was about to confess that she had developed feelings for him when Nita interrupted and Jaime indicated that the kiss was the proof they needed.
That kiss wasn’t an act, and if it was proof, then it was proof that he was falling in love with her. That’s what Liza told herself, but she’d never have the guts to say such things to Jaime.
The bell chimed as they walked into Kenworth’s, and Liza’s mouth started watering immediately.
“Those chocolates smell so good. Are they the ones you were talking about?” Jaime tilted his head toward the Candy Counter.
Liza nodded. “And it smells like they have roasted nuts tonight too. We are in luck.” She tugged on Jaime’s hand, and they hurried over to the Candy Counter.
Reese was working, and they chatted a few minutes about all of the snowstorms and trying to keep up with Christmas demands. Reese gave them extra-full cones of roasted nuts with toasted coconut. Liza and Jaime each selected three chocolates, and they ate slowly as they meandered through the aisles of Kenworth.
“Yummy! I love these hand-dipped chocolates.” Liza savored the last mouthful of penuche.
“I’m going to have to add more to my workout routine now or else avoid Kenworth’s altogether,” Jaime said.
“I’d say sorry, but these are too good to apologize for.” Liza crunched on the warm toasted nuts and led Jaime toward the beautiful Christmas tree centered in front of the women’s department. “And here is the hope tree.”
Jaime stopped and stared at the tree. Liza tried to see it through his eyes: a simple artificial tree with beautiful glass ornaments and handwritten tags hung from the branches.
They approached the tree almost reverently, and Liza started in on the tags. There were toys listed, as well as gift cards, and clothing for children and adults. Jaime carefully moved the tags so that he could read them as well.
“How about this one?” Jaime removed one of the tags from the tree and held it out to Liza.
She read it and smiled. It was a request for a twenty-dollar gift card to the Candy Counter. “That would be perfect!”
“Well, that’s almost too easy,” Jaime said. “I’ll buy a gift card on our way out, and then do I turn it in here?”
“Yes, they like everything purchased by the twenty-third if possible.” She continued sifting through the tags. There had to be nearly a hundred tags, and it gave Liza a thrill to think of how many people’s lives were touched because of this one tree. Hope was delivered and received both by the giver and the recipient. She found a request for girl’s snow boots, size 6, and pulled that off the tree. She remembered how excited she had been as a child when she’d received new snow boots for Christmas one year and then a storm had come through and dumped six inches of fresh powder. Everyone seemed to be on the mountain during that Christmas break.
Liza waited for Jaime to examine more of the tags, and she was touched when she saw him pull off two more. They walked around the store a little longer, and Jaime purchased the gift card from the Candy Counter, dropping it off near the hope tree before they left. All the way home, Liza kept thinking that she had picked up more hope that night for a future with Jaime.
On Saturday, Jaime showed up just before five wearing his ugly Christmas sweater. It sported a brown argyle plaid pattern, and with Liza’s assistance, he had hot-glued dozens of red and green Christmas pom poms all over the sweater. He modeled his sweater to the Sorenson family and noticed that Liza had a coat on.
“Are you going to let me see your sweater or not?” he asked.
Liza wagged her finger in front of Jaime’s face. “Oh no, you don’t. I’m not giving you any advantages. I intend to win this contest.”
“But what if they have a prize for the best ugly sweater couple?”
Liza hesitated. “You do have a point there. Okay, you win.” She unzipped her coat and pulled it off to reveal the ugliest sweater Jaime had ever seen. Somehow she had taken the tabby cat sweater, cut it in half, and paired it with an equally ugly knitted Christmas tree sweater.
Jaime started laughing. “We definitely need a picture of this.”
“I’ll help with that.” Adina pulled out her phone.
“But first, we need our hats,” Liza said. She pulled out two red Santa hats with a flourish.
Jaime shook his head. “This party is for ugly sweaters, not hats.”
Liza put the hat on his head and kissed his cheek. “Do you want to win or not?”
“Okay, let’s win this thing.” Jaime adjusted his hat and grinned at Liza as she put on her Santa hat.
“You two make the cutest couple,” Adina said as she snapped a few pictures.
Jaime handed her his phone. “Take a few with mine, and I promise I won’t post this anywhere until after the party is over.” He looked to Liza, and she nodded.
Jaime kissed Liza’s cheek in one of the pictures, and he couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when he studied the photos later on. Nita’s party was on the other side of town and with the snowy roads, it would take them nearly forty-five minutes to get there. Jaime was actually looking forward to the extra time he could spend talking to Liza. He remembered her sharing a desire to be a novelist, and he wanted to encourage her to trust him with her dreams. That thought served as a reminder that he didn’t trust Liza enough to share the truth about his broken relationship with his son.
“What’s on your mind, Jaime?” Liza peered at him from beneath the white fir trim of the Santa hat.
His thoughts snapped back to the present. Liza was beautiful, even in her ugly sweater. “You actually,” he replied. “When we were in Florida you said you were writing a romance novel. Have you had time to work on it?”
Liza flexed her fingers in front of the heating vent. “I usually try to steal a few minutes every night. It’s coming along. I’m having a hard time deciding what publishing path I want to take.”
“Oh? What are the choices?”
Liza explained to him how she could choose to go with a traditional publisher or step onto the indie track. “I’m leaning toward starting my own publishing company and creating my books so that I’ll have full control. Saying it out loud makes me a little nervous, though.”
“I bet it does,” Jaime responded. “But at the same time, doesn’t it give you a feeling of exhilaration? It’s the way I felt when I decided to go out on my own and create my business.”
“Yes, it does.” Liza leaned forward in her seat, her hands resting on her knees. “You know, I never really thought of it that way. A lot of people discourage authors from self-publishing, but at the same time they encourage someone who wants to start their own business. It’s an interesting dichotomy.”
“Exactly. You’re smart. I’m sure you’ve studied it out, and you’re not going to jump in without doing your homework. If you think that’s the best route, I’m sure you’ll be successful.”
“Thank you. That means a lot. I’m still not completely sure what I’ll do, but I love looking at it through the lens of the business owner. I’m working so hard to create this work of art, and I want it to be well taken care of.”
“I hope you let me read it when it’s finished.”
Liza covered her face with her hands. “That makes me even more nervous.”
“Why? I like reading.”
“I’m just worried about what you will think. I’m worried about what anyone will think. What if they don’t like my book? What if it’s one of those that you start reading and can’t get past the second chapter?”
Jaime reached over and took her hand, squeezing it gently. “I’ve seen your work ethic in action. I’m sure anything you create will be worth more than just the first twenty pages. Don’t doubt yourself. Just go after it. Create it, and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks.”
Liza leaned back in the seat and sighed. “That’s easy to say but hard to do.”
“That’s why I’m qualified to say it. Can you imagine the paralysis I had to go through when starting my own business? I worried that there might be too much competition out there. I thought maybe other people could do a better job than me and I wouldn’t be able to do enough business to keep afloat. But here I am. My business is more successful than I ever thought it would be when I first started three years ago.”
“Okay.” Liza looked at him and smiled. “I’m going to do it. I’ll stop being afraid and I’ll do the very best I can, and we’ll see what happens.”
“Spoken like a true artist.” Jaime liked the way she’d said “we’ll see,” as if he might be around to celebrate in her success.
“You know, you can be pretty inspiring. I might want to hang around you more often.” Liza covered his hand with hers.
“Well, I’m glad you feel that way, since we are engaged.” Jaime winked, and Liza giggled.
The party was a hit. Everyone laughed and cheered as each new guest entered with their ugly sweaters. Some had real lights that twinkled on sweatshirts, while others had gone the more traditional route with hideous reindeer knitted in crazy designs across the sweaters or Santas embroidered with thousands of tiny stitches. Nita had arranged for several different prizes—the ugliest sweater, the best grandma sweater, and the sweater with the most Christmas spirit were just a few of the categories.
Jaime avoided the eggnog and all other alcoholic beverages, and he sensed that Liza noticed his choices. They received several more congratulations and questions of when the big date would occur. Liza told friends they were waiting until after the holidays were over to start planning anything.
“There is enough stress getting everything ready for Christmas without having to think about planning the wedding,” Liza said. “But have you seen my ring?”
Everyone loved the ring and agreed with the sentiment on wedding planning. For the most part, they didn’t badger them for more details.
“Y
our Santa hats just make those sweaters work,” Nita said. “Thank you so much for coming.”
“Thanks for inviting us. This has been too much fun.” Liza admired Nita’s sweater—one of the light-up variety that she had seen being sold at the local discount store.
“Liza speaks very highly of you. She’s lucky to have such a good friend,” Jaime said.
“She’s lucky to have you. I haven’t seen Liza this happy in nearly a year. We’re all so happy for you two.”
Jaime glanced at Liza and noticed a beautiful blush spreading across her cheeks. Nita’s words must’ve impacted her as well; she looked as happy as Jaime felt. “People have been telling me the same thing.”
Liza’s head jerked up, and she looked at him with a question in her eyes. He smiled at her, and her cheeks lifted in a big smile. It was as close to the truth as he could get for now.
The party started winding down around eleven, and Jaime caught a case of the yawns as they were heading out. “Hey, do you mind if I stop at the gas station for treats? This time of year, I always feel tired earlier, like I’m a bear looking for a place to hibernate.”
“I don’t mind. Let’s go.”
They stopped at the gas station and fueled up. Jaime grabbed a medium-sized bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and a large fountain drink of the Diet Cherry Coke variety.
“So is it always Cherry Coke, or do you venture out and mix flavors?” Liza asked.
“Pretty much always Cherry Coke. You want some?”
Liza wrinkled her nose. “Not a huge fan of cherry, but I love Doritos.”
“Well, it’s a good thing this isn’t a snack size bag. I’m happy to share.”
Liza stood next to him as they paid. “Are you sure you don’t want to get anything else?”
“No thank you. I ate too much of Nita’s sweet Chex mix. Did you taste those sugar cookies?”
Jaime nodded and closed his eyes. “Those were so tender. We need to get that recipe.”
“I think it was Nita’s cousin who brought them. I bet I can track it down.”
Her Guy Next Door Fake Fiancé Page 11