“I don’t understand.” She was so confused. She didn’t want to return to the demands of her family early, either, but she couldn’t stay and grow more attached to Jared.
She knew the moment he’d shown her those damn cabins that she had fallen in love with him. Knowing that prohibited her from playing any stupid game of revenge, but it also meant she couldn’t sleep with him on a casual basis.
“I didn’t have a choice about leaving you five years ago. It would have been unfair of me to ask you to wait because we hardly knew each other. I didn’t understand until years afterward how much our time together affected me, but waking up night after night thinking about you finally pounded it into my head.”
A couple walked out of the lodge, laughing and kissing as they wove through the parking lot as one body. Heather envied that happiness even as she began to wonder if Jared’s words meant there was still hope they might one day share that.
“I couldn’t forget you, either,” she confessed, knowing the time had come when keeping score didn’t matter. She owed him the truth about how deeply he affected her. “You’re the reason I’m not getting married today.”
“Thank you.” He cradled her face in his hands, his big body warming hers with his nearness. “I’m so glad you didn’t end up with someone else, because I honestly don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t have a second chance with you.”
Her breath caught.
“Marry me, Heather. Move up here and be with me and—Hell, I’m doing this wrong and I’ve had five years to think about it.”
“No!” She put a finger over his lips, an eagerness rising up in her chest in spite of her head’s cry for caution. “I like where this is heading. I—I want to hear more.”
“I want to be with you and I’m willing to go wherever you are. Here. Georgia. The Arctic. A tropical island. I don’t care. I just want to have you in my life because I love you.”
Her heart beat so hard now she couldn’t even hear the dining room carols anymore, her whole world bubbling with new possibilities when she’d been five minutes from leaving Jared forever because she was too caught up in her wounded pride to understand what he really wanted from her this weekend.
“You invited me up here to court me.”
The idea appealed to her every old-fashioned notion of romance.
He grinned.
“I figured we had already successfully conquered the chemistry aspect of a relationship, so I tried my damnedest to show you we could get along out of bed.”
The warmth in her heart bubbled into happy tears that spilled from her eyes.
“Except I kept pulling you back into it.”
“I didn’t exactly fight you off—”
“I love you, Jared.” The sentiment rose up from the depths of her soul, the secret truth that had kept her from loving anyone else. “I didn’t want to acknowledge that because no one falls in love during a one-night stand. Or—in our case—a weekend stand. But I guess I should have realized you meant a lot to me when I was still mad at you for leaving me years after the fact.”
“I’d like to make it up to you.” Jared waved to Mrs. Krause who had returned to the window to look out at them. The older woman brightened up like one of her trees, waving back at triple speed.
“I’d like that, too.” Heather hoped at this point her cab was never coming. She could stay here staring into Jared’s eyes forever. “You mentioned some very intriguing scenarios for the future.”
“You mean the part about living in the Arctic?”
“Uh, snow is nice, but that might be a bit much even for me. I was thinking more about marriage, or did I mishear something?”
Behind them, the inn doors opened and the Krauses spilled out into the courtyard with Roland holding an overcoat over their heads like a tent.
“You didn’t mishear anything.” Jared kissed her long and slow on the lips, a kiss full of promise that made her forget about anything else but enjoying the shivery delight of his tongue stroking over hers.
When he lifted his head to look into her eyes, he smiled. “I don’t have a ring right now, but I’ve got a couple of witnesses.”
Roland and Helen arrived just then. The older gentleman smiled while his wife bit her lip.
“Heather dear,” Mrs. Krause began, “let me just apologize for calling our local cab company to cancel your ride. I know it was wrong of me but you two looked like you could use a little time to talk and—”
“This time of year brings out the matchmaker in my wife, you know.” Roland winked at Heather. “And we are awfully fond of Jared.”
“I’m glad.” Heather blinked away the seductive tenderness of Jared’s kiss. “I don’t have any need for a cab so you saved me the trouble of canceling it. As it turns out, I’m going to be staying in Lake Placid for quite a while.”
“I’ve asked Heather to marry me,” Jared informed his friends. “And I think I just received confirmation that she’s going to say—”
“Yes.” Heather wrapped her arms around his neck, throwing herself into his chest and into his life. “Yes, Army-man. You’re the one I’ve been waiting for.”
Helen squealed beside them and Heather suspected her husband tugged her away because by the time Heather let go of Jared, the innkeepers had disappeared.
“What about your family?” He pulled the cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her. “Do you think we should call them?”
Pleasure filled her that he would think of them. Her future with this man would be so full of happiness. Joy. Every day would be like Christmas with him in her bed and by her side.
“I’ve got a much better plan.” She kissed his cheek and kept her arms around his neck, not sure when she’d be able to let go of him again. “How do you feel about a trip to Savannah tomorrow to help me pack a few things for my move up here?”
“You really don’t mind leaving your family? Because I’m serious about moving down there with you. I don’t have family ties up here.”
“My business can move anywhere and I think you’ll see why my family will be really fun to visit a few times a year.” She couldn’t wait to see Loralei swoon at the sight of Jared. “We can arrive just in time for a Christmas party my mother’s been planning.”
“Your mother, huh?”
“Yes.” Heather adored her mother, but they would probably both extend their wings all the more with a little more room. “It will be a fun way for you to meet everyone at once.”
“Even the ex-fiancé?” Jared quirked an eyebrow, but he didn’t look the least bit worried.
Heather had the feeling he was going to handle the family far better than she ever had.
“I think my ex-fiancé will be glad to have you take his place after my mother tries to set him up with my half sister.”
She had movers to call, clothes to pack, a business to transfer…and a man to ground her through it all.
“Heather?”
“Hmm?” She still couldn’t let go of him. Couldn’t believe that Christmas had brought her a little peace on earth and very, very goodwill toward this man after so many years of being a source of stress.
“No one will ever take my place.” He stared at her with those no-games eyes, the ones that had followed her everywhere she went that night at an outdoor bar halfway across the country.
“Are you suggesting you’d fight for me?”
Leaning down to kiss her, he stole her soul with one brush of his lips.
“Right down to my last breath, angel.”
KATHLEEN O’REILLY
Dear Santa
A Blazing Little Christmas Part 3
Chapter 1
Wednesday, December 18
With eleven minutes to spare, Rebecca Neumann finished concealing the last pieces of Christmas contraband from her kindergarten classroom.
Though the big day was exactly a week away, the headmistress could come around the corner at any moment. The headmistress who insisted that Santa was nonse
nse and that the holiday was no holiday, a day like any other.
So the reindeer antlers were hidden under the piles of neatly graded and filed spelling tests. Verboten Dear Santa letters were stashed inside Rebecca’s prized Prada bag. Blackballed holiday cards were stuffed beneath her FootSmart custom orthotics that would never see the light of another human being’s eye. And the paper-plate snowmen were strategically covered by the flirty, little black Versace that she kept on hand for date emergencies. A woman never knew when the man of her dreams was destined to appear, and although never having been a Boy Scout, Rebecca had dated and dumped three of them, and cleaved to their motto like her own.
The clock ticked off another minute, and she took a last look around, checking for any telltale holiday paraphernalia.
Everything…looked…
No! Teddy! Teddy Ruxpin! A tiny piece of candy cane was dangling from his fuzzy bear mouth. According to Headmistress Cruzella (not her real name, but apropos, nonetheless), sugar was the worst of all sins of the young and impressionable. Sugar and processed grains were banned atModernManhattanPreparatory School, where “every mind is priceless,” and the punishment for sugar possession was a ten-minute diatribe on nutritional education.
Furiously Rebecca pulled at the sticky mess, but it wasn’t budging. No matter how hard she picked, it was still stuck.
Think, think, she just needed to think.
Okay, would anybody notice if she dumped Teddy in the trash? Probably. Ethan Wilder seemed really attached to the bear, and Ethan was Rebecca’s last, greatest hope for the next generation. It would be her luck that she’d destroy his favorite toy, and curse his life-destiny forever.
Nah. She could erase the evidence but she had to maintain an efficient calm. After eight years of dodging Cruzella’s rules and regulations, she’d gotten cocky. There was no transgression she couldn’t sweep under the rug, no institutional infraction she couldn’t whitewash away.
While keeping a careful eye on the clock, she plucked, pulled and wiped, clearing up everything but one stubborn bit of sticky candy. Eventually she knew she had no choice—Teddy was about to get buzzed. Stylishly, of course.
With bear in hand, she flew across the room, sliding to her desk in stocking feet. Right then, the door opened. As the lies sprang to her lips, Rebecca dug her shoes out of the desk while simultaneously stashing the bear behind her. Then she assumed an innocent smile, ready to face Headmistress Cruz.
Instead it was only…Natalie.
Rebecca dumped her shoes back in the drawer, and resumed breathing. “Give me a heart attack next time, will you?”
Natalie was the next-door kindergarten teacher, happily married with her first kidlet on the way, her face was always lit up brighter than a halogen bulb.
Sometimes Rebecca felt a twinge of envy, an unnecessary emotion that she rarely felt, and never admitted to. Rebecca’s life goal was to marry a Prince Charming with a twelve-cylinder steed (preferably of Italian design), and live a life of luxury with a seat on the board at the Astor Foundation, and a new, state-of-the-art, homeopathic, ultra-luxe foot spa with jets and soothing, acupressure massage nodes.
Natalie’s husband had a twelve-cylinder Jag, but Rebecca forgave her, since Natalie kept setting her up on dates with men who rated A+++ on the Rebecca Neumann Eligibility Scale. Unfortunately sparks never flew, the men were blah and something always felt wonky. But Rebecca kept trying; she had a mission.
Natalie looked at the bear, looked at the scissors, looked at Rebecca. “What are you doing?” Then she looked closer. “Candy? Peppermint candy? You’ve been at it again, haven’t you? When are you going to learn, Christmas is a hanging offense at this school. Listen, I’ll keep an eye on the door while you get rid of the evidence. You have thirteen minutes. That’s what I came to tell you. Mistress Yvette is keeping them late in French class today. Le pop quiz.”
“A votre santé, Mistress Yvette,” Rebecca murmured while efficiently trimming away the clumps of fur and tossing them into the trash.
“You’re going to die, you know that, don’t you? Cruzella catches you, and you’re dead. Sugar! Oy vey. After that last bit at Halloween, with the candy pumpkins, you’d think you’d learn your lesson, but no—”
“Keep quiet while I get the last of this.” Rebecca scanned her work, gave Teddy a sophisticated, slicked-down comb-over and threw him back into the toy bin, missing by a mile. Damn. Someday she’d master that shot.
Natalie picked up Teddy and slam-dunked the bear into the bin. “Why do you even try? You’re too short.”
“You’re too pregnant, and you can still make the shot.”
Natalie smoothed a hand over her stomach. “Yes, yes, I am, but I have the added benefit of a hormonal imbalance. Better than steroids.”
Rebecca and Natalie pulled out two pint-size chairs from the tables. Rebecca sank gratefully into the seat and began rubbing her feet, already aching with another three hours of the school-day left. It was going to be a Four Advil day. And that was on top of the Three Advil day yesterday when Mrs. Capezzio insisted that sweet Richie did not scrawl his name all over the gym in permanent maker. Today on Oprah: Parents in denial. Rebecca shook her head sadly. “I’m worried, Natalie.”
“About what?”
“I think being around overprivileged kids is messing with my head. Don’t get me wrong, I yearn for the finer things in life, but I’m losing the delicate balance. The other day, Kaitlyn told me I needed collagen injections for my mouth, and I considered it. I don’t need collagen injections. Do I?”
“No. Of course not, silly,” answered Natalie with a quick glance at Rebecca’s mouth, which Rebecca didn’t miss, by the way.
The drawings above the blackboard weren’t of monsters and bunnies, but designer fashions, formal dining rooms, pictures ofSouthBeachwinter homes and four Picasso-esque paintings of polo ponies. “It’s these kids. I’ve dated men with less understanding of finance than little Claudio Gettleman. How a six-year-old can calculate earnings per share is really beyond me.”
“He gave me stock tips the other day,” Natalie admitted.
“Really? Did you invest?” The words slipped out before Rebecca could stop them.
“He is only six.”
Rebecca grabbed the pen from behind her ear. “What’s the name of the company?”
“B-I-O-N-E-X-T.”
Carefully she blocked the letters on her hand, making her “N” with the three-step process they practiced in class. “You invested, didn’t you?”
“No,” answered Natalie. “Some. He gave me this whole spiel about engineering biological components—and it made sense.”
Rebecca made a mental note to herself to call her broker that afternoon and then tucked the pen back behind her ear. The money was one thing—she could adjust to that—but the mind-set of the school was another. That was the one that kept her awake at night.
“This school is doing a huge number on them, depriving them of sugar, Santa, the tooth fairy. All the carefree things in life. Do you know that Cruz told Justin Lowenstein the tooth fairy didn’t care if he lost a tooth because the tooth fairy didn’t exist? Where’s the justice in that?”
“You could quit.”
Rebecca snorted inelegantly, a sound reserved only for her very best friends. “I’d die first. These children need me. Their childhood is zipping right past them. I was happy when I was a kid. No ADD, no bubble-gum-flavored Prozac. I’m the only piece of sanity in their lives it seems, certainly in this stylized mental institution. Present company excepted, of course.”
Natalie popped a Tums into her mouth. “The kids do like the birthday parties you give. They think that keeping it a secret from their parents and the headmistress makes it extra special. Although I think Cruz is catching on.”
“If she does, I can handle her.”
“I hope so because now my class is asking for it, you child-corrupter, you.”
“Go ahead, Natalie. Walk on the wild side.”
> Natalie laughed. “Oh, right. Classroom antics aside, you’ve never walked on the wild side. Your closet is littered with skeletons of skeletons that have never gotten a chance.”
“Who needs skeletons anyway?” Rebecca shrugged it off. Her skeletons were all gone now.
“A skeleton is much better than a regret, do you at least have any of those?”
“Not many,” answered Rebecca, because honestly, there wasn’t much she regretted. She’d always gone after what she wanted with an élan that made her captain of the cheerleading squad, homecoming princess and president of the student body. No, not many regrets, except for…
“What?” prodded Natalie, whose dogged determination was probably the reason she got pregnant in like, two seconds.
“It was nothing.” Quickly Rebecca tried to change the subject. “Isn’t Cruz due about now?”
Natalie checked the clock. “You have over eight minutes. Just enough time to spill all the regrettable details.”
“There’s nothing to spill,” Rebecca insisted.
“You’re lying,” answered Natalie, and Rebecca heaved a sigh. She was getting weak in her old age (not quite thirty-one, although if anyone asked, she was twenty-nine).
Natalie flashed her tough-girl look. The one she used when determined to get the truth—whatever it took. Rebecca held up a hand before she brought out the instruments of torture.
“Okay, fine. You want to know? It’s completely nothing. There was this one day, this one guy in high school. Cory Bell. He looked at me. And I got this tingling in my fingers, my toes and the back of my neck. This was in my fully hymenated days, so I didn’t quite understand the biology of tingles very well. Then Lawrence—who was captain of the football team—came up and took my books and walked me to class. Cory never looked in my direction again, but I’ve always wondered what would happen if…End of regret.”
“That’s all?” asked Natalie, which made Rebecca wish she’d made up something juicier.
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