by Noelle Adams
If he asked, would she be able to say yes? It would be so unlike her. Lacey was a planner, she made lists! She certainly didn’t do spontaneous things like get married at a moment’s notice! Although, if there was one man she’d do that for, it would be Ean Callahan. Why wouldn’t he say anything? He wasn’t even looking at her! Not wanting to seem obvious, she snuck a quick glance at him and saw him staring at Ava, a small smile on his face. Ava arched a brow at him and Lacey had to wonder at the brother/sister connection. It was like they were having a conversation without saying a word!
“Can I have everyone’s attention?” Ean called out as he took Lacey’s hand and turned to face the roomful of guests once again. “I have something else to say.”
All eyes were on them and Lacey had no idea what he was doing. If he was going to ask her to marry him here today, shouldn’t he have asked her first? Alone? Her heart was hammering in her chest and she looked at him just as expectantly as every other person in the room.
“As we’ve already established, Mason and Ava will not be getting married today. I know that we’re all disappointed that it came to this, but I for one cannot be sorry. You see, two months ago I came up here to get away from life for a little while. I needed some time away from work and family and pretty much everything to figure out what I wanted for my future. What I didn’t know was that my future was waiting for me, right here.”
He turned and faced Lacey. “I saw you first in the grocery store and then again while I was flat on my back in the snow with stars in my eyes – and they weren’t only from banging my head.” He chuckled and reached out to caress her cheek. “Just the mere sight of you brings me to my knees. I look at you and my heart races. You challenge me. You make me laugh, and you made me realize that I was missing so much from my life. You brought joy and laughter into my life, and most of all, you filled my days with love.”
There was no way to stop the tears from flowing and very nearly ruining her very expensive make up job. Ava swooped in with a tissue and then stood nearby with the entire box. Ean wiped her tears away the same way he’d done days before. “I know you like to plan things, and I know this wasn’t something we had even discussed, but Lacey Quinn, I love you. I knew from that first night that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. There is no one else in this world for me but you,” he got down on one knee, “and it would be an honor if you would agree to be my wife.”
Oh my gosh! This is really happening! Ean is proposing! I’m getting married! Wait, have I answered him yet?
Looking down, she saw the ring in his hand and realized that she had not yet given him an answer. Taking a deep breath, she smiled. “Ean Callahan, I have waited since I was fourteen to be your wife.” She laughed through the tears. “I don’t want to wait any longer; yes, I will marry you!” In a flash of activity, the ring was on her finger and Ean was kissing her. All around her people were clapping and talking and she heard nothing but activity going on all around the room.
“You’ll have time for that later,” Ava said as she dragged Lacey away from Ean. “It’s time to get the bride ready!”
With a last glance over her shoulder, she said to Ean, “I guess I’ll see you soon.” His grin was the biggest she’d ever seen. “I’ll be the one in white.”
He laughed. “I’ll be the one waiting.”
Hopefully not long, was all Lacey thought as she was swept away into the Callahan’s master bedroom, surrounded by her mother and Ean’s, plus her sisters and Ava.
“Luckily, you and I are the same size,” Ava said, taking her dress down from its hook on the door. “I know it may not be what you would have picked out, but you’re going to look gorgeous.”
People were fussing all around her, and at some point, Lacey realized that it was a good thing, because she was sure that if she was given a moment to herself, she’d probably have a panic attack over what they were about to do.
“Am I crazy?” she asked her mom when they had a moment to themselves.
Denise Quinn looked at her youngest daughter and smiled. “Lacey, I know you’ve been wild about Ean most of your life. Seeing the two of you together these last couple of months was always like watching a private moment. The love that the two of you share was so obvious to everyone who saw you.” Lacey blushed at her mother’s words. “You are a very level headed woman, you always have been, and I don’t think you’re crazy for deciding to marry the man that you love. Neither of you are the type to take such a thing lightly and I trust Ean to make you happy.”
“Thank you, mom.” She did not want to start crying again, so Lacey forced herself to take a couple of deep breaths. “I know this isn’t how you probably imagined your youngest daughter getting married…”
“Are you kidding me?” she laughed. “After what your sisters put me through with their weddings, this is an absolute gift! We got off easy! I’m just sorry that we didn’t have more time to prepare and do something special for you.”
“Mom, I don’t need anything else. Like you said, I’m marrying the man that I love. He’s all I ever wanted.”
“Okay, everyone, it’s time!” Ava yelled from the bedroom doorway. “You ready?” she asked, looking at Lacey and grinning.
“More than,” Lacey replied.
“You know, I really should hate you,” Ava said when they were alone and waiting for Lacey’s dad to come for her.
“Hate me? Why?”
“Well, for starters that dress looks better on you than it did on me!” Lacey turned and looked at her reflection for what was probably the twentieth time and smiled wickedly. It did look great on her. The form-fitting strapless style was not something she would have picked for herself, but she couldn’t be sorry for it. Ean was going to love it!
“You have good taste,” Lacey said simply, “But I have a great body.” They laughed and hugged. “Thank you for being willing to share all of this with me. I cannot tell you how much it means to me.”
“Good, because I’m not done telling you why I should hate you,” Ava said, wiping tears from her own eyes. “I have got to stop doing that today!”
“So you still hate me, why?”
“Oh, right. First, there’s the dress.”
“We’ve covered that.”
“Right. Then there’s the cottage.”
“We’re not having this conversation again…”
“Yes, we are. You proved the fairytale right, Lace. You’ll be telling stories to future generations about how you met up with Ean again and fell in love and lived happily ever after thanks to the Christmas cottage. That was going to be my story!”
Lacey wanted to argue with her but just didn’t have it in her. Ava was right. As much as Lacey wanted to dispute the tale, the truth was had it not been for the Christmas cottage, there would be no wedding today. Still, they had to get to the ceremony in order to get to the honeymoon so that her happily ever after could begin.
Her dad popped his head in to the room. “Ready, sweetheart?”
And she was; for the ceremony, for Ean and for her happily ever after.
Epilogue
Much later that night, Lacey and Ean were relaxing in what was quickly becoming known to them as ‘their’ cottage, and talked about their wild day.
“Who knew I could actually be spontaneous?” she said, clearly amused with herself.
“You pulled it off quite well,” he said, kissing her head. “You definitely have a future in being a rebel.”
“Let’s not get carried away,” she laughed. “This was an exception. No one else could possibly make me do something this out of my comfort zone but you.”
They lay together staring into the fire, both realizing how fortunate they were. “Was Ava terribly upset?” he finally asked. “It couldn’t have been easy watching you have the wedding that she’d planned.”
“She was amazing. It seemed like it was almost a relief for her.” Lacey shared with him Ava’s list of grievances against her but how, in the end, it wa
s all said in good fun. “I just wish that she could have made it work with Mason.”
“He wasn’t the one. End of story. Not everyone is fortunate enough to know someone for twenty something years and then realize they’re in love, like we are,” he joked and felt her elbow to his ribs. “What? Am I lying?”
“No, but when you say it, it sounds ridiculous.”
“Ava will find someone, and in no time, we’ll be back up here having to decorate this cottage again,” and then he paused. “You do realize that we decorated this cottage for ourselves, right?”
She agreed. “Thank goodness we scaled it down a little bit or we’d be choking on the overwhelming Christmas theme.”
“I feel a little bit jipped. When Ava gets married, she’s decorating the damn cottage herself.” Lacey laughed. “And we’ll make her do it to our specifications. How does that sound?”
“Like a plan.” Lacey looked up into Ean’s face and brought him forward for a kiss. “I love you, Ean Callahan.”
“Thank God,” he sighed and sank back into kissing his wife, sending up another prayer of thanks for the wonderful Christmas present he had received.
About the Author
Contemporary romance writer Samantha Chase released her debut novel, Jordan’s Return, in November 2011. Although she waited until she was in her 40’s to publish for the first time, writing has been a lifelong passion. Her motivation to take that step was her students: teaching creative writing to elementary age students all the way up through high school and encouraging those students to follow their writing dreams gave Samantha the confidence to take that step as well.
Her second book, a holiday novella titled “The Christmas Cottage” climbed the Amazon charts and peaked at number ten on the Best Sellers in Women’s Fiction on Christmas Eve 2012 in books and number 116 in Kindle books. Watching the numbers rise and fall was a daily roller coaster ride but definitely an exciting one!
In February of 2013, “The Christmas Cottage” was nominated for Best Indie Romance Novella and Best Indie Contemporary Romance and Samantha was up for Indie Romance Writer of the Year!
“In the Eye of the Storm” was a top five finalist in Harlequin Desire’s Editor’s Pitch Challenge back in 2011 but never made it into their line. Deciding to self-publish it wasn’t a tough decision and it has been a favorite amongst early preview readers.
When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading contemporary romances, blogging, playing way too many games of Scrabble on Facebook and spending time with her husband of 24 years and their two sons in North Carolina.
Where to Find Samantha Chase
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SamanthaChaseFanClub
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamanthaChase3
Website: http://chasing-romance.com
Blog: http://allstace.blogspot.com/
Tumblr: http://samanthachasewriter.tumblr.com/
Eight Christmas Eves
Rachel Curtis
First Christmas Eve
eleven years ago
Big flakes of snow were starting to fall.
Helen watched as they landed on the pavement, on the sleeve of her puffy red coat, on the messy braid hanging over her shoulder, and on Niko’s closed eyelids as he lay stretched out on the side of the road beside her.
The snowflakes melted immediately on the road, and they disappeared into the two inches of snow that already covered the grass. They melted slowly on her coat sleeve, though, and they didn’t melt at all on her hair.
She watched the flakes for a long time—until she heard a car approaching on the otherwise empty road.
Thinking it was the ambulance coming, she stood up. She ignored the queasy feeling from moving so fast and stepped out closer to the road so she could see it drive up.
It wasn’t an ambulance. It was a fancy silver car—the kind they drove in movies. Disappointed, she sighed and wiped a trickle of blood off her cheek.
Niko was Mr. Mac’s driver. He was always nice to her. He made jokes and called her Ginger because of her strawberry-blond hair. The ambulance needed to come soon to take care of him.
“Hey,” a voice called out unexpectedly. The silver car had stopped when she’d turned away, and a man was getting out. “Hey, kid. What happened? Are you hurt?”
Helen soberly eyed the approaching man. He was dressed up, and he had brown hair and almost a beard. She didn’t know him. “The car flipped over. Niko is hurt. He broke his leg and hurt his head.”
The man had started to jog over when he’d noticed Niko sprawled out on the side of the road. “Fuck,” he breathed, kneeling down beside him and glancing over at the upturned car in the ditch. He reached for his phone.
Helen knew that wasn’t a word you were supposed to use, but it seemed to reflect her own feelings at the moment, so she ignored it. Instead, she said, “I already called 911. I’m not stupid. They said they were coming.”
The stranger turned back toward her, his eyes widening in surprise. “That’s good, kid.”
She didn’t mind being called ‘kid’, since he seemed to mean it in a nice way, and she felt vaguely pleased by his words, like he’d complimented her. The truth was that, when she’d first crawled out of the flipped car and seen how hurt Niko was, she’d been absolutely terrified. And she’d cried a little when she tried to help him get out of the crushed car.
She didn’t tell the stranger that she cried, of course. She wouldn’t tell anyone.
“Hopefully, they’ll get here soon. He looks pretty bad,” the man said, leaning down over Niko and reaching a hand out as if he were checking for a pulse. “How did you get him out of the car?”
“He was awake before. He wanted to get out so I helped him. I think it hurt so bad he fainted.” Helen had thought at first he’d died, but then she’d seen he was still breathing. She was glad. She didn’t want Niko to die like Mr. Mac had.
“Probably.” The man focused on her face, and his expression changed. “You’re hurt too. You’re bleeding.”
“Not too bad. I just bumped my head when the car flipped over.” Helen rubbed at the aching spot on her head and came away with blood on her hand. She shrugged. “And my stomach hurts from the seatbelt.”
“Well, the ambulance will be here soon to take care of both of you.” He glanced from Niko and back to her. “You called him Niko. He’s not your father?”
“My father is dead. Niko is the driver.”
“Okay.” The man straightened up and rubbed his hair for a minute. “It’s freezing out here. Do you want to sit in my car until the ambulance comes? At least you could get warm.”
Helen frowned. “I don’t get into cars with people I don’t know.”
The man made a strange face and muttered, “Good point. Well, I’ll wait here with you.”
“You don’t have to,” she told him, going back to sit in her spot on the damp road next to Niko. “I’m okay by myself.”
“I’m not going to leave a hurt kid by herself on the side of the road with an unconscious man. I’ll wait with you. I’m Cyrus, by the way.”
“Cyrus?” Helen asked, peering up at him. The snow made everything seem really bright, including the man’s face. When he nodded, she added, “Cyrus is a strange name.”
“Probably. But it’s still my name.”
Helen thought about this for a moment and decided he was right. She nodded her approval.
Cyrus let out a breath of what sounded almost like laughter. He had a nice face, even though he looked kind of scruffy with the almost-beard. His eyes were a pretty color of blue. “Are you going to tell me your name?”
She looked at him seriously and shook her head.
“I guess you don’t tell strangers your name either, huh?”
“Right.”
“Can you at least tell me where Niko was driving you?”
“To Clarksburg. My new guardian lives there.”
“Your new guardian? What happened to your old guardian?”
“He had a heart attack and died.” She didn’t mind saying it. She was a little sad, but she hadn’t even cried when Mr. Mac died.
Cyrus’s expression changed, grew more serious. “And your mother?”
“She died too. Same as my dad. I was only six then.”
“So now you’re going to your new guardian in Clarksburg?”
“Yeah.”
Cyrus didn’t say anything. Helen was glad. She’d heard so many people say they were sorry, say she was a brave girl, say that things would get better soon that she couldn’t stand to hear them anymore. All those words were empty and silly.
He got down and sat on the road beside her. Didn’t say anything.
“You don’t think the car will blow up, do you?” she asked, gesturing toward the black car turned upside down in the ditch beside the road.
“I don’t think so.”
“They always blow up in movies.”
“But that’s in movies, and we’re far enough away anyway.”
“But I have a sweatshirt in the trunk that was my dad’s. I don’t want it to explode.”
He peered at the car and said, “We couldn’t get into the trunk right now to get it, anyway. The car is too mangled. But I think it will be okay.”
“Okay.” She brooded over the thought for a little while, though. She’d never cared for dolls or stuffed animals, but she slept with her dad’s sweatshirt every night. She’d be heartbroken if it blew up.
Cyrus stretched out his legs, getting more comfortable on the road.
“You’ll get your nice clothes dirty,” she said, when she realized his black pants were getting wet from the pavement.
He gave a half-shrug. “No big deal.”
She hugged her stomach where it was hurting and tried not to shiver. She was getting cold, but she wasn’t going to say anything about it. She’d said no when Cyrus offered to let her sit in his car. “Where were you going?”