This Holiday Magic

by Celeste O. Norfleet

  “We haven’t talked about what our personal lives have been like since we last saw each other,” Sage said. She sipped her coffee. “I want to know what you do when you’re not inventing clever cell phones.”

  Adam’s dark eyes were alight with humor as he regarded her.

  “You already know I like to run.”

  “Did you choose that route on purpose?” she asked. “Or is it a coincidence that it takes you past my office?”

  “Of course I did it on purpose,” Adam said truthfully. “You weren’t returning my calls. I wanted to stay on your mind.”

  “Well, it worked. I could hardly forget you when I saw you practically every day.”

  “What was going through your mind during my daily appearances?” He wanted to know.

  “You irritated me,” Sage confessed. “And yet, I couldn’t look away.”

  Adam laughed. “And all those times I’d see you in church and hope that I could have a word with you, only to find that you’d disappeared?”

  “I know every escape route in that church,” Sage said with a smile. “By the way, was joining my church another way to keep you in my thoughts?”

  “You were there,” Adam admitted. “So that’s where I had to be.”

  She gave him an askance look. “Religion’s interchangeable to you?”

  “That’s not it,” Adam explained. “I simply believe that we can find God in many places, and I could worship Him just as easily at your church. Besides, I like the sense of community your church exhibits.”

  “I do, too,” Sage said. “That’s one of the reasons I go to that church. They do a lot of good in the community.”

  “Then it’s all right with you if I continue going there?” Adam asked.

  “Of course, and I won’t avoid you anymore.”

  “Maybe we can even share a pew,” Adam quipped.

  “Now, don’t get crazy,” Sage joked back. “What else do you like to do besides run?”

  “I’m an avid reader. I like watching science-fiction movies and pointing out what’s real science in them and what’s fiction. I like video games.”

  “Your company makes games, too, right?”

  “We make educational videos so that kids can learn something while sitting in front of the TV.”

  “But those aren’t the kind you like playing?” Sage was guessing.

  “No, I’m pretty much addicted to games that deal with outer space.”

  “Do you want to go into space one day?”

  “I haven’t ruled it out.”

  “I heard that for the right amount of money, you can buy a spot on a Russian or Chinese spacecraft.”

  “I’m waiting until I can book a flight on an American ship,” Adam said.

  “I have no interest in going into space. I find the world is enough.” She picked up her coffee, drank the rest of it and set her cup back down. Then she asked suddenly, “I know you said you haven’t been in love with anyone since you and I broke up, but has anyone come close?”

  “I thought so at first, but turns out she wasn’t the woman for me.”

  Sage’s brows arched with interest. “What happened?”

  “I caught her rifling through the dresser drawers in my bedroom.”

  “Maybe she was looking for a T-shirt to put on,” Sage said.

  Adam shook his head. “She was looking for valuables.” He met her eyes. “It hasn’t been easy for me to trust anyone, Sage. These can be desperate times. You have people at the top who’re making all the money, and a lot of people at the bottom who’re just getting by. The system isn’t equitable. That’s what my company’s foundation is working on, making society more equitable. Until everyone’s needs are taken care of, you’re going to have desperate people in the world who’re willing to do anything to survive.”

  “What did you do about the woman you caught going through your dresser?”

  “We sat and talked, and I learned she’d lost her husband and had a two-year-old son. She apologized for attempting to steal from me, but she was getting ready to be kicked out of her apartment. So I paid her rent and got her in a job-training program with the company, and she’s doing well now.”

  “But you stopped dating.”

  “Yes, because we were dating for the wrong reasons. I was dating her because I was lonely and she was beautiful. She was dating me because I’m Adam Benson.”

  “I suppose it is hard for you to find a woman who wants to be with you simply for you and not for your money.”

  “Yeah,” Adam said, sounding resigned to the fact. “I’ve learned to live with it. How about you, Sage? Have you been in love since we last met?”

  Sage sighed. “I’ve dated some very nice men, but none I felt strongly enough about to take the relationship beyond just going out and having a good time. At first I blamed you—you’d broken my heart, and I wasn’t about to let another man put me through that again. But then I realized I was being foolish. We were so young when we broke up. I couldn’t continue to blame our failed relationship on the fact that I avoided commitment. If I was ever to meet a good man and fall in love and have his babies, I needed to put aside the past.”

  “What year did you come to this realization?” Adam asked, a smile tugging at the corners of his generous mouth.

  “Last year,” Sage said, laughing. “I know—I’m pitiful. My mom reminds me that I’m years behind schedule when it comes to making her a grandmother.”

  “I get the same from my mother,” Adam confided. “When I told her I still had feelings for you, she was deliriously happy.”

  “You told Miss Millie you still cared for me?” Sage said, shocked.

  “I’ve always been able to talk to my mother about anything,” Adam said. “It’s my dad I find hard to talk to.”

  “It’s his generation,” Sage said. “Give him a break. My dad doesn’t handle emotional topics well, either. Back to your sharing how you felt with your mom—don’t you think you’re getting her hopes up? According to my mom, our breaking up was a tragedy for both of them. You know how they are. They’re going to start planning the wedding, and we’re just trying to get to know each other again.”

  Adam nodded in agreement. He looked deep in her eyes. “I know, but what can we do? Mothers want their children to be happy. I’ve been productive. I’ve been successful, but I haven’t been happy without you, Sage. You haven’t been out of my mind since the day we broke up. I always carried you with me in my heart.” He grasped her hand in his across the tiny round table.

  Sage was looking at him, tears glistening in her eyes. “I, on the other hand, did everything in my power to forget you. I dated men who I thought were direct opposites of you. I went through a ‘bad boy’ phase, which didn’t last long because who can put up with that nonsense when they’ve had true love? True love,” she repeated. “Adam, do you think that’s what we had, or are we romanticizing everything?”

  “You tell me,” Adam said. “When we kiss now, how do you feel?”

  “Like I’m high on some very good stimulants,” she said, grinning. “Better than I’ve ever felt with anyone else... Like I could die happy.”

  “Like it’s the most natural thing in the world,” Adam said, affectionately squeezing her hand. “I do get the powerful drug analogy, because I am definitely addicted to you, your smell, your taste, how you feel in my arms. In some ways I’m glad we never made love. I don’t know if we would have appreciated it as much back then as we would now. I know we haven’t waited for each other, but I believe if we do eventually make love, it’ll feel like it’s the first time for both of us.”

  Sage wiped her tears away with a napkin and smiled up at him.

  “Even your rap has improved over the years,” she teased.

  Adam laughed. “Did I scor
e points?”

  “Lots of points,” Sage conceded.

  “Am I on the way to making you mine by Christmas?” His dark eyes danced with laughter as he awaited her answer.

  Sage laughed. “You’re definitely playing to win.”

  But she wasn’t ready to concede yet.

  * * *

  That night she and Adam met his best friends, Ethan and Trudi Strauss, at Steirereck, which Adam said was the birthplace of New Viennese cuisine.

  Sage wore a black lace, sleeveless silk dress that showed a bit of cleavage, but not too much, with the hem falling a couple of inches above her knees. Black suede strappy sandals and a matching clutch complemented the dress nicely. A classy, ebony-hued thermal-lined evening wrap kept her warm in the chilly December night air.

  Adam helped her out of the car when Franz pulled up to the restaurant. Sage stepped out. She was pleased to see that Adam could not help feasting his eyes on her legs as she exited the car.

  Sage smiled up at him. He cut a handsome figure in his black suit and white silk shirt. She saw that he had opted to keep the beard he’d been growing for several days now, although he’d neatened it up a bit. She wondered if he’d done that because she’d told him she liked how he looked with a day’s growth.

  “Enjoy your evening,” Franz said as he closed the car door.

  “Thank you,” Adam returned. “I’ll phone you when we’re ready to leave.”

  “Very good, sir,” Franz answered, then got behind the wheel and sped off.

  The restaurant’s doorman held the door for them and murmured, “Guten abend.”

  “Guten abend,” Adam replied.

  Sage preceded him into the large restaurant. The decor reminded her of their hotel. There was a lot of ornamentation, from the crown molding to the dining-room chairs with seats upholstered in a brocade fabric of predominantly red and gold colors. The floor was highly polished hardwood, and the ceilings were exceedingly high. The crystal chandelier in the main dining room lent a touch of elegance and illuminated an otherwise dim room full of white-clothed, candlelit tables.

  The waiter, a young man in a short white jacket and black slacks, welcomed them and showed them to a table in the restaurant’s winter garden, which was a conservatory filled with lush greenery adjacent to an outside wall. There were fewer tables in this area, which afforded them more privacy.

  When they walked into the conservatory, a male voice cried, “There you are, at last!”

  A powerfully built man in a dark gray suit came forward and hugged Adam. Behind him was a lovely willowy woman in a red dress. She and Sage smiled and shook hands.

  “Don’t mind them,” Trudi Strauss said confidentially to Sage. “They haven’t seen each other in months. Their bromance has suffered greatly.”

  “Hello, Trudi,” Sage said, laughing softly at her sense of humor. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “The pleasure’s all mine,” said Trudi, who was about Sage’s height, but thinner. She wore her auburn hair long and sleek down her back. And her skin was a dark copper tone.

  Adam waited for a pause in the women’s conversation, then said to Ethan with a note of pride, “Ethan, I want you to meet my dear friend Sage Andrews.”

  Ethan embraced Sage. She could feel his muscles through his suit as he hugged her tightly. “We finally meet,” he said enthusiastically after he released her. “Adam’s told me so much about you.”

  Sage returned his smile and said, “It’s good to meet you, Ethan. And please take everything Adam says about me with a grain of salt. He’s much too generous with his compliments.”

  Ethan grinned. He had thick, curly blond hair that he wore a bit too long, and his eyes were dark blue. He wasn’t much taller than his wife. But his utter masculinity made up for his lack of height.

  “He didn’t exaggerate when he said you were lovely,” Ethan told her. “And I’m sure he didn’t embellish anything else about you, either.”

  The waiter, who had been standing silently to the side while they greeted one another, now gestured to the table. “Please, have a seat,” he said.

  The ladies were helped with their chairs and the men seated themselves. The waiter presented them with menus and then said, “I’ll give you a few minutes to decide.”

  After the waiter had gone, Adam looked expectantly at Ethan and Trudi. “How are the kids?”

  Sage’s ears perked up. She loved children.

  “They’re all doing well,” Ethan said. “They miss their godfather.”

  “I miss them, too,” Adam said.

  “We have three kids,” Trudi said, turning to smile at Sage. “Ethan Junior, seven. Evan, five. And Tara, four—who, by the way, is aptly named because she’s a little terror.”

  “Don’t say that about my precious little girl,” Ethan said, smiling. “She’s just energetic. She’s so brilliant, she gets bored easily.”

  “She tried to shave Boo Bear,” Trudi deadpanned. She regarded Sage. “Boo Bear is the kids’ black Lab puppy. I got there just in time. Otherwise he would have been scalped.”

  Sage couldn’t help laughing. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  The others were laughing, too. “No need to apologize. That was just another day in the Strauss household,” said Trudi. “The thing is, Sage, I was under the impression that little girls didn’t get into as much mischief as boys. But my boys are saints compared to Tara. I don’t know where I went wrong with her.”

  “I’m sure there’s nothing you did that makes Tara act out,” Sage said encouragingly. “I was a handful when I was that age, too. In fact, I had so much energy, my mom signed me up for every group she could find to keep me occupied and out of her hair.”

  “What age were you when you stopped acting out?” Trudi asked. “I’m about ready to have Tara tested for attention deficit disorder or something.”

  “I was six when I discovered horses and started concentrating on them, and everything else kind of fell in line. I became more disciplined. I had something on which to focus my energy.”

  “That could help,” said Trudi. “She likes animals.” She turned to Ethan. “You used to ride, didn’t you?”

  “It’s been years,” Ethan said. “But I did enjoy it. We’ll look into it when we get back home.” He regarded Sage. “Do you still ride?”

  “Does she still ride?” Adam spoke up, and before Sage could prevent him, he whipped out his cell phone and showed Ethan and Trudi the video of Sage astride Alexi.

  Sage observed Ethan and Trudi as they watched the video together with smiles on their faces.

  “I’m jealous,” Ethan said, grinning. “I always dreamed of riding a Lipizzaner.” He looked up at Sage. “How was it?”

  Sage grinned, too. “It was awesome!”

  “How did this happen?” Trudi asked. “I’ve never heard of anyone riding a Lipizzaner except their trained riders.”

  She was looking at Sage, but Sage had no idea what Adam had done to make her dream come true.

  “I had nothing to do with it,” she said honestly, turning her gaze on Adam.

  “You must have moved heaven and earth,” Trudi said.

  “I just asked nicely,” Adam said modestly.

  To which Ethan and Trudi laughed. Sage laughed, too, but what Trudi had said about his having moved heaven and earth made her think about what Jim had said about Adam being a rich and powerful man.

  Was there anything Adam couldn’t do? The thought kind of gave her chills.

  Chapter 8

  The next day was the first day of the summit. Adam had made sure that Sage had full access to any of the seminars she wanted to attend. However, there were exclusive meetings that only Adam and Ethan were invited to. Therefore, Sage and Trudi decided to team up and sample what the summit had to off
er to someone who was not a trained scientist or a techie.

  They had just sat through a two-hour seminar on the environment and were exiting the conference room, along with two hundred other attendees, when Trudi pulled Sage aside and said, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to sit through another dry lecture. Let’s ditch this place until the keynote address at two, okay?”

  Sage was in total agreement. She glanced at her watch. It was only 11:00 a.m. “Sounds good to me,” she told Trudi. “I’ve been dying to try a Sacher torte.”

  “I know just the bakery,” Trudi promised with a grin.

  So they left the Hofburg Congress Center, formerly the winter palace of Emperor Franz Joseph I, and hailed a cab.

  “Demel,” Trudi instructed the driver.

  A few minutes later they were sitting at an outside table, eating small spoonfuls of the rich chocolate torte, which was Demel’s house specialty. The coffee served with it was black, thick, heady and the perfect complement to the torte.

  “You know,” said Trudi, smiling at Sage over her coffee cup, “I’ve never seen Adam look at anyone the way he looks at you.”

  Sage blushed and Trudi laughed softly. “I take it from the expression on your face that you’ve noticed.”

  “Trudi, we’ve just met, but I’m going to ask you to keep this between you and me.”

  Sage met Trudi’s eyes. After a moment Trudi nodded and said, “All right, this is between the two of us. I won’t even say anything to Ethan.”

  Sage sighed gratefully. “Until a year ago, Adam and I hadn’t spoken to each other in about nine years. I hadn’t said a word to him since I was nineteen, when he broke up with me. Now...well, we both know we never stopped caring for each other. But where it goes from here, I don’t know. I felt like I knew the old Adam, but the new Adam kind of intimidates me.”

  Trudi was listening closely, her dark brown eyes sympathetic. After Sage finished talking, Trudi laughed softly and said, “Honey, is that all? I thought you were going to say you didn’t want him or something else equally absurd. Who isn’t intimidated by men like Adam and Ethan? They’re uncommon, one in a billion. Something would be wrong with you if you weren’t a bit intimidated by them.