Daniel made a conscious decision to ignore her attitude, and didn’t notice the nanny again all through dinner. All he could see or think about was the woman at his side. Quiet and even a bit stand-offish at first, she opened up like a rosebud in morning sunshine as they made their way through the meal. By the time a waiter took away their dessert plates and surprised them with small glasses of apple-flavored digestifs—and a mug of hot chocolate for Chrissy—Karynn glowed.
A long, soulful note of music filled the air, and Daniel looked up, surprised. He’d dashed inside in a rush, and then been knocked sideways when he found Karynn at his table. In all the excitement, he’d failed to notice the small stage in one corner of the room.
Two young women occupied the raised platform. Mirror images of each other, they both wore beautiful white gowns that shimmered beneath the lights. One sat next to a harp, fingers still poised over the strings, one of which she’d stroked to gain the attention of the diners. Her sister held a violin tucked beneath her chin. With the room silent and every eye fixed on them, the identical musicians sailed into a slow tune with underlying vibrations of sorrow, loss and longing, countered by higher notes of joy...victory…unconquered love.
The unexpected pairing of the two instruments created a phenomenal effect. Daniel glanced at Karynn, to find her entranced with the instrumental. Naturally rose-colored lips slightly parted, chocolate-brown eyes wide and bright. A vision.
Her gaze swung from the musicians to him, and Daniel’s breath caught. Karynn in any color of the rainbow was a treat for the eyes. Karynn in red had always hit him like a thunderbolt. How could he have forgotten? Tonight the effect packed a double jolt. His breath took a brief vacation.
“Daniel? Are you all right?”
He made a herculean effort to regain his composure. “Yes, of course. Just…good, sweet Lord above, Karynn…you’re stunning!”
She lowered her eyelashes, but a smile tugged her lips upward. Daniel waited…and there it was. The rosy blush that had always crept into her cheeks when she was pleased, or embarrassed, or just shy.
“You were always prone to exaggeration,” she murmured.
“Not at all. I was just always trying to find ways to say how beautiful I found you. Even then.”
“See? There you go again.”
A glance toward the stage revealed a few couples swaying together on the dance floor. Thank you, Lord!
“Would you like to—?” He broke off. Huffed out a breath and shook his head. “I’m afraid to ask, because I don’t want you to say no.”
“But if you don’t ask, I can’t say yes.” Was that a bit of mischief in her gaze? He’d seen it now and then when they were kids, but not often. And something told him she’d almost forgotten that side of herself.
“In that case…may I have this dance—and maybe another dozen or so?”
She bit down on her full bottom lip, sending hot bolts of something electric through Daniel’s body. How long had it been since he’d experienced this kind of reaction to any woman?
“Oh! I don’t—.” She lifted one shoulder. “I haven’t danced in absolutely forever.”
“Then it’s time, don’t you think?”
She hesitated a moment longer, and then nodded. Once. As if the gesture would convince her she was doing the right thing.
“Yes. I’d love to dance.”
Daniel turned to address Lena. “Please take Chrissy upstairs and get her ready for bed. I’ll be up in time to tuck her in.”
A quick, hissing intake of breath met his request. He ignored it.
“Chrissy, go with Lena. I’ll be up soon to say goodnight.”
“Yes, Daddy.” She stood to wrap both arms around his neck, and then addressed the rest of the table’s occupants in that sweet, innocent voice that never failed to grip Daniel by the heartstrings. “Goodnight, everyone. I have to go to bed now.”
Lena stood and held out a hand. “Come, darling. Let’s go.”
Daniel frowned. Her hand shook. Was she drunk? But no one at their table had anything alcoholic to drink, except the complimentary digestifs, most of which still sat untouched beside their plates. Still, he had to remember to look a little deeper into tonight’s behavior.
“I know the way.” Chrissy sailed past her nanny’s trembling hand with her tiny nose in the air and a frosty bite to her tone. “You don’t need to lead me, Miss Lena.”
Daniel blinked. He’d never heard his daughter address an adult with such blatant disrespect. He’d nip that in the bud before another day passed.
But not right now. He stood and held out a hand to Karynn, who shone that stunner of a smile and laid her fingers in his. Daniel escorted her to the dance floor, confident every man in the room experienced a twinge of envy...because every man there would have loved to dance with the beauty at his side.
****
Karynn’s heart banged against her ribs with such force she wondered if she’d actually be sore the next morning.
Seriously? Twenty-seven years old and still behaving like a teenager with a massive crush? She wanted to give herself the biggest eye roll ever, but she’d look pretty silly doing that. Instead, she lifted her chin and smiled when Daniel pulled her into his arms on the dance floor.
Breathe…that was important, so she didn’t swoon to the floor in front of all these people. But Daniel’s unswerving gaze made it hard to remember to pull in a new breath after each exhale.
Enough. She had to say something to ease the unbearable awareness. “The music is heavenly, isn’t it?”
“You’re heavenly.”
She’d been trying so hard to maintain eye contact…to not look away like a kid in the throes of puppy love. So much for that.
She looked over his shoulder in time to spot Chrissy in the doorway, her bright eyes fixed on the dance floor. The child’s rapt expression spoke to her love of music, and her fascination with the rhythmic sway and bend of the dance. As Karynn watched, horrified, Lena snatched the child’s arm in a talon-like grasp, thrust her face nose-to-nose with the little girl and said something. Her lips barely moved, and her green eyes glittered. Chrissy’s lips quivered, but she didn’t cry—she glared at Lena. Karynn saw the tug-of-war as the child attempted to pull her hand free.
Then Lena dragged Chrissy away, with the little one quick-stepping to avoid being thrown to the floor.
Karynn closed her eyes and forced air in and out of her lungs, fighting an anger that threatened to make her do something she’d regret later. Surely Daniel wouldn’t entrust Chrissy to that woman’s care if he were aware of Lena’s mean streak. She’d noticed how the nanny’s expression changed during dinner—from sour to sickly sweet, depending on whether Daniel was looking her way.
Would she hurt Chrissy?
No. Karynn hadn’t been around Daniel in over a decade, but somehow she knew he wouldn’t abide anyone laying a hand on his daughter. The child was unhappy at the moment, but Lena wouldn’t dare harm her. Besides, this was none of Karynn’s business. Daniel was lavish with compliments, to say nothing of far too handsome for her peace of mind. But he wouldn’t appreciate her interference in his private life.
“What are you thinking?” He pulled away a little, his vivid blue gaze tracing her face. “You look troubled.”
“Nothing. Really.” She needed to think of something to say. Fast. “My sister’s never going to let me forget this.”
“Forget what?”
“Maybe I can tell you about it tomorrow? Right now, I just want to dance and listen to the harp and the violin. These ladies are fantastic!”
“They are.” He pulled her a little closer. “You still fit perfectly under my chin.”
She laughed. “You always used to say that. I’d forgotten.”
Daniel’s smile faded a little. “I hoped you hadn’t forgotten me. I mean, you know, not entirely. We shared some special moments back in the day.”
“We did, didn’t we? I could never forget you, Daniel. You were my first
love.” And my last. “I thought for sure my life was over when you went away.”
“Believe me, it wasn’t easy for me either.” He shook his head. “What happened to us, Karynn?”
3
“It isn’t that hard to piece together.” She tried to maintain a steady voice, even as her heart pounded a timpani rhythm. “We were kids, Daniel. Long-distance relationships rarely work for young people.”
“I should have tried harder.”
“Perhaps we both should have.” She offered a deliberately lighthearted smile. “I admit I shed a few tears when ringing my little bell a hundred times over didn’t bring you running back to Quillpoint.”
He grinned. “The bell! Oh, how I labored over what to buy you as a parting gift. I’m sure you eventually gave up and threw it against the wall.”
Karynn gave him a high-browed glare. “Bite your tongue! That bell is in my closet—completely intact, I assure you—in a little box of what Savannah refers to as my ‘Daniel-memories.’”
“You have a box of me-memories? So let me think.” He swung her around once as the musician temporarily upped the tempo, and then settled back into a steady sway, much to Karynn’s relief.
She could handle simply moving to the music, with Daniel’s strong arms supporting her. But anything more complicated and she’d fall on her face. Her mother had seen to it that Karynn and Savannah knew all the basic dance steps, so the problem wasn’t a lack of know-how—more an absence of strength. Her legs seemed noodle-weak, almost as if they didn’t belong to her. A dance that required her to stand up on her own strength could prove disastrous.
“There might a poinsettia in that box.” Daniel was nothing if not persistent. “Although I’m sure it’s crumbled by now.”
“Entirely possible.” Her lips curved into a smile all on their own. He had given her a single poinsettia when she turned sixteen, saying a rose just wouldn’t work for a Christmas birthday. “But if there were a poinsettia in that box, it would not be crumbled. It would have been sprayed with a thick coat of hairspray—just as my mother taught me—and then hung upside-down to dry in the basement. Afterward, it would have been arranged ever so artfully in a shadow box frame, where it would—in theory, of course—remain intact…well, mostly intact…even now.”
“Hmm.” He tugged her closer and placed his lips close to her ear, where his warm breath shot a volley of delicious shivers through her entire body. “I wonder if somewhere amongst that box of treasures there might be a class ring that once belonged to a lovesick high school quarterback?”
“Let me think…” She laughed when his vivid blue eyes widened. “I’m all but certain there’s some small, hard item rolling around in there. But I’m getting older by the minute, you know, and I have slept more than once since I last looked at my Daniel-memories.”
He laughed. “Well, I’d say that’s probably because your husband doesn’t much like you mooning over me-memories, but then, you’re not wearing a ring on that pretty left hand of yours.”
“No.” She shook her head and put on the saddest of mock-sad expression she could manage while looking into sapphire eyes that still haunted her dreams. “Alas, you left me a broken woman. How was I to give someone else the heart you never returned?”
He chuckled. “You’re a regular comedienne, aren’t you? But I really want to know. Why aren’t you married? And don’t say no one’s asked, because I’m not about to believe it.”
Karynn raised an eyebrow. “I plead the fifth. A girl’s got to have a few secrets.”
The music stopped, and when it didn’t start again, she looked around at the empty room.
“Everyone’s gone!”
He laughed. “So they are. I guess we got a little carried away up here.”
“You think?” She eased herself out of his arms and whirled toward their table. “I wonder if Savannah left my evening bag…and my wrap, of course. Oh, and we didn’t say goodnight to—”
“Karynn.”
She stopped when his voice broke through her rambling prattle, but refused to turn back. He might see something in her eyes that wasn’t meant for his.
Strong arms circled her from behind and turned her to face him. A finger lifted her chin.
“Look at me.”
She shouldn’t have listened. But she raised her eyelashes, and found his gaze so full of longing…
He pressed his lips to the corner of hers and lingered there, creating havoc with her senses. “You taste the same,” he murmured. Then he pulled away—oh, bittersweet relief!—and drew her hand through his arm. “We should get upstairs. I promised to tuck Chrissy in. You will be here tomorrow, won’t you?”
“No, I plan to steal away during the night…in the storm…while my sister lies asleep in the bed next to mine.”
She burst out laughing when he narrowed his eyes to slits and managed to hike one brow halfway to his hairline at the same time. Stopping for a moment at their table, she slung her wrap over one arm and picked up her purse. “This trip is my birthday gift from Savannah and her husband. We’ll be here all the way through Christmas.”
“We’re spending Christmas here, as well. I try to do something special for Chrissy every year during the holidays. With her mother gone...” He trailed off, cleared his throat. “Well, it helps to have people around. I heard about Christmas Inn from friends, so here we are.”
“And you came here from…?” They were on the stairs, but neither of them seemed in a hurry to get from the lobby to the upstairs landing.
“Tulsa.”
“Oh, my! That’s a great deal longer road trip than Savannah and I made.”
“Road trip? Not a chance. We get super prices on airline flights. Our trip probably didn’t take as long as yours.” On the landing, his gaze danced from door to door. “Which room are you in?”
She stiffened, her mind filled with pictures of Daniel and that sweet child sailing through the air in a gleaming silver monster, many miles above the ground.
“Hey, you OK? You’re a little pale.”
“I’m fine.” She hauled in a breath and pointed to a door only a few feet from where they stood. “Suite 2.”
With a little chuckle, Daniel held out his hand. “Your key, m’lady.”
He unlocked her room, leaned in to kiss her cheek, and then grinned and moved to the neighboring suite. “Suite 1. Goodnight, Karynn.”
“’Night.” She slipped inside and leaned against the door.
Even as her body thrummed with the unexpected pleasure of having been in Daniel’s arms for the first time in over a decade, she felt the effects of a long day. Still, she dared not sleep. She’d had various versions of this same dream before, but never in such vivid technicolor. Karynn couldn’t bear the thought of waking up to find she’d dreamt this entire, beautiful night with the man she’d never stopped loving.
****
“Daddy! Wake up, Daddy! Come look outside!”
Chrissy’s excited and insistent voice pierced through several foggy layers of sleep, and Daniel sat up with a huge yawn.
“What’s all the hullaballoo, Princess?” He blinked at the clock. “How long have you been up?”
She giggled. “You woke me. You make choo-choo sounds when you sleep.”
“Choo-choo sounds?” He widened his eyes, and then crept from beneath the covers and across the room with his hands curled into claw-like shapes. “Choo-choo trains can’t tickle a fairy tale Princess ’til she screams, can they?”
Chrissy backed into the nearest corner, her blue eyes huge. Pink, bow lips twitched on each end as she tried not to laugh, already anticipating a tickle fest.
“No! No, Daddy. Please? I want to show you something.”
Daniel stopped and narrowed his eyes. “Lock up the tickle monster?”
Her head bobbed up and down with vigor. “Uh-huh.”
He crossed his arms and twisted his body back and forth as if struggling against an invisible opponent. Finally he dropped his hands
to his sides and heaved a few breaths in and out. “I think I’ve got the Terrible Tickler locked away, but he’s pretty slippery, you know. He could show up again any minute.”
“I know!” Her eyes went even wider. “He always gets out.”
“Well, he’s not tickling anybody right this minute. What did you want to show me?”
She climbed into an easy chair in front of the window and stared outside. Daniel grinned at the sight she made. Fuzzy, footed jammies sported various depictions of a grinning, doltish-looking snowman from one of her favorite animated films. Long, blonde hair stuck out in a dozen places, as it did every morning—and no wonder. The child rolled and tumbled in her sleep as if she physically chased a dozen dreams.
Far too huggable to resist. Daniel caught her in his arms from behind, eliciting a delighted shriek. He turned her around, planted a big kiss on her cheek and squeezed her tight. “I love you, munchkin.”
“To the moon and back, to infinity and beyond, and more than life,” she spouted.
“Me too…all of that, plus I love you forever and like you for always.”
She giggled. “That’s lots o’ love, huh, Daddy?”
“You got that right, little one.” He shifted her to one arm and stepped to the window. “So what’s so fascinating out there?”
“Snow!” She squirmed, her excitement almost uncontainable. “Lots and lots and lots of it!”
Daniel blinked. She couldn’t be more right. It appeared someone had used a paintbrush the size of Texas to slap a coat of pure white on the entire world. Tall shapes that had been trees yesterday now looked like skeletal white creatures, frozen in place with their multiple arms spread wide—some outward, some upward, and still others pointing toward the ground. The Christmas Inn gardens slept beneath a white blanket that revealed nothing more than humps and bumps of various size and shape. Even Jingle Bell Creek, which ran behind the Inn along the length of the property, had surrendered to the storm. The narrow, winding waterway lay frozen beneath a layer of frosty white.
“Can I make a snow angel, Daddy? Can I, please?”
“May I, Chrissy.”
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