by Teri Wilson
But when the fire truck door swings open and my gaze settles on the hands that belong to the uniformed man gripping its edge, my knees buckle. I know those strong, capable hands. They’re the hands of a man who can steer a car using only two fingers. Cradle a sleepy puppy in a single palm. Loosen a necktie with one swift tug.
Gather packages outside of FAO Schwartz on a crowded, fated morning in December.
Aidan.
If I say his name, I know I’ll break down. Still, the fact that he’s here has to be a good sign, right?
When he reaches the bottom step of the fire truck, he pauses to look at me. One glance is all it takes for me to see that he’s come here with his heart on his sleeve. His eyes are full and alive, brimming with equal parts hope and vulnerability. The joy that swells in my heart is almost crippling. I press my fingertips to my lips to stop myself from crying out loud. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy in my life—not just for me, or for us, but for him.
Aidan is here, and at long last, he’s ready to put his heart on the line.
He jumps down and rushes toward me with Fruitcake hot on his heels. Longing whispers through me, and then he’s just an arm’s length away, close enough for me breathe in his evergreen and campfire scent. Close enough to throw my arms around him and kiss him silly, which I nearly do. But there are things we need to say first—things I’ve been waiting to say for eight long years, even if it took me all this time to realize it.
“Ashley.” Aidan inhales a gulp of air. He’s out of breath, as if he’s sprinted all the way here from the end of the parade route—which he basically has, albeit with the help of an emergency vehicle.
And it dawns on me what the text from Susan was all about. She wasn’t simply wondering where I was. Aidan must have asked her to help him find me. No one else in Owl Lake has any idea I’m at the train station.
“Please don’t go,” Aidan says. “Please.”
When his voice breaks on his final word, something inside me breaks along with it. Not my heart this time, but any last lingering bit of my resistance. We belong together, Aidan and me, no matter what Betty’s magic bracelet seemed to think.
I shake my head. “I’m not going anywhere. I was only here to say goodbye to Jeremy.”
“Goodbye?” Aidan says, and the unspoken question mark floating between us nearly makes me cry.
“I’m not marrying him, Aidan. I can’t, not when I—”
“Don’t say it.” He cups my cheek, presses his forehead to mine and a shiver courses through me at his touch. “Please don’t. I need to be the one to say it first.”
I nod, and my lips begin to quiver in earnest.
Aidan reaches to still them with a brush of his thumb. “I’m in love with you, Ashley. I don’t want to spend the next eight years wishing I’d had the courage to tell you how I feel. I’ve always loved you, and I want to build a life with you. Whether that life is here or in Manhattan or Paris doesn’t matter. I lost you once, and I don’t want to lose you again.”
At this, my mouth curves into a blissful smile. Fruitcake lets out a contented sigh. Aidan is offering to give up his entire life here in Owl Lake, just so we can stay together. But he doesn’t belong in the city. Aidan belongs right here, and I can’t imagine him living anyplace else. He’s as much a part of our hometown as the firefighter’s crest stitched onto his coat, right above his heart.
“I love you, too, and I’m not going back to Manhattan. Owl Lake is my home.” I tip my face toward his until our lips are just a whisper apart. “And I’m home to stay.”
With a smile that lights up his entire face brighter than any Christmas tree, he lowers his mouth to mine. The kiss is electric, filling me with warmth and a joy so sublime that my heart feels as if it might burst. We don’t need mistletoe, and we don’t need Christmas magic. Aidan and I finally have the only thing we need—each other, with hearts wide open to everything fate has in store for us this Christmas, and each and every Christmas to come.
I press my hands to his chest when he pulls away, and his heart beats a furiously against my palm, steady and true.
I peer up into his beautiful blue eyes. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything,” he says, tucking a wayward lock of hair behind one of my ears.
“What made you change your mind?” I swallow hard, because we both know that back at the parade, he was almost ready to let me walk away for good. “What made you come find me?”
His expression turns serious. Thoughtful. “I wanted to right away. The second I left you there with Jeremy, I regretted it. But I thought I’d missed my chance. I thought it might too late to tell you how I really felt. And then…”
I tilt my head. “And then?”
“And then I saw a flash of something silver in the snow, right beside my foot. When I bent to take a closer look, I found this.” He reaches into his coat pocket, pulls out a delicate silver chain and holds it up between us. Charms swivel and dance in the glow of the twinkle lights that surround us. “It seemed like a sign.”
“My bracelet!” With a trembling hand, I wrap my fingers around the charm bracelet and clutch it as if I’m taking hold of every dream I’ve ever had.
The choice is mine now. Without the bracelet stuck on my arm, I can do whatever I choose. And I choose this—the here and now, and a happy-ever-after I’ve wanted since that day I rode atop a fire engine with a glittering tiara on my head, waving a candy cane as if it was a magic wand. The Christmas of my dreams doesn’t have to be over. It’s mine for as long as I choose to live it.
I hold out my arm, and when Aidan fastens it to my wrist for me, the clasp works just fine. While I’m marveling at it, I barely notice Aidan reaching into his pocket for something else.
He clears his throat and I look up to meet his gaze.
“There’s one more thing,” he says, opening his palm to reveal a small wrapped package topped with a shiny silver bow. “I couldn’t let you leave before I gave you your Christmas present.”
It’s small and square, and when I take it from him, my breathing slows as a memory from long ago takes over. Aidan grows quiet, and his expression is suddenly so reminiscent of the Aidan I first fell in love with, the young Aidan I used to know, that I half expect the arms on the big grandfather clock beside us to start spinning backward.
I tear off the paper. The box is new, but the ring inside it isn’t. It’s vintage rose gold with delicate filigree and an emerald cut center stone—the same ring he offered me when he first proposed.
“Oh, Aidan,” I say.
Jingle, jingle.
A gasp escapes me before I can stop it.
The bracelet! It never made its magic chime when Jeremy proposed. I’d been so disappointed in the strange turn of events that I failed to even notice.
Aidan gives my chin a gentle tap and guides my gaze back to his.
“Before you left for college, you gave that ring back to me and told me to ask you again someday. So I’m asking.” When he smiles, there are lines by the corners of his eyes that weren’t there the last time he proposed. A few silver bristles are visible in the scruff on his jaw.
We’ve been apart now for as long as we were together, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re ready now in a way we weren’t then. Ready to make our own magic. We’re taking something old and making it new again, just like the jewelry I love best. Perfect. Vintage. Timeless.
He caresses my cheek with a touch as gentle as a snow-kissed Christmas. “Marry me?”
I can’t get my answer out fast enough. “Yes!”
Then I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him, soft and slow. Aidan is charm and warmth and all the Christmas magic I need. He’s my home, my Christmas dream.
And I’m a firefighter’s sweetheart once again.
Epilogue
“Are you absolutely sure about
this?” Susan takes the check I’ve just handed her and slides it back toward me across the glass counter of the main jewelry case at Enchanted Jewels. “Because I don’t want you to rush into anything on the day after Christmas. I could probably get my boss to give you a few more days to make up your mind if you need more time.”
“She’s sure,” Maya says and slides the check back toward Susan with a perfectly manicured fingertip.
That’s right, Maya’s here in Owl Lake.
After Aidan and I shared the news of our engagement with our family and friends at The Owl’s Nest on Christmas Eve, the scene at the bistro turned into a full-on holiday engagement party. Dad stood up to say some very kind words about Aidan and me, then bought a round of cinnamon hot toddies for everyone who was there—with the exception of Sophie and Olivia, obviously, who sipped peppermint white chocolate cocoa topped with whipped cream and sprinkles while their tiaras wobbled on top of their heads.
The only thing that could have made the night better was if Maya had been there, so I decided to video call her from the party and give her the big news. When I told her Aidan and I were getting married, she let out a such a loud squeal that I thought my phone case might crack. Thanks to modern technology, she got to “meet” Aidan and Fruitcake and join in on the celebration.
But being someplace digitally isn’t quite the same as actually being there, is it? So after spending Christmas morning with her mom and brother in the city, Maya took the train to Owl Lake and showed up on the doorstep of my parents’ house just as we were about to start playing a board game with Aidan, Susan, Josh and the girls.
Aidan found it especially funny that Maya brought a pint of gingerbread ice cream with her in her purse. It was more like gingerbread soup by the time she got to Owl Lake, but that didn’t bother Sophie and Olivia. They shared a bowl at the table while we all played a rousing game of Candy Land. Fruitcake made himself comfy at our feet while he chomped on a giant soup bone—a gift from Aidan. It was the best Christmas Day I’ve ever had.
But after Aidan and his family went home and Maya got settled in the guest room, I went to have a heart-to-heart with my mom and dad in the kitchen. I told them I wanted to buy Enchanted Jewels, and that I’d already completed an online loan application at the credit union that services the OLFD. I still had one last Christmas wish I wanted to make come true before the clock struck midnight.
Before Betty gave me her charm bracelet, she told me I needed to dream bigger, and I’m taking her at her word. My mom and dad generously offered to co-sign my loan, so I was approved first thing this morning. And now here I am with my closest friend from the city, handing over a check for the modest purchase amount to my soon-to-be sister-in-law.
“She’s definitely sure,” Maya says, waving a hand around the charming shop. Most of the cases are only half-full since today was supposed to be closing day, and I can’t wait to fill them up with my own repurposed designs. “Ashley is going to start her own jewelry empire. It’s going to be the shining star of Main Street.”
Susan and I exchange an amused glance.
“I’m not sure I’d call it an empire,” I say with a laugh. “It’s going to be nothing at all like Windsor.”
“No, but it will be yours.” Susan grins. “My boss is thrilled. She emailed the purchase contract over this morning, because the roads are getting bad again and she’s not sure if she’ll make it back to Owl Lake today. She and her husband do a lot of traveling during the holidays.”
“That’s too bad. I was looking forward to meeting her,” I say.
“Maybe if she gets stuck in snowbank somewhere, Aidan can go rescue her in his shiny red fire truck.” Maya waggles her eyebrows and the three of us collapse into giggles.
But our laughter is quickly interrupted by a bright, cheery voice. “A rescue won’t be necessary, dears.”
Susan, Maya and I nearly jump out of our skins. How odd, I think. I could have sworn we were the only three people in the shop.
“Sorry, ma’am. You startled us,” Maya says.
“She does that a lot,” Susan says. “I swear, Mrs. C, sometimes it’s like you appear out of thin air.”
I press my hand to my chest. My heart is beating is a mile a minute, and when I look up, it nearly stops altogether. “Betty?”
She smiles and her eyes go all crinkly behind her red glasses with the holly leaves and berries in the corner of the frames. “Why, hello there, dear. Ashley, was it?”
“Wait.” Susan glances back and forth between us. “You two know each other?”
I blink, not entirely sure how to answer the question. “Um…”
Susan and Maya are wide-eyed as they wait for me to elaborate, but then Betty subtly presses a finger to her lips while they’re busy looking at me. Shhh.
Seriously? I can’t tell my two best friends that Susan’s boss, the woman who owns Enchanted Jewels, is my stranger from the train? She’s the source of the charm bracelet that tinkles on my wrist every time I move, and I’m supposed to keep it a secret?
“We, um, met once on the train,” I say, waving a dismissive hand.
Right. No big deal, but I think the woman who owns this place might be married to Santa.
“Yes, and what a journey it turned out to be,” Betty says.
Understatement of the century.
“Indeed.” I laugh, because I just can’t help it.
Maya’s brow furrows. She knows me well enough to recognize when I’m being evasive.
If Susan suspects anything, she hides it well. She offers her boss a gentle smile and flips through the simple purchase agreement until landing on the signature page. “It’s great that you’re here. You two can sign the paperwork together.”
“Marvelous.” Betty claps her hands.
I can’t stop staring at her. I can’t believe she’s here, after all this time. Questions are spinning through my mind, and I can’t ask any of them if I’m not supposed to tell Susan and Maya that the first time I saw my charm bracelet, it was dangling from Betty’s wrist.
I wrack my brain, trying my best to remember anything and everything Susan told me about her boss and why she might be selling the store. The details were scarce, but they take on a whole new meaning now that I know Betty is the living, breathing person behind the entity known as Enchanted Jewels, LLC on the paperwork.
The owner is relocating. The family is moving up north…
No. It’s not possible, is it? Up north, as in the North Pole? And I don’t mean the small town with the amusement park, just twenty minutes away. I mean the kind I thought only existed in storybooks and Christmas carols.
“I must hurry, dears. I have a train to catch.” Betty opens her handbag to reach for a pen. As she sifts through the bag’s contents, I spy a pair of knitting needles. They look like the same ones she used to knit the Christmas stocking that still hangs from the mantle in my mom and dad’s lake house.
“Another train?” I arch a brow.
She finally finds a pen and plucks it from the purse. The ink is red, because of course it is. Is it even legal to sign a contract with a red pen? “Oh, yes. It’s my favorite way to travel. So convenient, and you meet the most interesting people.”
I practically have to bite my tongue to stop myself from making a comment about the larger choice of destinations that come with a sleigh and eight flying reindeer. Susan and Maya would probably think I’ve lost my senses. Who knows? Maybe I have, but I don’t think so. It feels more like I’ve found them. For the first time in a very long time, I’m following my heart and I quite like where it’s leading me so far.
Betty’s hand is poised above the signature page when Susan asks us both a question. “I know you each had some time this morning to go over the terms of the agreement via email, but is there anything else you’d like to know before you sign?”
I glance at Betty, and there
’s a sparkle in her gaze when her eyes meet mine. I have a feeling I’ll never get the answers to the questions I want so desperately to ask, and that’s okay. Some things are better left unexplained. She’s given me so, so much already. It wouldn’t be right to ask for more.
“Just one question,” Betty says as she angles her head toward me and smiles. “How was your Christmas, dear?”
I answer without hesitation. “It was magical.”
The End
Spiced Walnut Crust Cookie
with Chocolate Ganache and Sea Salt
A Hallmark Original Recipe
In Christmas Charms, the James family bakes and delivers Christmas cookies to the firefighters every year. As a thank-you gift to her old flame Aidan for rescuing her, Ashley joins in on this tradition and tries to replicate one of her mother’s recipes…with mixed results.
Maybe she should’ve made her mom’s chocolate and walnut cookies instead! These Spiced Walnut Crust Cookies with Chocolate Ganache and Sea Salt are easy to make, and so good you’ll want to start your own holiday tradition of sharing them with your friends, family, and loved ones.
Prep Time: 30 mins.
Cook Time: 20 mins.
Serves: N/A
Ingredients
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup walnuts, finely ground, divided
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/2 teaspoon cloves, ground
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips, melted
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F.