With the lights from the tree twinkling behind them and the sudden rise of applause coming from the hallway next to them, Nick and Chrissy shared a kiss under the mistletoe, wrapped in each other’s arms and lost in one another’s affection.
“It’s about time!” Chrissy heard Tucker shout, followed by a whoop of laughter. Chrissy slid out of Nick’s embrace and looked toward her friends.
“I knew you two were always meant to end up together,” Doris piped up. “I just knew it.”
“All you needed was a little help to find what was right there all along,” Everleigh said, her words calling back to the day in the candle shop. “And I, for one, was happy to be of help.”
“Me too,” said Kevin, stepping around the crowd gathered in the hall. He walked over and placed a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “You’ve got a keeper there, brother. Don’t do anything to mess this up a second time around.”
“You know I won’t,” Nick said, his eyes never leaving Chrissy’s. “Not a chance.”
Over the next half hour, the guests began to filter out, each acknowledging how happy they were for Chrissy and Nick and their renewed chance at love. Her father was the last to leave, and he held Chrissy in his arms just a bit longer than usual.
“You both have always had—and will always have—my blessing,” he said to Chrissy and Nick who stood hand in hand in the foyer. “A second chance at building a life together is a precious gift.”
“Don’t I know it,” Chrissy said, squeezing Nick’s hand. “I won’t take it for granted, Dad.”
“Oh!” Sandra, who had already walked out the front door and was waiting on the porch, suddenly twirled around like a spinning top. She dug frantically within her purse and then, once finding what she was looking for, handed a piece of paper to Chrissy. “I think this is for you. I’ve been meaning to give it to you for some time now, but kept forgetting.”
“What is it?”
“You know that wreath you won? It was left on the front door of the community center on the day of the auction. I just figured it was from someone who didn’t get theirs turned in in time. And this was the note that was tucked into it. I think it might help explain how one simple wreath turned our little town of Heirloom Point into a community of merry matchmakers.”
Chrissy waited until Sandra and her father left before opening the note. She closed the door and turned to face Nick, her eyes alight with intrigue and wonder.
“Should we read it?”
“Is that a real question?” Nick’s chin pulled back. “Absolutely!”
Sliding her finger in between the pages, Chrissy flipped it open. Her breath instantly caught when she saw the exquisite calligraphy and read the following words:
It started as an unspoken wish many years ago
And took nearly a decade to grow.
But this magical wreath is where the new story begins
Where two past loves find their way back again.
They might need some encouragement as the days go by
to remember their past and give love another try.
“Do you know who wrote this?” Nick pulled the note from her hands and examined it as though looking for some sign of authorship.
“I think I just might,” Chrissy said. “Someone told me today, in fact, that you’re never too old for a Christmas wish. I think this note and my wreath just might finally convince me of that truth.”
“Do you happen to know the wish it’s referring to?”
“I do.” Chrissy placed a quick kiss on Nick’s lips before saying, “But if I tell you it, then it might not come true. And I, for one, really want this wish to come true.”
Leaning in for another kiss that was deeper and more heartfelt than the last, Nick pulled back only briefly to say, “If it involves getting to spend the rest of my life here in Heirloom Point with you, then you’re free to keep that wish to yourself. Just know that I’ll be wishing it right along with you.”
Epilogue
Nick and Chrissy
“YOU’LL FEEL A little wobbly at first, but don’t be scared. I’ll be holding onto you the whole time. I won’t let go until you’re ready.”
“Like when you taught me how to ride my bike?”
“Just like when I taught you how to ride your bike.”
The weather was ideal for the first week of December. Not a cloud in the sky, only a refreshing chill that made heavy jackets and scarves a necessity. It wasn’t quite the same as his hockey gear, but it provided a similar, comforting indicator of the changing of seasons.
Glancing toward the edge of the frozen pond where Chrissy sat on a fallen log, Nick caught sight of her in a puffy, thick jacket with their son bundled close to her chest. She pulled the knit beanie down over the toddler’s ears and called out across the ice, “You’re going to do great, Audrey. Daddy’s the best ice skater I know. You have the perfect teacher.”
“Daddy’s the best everything!” Audrey hollered proudly, her words whistling through her gapped grin.
“Yes, he is.” Chrissy gave her husband a smile that, even after six years of marriage, still caused his heart to flutter.
Nick looked down at his other favorite girl with that same sense of awe, excited for today’s milestone. He took Audrey’s small, mitten-covered hand into his. “Okay. Here we go. We’re going to push off with our left foot first, then our right.”
Audrey’s legs began to quiver, the skates etching grooves in the top layer of ice as she struggled to stay upright. She lifted a heavy skate and shook it. “This one?”
“Your other left.”
“You’re silly, Daddy. I don’t have two left feet.”
“Sometimes I feel like I do. Especially when I’m dancing.”
“Ohhh! I want to dance!” Audrey’s eyes sparked with delight. “Let’s dance!”
“But we’re learning to skate right now, sweetie.”
“We can dance with our skates on. I’ve seen it on TV before. Is that the kind of skating you used to do on TV, Daddy?”
“Not quite.” He chuckled. “But if you want to dance, we can dance. There’s always time for dancing.” Stooping down, Nick scooped up his young daughter. She threw her arms around his neck and squealed with delight as he whipped around Prosper Tomlin’s pond, spinning and twirling as the winter wind kissed their reddened cheeks.
“I feel like a princess!”
“Because you are, sweetheart. You’re Mommy and Daddy’s princess.”
“Just like in the fairytales?”
“Just like in the fairytales.”
Audrey grabbed ahold of Nick’s face with her chubby, little hands and pressed her forehead to his, trapping his gaze with her bright blue eyes. “Tell me the fairytale about you and Mommy again. It’s my favorite.”
“The one with Santa and his town full of helpers?”
“Yes! And the magical notes and Christmas wishes.”
Nick spent the next several loops around the ice telling his daughter about the time the prince came back to Heirloom Point and fell in love with the princess who had always held his heart. He shared of a Christmas wish made by a beautiful young girl that took over a decade to come true. And he told of their happily ever after that included two little miracles, one named Audrey and the other named Jack.
“That’s the bestest story ever, Daddy.”
“It sure is. And do you know why?”
“Because it’s true,” Audrey said, nodding, knowing she had the right answer because it was the one he’d always told her.
“Exactly. Because it’s true.”
* * *
“JACK IS ASLEEP in Grandpa Lee’s arms upstairs and Grandma Sandra is getting a fabulous makeover, compliments of Audrey. Looks like we are guaranteed at least ten minutes of quiet.”
Chrissy fell onto the couch, swinging her legs up onto the cushions. The Christmas tree twinkled in her periphery and she laughed at the thought that it didn’t look all that different from years back. The ornaments scatte
red across the branches now were made by a very crafty five-year-old and they rivaled Nick’s salt dough designs in both construction and creativity.
“Was that the door?” Chrissy asked as she adjusted her position on the couch, trying to get comfortable.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Nick answered.
“No, I definitely think it was the front door. You should go check it out.”
“Probably just the mailman. He can leave whatever it is on the porch.” Nick stretched his legs out to prop his feet onto the coffee table as he lifted his arms high above his head, rolling out his shoulders. “Man, between practices with the team and today’s time on the ice with Audrey, I’m really beginning to feel my age. Those high school kids skate circles around me and I have a feeling it won’t be long at all until Little Miss is doing the same.”
“I really think I heard the door,” Chrissy said again, insistently.
Nick dropped his head back onto the ledge of the couch and closed his eyes, then sighed. “Okay. I’ll go check, but after that, I plan on taking a nice, long nap, bordering on hibernation. You can wake me up when it’s Christmas.”
Pushing up, he strode to the front door and grabbed onto the handle, flinging it open wide. Just as he suspected, nothing was there to greet him other than a blast of winter air.
“I think you’re hearing things, sweetie,” he called into the house.
“What about seeing things?” Chrissy shouted back. “Do you see anything out there?”
Giving the porch a swift once-over, Nick shook his head. “Nope. Nothing.”
“Are you sure?”
Then, turning back toward the door, Nick saw it. He reached into the wreath to retrieve the folded paper note. “I see what you did there,” he said to himself, smiling.
What started as two soon became three
When we had our sweet little girl, Audrey.
Then Jack came along, making us four,
So what do you say we add one more?
Nick froze.
“Did you find anything?” Chrissy hollered after a stretch of quiet.
Snapping from his shock, Nick bounded back through the house, his footsteps loud as they clapped against the floorboards. He raced toward his wife who was laying on the couch and scooped her up into his arms.
“We’re having another baby?”
“Yes,” Chrissy said, unable to contain a giggle. “We’re having another baby!”
He settled her back onto solid ground and placed a hand on her stomach. “How far along?”
“Four weeks. I just took the test last weekend.”
“You’ve kept that secret from me since last weekend? So that’s why you’ve been so quiet these last couple of days. And sleeping nonstop. Man, Chrissy, you are good!”
“I was worried I would let it slip and I really wanted to give you the big news by leaving that note. It was perfect, right?” She grinned, proud of her successfully carried out plan. “But in fairness, we have gone much longer than just a few days without really talking. I’ve had some practice.”
Peppering kisses across her cheek, Nick paused and looked her in those bright blue eyes as he said, “That was the longest and loneliest decade of my life, Chrissy. Had I known that I had this beautiful life with you in store, I would have never left Heirloom Point.”
“That’s all in the past, Nick. Our future is all I ever want to focus on. You, me, Audrey, Jack, and our newest little one.”
He met her mouth again in a sweet kiss, one that conveyed the great love he had, and always would have, for the only woman to ever hold his heart. “That’s one dream I’ll never lose sight of. Merry Christmas, love.”
“Merry Christmas.”
The End
About the Author
Growing up with only a lizard for a pet, Megan Squires now makes up for it by caring for the nearly forty animals on her twelve-acre flower farm in Northern California. A UC Davis graduate, Megan worked in the political non-profit realm prior to becoming a stay-at-home mom. She then spent nearly ten years as an award winning photographer, with her work published in magazines such as Professional Photographer and Click.
In 2012, her creativity took a turn when she wrote and published her first young adult novel. Megan is both traditionally and self-published and An Heirloom Christmas is her tenth publication. She can’t go a day without Jesus, her family and farm animals, and a large McDonald’s Diet Coke.
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Also by Megan Squires
A Lake House Holiday
In the Market for Love
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An Heirloom Christmas Page 18