Regina winced. She knew her friend was right.
“If you really want to know how your heart feels and if this is the right choice, you’re going to have to step away from the cookies and get out there.” Leah nodded toward the open door leading to the other room.
Regina nodded. Drawing in a deep, fortifying breath, she drew her shoulders back as she stood. “Right. You’re right. I’m not a teenager anymore, or even a naive twenty-something who has no experience in love. I may have been hurt but that all helped shape who I am today…” She shot Leah a look. “Right?”
Leah beamed again. “That’s right. Go get ‘em, tiger.”
Regina nodded and moved into action before she could wuss out again. She was moving so quickly she ran right into someone who was moving equally fast to get into the kitchen.
The collision happened in the doorway and strong arms caught her before she could stumble back. Tyler. His body was warm and solid against hers, his face close enough that if she wanted to she could give in to this crazy urge to kiss him.
To say screw it to dealing with the past and just embrace the present.
He was here.
Tyler Arnold was here.
And in that moment her heart was only aware of one thing—she had never been happier than she was right now. In his arms. On Christmas. Surrounded by friends.
At home.
“Oh, now that is just too adorable,” Leah said from behind her. “You two are under the mistletoe!”
Tyler’s eyes widened as they met hers and then he burst out in a low rumbling laugh.
Regina glanced up and her mouth fell open. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Chapter 9
If Tyler had had any doubt before, it was gone now. Sure, mistletoe was a thing around this time of year...but being caught three times in one day?
Fate was clearly at work.
Now he just had to give it a helping hand. When Regina’s amused and slightly dazed eyes dropped back down to meet his, he didn’t hesitate. He leaned down and kissed her, right there in front of her friends and their mothers and the random townsfolk of Friar Hollow.
He was vaguely aware of the hoots and hollers, the catcalls and the whistles...but he didn’t care.
He hoped she didn’t either. When he pulled back she blinked up at him.
There was no anger there, but about a million other emotions. Some of them heartening. Some of them...not.
“Can we—”
“Maybe we should—”
They both stopped at once, their arms falling to their sides as pink crept into her cheeks. Tyler made the decision for them, grabbing her hand and tugging her toward the back door as he shouted out, “We’ll be back!” to the crowd that was watching them with keen interest.
None more so than their mothers who were giggling and laughing like schoolgirls in the corner as they watched their kids go.
“Well,” Regina said, her huff of air making a cloud before her as they stopped just shy of the treeline that surrounded Callie and Cole’s backyard. “We certainly gave them something to talk about.”
“Are you mad?” he asked.
“No.” She lifted her fingers to her lips and he caught her smile. “That was...nice.”
He grinned. “It was, wasn’t it?”
“But we have so much to talk about,” she said on a rush.
He saw fear shining in her eyes, he heard her confusion… “We do,” he said. “But we don’t have to figure everything out in one day.”
She nodded, her shoulders lowering a bit.
“All I really need to know is if…” He licked his lips. “If I should stay.”
Her brows shot up. “Stay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, should I stay…” A part of him wanted to say forever. He caught himself in time. If his goal was to not scare her off, it was possible he should avoid talk of eternity...for the time being, at least. “Should I stay through New Year’s?”
She blinked rapidly and he thought he caught a hint of disappointment. “Oh, well I guess that’s up to you. I mean, if you want to spend more time with your mom or Cole and—”
“I want to spend time with you.”
She blinked again.
Ah crap. He was making a mess of this.
“Just for this week?” she asked, wariness in her gaze.
That was his fault. Any doubts she had about him or them, it could all be traced to him abandoning her. He could have kicked himself. “No, not just—” He ran a hand through his hair. “Look, can I start over?”
She nodded, her lips twitching with mirth even though her eyes still held confusion. “Please.”
He drew in a deep breath. “I’m afraid of how honest to be here with you right now.”
“You’re afraid?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to scare you off. I don’t want you to run.”
She stiffened, her eyes going wide, but then a heartbeat after that he watched the fight leave her and she sniffed, crossing her arms over her chest as a gust of wind hit them. “I’m tired of running, Tyler.”
He gave her a small smile. “And I’m tired of hiding.”
She nodded. “So we’re doing this then? We’re...dealing with everything?”
“I hope so.”
She glanced back at the door to the house. “I’m not sure this is the right time or place—”
“I actually think it might be the perfect time because you’re here. I’m here. And I don’t want to leave you again.”
Her eyes widened again and he felt a rush of relief. There, he’d said it. “I don’t want to leave you, not for any real length of time. I want to be with you. I want to be there for you.”
He watched her features tighten, almost a flinch.
He sighed. “I know. I know it’s probably hard for you to believe me. I’m sure I don’t deserve your trust—”
“Actually,” she interrupted. “It’s not you I don’t trust. It’s me.”
“What?” He stumbled back a step. “Why?”
She shook her head, her expression rueful. “I’ve made so many mistakes. You may have ended things, but you didn’t force me into marrying someone for all the wrong reasons. It wasn’t your fault I clung to my anger and my pride. It wasn’t you who stayed in a loveless marriage for too long, or who made all the wrong decisions for all the wrong reasons.”
She looked deflated by the time she was done, and he reached for her, pulling her close until she rested against his chest.
Where she belonged. Where she’d always belonged.
“Well, if we’re assigning blame here, I still get the largest chunk. I should never have ended things—”
“You were young.”
“I was stupid,” he said. “Stupid and scared. But rather than admit to being terrified at the thought of the future, I made mistake after mistake. Choosing all the wrong priorities which have led me here…” He pushed her away just far enough so he could see her face. “In a job that has never been as fulfilling as I’d hoped, with no one to spend holidays with, with a home I’m rarely at and that feels more like an upscale motel I spend some time at now and again…” He took a deep breath. “But mostly it’s led to eight years of regret because I lost the one woman I ever loved.”
Her lips parted, and while no sound came out, her breathing was coming harder and faster. Her eyes were gleaming with unshed tears.
“So you see, I’ve made my share of mistakes, too. But Reggie…” He leaned in closer until his forehead rested against hers. “I don’t want this trip to be another one. I don’t want to walk away from a chance, when I know it could very well be my last opportunity to make things right with you. My last chance at finding love.”
Silence followed his words, and the L-word seemed to fill the air around them.
“Ty, I—” She cleared her throat and pushed away from him. “What if we stopped calling them mistakes?”
His bro
ws hitched up. “Pardon me?”
Her tongue flicked out to lick her lips. “Maybe we should call them learning experiences instead.”
He cocked his head to the side to study her. “Is this some sort of lesson on semantics or—”
“No,” she interjected with a short laugh. “I just mean...I just mean maybe it’s time we both stop beating ourselves up over the past and start focusing on our futures.”
He took a deep breath, feeling the mountain of regret he’d been shouldering for years now. “I’d like that.” A fear nagged at him. Our futures. Plural. Which sounded rather like...they wouldn’t be one and the same. “Reggie, is that your way of saying it’s too late for us? That you don’t want to try again?”
“No.” She said it quickly and then her mouth snapped shut and he could practically see her wheels turning. “I’m not saying that because...because the only thing I’m certain of right now is that I don’t want to say goodby to you again.”
Relief rushed through him so fast and fierce it nearly knocked him off his feet. Instead, he lifted her off hers, picking her up and swinging her around until she laughed.
It was the sort of laugh he hadn’t heard from her in way too long. “So then, you want me to stay.”
He was grinning. Possibly even smirking in triumph.
Her eyes glinted with laughter. “Yes, I want you to stay. I don’t know for how long, but…maybe we could just take it day by day and...see how things go?”
“It’s a start.” He nodded. “I can work with day by day.”
She shivered and he reached for her again. It was amazing how natural it felt to pull her into his arms. Even more amazing how willingly she came to him. “Do you want to go back inside?”
He tried to keep any disappointment from his voice. She was cold. These were her friends. It was Christmas.
He could wait.
“No,” she said quickly, rubbing her hands together to keep warm. “I mean, we really should go in to say our goodbyes first and let our mothers know we’re leaving but...I don’t want to wait.”
He grinned. Unable to resist, he leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead. He knew exactly what she meant. After so many years, their time had come.
Again.
And this time he meant to do it right, to make the right decisions and to follow his heart and to not let fear keep him from everything he knew he wanted.
But the thing was, with eight years already gone, the need to be with her carried a new sense of urgency. He was nearly frantic to get her alone. To say all the things that needed to be said.
“Let’s do this.”
She laughed as he half tugged-half dragged her along behind him to get their coats and say their goodbyes.
No one seemed surprised, and if anything their mothers and her close friends were practically pushing them out the door a few minutes later with promises that Cole and Callie would drive their mothers home later.
‘Later’ ended up being much later because the sun had set and their mothers were still out. They’d gotten one text that they were “still having a hoot at Callie’s!” from his mom and that was it.
“So, where were we?” Regina asked as she joined him on the couch again, setting down their freshly refilled mugs of hot cocoa on the coffee table and resuming her position beside him with her feet tucked under his legs for warmth.
The fire they’d started was blazing away but they’d both gotten comfortable cuddling on the couch and Tyler wrapped an arm around her with a satisfied smile.
“We’d officially agreed to ban the word mistake from our vocabulary,” he said.
She snickered. They’d done a lot of talking about mistakes, but then the talk had turned to what they’d learned. How they’d grown.
“Would you believe me if I say that in a way I’m kind of grateful that you ended things?” she asked, tilting her head to study him.
He thought about it. “Maybe.”
“It’s true. I am. I can see in hindsight that we weren’t ready for marriage. I didn’t want to admit it,” she said. “Which was why I was so dead set on marrying Dean, I guess. But now I realize that you were doing me a favor, too.”
He nodded. “I guess. And I know I wasn’t ready for the kind of commitment you needed when I came to you that night before your wedding. I was acting out of jealousy and fear and a whole lot of regret.”
She nodded. “I think I knew that. You didn’t want me to marry him, but you weren’t ready for a commitment, either.”
He sighed as he reached for his mug and held it up to cheers. “To no more mistakes.”
“Only learning experiences,” she added with a small smile.
They sat in silence as they sipped their drinks and then he turned to her. “Do you think maybe all those learning experiences were necessary to get us...here?”
Her eyes glowed with warmth and he knew the happiness in her eyes mirrored his own.
This night, this whole day really—it felt enchanted. Like a dream was playing out before his eyes. His view of the past was shifting and realigning and now, thanks to the beauty of where he was, he could see clearly that it was all necessary to get here.
They needed to travel on their own to find their way home.
“I know this might be moving fast,” he said as he set his mug down and took hers to do the same. “But really, this feels like eight years in the making.” He cupped her face in his hands as he drew in close. “I love you, Regina. I always have. I always will.”
The kiss was sweet, and slow, and perfect. For tonight at least, the time for words was done, and he needed to show her how he felt.
He pulled back at the sound of laughter at the front door and a second later their mothers came traipsing in, giggling over something and smelling like fresh winter air. “Oh, have we interrupted?” his mother asked.
“Not at all.” Regina recovered first, shifting to face them with a welcoming smile. “How was the rest of the party?”
“Wonderful, dear, but you and Tyler are the talk of the town.”
Regina grimaced but she was laughing as well. “I wouldn’t imagine anything else in Friar Hollow.”
His mother came forward with a paper bag, holding it out. “Everyone agreed that you two ought to keep this.” She winked. “As a souvenir.”
He exchanged a quick questioning look with Regina before opening it.
Regina groaned as he laughed. Together they pulled out the mistletoe.
Regina started to laugh too as she met his gaze. “They shouldn’t have.”
Chapter 10
One week later…
Regina tried not to pout. It was lovely to be feeling more like her old self again but there was youthful and then there was childish, and pouting definitely fell in the latter category.
“Don’t be sad,” Tyler commanded.
“I’m not.”
He arched his brows.
She huffed. “I won’t be after you leave. It’s just goodbyes I hate, that’s all.”
His smile was slow and sweet. It was also extremely sexy. “I’m going to miss you.”
She shifted, digging her toe into the ground as she hovered in the doorway to her house. “I’m going to miss you, too.”
They were being ridiculous and she knew it. “You’ll be back in two weeks?”
He nodded. “Sooner if I can swing it.”
She bit her lip to hold back a goofy grin. “We’re moving quickly, aren’t we?”
“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “We’ve been taking it one day at a time. Is it our fault that things get better and better every second of every day?”
She laughed. “Okay, now you’re just exaggerating.”
He leaned in and lowered his voice. “Am I?”
She had to bite her lip again to stifle a schoolgirl giggle. He wasn’t wrong. This week had been magic. From the moment they’d made this second chance at love official on Christmas to this very moment, their relationship seemed
to click into place more naturally and perfectly than she could have ever dreamt.
“I guess we finally got the timing right.”
He moved in closer and pulled her into his arms. “I wish I didn’t have to go to work on location. But at least now I have a place to come home to.”
“You have a home in LA,” she reminded him.
He nuzzled her nose with his. “I was talking about you. You are my home.”
Her heart squeezed in her chest as her hands came up to grip the material of his shirt. “You’re my home too.”
His kiss was thorough and perfect.
“Call me when you get there?”
“I will,” he said with a sigh.
They’d said goodbye to their mothers a few days before when they’d set off for the next leg of their journey and the last few days alone in this house together…. Well, she suspected they both got a little too comfortable.
Going back to their old lives felt jarringly difficult.
But they were working on it.
“I’ll visit every chance I get,” he promised as he took a half step back, grudgingly making a move toward the street where his car was parked, ready to take him to the airport.
“And you already bought me my flights to LA next month,” she reminded him. It had been his belated Christmas present to her. He’d promised to show her around Southern California while he had a break from filming.
“Want to hear something crazy?” he said, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Hit me.”
“I’m a little afraid that once I leave, I’m going to wake up and realize this was all a dream.” He smirked. “Crazy, right?”
She nodded. “Totally nuts.” She went up on tiptoe to kiss his chin. “And I have the same bad feeling.”
He sighed and she knew what he was going to say before he said it. “One day at a time, right? We’ll work it out...one day at a time.”
They’d been reminding each other of this new vow every time reality threatened to intrude on their magical Christmas love affair.
“That’s right,” she said. “We’ll work through every obstacle.”
'Tis the Season for Love: A Charity Box Set Page 6