by Tory Baker
“Shut up, Loretta. I know where Joy is going to be,” I say and for the first time in a week I feel hopeful. I look over at the grandfather clock in my office. “I know where she’s going to be in an hour.”
I practically run from the room. I need a shower and I have to clean up. By God, Joy will listen to me tonight and if she doesn’t I’ll tie her up and drag her back here until she does listen.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to get ready!”
“Ready for what?”
“To bring my woman home!” I tell Loretta over my shoulder, and I’m smiling.
Tonight Joy will be back in my bed… where she belongs.
23
Joy
“I don’t know why you drug me here,” I mumble as I sit in the cold metal chair at City Hall.
“Because it’s Christmas and it’s the light ceremony and trophy presentation. You’re always here and just because Eb turned into a major asshole, you aren’t going to let him steal this away from you,” Tina answers, and I might understand what she’s saying, but I think it’s much too late.
I just want Christmas to be over. The lights and the snow mock me. The music hurts me. Right now I hate everything about Christmas. I hate it almost as much as I hate Eb Mason.
I should be thankful that at least he’s not here. For some reason, I thought he might be. But, he’s not and that’s just proof I never meant anything to him. As if I needed proof. His words are haunting me as it is.
I was such a fool.
“I’d like to thank everyone for coming out tonight. It looks like we’re getting a white Christmas! As hard as it’s coming down, we will try not to keep you a long time. It’d be a shamed to get us all stranded at City Hall on Christmas.”
I half-listen as the mayor drones on. I know Tina thought she was doing me a favor, dragging me here. But, she was wrong. I should have gone back to Tina’s house and stayed there until this damn holiday was over.
I sit there for a few more minutes, but everything is a blur. I’m feeling sick to my stomach and it’s so hot in here I can barely breathe. I just want out of here so I can catch my breath.
“I need to go outside for a minute,” I tell Tina.
“But they’re about to announce the trophy winner!” she argues.
“You can tell me who won. If I don’t get out of here and get some air I’m going to pass out,” I respond.
I’m lying, but I really just need to get out of here. Tina means well, but she just doesn’t understand. Once I get this holiday behind me, I’ll go home and erase all decorations and all signs that I was ever stupid enough to fall for Eb Mason.
“This year we’re doing things a little different. We’re going to award a prize to the best decorated home. There will be a first and second prize and the winners will get a fifty-dollar and a one-hundred-dollar gift card, respectively, from Grayson Hardware, compliments of Victor Grayson,” the mayor announces and I frown.
Isn’t that great?
The one year they give out a prize worth having and I haven’t been paying attention to my home to even try to win. This is just another thing that is Eb’s fault.
“In second place is the lady the whole town has come to rely on for her Christmas spirit and her delicious holiday goodies. Heck the town has even nicknamed her, Christmas Joy. Joy come on up.
I don’t move. I feel like a deer trapped in the sites of a hunter’s scope. I don’t want to go up there and stand by the mayor. I don’t want to stand in front of all of these people.
I just wanted to leave!
“Come on up, Joy,” the mayor urges again and I look at him and then look at the door. I would have made a run for it, but Tina all but pushes me around her. I stumble into the aisle as people start clapping, leaving me no choice than to reluctantly walk to where the mayor is standing.
I’m going to kill Tina.
24
Eb
I watch from the corner of the room as Joy accepts her gift certificate. She looks so good. I have to clench my hands in fists to keep from going up and grabbing her. She will be mine soon enough.
“Our first place winner is a new resident to Juniper, but from the looks of his lawn he is definitely a welcomed addition. We’re delighted to have award winning novelist E.B. Mason as part of our community and are pleased to announce he wins first place in this year’s contest.”
I watch as surprise comes over Joy’s face. It shouldn’t. She did all the decorating. She had to know she would win. She put her heart into decorating my house. Just like she put her heart into loving me.
I walk toward her and I see the exact moment she spots me. Her body jerks and I can see the tremble that shudders through her. She’s going to run. I can see it in her eyes and I can’t let her. I pick up my pace, my legs eating up the distance between us. She turns away just as I get there and my hand clamps on her shoulder. She physically coils away from me as if my touch is painful. I tighten my hand up on her forearm to the point it’s probably painful, but I don’t let her get away.
“Thank you, mayor.” I answer, taking my gift card from him. I have no idea what Grayson Hardware is, but maybe I’ll give it to Joy. From the look in her eyes she wants to kill me and there’s probably something there to help her in that endeavor.
“You’re welcome. Now, how about we—”
“If you don’t mind Mayor, I’d like to address the citizens of Juniper for a moment if I could.”
“Why sure, son. Go right ahead,” he says standing back.
“I’ll just go,” Joy murmur’s trying to pull away.
“No. I need you to hear this too Joy. Especially you.”
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say.”
Her words are more than understandable. I ignore them. I have one shot at this and if it doesn’t work I’m not sure what I will do. Probably kidnap her and tie her to my bed until she does listen, because losing her is not an option.
“When I first came to Juniper I was a different man. I hated everything about the world I lived in. My agent said I was a caveman, a recluse and she was right. I lived for days I didn’t have to have human contact. That’s what I wanted.”
“Because you’re an asshole,” Joy mutters and I smile.
“I was an asshole.”
“You still are.”
“Probably, but being in Juniper has changed me, Joy. Being with you changed me.”
“It made you a bigger ass.”
“I hated everything about Christmas before I came to Juniper and then this beautiful blonde with sparkling eyes offered to decorate my yard and I took one look at her and…”
“Decided you wanted to get your—”
“Sweetheart, there are kids in the audience,” I warn her and I want to laugh. Joy is standing there looking up at me and she looks like she wants to kill me, but she’s here and she feels something for me, even if it’s hate. After a week of being without her, I’ll take it. I’ll take anything she wants to give me.
“I want to leave.”
“One look at you, Joy and I changed.”
“I. Want. To. Leave.”
“You made me a better man, Joy.”
“I made you get off,” she hisses, and the audience gasps. Joy blushes like crazy and tries to pull away so she can leave.
I drop down to one knee, pulling out a ring box. I open it up and I can see when she realizes what is going on.
“Joy, I was a fool. I love you. This last week without you has been hell. I’m so sorry I ever hurt you, but if you had stuck around you would have heard me tell Loretta that you are nothing like I expected. You’re more than I ever dreamed. You’re everything to me Joy and if you give me the chance I’ll prove it to you.”
“Eb…”
“Will you marry me, Joy?”
“But, we don’t know each other and you said…”
“I was a fool. And I don’t care how long we’ve known each other, I just know I love you and without you
I will slowly die inside. Marry me, Joy.”
25
Joy
“But… you said you were just….”
I stop. I’m so lost. I can’t talk. I don’t know what to say. I just keep staring at the ring resting in the jeweler’s box. The diamond sparkles against the black velvet and then blurs as tears begin to fall from my eyes. My heart slaps against my chest, beating erratically.
“You didn’t hear it all. I was an idiot, Joy. I was, but I’m not now. This last week without you has been miserable. Please, sweetheart, forgive me, marry me. Shit, Joy put me out of my misery.”
“Eb, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Fair enough, but if you don’t take me back and I have to warn you I’m going to carry you out of here and chain you to my bed until I make you agree.”
My mouth drops open at his threat. My eyes widen when I see the look on his face, because I’m positive he’s not joking. Suddenly that fear inside of me let’s go. As crazy as all this is, I want it.
I want Eb.
“Then I say no,” I answer, keeping my face as blank as I can, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“Joy, please. Sweetheart, you have to listen to me.”
“But, I’m definitely open to you taking me back home and convincing me to say yes,” I add, interrupting him before he can say anything more.
“I was just shooting my mouth— Wait… What did you say?”
“Take me home, Eb. We have a lot to celebrate.”
“That sounds like a yes to me,” he answers.
“It’s not a no, but I probably need more convincing,” I hedge, but he understands because he’s already sliding the ring on my finger.
“I love you Joy,” he whispers, bringing my hand up and kissing my finger and the ring.
“I love you, Eb.”
“Enough to marry me tomorrow?”
“On Christmas? You hate Christmas.”
“It’s growing on me and if you marry me, it will be just one more reason to love it.”
“Then, yes. Definitely yes, Eb.” I whisper, as he takes me in his arms. I hold him close, looking over his shoulders where my hands are on his back, pulling him to me as tight as I can. The ring is staring back at me as bright as the Christmas star and it fills me with warmth.
This is the best Christmas ever and Eb is the sole reason why.
Epilogue
Joy
Two Years Later
I look around the children’s wing which has been transformed into a winter wonderland, that would rival the North Pole. I cater this Christmas party every year, but this one is extra special. My gaze drifts over to the green velvet chair that looks like a throne. Sitting in it is my husband, Eb, dressed as Santa.
We’ve been married for two years today.
They’ve been years filled with a little bit of arguing, because Eb can be stubborn, but they’ve mostly been filled with laughter and love.
Definitely love.
My heart squeezes inside my chest as I see the gentle way he’s holding our son Nicholas in his arms as he reads T’was the Night Before Christmas, to him and to the other children which are gathered around him. Tears sting my eyes as I watch our one-year old son reach up and play with Santa’s beard.
Nicholas is really too young to understand Christmas or who Santa is, but he does recognize his father’s voice and our little boy could listen to his daddy read for hours on end. Mostly because that’s something Eb does with Nicholas every night. A ritual that Eb started while I was carrying our son and has kept doing every night since.
Nicholas is our Christmas miracle. I had so much trouble carrying him, the doctors weren’t sure he was going to make it because he was born four months premature. Nicholas proved them wrong and just grew stronger and stronger every day. Eb likes to say he inherited his mother’s determination. I know the truth, however. Nicholas is stubborn, just like his father.
Eb looks over at me and even through the fake white beard, I know he’s smiling. He smiles all the time, but he never smiles more than at Christmas.
He says this is his favorite time of year now, because every year I do something to make his life better at Christmas. Last year it was the birth of our son.
I wonder what he will think of this year’s Christmas surprise?
My hand goes to my stomach and I rub it gently. My wedding ring catches the light and sparkles and I can’t help but smile.
I’m pregnant.
The doctors told me the chances were slim that would ever happen, because I had to take fertility medication just to conceive Nicholas.
I smile, because I know something the doctors don’t know.
Christmas is a time for miracles and that’s just what our child is.
A Christmas miracle, just like that night two years ago when I took a chance and married the love of my life after a whirlwind courtship. Or, just like my son defying all odds and coming into this world, growing healthy and strong last year.
Which fits really, because this is the most wonderful time of the year—especially since Eb Mason walked into my life.
I walk over to my family and listen as my husband says the last few lines of the story and I know in that moment, I have everything I could ever want.
“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night,” Eb says, closing the book and I lean down to hug him and Nicolas. Eb kisses my cheek. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart,” he whispers, where only I can hear him.
“Merry Christmas Santa,” I whisper back. “Merry Christmas.”
Afterword
Thank you for taking the time to read Eb and Joy’s story. This might be the first book released, but hopefully it won’t be the last. I’m already working on another story about a hot Alaskan alpha who orders a wife through an online site, and gets a lot more than he bargained for.
If you enjoyed this story, I’d like to encourage you to leave a review. It’s very hard for authors—especially new ones—to get seen without your help. If you’d like to stay up to date on my new releases, below are links. You can also sign up for my newsletter and be the first to know when I release or giveaway goodies.
Thank you again!
Tory
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