It was the moment Elena pestered her about when Noel was coming back and why he’d left without eating.
When Hollie explained that he’d only come by to say goodbye before he left on his vacation, Elena asked permission to open the present he’d left for her.
To defuse the situation, Sarah had agreed that Elena could open her present from Noel.
Hollie almost began crying again when she saw what the gift was. Somewhere he had managed to find a set of stack rings small enough for a child’s finger. Elena was so excited she danced around showing everyone her jewels.
Right after that Hollie took her leave.
Setting up milk and cookies for Santa was something Rick and Sarah could share. She didn’t belong.
For the first time Hollie felt really alone, even though she’d been alone all her life.
She didn’t even bother to turn on her Christmas lights when she got home. Darkness welcomed her and she embraced it.
CLAUDIA CLAUS RUBBED her temples.
She had made a mess of things. She thought she’d read the manual that came with Santa’s laptop, but somewhere along the line she must have done something wrong. After all, Santa used the computer to make children’s Christmas dreams come true. All he did was type the wish into the computer and it was a done deal.
Perhaps she shouldn’t have interfered in Hollie’s life.
She had made Hollie miserable. She’d been so sure that Noel was the right one for her. Had been so sure that they were soul mates.
Both deserved their share of happiness.
Santa was not going to be happy with her when he found out she’d taken the special laptop and made a mess of things. She couldn’t go back to the North Pole for Christmas having failed at her first project.
What had gone wrong? She’d spent years reading romance novels and dearly loved a happy ending.
Totally believed in them.
She should have started out smaller, worked on a first crush, an infatuation or something like that. It would have been like using training wheels to learn how to ride a bike.
True love was the big one and she was an amateur. Santa made it all look so easy, making everyone happy.
She’d found out it was easy to make someone cry.
Making them laugh—now that was the hard ticket. But she would do it. She still had time to make true love happen before Christmas was over.
She reread the manual.
And realized she’d forgotten to press Save.
She pressed the button to save Hollie’s Christmas.
Meanwhile, back at the North Pole…
“TIME TO GO, Santa,” Terrell said, checking his watch.
“I suppose.” Santa sighed, taking his red suit from the head elf.
When he was all dressed, down to his polished black boots, Terrell walked with Santa out to the sleigh, where the reindeer were stamping impatiently, excited to begin their long flight. They’d made bets as usual about the length of time it would take them to make the trip.
Prancer never won, but he always came back with the fullest tummy. He had a nose for sniffing out who put a bunch of fresh carrots on their doorstep for the reindeer.
When Santa was settled into his sleigh and the sacks of toys were secured—the magic, bottomless sacks—Terrell took a piece of paper from his pocket. “This is for you, Santa,” he said, handing it over.
“What is it—another name to add to the list of toy deliveries?”
“No, it’s where Mrs. Claus is staying.”
“You found her!”
Terrell nodded. “And, sir, there’s a picnic basket in the back with a romantic dinner for two. I thought you might want to have a late-night snack with your wife….”
10
December 25
HOLLIE WAS DISAPPOINTED in herself when she woke up Christmas morning with raccoon eyes, having gone to bed and cried herself to sleep.
She shoved the covers off and went to take a shower, having had enough of feeling sorry for herself. It was self-indulgent and she was having none of it. She was taking her holiday back. Putting the Merry back in Christmas. Taking control.
Noel might have discombobulated her and derailed her and swept her off her feet and crashed her over a romantic cliff, but she was a survivor.
It was a day for fresh starts, believing in miracles and loving someone, even if it was only yourself.
After a breakfast of angel cookies and hot chocolate, she went out to get her mail, which she’d forgotten yesterday.
When she reached the mailbox, she found that it contained a surprise. Someone had left her a posy. A completely charming gesture. The arrangement was made up of apricot tulips, veronica, bouvardia and hypericum, and at this time of year had to have cost the earth.
Enchanted, she pulled the arrangement from the mailbox. Holding it where it was tied with a big red bow, she plucked the small white card and read: Merry Christmas.
The flowers hadn’t been left that long ago. They weren’t wilted from the cold. She looked around to see if a car was parked nearby, but there was none. Whoever had left them was gone.
And then she dropped the card, and when it fluttered to the ground it landed facedown. On the back Noel had scrawled his name.
He’d just been here.
She’d just missed him.
Why couldn’t Ms. Claudia have left well enough alone? Why did she have to bring her a six-foot-one-inch grinch to break her heart?
She wouldn’t think about him.
She wouldn’t.
Once inside, she almost tossed the posy in the trash, but at the last second popped it in a small vase of water, instead.
It dawned on her suddenly what the fresh flowers meant.
Noel hadn’t gone to the Caribbean with Marcy. Hadn’t gone to the islands at all.
What did that mean?
She pushed the doubts from her mind, turned on the stereo system and put on her favorite CD of carols.
Then she lost herself in work, cleaning out her briefcase. When she had all her paperwork neat and tidy, she realized that her key was missing once again.
But this time it couldn’t be Elena who’d lifted it. She must have left it at the house Noel had bought on Mistletoe Lane. It was the last time she remembered having it.
The owners would be back in the morning, so she needed to go to the house and hope she’d left something unlocked so she could retrieve the key.
She wanted to get out of the house anyway. There were too many memories of Noel being in her home. So she got dressed in warmer clothes and headed out.
Christmas was the quietest day of the year.
The streets were deserted as she drove to the house. She thought of Elena and wondered if she’d liked her Barbie in pink. She’d have to call her when she got home and share the excitement of Christmas morning with her over the phone.
Noel’s luxury car parked outside the house when she pulled up the drive was a surprise.
She must have left the key with him.
Her first instinct was to leave. But she couldn’t leave because she had to retrieve the key. So she got out of her car and walked up to the house.
She tried the door before knocking. It was open.
Should she go in? Maybe Noel was here with Marcy. Maybe he was showing her around the house he’d bought for her. She didn’t know if she could handle seeing that.
But she needed the key. So she opened the door and went inside.
“Is anyone here?” she called out.
No answer.
It was very quiet in the house. Maybe he was looking around outside. She twisted her hands together nervously.
She could do this, she promised herself.
Taking a deep breath, she headed for the kitchen, which was the most likely place Noel would have set down the key. However, she didn’t make it to the kitchen.
Instead she stopped in her tracks when she saw No
el sitting on the floor in front of the empty fireplace. He was staring at the diamond ring he held in his fingers.
She cleared her throat. “I came for the key,” she said.
He looked up in surprise. “It’s on the kitchen counter.” He nodded toward the kitchen, which adjoined the dining room.
“What do you do, buy a woman an engagement ring every Christmas? Is that how you get your kicks?” she couldn’t resist accusing.
“No, not this year. I told you this is last year’s ring. I told Marcy to keep it, but when it became clear to her that I wasn’t interested in having her back, she threw it at me and left.”
“I see.” Could he be telling her the truth? She wanted desperately to believe him. Finding Marcy half-undressed in his room had been a shock, a terrible blow to her self-confidence.
“Did you know I bought this house for you?” he asked, searching her face for some sign that he hadn’t been wrong about them.
“What?”
“That was why I wanted to know, wanted to be sure you loved it. I wanted us to be happy in it. As happy as you are in the little house you now have. I wanted us to raise a family in it. You see, Hollie, I realized when I saw your house that I wasn’t looking for a house at all.” He hesitated. “I was looking for a home.”
And she was crying again. “Oh, No-oel—”
He got to his feet then and gathered her in his arms.
“Oh, Hollie. I thought I was done taking risks in my personal life. But once I met you I didn’t have any choice. It was as if someone picked you out for me personally. Someone who knew who my fantasy soul mate was.”
Hollie let Noel wipe her tears away with the pads of his thumbs as he vowed, “I want you. I need you. I love you, Hollie. Please put your magic in my life. I didn’t know how alone I could feel until I thought I was losing you. We belong together, Hollie. Like apple pie and ice cream, like Hootie and the Blowfish, like Christmas and Santa Claus.”
She smiled at the last. “There’s never any mistletoe when you need it,” she sniffed.
“Hell, we’re on Mistletoe Lane, sweetheart,” Noel said, laying on a kiss that made Ms. Claudia sigh.
Happy endings were the best.
Meanwhile, back at the North Pole…
“I’VE MISSED YOU terribly,” Santa said, caressing Claudia’s cheek.
“You mean you weren’t too busy to notice I was gone?”
“You’re my wife. How could you think I wouldn’t miss you?” Santa asked, hugging her.
“Oh, my, is it me, or have you lost weight?” Claudia asked.
“I’ve been pining away for you.”
“Then you didn’t find where I hid the Christmas cookies….” Claudia Claus chuckled. She got up and promised to be right back with a surprise for him.
When she returned she had a big tin of homemade Christmas cookies and a six-pack of micro brewery beer.
“Where did you get than?” Santa asked when she sat back down beside him in front of the fire.
She handed him a cold bottle of “Santa’s Suds,” as the label on the long-necked beer bottle said, and took one for herself. “I had the beer made special for you at a small brewery in St. Louis. And the cookies were hidden in the box the treadmill came in. If you had set it up to use, as you promised, you would have found them.”
Santa clinked his glass to Claudia’s and toasted with a twinkle in his eye, “To my wife, I promise to set up the treadmill and never to take you for granted again.”
“And to use the treadmill,” Claudia added, as they both took a sip.
“Now I have a present for you,” Santa said, slipping a small package from his pocket.
“What is it?” Claudia cried in delight.
“Open it and find out.”
She unwrapped the package with a speed that rivaled Elena’s. “Oh, Santa! It’s beautiful.”
“There’s going to be a tennis court to go with it. That way we can exercise together.”
“And have a love match,” Claudia said with a sigh.
“Ho, ho, ho.”
11
February 14
“BUT THE STORES are closed,” Hollie said as Noel pulled into the parking lot of the posh mall where the new store he was opening was located.
“I know,” Noel replied as they sat there outside the south end of the mall, the engine of his luxury car purring. “But I have a key to the store.”
“You mean you have to work? I thought we were going to celebrate Valentine’s Day.” There was a hint of a sulk in her voice.
“I’m not working. Everything is ready for tomorrow’s grand opening. But before the store opens in the morning, I thought the two of us could celebrate my favorite holiday here with plenty of privacy.”
“Not an easy thing to find at ten-thirty on a Friday night, I agree,” Hollie said, warming to the idea.
“Well, you were the one who had to work late writing up a contract for a client. Tonight was one of my early nights. But that was okay, because it gave me time to set this up.”
“Set what up?”
“You’ll see.”
Hollie was giddy with excitement as Noel escorted her into the closed mall. There was something sexy and exciting about their clandestine entry into the upscale department store he was opening. He had overseen every detail of the store until it was perfect.
“Come on,” he said, tugging her along when she would have lingered to look at every little thing. She and Sarah had been more likely to haunt flea markets and tag sales than do posh shopping. The only big purchase she’d made recently was the new car she’d bought using the commission check as a down payment.
Noel had been introducing her to a whole new world since they’d begun dating at Christmas. A world she’d known existed, of course, but one she’d not really had access to. It was sort of like a fairy tale. One with a happy ending. Noel had been talking about marriage, and although they were both scared, they were in love.
“You really did set this up,” Hollie said when they stopped at the fine jewelry counter and a bottle of chilled champagne and two glasses were set out on a tray, waiting for them.
“I told you it was my favorite holiday,” Noel said. The store was decorated with splashes of red to draw the eye to special displays and offers for the grand opening.
He went behind the counter and played host, pouring champagne into the two glasses after a showy pop of the cork and the bubbly flow of champagne, which he’d caught with a towel.
“To us,” he said, offering her a glass.
She giggled at the bubbles that tickled her nose when she took a sip.
“Remember what happened the last time we had champagne,” she warned.
“I was hoping you did. Only this time I’ve locked up all the curling irons,” he teased.
“Noel!”
“It’s okay. I’m as good as new, no permanent damage done. The doctor gave me the Α-OK yesterday.”
“Good news,” she toasted.
“See anything you like?” he asked, grinning.
She leaned over the counter and pulled him toward her with his tie. “Yeah, sweetie, you.”
“I meant in a solitaire….”
“Oh—” She paused in her lean to kiss him, then looked down at the case. “You mean?”
“You are going to make an honest man of me, aren’t you?”
She let go of his tie and gave the case of diamond engagement rings some serious consideration.
“Pick any one you want,” he said.
“For tonight or to keep?” she asked, gazing up at him to see his true intention.
“If I give you an engagement ring, I mean for you never to take it off.” She trusted the love she saw in his eyes.
Returning her attention to the rings, she pointed to a square-cut stone in a simple setting. He took it out and slipped it on her finger.
“It fits,” she squealed with delight.
“Now, take your time, make sure. You can try on other rings.”
“Not me,” she assured him. “When something fits, I know it. This is the one.”
“Come on,” he said, grabbing her hand.
“Where to?”
“You’ll see.” He took her over to the escalator and they went upstairs to the bridal department.
“You don’t expect me to pick out a wedding dress tonight, do you?”
“No. I have a surprise for you.
“Sit down here,” he instructed, indicating a plush ottoman. “Close your eyes and I’ll be right back with it.”
As she sat there with her eyes closed, she wondered what Noel was up to. The past weeks had shown her that he was a true romantic beneath his dark, brooding looks.
“Keep your eyes closed,” he said when he returned with her surprise.
She heard him kneel before her. Then heard the rustle of tissue as he opened a box.
“What is it?” she coaxed.
“Just put your foot here on my knee,” he instructed, lifting it there. He then slipped off her pump and gently massaged her foot a moment.
“My surprise is a foot massage?” she guessed. “Not that I’m complaining—don’t stop.”
But he did stop to slip on another shoe.
“You can open your eyes now.”
When she did, tears formed in the corners of her eyes. “They’re beautiful,” she sniffed, staring at the wedding shoes he’d had made especially for her. They were white brocade, elaborately adorned with pearl beading and Austrian crystals.
“So you like them, then?”
“Like them? I love them. I’m going to have to keep them under lock and key when Elena comes over. They look like shoes made for a princess.”
“They were made for a princess,” he said, slipping the other shoe on. “While I’m on bended knee, there’s something I want to ask you. Will you marry me, Hollie, and make all my Christmases merry?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you, Noel. You may kiss your fiancée.”
He rose then from his kneeling position and made her very happy she’d said yes with a kiss fit for a princess wearing slippers that fit to perfection.
The 6'1 Grinch Page 13