As the paper fell to the floor, she lifted the lid from the small box, and unfolded the delicate silver tissue paper inside.
A crystal angel rested in the tissue paper, the most exquisite figurine Carlie had ever seen in her life. Her gasp of disbelief brought a chuckle from Derek. She ran a careful fingertip over the clear crystalline wings, speechless.
"I got you one that could hang on the tree or stand somewhere. Your uncle told me you didn't always put up a tree, so I wanted to be sure it was something you could put out somewhere—you know, just in case..." He watched her, his words trailing away.
Finally, she looked up at him, tears blurring her vision.
Concern filled his eyes. "Oh, sweetheart—I didn't mean to make you cry. I'm sorry. I—"
She shook her head, laying the angel aside carefully on the couch as she scooted forward to hug him. As she reached for him, he enfolded her next to his bare chest, the afghan slipping from between them. She laid her head on his shoulder and he stroked her hair.
"Don't say you're sorry," she whispered. "That is the sweetest, most beautiful gift anyone ever gave me." She sniffed. "And you spent way too much, Derek."
He held her away from him, looking into her eyes. "Hey. I did not. You're worth it, Carlie. I wish—it could've been more."
"I don't have anything for you." She cupped his cheek in her hand, and he kissed her palm.
"You already gave me mine."
"Oh—that—you mean—"
He shook his head and laughed. "No. Not when we made love. Before that, even. When they brought me in. I was...alone. Utterly alone. I figured, I didn't care if I came out of that building or not. What did I have to live for? Who would care if I lived, or if I died?" He stood up and then sat beside her on the couch, settling her against him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Carlie's heart ached as she listened to the wistful note in his voice. "You didn't care if you made it or not."
"No. Not after last Christmas—losing Jared and his family. I blamed myself for that. If I'd been there, it wouldn't have happened. I would have saved him."
"Where were you?"
He didn't answer for a moment. "Well, that's the really dumb thing about it all, Carlie. Oklahoma City covers a lot of area. Jared's house wasn't even in my unit's district. So we wouldn't have responded anyway. Your uncle broke the news to me...afterward."
She twisted to look up into his face. The glow of the tangled string of lights bathed his features in a warm glow, softening even the harsh self-condemnation in his eyes. "Why did you blame yourself, then, Derek?"
He shrugged, then kissed her on the top of her head. "I guess because I couldn't accept the fact that he died and...maybe I could've kept that from happening if I'd only been in the right place at the right time." His lips tightened, and Carlie felt the tension in his muscles where she rested against him.
"When they pulled me out of that fire last week, and brought me to the hospital, I thought I was dead. I opened my eyes and you were the first thing I saw. You were beside me, looking down at me—" He broke off, and Carlie knew he was remembering the same moment she was. The instant their eyes had met. The comfort she'd tried to give him.
"Such love in your eyes... I thought maybe I imagined it. But then I found out you'd called up to the floor to check on me."
"I wanted to come visit—to see for myself that you were all right—but we were slammed the next two days." She snuggled next to him, and they were both silent for a moment.
"Do you believe in miracles, Carlie?"
"You mean like a real white Christmas? Where the tree tops glisten, and children listen to—"
He reached for the bells and shook them. "—hear sleigh bells in the snow."
Carlie giggled. "I do. I believe in...all kinds of Christmas miracles. Even that fifty-fifty chance of snow they say we might get. It could happen." She cocked her head and looked up at him. "And you?"
"You've made a believer out of me."
"Me?"
"Everything changed when you came into my life, Carlie."
The somber tone in his voice made her turn around to face him completely.
"To have been the cynic I was before, I know that you had to have some kind of strong magic for this to happen like it did."
"The power of love," she said.
"Wasn't there a song about that?" He reached to finger her hair.
She laughed softly. "My mother taught me never to say it first."
Derek smiled. "I love you?"
"Yep. My southern upbringing dictates the gentleman should tell the lady first, not the other way around."
"Well, Carlie, I'm telling you now, I love you. And I don't care if it is too soon, or if it's not proper, or anything else—I love you."
"Derek—"
"I'm not gonna take no for an answer, either."
"No? What do you mean?"
"You're gonna love me, too." He held up a hand, half-teasingly. "Now, I know you may think this is crazy, but I know better. I know, Carlie, this is for real."
She reached for the angel and took it from the box, holding it up by the gold string in the dim glow of the lights from the tree, the colors like a fragmented rainbow.
"I know it, too," she murmured. "This is the first gift I've ever received from a man—other than my father, or Santa Claus." Her lips curved upward. "That's a true miracle."
Derek smiled. "In that case, I wish I'd brought you a ring instead."
"Oh, that would have been entirely too forward, Mr. Pierce. Entirely."
He laughed as Carlie stood up, wrapping the afghan around her.
"Come help me hang her on the tree."
Derek came to his feet and took the delicate ornament from her as she clutched the afghan at her throat. They walked to the tree together, and Carlie bent down a branch as Derek fitted the loop of gold string around it.
The reflection of night's darkness shone in his eyes as he leaned in to kiss her. The snow had just started to fall, the miracle of white colored by the joyous, twinkling lights on Carlie's tree.
About the Author:
Cheryl Pierson is a native of Oklahoma. She lives in the Oklahoma City metro area with her husband. Her short stories have been published by Prairie Rose Publications, Western Fictioneers, Adams Media, Chicken Soup, and Western Trail Blazer (WTB). She has six novels to her credit, FIRE EYES, TIME PLAINS DRIFTER, THE HALF-BREED’S WOMAN, GABRIEL’S LAW and SWEET DANGER (PRP); and TEMPTATION’S TOUCH, (The Wild Rose Press).
Her novel, Fire Eyes, was an Epic Award Finalist. Cheryl received the PNR PEARL Awards Honorable Mention as Best New Paranormal Author of 2009 for her time-travel paranormal western Time Plains Drifter. She also placed third in the San Antonio Romance Authors (SARA) Merritt Contest with her novel, Gabriel's Law.
Writing is so much a part of her life that recently, she and long-time friend Livia Reasoner, opened a publishing house. PRAIRIE ROSE PUBLICATIONS furthers the western-themed writing offerings of women. www.prairierosepublications.com
Cheryl is the current President of the Western Fictioneers.
To learn more about Cheryl and her exciting books, visit her at www.cherylpiersonbooks.com/
You can e-mail her at [email protected]
Prairie Rose Publications
A Hero For Christmas by Cheryl Pierson -- A Western Short Collection
A four-story Western collection from award winning author, Cheryl Pierson
A Night for Miracles
Widow Angela Bentley takes in three children and a wounded gunman one snowy Christmas Eve. Angela determines to keep her distance—until the children drag in a scraggly Christmas tree. Will she find love on this, A NIGHT FOR MIRACLES?
Homecoming
A holiday skirmish sends Union officer, Jack Durham, on an unlikely mission for a dying Confederate enemy. Will a miracle be able to heal his heart and reunite him with his beloved?
Meant to Be
Robin Mal
lory is shocked when she is tackled by a man in a Confederate uniform. A flat tire and a coming snowstorm have stranded her in the middle of a re-enactment – or is it?
The Gunfighter's Girl
Persuaded by a vendor, Miguel Rivera ~ El Diablo ~ makes a foolish purchase—scarlet ribbons. Will they, and a mysterious meeting, set him on a new path? Can he find his way back to the love he left years before?
Outlaw's Kiss by Cheryl Pierson
Talia Delano has been humiliated before the entire town of Rock Creek by Jake Morgan. A known gunman, Jake has bid an outrageous sum for Talia’s “boxed supper”, a kiss, and the gift of her time for the rest of the Independence Day celebration. But, as always, Jake changes the rules and takes more than he should—especially with the whole town watching. Talia’s chance of happiness is dashed, along with her reputation, when Jake leaves Rock Creek suddenly.
When he shows up five months later at her farmhouse, wounded, and in the midst of a blinding snowstorm, she can’t turn him away—even though she knows being alone with him will cause tongues to wag once more. But with Christmas only two days away, how can she harden her heart against the handsome outlaw who has no place else to go—even if he is being trailed by someone just as dangerous? Magic and danger are woven together in the OUTLAW’S KISS.
Two Holiday Anthologies Coming Soon
www.prairierosepublications.com
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