by Unknown
“I think this is my favorite display. It’s so cool how you made them move and yet look so lifelike.” Jessica grinned. “Especially considering they’re, well, cookies.”
He chuckled. “Let me show you something.” He led her around to the back of the display to expose the family’s secrets. Wires, computer chips, animatronics, tucked into hollow bellies and mindless dummies. “It’s all fake. None of it’s real. I build these things. Create imaginary worlds. And yes, they’re amazing, but they’re nowhere as amazing as the world I found here. In Riverbend.” He looked around the park, as far as he could see. “This is real. You are real and genuine. What I had in California, that world, is as fake as these gingerbread people, and when I met you, for the first time I found something that made me get honest with myself. Scared the pants off me, but eventually I came around.”
“And because of that, you want to stay here, with the snow and the cold?”
“I’d stay in Alaska or Mexico or anywhere, as long as you were there, for one simple reason.” He captured her face in his palms and met her emerald gaze with his own. “I love you, Jessica. And it may sound crazy, but I fell in love with you over the mayonnaise.”
“And here I thought it was my wheat bread,” she said, then snuggled into his embrace. She fit perfectly, and he held her tight, dreaming of a future he’d never thought a man like him could have. “I love you, too, C.J.”
His world had come full circle. A week ago C.J. had been a man adrift, alone. Now he was a father, and a man with a future. A home. He could dream of a front porch, a dinner waiting for him on the table, someone greeting him—no, now two some-ones—at the end of the day. His eyes stung, and he held Jessica even tighter, wondering if even she knew how incredibly blessed he felt right now.
The town hall clock struck midnight, one gong after another announcing the arrival of Christmas Day. “We better get home,” he said. “Because it’s Christmas, and I believe there’s one more tree left to decorate.”
“On one condition,” she said, taking his hand and joining him as they left the park. “That you and Sarah spend Christmas at my house. I believe we still need to give her an incredible Christmas.”
“Done. I still haven’t mastered the cooking thing yet, and I could use a little help in the kitchen.”
She laughed. “Well, we have a problem there. Because my choices are still tuna or—”
“Tuna,” he finished, joining her laughter. “I’ll bring some stuff from my cupboards, which are admittedly pretty lean, too, but at least I have ham and cheese.” As they reached the edge of the park, he turned back and gave the Winterfest one more look. It was missing…something. “Next year, how about if we add fireworks?”
“It’s always going to be about going bigger and better with you, C. J. Hamilton, isn’t it?”
C.J. returned his gaze to the woman he loved and realized in one area of his life, he already had perfection. “Only when it comes to Christmas.”
Then he kissed Mrs. Claus, with a whisper about the plans Santa had for the year to come, plans that were just for the two of them. From somewhere at the back of the park, Dash stomped his hoof in indignation about not being included.
EPILOGUE
“A UNICORN with a Santa hat!” Sarah clutched the stuffed toy to her chest and beamed. “It’s perfect, Daddy and Jessica! I love it!”
C.J. laughed, accepted his hundredth hug of the morning, then watched as his daughter ran and gave Jessica the same. He could get used to this, very easily.
After leaving the town park, C.J. and Jessica had stopped by her store to load up on even more toys and gifts for Sarah, knowing they were spoiling the girl, but laughing and enjoying it, anyway. Then C.J. had managed to carry a sleeping Sarah over to Jessica’s house and sneak her into the guest bedroom. When she’d awoken Christmas morning, he’d told her Santa had whisked her off to Jessica’s, which had duly impressed the six-year-old.
Now Jessica’s living room was littered with wrapping paper. Sarah was surrounded by a sea of presents, most of them from C.J. and Jessica, a few of the bigger ones from Santa himself. The little girl hurried from one toy to the other, playing with each for a few seconds before moving on to the next, exclaiming over and over again that this one was her new favorite.
“I think we might have gone overboard,” Jessica said, joining C.J. where he stood by the Christmas tree and handing him a much-needed cup of coffee. He loved the way she looked in her candy-cane-printed flannel pajamas, and knew someday soon, he’d find out how she looked under them.
“Maybe we should scale it back next year.” He grinned, watching Sarah’s delight. “Maybe.”
“I’m glad I decided to keep the shop after all. I think I’m going to need to increase my inventory just to keep up with your ideas, Mr. Hamilton.”
He chuckled. “Don’t worry. Once I get my construction business running out here, I’ll be able to fund my own toy workshop. And I’ll build ’em—”
“Bigger and better.” They both laughed.
“Speaking of bigger and better,” C.J. said. “Or rather, just right.” He reached into the tree and pulled out the present he’d hidden there last night. He’d had it ever since he’d left Ohio, when he’d made up his mind that he wouldn’t lose Jessica, even if he had to track her down in Florida.
Earlier this morning, he’d given Jessica a pair of gloves, but that hadn’t been the real gift. This one he’d held back, not sure of her answer, but knowing that he couldn’t wait another second to ask.
Jessica turned and when she did, she saw the small velvet box and gasped. “C.J.—”
“I know we’ve only known each other for a few days. But I’ve waited all my life to find someone to love, someone who would love me, too. And I don’t want to wait anymore.” He pulled back the lid, revealing a trio of round diamonds, nestled close together. “I bought this because it’s like holly berries—”
“And old legends say that the holly was the masculine plant, using its thorns to protect the lady.” She smiled in wonderment, then reached out a finger and traced the design he’d carved into the band. “The ivy symbolized the woman because it embraced everything it touched.”
“That’s what you did for me, Jessica. You embraced me and you made me feel like I’d come home.” He took the ring out of the box, held it over her left hand, hoping that he hadn’t gone too far, moved too fast, done something insane. “Will you marry me?”
Beside them, Sarah went on playing, completely unaware of the life-changing events happening on the other side of the sofa. C.J.’s heart stopped beating, his breath lodged in his throat.
Jessica’s emerald gaze met his, and before she even opened her mouth, he knew her answer. “Yes, C.J. I’ll marry you.”
He slid the ring onto her finger, the holly and the ivy entwining along the gold band, then leaned forward and kissed her. A sweet kiss, nothing like what he really wanted to give her, because Sarah was a few feet away. Later, there would be time. Plenty of time.
“I have a present for you, too,” she said, blushing a little. “You didn’t exactly give me a lot of time to shop, so it’s not much, but—” Jessica bent down, then withdrew a gift from beneath the tree and handed it to C.J.
“Hmmm…socks? A tie?”
“Stop kidding and just open it.” Her ring sparkled in the overhead light, but her smile held a higher wattage.
C.J. grinned, then did as she said and unwrapped the long, skinny box and pulled off the cover. Inside was a Christmas stocking made of red velvet, topped with white, with his name written across the top in twisted gold rope. “A stocking?”
Jessica reached out a hand, then drew C.J. over to the fireplace. Together they hung the stocking on a hook jutting from the mantel, nestling it between Jessica’s and Sarah’s. He was part of the family now, a permanent part.
Then she turned to him, and in her smile C.J. saw the home he’d sought all his life. “This way,” Jessica said, “Santa will always find y
ou.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-0833-3
MIRACLE ON CHRISTMAS EVE
First North American Publication 2007.
Copyright © 2007 by Shirley Kawa-Jump, LLC.
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