by Cara Colter
“Give me your phone,” he said.
She found it in her purse.
“Unlock it.”
Was this some sort of aviation requirement? She felt so unsophisticated. She unlocked her phone and handed it to him.
He grinned, flipped through it and found the camera. He aimed it at her. “Give me two thumbs up and a big smile,” he instructed.
She did and he took the picture, looked at it and handed it back, pleased.
“Post that on a few of your accounts,” he told her.
She laughed out loud, and somehow didn’t feel as nervous at all.
As they lifted off the ground, the snow kicked up around them in a cloud. The helicopter seemed to be lumbering. Her hands tightened in a knot on her lap.
But when she glanced at his face for reassurance, Aidan was calm and relaxed. Noelle realized that this came to him as naturally as driving a car did to her.
She looked out her window.
Far below them, already, was the ranch house and barn. She was stunned by the beauty of this perspective.
“I feel as if I am looking down on one of those large scenes that model rail enthusiasts build,” she said in wonder.
“Are you still scared?”
She liked the way his voice sounded, coming straight into her ear from the headphones. “What makes you think I was scared?”
“The pulse beating in your throat? The white knuckles?”
She laughed and unknotted her hands. It added to her sense of wonder that he had observed her so closely, cared. “All over being scared,” she said.
“Good. Flying is actually safer than being in your own bathroom.”
“What?”
“Statistically you are much safer here than in your own bathroom. You’d be astounded by the number of deaths annually in the powder room.”
“How?” she said skeptically.
“I’m assuming wet, slippery surfaces, but I’d have to look at the statistics more closely. You aren’t supposed to express doubt! You’re just supposed to be reassured.”
“Humph! Who studies those kinds of statistics?” she asked.
“Nerds, like me.”
He was about the furthest thing from a nerd that she could possibly think of, but glancing at him, she realized he already knew that. He didn’t need any reassurances from her. He was teasing her. She loved it!
“Getting ready to land,” he said.
“That was unbelievably fast.”
“Between the higher speed you can attain and the fact that you can travel in pretty much a straight line, it is really fast. It’s a very efficient way for me to visit our job sites.”
“And you love to fly,” she said.
Aidan smiled.
She loved to make him smile.
“Yes, I do.”
He had a vehicle in a parking stall reserved for him at the airport. It was a luxury four-wheel drive with a cute little car seat installed in the second row.
It was the antithesis of her little car, and not like anything her grandfather had ever had at the ranch. Mitchell had always liked sports cars—probably an early warning sign that he was looking for adventure. Still, he had not been able to afford new models, so she had never been in a vehicle with a seat warmer built in.
“This is decadent,” she said as her seat began to heat up in the vehicle, chilly from being parked so long. “Helicopters, heated seats.” She almost said, A person could get used to this, but the very thought drew her up short.
She had said yes unexpectedly to an adventure. There was no sense thinking the course of her whole life was changed. That she was in some way tangling with Aidan Phillips in ways that would last. In fact, it would be downright dangerous to indulge in such thoughts.
On the other hand, didn’t she overthink everything?
Couldn’t she just enjoy this day for exactly what it was? Wasn’t that what adventure implied? A delight in the moment, in the unexpected, without trying to read the future, plan ahead, figure out everything into the next millennium?
“Jerry has been delivered to my office, so I thought we’d stop in there, and then maybe head to that new mall. I know you probably have your own things you want to do, but I was hoping you’d help me with something. You mentioned all the small things little girls like. What did you say, hair ribbons and teddy bears. New pajamas? Maybe a bracelet?”
“I’d love to help you with that.”
His office was at the heart of the steel-and-glass forest that was downtown Calgary. Noelle worked down here herself, so she knew what a nightmare parking was. She took transit.
But he slipped into an underground spot reserved for him, and they took a posh elevator to the top floor.
His office was stunningly elegant: exotic hardwoods, glass, stylish furniture and great art.
He greeted everyone by name, including the maintenance man. He asked after one employee’s child by name, asking how the Christmas concert had gone. Noelle could tell his employees didn’t just respect him; they revered him.
It was quite a different picture than what Noelle had imagined when she had first met him—she’d seen him as high-powered and cynical. There was another side to him that he was not quick to let people see. She suspected it was an honor that she was seeing it just days after he’d landed in her life.
They went into his office. It was a corner space with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the whole city. Should she take a picture of this to post, too? To show what dizzying heights she was dancing with? But somehow, she seemed to have lost her taste for posting her adventures for the public. Wouldn’t everyone just see what she realized herself?
“Spectacular,” she whispered, but the truth was she didn’t feel all that good about it. Instead, she was feeling totally out of her league. Yes, it was an honor that she was seeing another side of him, but it deepened a sense of inadequacy in her.
He was not the kind of man a girl should fall in love with.
The thought made her heart stand still. Was she falling in love with him? Silly. You could not fall in love in days, could you? In mere hours?
And yet, she felt something for him that was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She had certainly never felt like this with Mitchell—as if her very skin was tingling with aliveness.
“This is what’s spectacular!”
He pounced on a package that had been left on his desk.
She looked at the happiness in his face, and again chided herself. Did she always have to be so serious? To the point of being ludicrous?
Of course she was not falling for Aidan Phillips! It was easy to get swept away by helicopters and luxury cars and a fancy office and an entire adoring staff.
“Come look,” he said with boyish enthusiasm.
She could not resist. She went over to him and peeked over his shoulder at the package in his hand.
“Oh, my,” she said. “Jerry Juicejar is ugly!”
He shouted with laughter, and Noelle looked at his face, luminous with delight, with joy that he was doing something for his daughter.
“This should make up for Disneyland Disaster,” he proclaimed.
And she had to nudge away the thought that whatever she was feeling had very little to do with helicopters and luxury vehicles.
It had to do with cutting down trees and sitting in haylofts and seeing the expression on his face whenever he looked at his daughter.
It had to do with recognizing the value of those moments without any need, whatsoever, to put them in a post to share with the world.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Noelle said and then added brightly, “We better get on with our shopping. Between the two of us we have quite a bit to accomplish yet.”
CHAPTER TEN
/> IF NOELLE HAD hoped shopping would prove a distraction to her sudden, uncomfortable and somewhat exhilarating awareness of Aidan, she was wrong.
It was December 23, and the mall was absolutely thronged.
If this bothered Aidan at all, it did not show. In fact, for a man who had seemed cynical about Christmas not so long ago, he was able to give himself over to the shopping chaos with a certain abandon.
He was the rarest of things—a man who was fun to shop with. She could not help noticing how unfailingly respectful he was to the harried sales staff, teasing smiles out of some of them, always dropping a kind remark about how well they were handling the demands of the crowds.
Their arms were soon laden with parcels: hair bows and the most gorgeous teddy bear Noelle had ever seen. The price of it took her breath away, but Aidan paid for it cheerfully. They bought Tess a set of little bangle bracelets, fuzzy Christmas pajamas, the kind with feet in them, and some new storybooks. Everywhere they went they were mistaken for a couple, for a mommy and daddy doing last-minute shopping, and that overlaid the happiness of the experience with faint wistfulness.
While they were in the bookstore, they came across a photo book of exquisite gingerbread houses.
“Rufus asked me to pick out something for Nana. What do you think?”
“Perfect,” he agreed. “Nana, check. Tess, check. Now I just need a bit of private shopping time—”
Noelle realized he intended to get her something. She wanted to protest how unnecessary it was, and at the same time she could not. She wanted to see what he would get her!
And, of course, she still needed to shop for her chosen gift of skates for everyone.
“Why don’t we meet at Percival’s for lunch?” he said. “It’s just a short walk from here.”
Noelle gulped. Percival’s? “Isn’t it, um, kind of hard to get in there?”
“I’ll figure it out,” he said, and then he cocked his head at her and winked. Winked! They probably knew him by first name at the exclusive eatery, where she had never even attempted a reservation.
She scuttled off to finish her shopping, trying not to be too bowled over by the surprises life could hold if you opened your heart just the tiniest bit.
The skates came in huge boxes. Plus, it was a tradition at the ranch to hang a sock on the mantel on Christmas Eve. The tradition continued no matter how old you were. So she didn’t just want to hang a sock for Tess, she wanted one for everyone. Noelle threw her slender budget—already strained by the skates, not to mention Mitchell emptying the account—to the wind and bought stocking stuffers of luxury chocolates, pretty envelopes of hot chocolate, colorful mittens, decks of cards and other Christmassy and cute trinkets.
Aidan had arrived before her for lunch but the maître d’ was waiting for her to arrive! He guided her to a private table in a small alcove. She plopped herself down at the table, exhausted but happy.
“What have you there?” he asked, reaching for one of her bags. She slapped his hand away.
He pretended to nurse it and they laughed.
“I hope you don’t mind. I ordered. I have a few favorites here.”
Of course he had favorites at the most exclusive restaurant in town!
After an absurdly delicious lunch, she said, “I think I’m about finished shopping. How about you? Is there anything else you need to do before we fly back to the ranch?”
She couldn’t help smiling at that. Plain old Noelle McGregor was sitting in Percival’s, after a lunch of crab-stuffed lobster tails, discussing flying back to the ranch as if it was a normal thing. She seemed to have adjusted to the dizzying heights she was visiting, after all.
“There’s going to be a bit of a delay in getting back to the ranch,” he said.
“There is? Has something come up for you? At work?”
He passed her a slender box across the table. “Not at work exactly. Here. An early Christmas present.”
She picked it up, looked at him quizzically, pulled the gorgeous wrapping from it and opened it.
There was a slim leather necklace box inside, the box tastefully embossed from Calgary’s number one jeweler.
Her fingers were trembling as she opened it.
Her mouth fell open.
Inside the box was a delicate necklace, with two tiny jewel-encrusted bells on it. Those jewels couldn’t really be diamonds, could they? She couldn’t see them being fakes, not from that jeweler.
She lifted her eyes to him. “Aidan, I can’t take this. It’s too much.”
“No, you have to take it. It’s a way of thanking you for all you’ve done to give Tess such a perfect Christmas. I called her before you arrived at the table. They made cookies. She and Nana and your Grandpa. She told me about Smiley knocking the cookies off the counter and eating most of them. She was laughing so hard she could barely get the story out. I have not heard my daughter laugh like that in so long. In way too long.”
“I wasn’t even there! How can you thank me for that?”
“It’s not that, specifically. It’s all of it. Snowball fights and cutting down trees.”
“I don’t know,” she said uncertainly. “I don’t want gifts for it. It’s not as if you have to pay me to make a great Christmas for Tess. I like doing it. I want to.”
“I’m not paying you. I’m thanking you. Plus, the necklace goes with the theme.”
“What theme?”
“Silver Bells.”
She cocked her head at him. “I’m not following. I thought you didn’t like Christmas carols.”
“Despise them,” he agreed. “I’m not talking about the Christmas carol called ‘Silver Bells.’ I’m talking about the Christmas Enchantment Ball. Tonight.”
She gulped. “Are you asking me to go to the ball with you?”
He smiled and nodded.
“Like a date?”
He looked slightly taken aback. “I hadn’t thought of it in those terms.”
Of course, he hadn’t.
“More like I have tickets, we have some time and when it came up the other night, it sounded like something you might enjoy. Like a little Christmas present.”
“But you’ve already given me the necklace. I can’t—”
“One for your birthday, one for Christmas. There’s no point to the necklace if we don’t go to the ball.”
“But we’re expected back,” Noelle said, feeling faintly panicky. “Tess. And Nana. My Grandpa.”
“I’m sure Smiley will miss us, too,” he said patiently, “but I cleared it with all of them. They were fine with it. Truth to tell, I don’t know if they’re going to miss us. I’ll still get you home tonight. My helicopter turns into a pumpkin at midnight.”
She stared at him. She really did feel like Cinderella. What girl didn’t want to be Cinderella once in her life? She fought the impulse.
“I don’t know what to say. It’s impossible, of course. You’d need a special kind of dress for an event like that.” Her voice froze, and it felt as if the fight was draining out of her.
Because she thought of the red dress hanging, never unwrapped, in her closet. That dress didn’t have to be a caution against hoping for too much. It could be something else entirely. It could be a statement about saying a bold yes to life and to the adventure.
“I can buy you a dress,” he said.
“Actually,” she said slowly. “I have one that will do nicely.”
“Is that a yes, then?”
She stared at him. She couldn’t believe the difference a few hours could make in a life.
“It’s a yes,” she said, and he let out a hoot of delight much as he had done when Jerry Juicejar appeared on his desk. The people at other tables smiled indulgently. She supposed to them it looked like more than it was.
A young couple in love. Maybe it looked as if she h
ad said yes to something else.
He leaned toward her.
“You look beautiful when you blush.”
She ducked her head and then looked back at him. Something unfurled inside of her. A great bravery. A wonderful boldness. She felt the shocking jolt of ecstasy from saying yes to the unexpected, to life, to adventure.
Several hours later, she just wasn’t as sure. In fact, Noelle felt like she was crumbling like a dried-out Christmas cookie. She had the dress on. Despite the fact that she seemed to have lost some weight, the dress fit like a glove, maybe even better than it had when she first bought it.
The problem was that the dress was shocking.
It was a deep, deep shade of red, like red wine sangria. It was the only designer dress Noelle had ever owned. It was possibly the only dress that had ever taken her breath away. This was the first time she’d put it on since she’d tried it in the store. She remembered the sales lady flitting around her, going into paroxysms of approval.
For your engagement, you say? It is perfect. It’s a girl-to-woman dress, yes?
Yes, it was that. There were deep Vs at both the front and the back of the dress that were very daring, and didn’t allow for a bra. The dress clung in some places and flared in others, and her near nakedness underneath it heightened that feeling of being sensual and being aware of her sensuality, and of leaving the girl behind.
The paleness of her skin became not a detriment but an asset, as if her body had been cast in the finest Versace porcelain.
She had upswept her hair and dusted her features with makeup. Her eyes didn’t look murky. They looked like moss, thick and deep, on a forest floor. There was a calm in them that belied how nervous the dress made her feel.
The dress had a red-carpet-ready feel to it. Oh, dear. Was there a red carpet at the Christmas Enchantment Ball? She should look it up. If anybody was bound to trip, it would be her, especially in the unfamiliar two-inch stiletto heels.
She picked up the jewelry box he had given her earlier and opened the lid. She looked longingly at the necklace. If she just put it on, the transformation would be complete, just like Cinderella putting on the glass slipper.