The Christmas House

by Victoria James

  Wyatt held open the door to the Silver Springs Performing Arts Centre and they were barely able to inch their way in. They stayed huddled together as people lined up and waited for their tickets to be taken. As they stood together, Charlotte became aware of Wyatt’s larger frame against hers, and she slowly allowed her shoulders to relax, to soften her back from its usual ramrod-straight position, and it was almost as though she was leaning against him.

  Charlotte did not lean against or on anyone. Maybe it was just an inch or so, a gentle sway. But he was right there, his hard body against hers, and her breath caught as emotion and desire swirled together like the red and white candy cane decorations hanging from the ceiling. This feeling, this kind of contact, this kind of instinctive support … had this been what she’d been missing out on in life? Is this what she wanted?

  “Hey! I thought I’d run into you,” a man around their age said, working his way through the crowd to them. A woman with dark hair who looked somewhat familiar was by his side.

  “Charlotte, this is Scott and Meghan.”

  Scott reached out to shake her hand and Charlotte shook it warmly, liking him immediately. “Nice to finally meet you. I was beginning to think Wyatt had made you up,” Scott said with a warm laugh.

  Charlotte joined him in a laugh while Wyatt gave him a deadpan stare. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” She turned to Meghan, who was watching them with amusement. “And you seem so familiar.”

  She smiled. “I run the new Cheese Boutique in town.”

  They stood all together, making small talk for a little while before it was time to go inside. All of this felt so right. Every time she was with Wyatt it felt right. They were out in the world, in a crowd, and yet she still felt like they were in their own little bubble.

  “Was Sam excited tonight?” Charlotte said as they finally made their way to their row.

  He nodded with a grin and pointed to their seats. “Definitely.”

  “These are great,” she whispered. They were in the fifth row with aisle seats.

  “I learned my lesson the first year she was in ballet. I went online to buy the tickets literally five minutes after they went on sale, and I was in the back row. Now, I’m logged in with my mouse pointed to the ‘purchase tickets’ button five minutes before they go on sale,” he said, leaning close to her as they spoke.

  She laughed, feeling warm and excited. “I guess everyone wants to see their kids.”

  “I was thinking after the show, I could drop you off at Ruby’s … or you can come over for a drink. Sam’s sleeping at Scott’s house,” Wyatt said.

  A blaze of heat tore through Charlotte as she stared at him. This is what people do, Charlotte. You want to. You want him desperately. You’ve waited a lifetime for Wyatt. She wanted to spend every moment with him. She wanted exactly what he wanted. “I’d like that,” she said, forcing her voice to sound calm and not at all like her stomach was doing successive cartwheels.

  He took her hand as the curtain opened and they were immersed in sugar plums and music and the magic of Christmas. At some point during the performance, Wyatt placed his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned close to him, taking every ounce of whatever he was offering. She breathed in the outdoorsy, fresh scent of his cologne and didn’t think she’d ever get enough of him. Excitement swirled through her veins in time to the music, and she smiled as she spotted Samantha leaping across stage with the other soldiers. “She’s fantastic,” she whispered to him.

  He smiled, pride shining in his eyes. One of the things she loved most about him was the kind of father he was. Watching him as a parent revealed so much of his character, his heart, and made her want to trust him with everything.

  When the performance was over, they walked backstage amid the flurry of parents and excited ballerinas. Samantha spotted them and waved frantically, making her way through the people. “You were fantastic, sweetheart,” Wyatt said, kissing her on the cheek.

  “You were amazing,” Charlotte said, laughing as Samantha threw her arms around her neck.

  “We have flowers for you in the truck. I can drive you over to Scott’s and can bring them home for you if you’d like.”

  Sam rolled her eyes. “Change of plans. Cat and I got in a fight, and I’m not going. I’ll come home tonight.”

  Charlotte held her smile and glanced over at Wyatt. His jaw was clenched, but to give him credit he quickly smiled. “Sure. Uh, is this something Scott and I can help sort out?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. Betrayal of the worst kind. But I’m going to go change,” she said.

  “Okay. I’ll go pick up the SUV and pull up in the parking lot. Wait inside until you see me, okay?”

  Sam rolled her eyes and turned back into the crowd.

  Wyatt glanced down at Charlotte. “Welcome to my life. Ten bucks says she and Cat are BFFs by morning,” he grumbled, and she couldn’t help but laugh even though she was just as disappointed as he was.

  They walked in the direction Wyatt had parked, moving with the throng of other theatergoers. “I don’t think anyone does Christmas like this town,” she said, wanting to break the awkward silence.

  “Are you going to be here for New Year’s?”

  Her heart pounded and she nodded. “I am now.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I’m back at work that night, but my shift ends at 11:30. The whole downtown is blocked off and everything is open. The toboggan hill, the skating rink, restaurants. I probably won’t be able to make it back to Ruby’s to pick you up and get out here on time. But we can meet. Town square, in front of the clock tower?”

  She’d meet him anywhere. “Perfect.”

  They reached the passenger side of his SUV, and he unlocked it. Instead of opening it, he hung back for a moment. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that none of our time together has ever been … just the two of us.”

  Her heart squeezed in her chest and she took a step closer to him, drawn to him like that night on the deck when he’d looked so vulnerable. Wyatt made her want closeness when she’d been able to deny it for so long. He made her want to lean on someone, to love someone. He made her want someone to love her. Him.

  Heavy, plump snowflakes—her favorite kind—tumbled out of the sky and around them, reminding her of her snow globe fantasy. She’d always wanted to be one of those people in those idyllic settings. Wyatt standing there, white snowflakes dusting his coat, brown eyes locked on hers, handsome face filled with tenderness … it didn’t get more ideal than this. Maybe this was once in a lifetime ideal. For her, it was.

  His gaze went from her eyes to her lips, and her mouth dropped open, her breath becoming shallow. He swallowed up the distance between them and raised his hands to her face.

  “I just can’t let the night end without kissing you. God, I wanted to kiss you the moment we stopped kissing. I can’t stop thinking about you.” He leaned down to kiss her, and she was pretty sure each kiss was even better than the last.

  His lips were hard and soft at the same time, his hands threaded in her hair, and she held onto him like she’d never held onto anyone. He kissed away every ounce of doubt and filled her with a promise of a love and passion so intense that she forgot who she had been before this moment.

  Wyatt’s phone vibrated in his jacket pocket and he pulled back with a groan. He took out his phone and stared at the screen for a moment. “It’s Sam. Apparently we’re taking five thousand years and she might as well go in some random person’s car.”

  Charlotte laughed out loud at her sarcasm. “You know she’s all you.”

  His lips twitched. “That’s what scares me.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  DECEMBER 2004

  SILVER SPRINGS

  “I can’t do this. Mac left us. You have to take the girls.”

  Ruby’s mouth dropped open, her gaze going from her daughter’s red-rimmed eyes to her two adorable granddaughters standing on the porch like orphans. She wanted to yell at Wendy for doing this to them, f
or not sheltering them from the harsh reality of what had happened.

  “Come in,” Ruby finally whispered, grabbing hold of the two girls and wrapping them in her arms. “It will be okay, girls. Everything will be okay. Grandma is here,” she whispered over and over again, like a prayer, wishing it to be true. Oh, how she wished her old friends were with her, ready with advice. She hadn’t come this far to have her family fall apart now.

  She pulled back and looked down at their big, sad eyes. “You go into the kitchen. Grandma has fresh cookies for you both. See, it’s like I knew you were coming!” she said, forcing a bright smile.

  “Yes, Grandma,” Charlotte said, putting her arm around little Olivia and giving Ruby a look well beyond her young years. She worried about Charlotte the most. She had a seriousness about her that told Ruby she had been absorbing the dysfunction in their family home for too long. She needed to be a child. She needed to play and dream.

  When they were out of earshot she turned to Wendy. “What happened?”

  Wendy pursed her lips. “Oh, that’s rich. They get the royal treatment and you’re standing here telling me this is all my fault?”

  Ruby crossed her arms. Her daughter had a way of making herself the victim all the time and she was not going to have it. Not this time. “It takes two to tango, Wendy. Your marriage was on the rocks for years, and I never saw you make any real efforts at saving it.”

  Wendy shook her head. “I knew you’d blame me.”

  “Mac shouldn’t have left. He shouldn’t have. But you could have done more. Besides, how do we know he won’t come back?”

  Wendy walked to the door and panic filled Ruby. “We both know he’s gone. I need to get away and figure out what I’m going to do. Tell the girls I love them. I’ll be back.”

  * * *

  Charlotte stood in the doorway of the kitchen, hands on her hips, and took in the bustle. It was Christmas Eve, the night that her grandmother’s heart shone bright for everyone who entered the house. Baby Dawn was in her high chair, banging it every now and then, sending Cheerios flying to the floor in a high arc while everyone hurried around.

  The kitchen was filled with the scent of turkey and fresh cranberry sauce and baking. It was the epitome of holiday spirit. It was everything she had feared for so long; it was almost perfect. She was happier than she’d ever been in her entire life. She was in love. Completely. If someone had told her last Christmas, while she sat on her couch, eating turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce from the Whole Foods buffet, that this Christmas she’d be spending it with family and in love with the hottest, most amazing man, she would have laughed. And laughed.

  She took a deep breath and walked in to help with another round. Because of Wyatt, she was so happy that her feelings toward her mother were dialed down and she was ready to enjoy the evening.

  “Guests will be arriving momentarily,” Grandma Ruby said, tightening the knot on her holly and berry apron and signaling to Charlotte to bring the cranberry sauce bowls to the table.

  “Well, everything looks perfect, Grandma,” Charlotte said, gathering the bowls that were to be spread in different spots on the table.

  The doorbell rang and she ran to it, knowing Wyatt and Sam would be on the other side. She opened the door and thought her heart was going to burst at the sight of them. Wyatt held the door open for Samantha, who walked in, all dressed up in a red sweater and dark jeans. “Merry Christmas, Charlotte,” she said and threw her arms around her.

  Charlotte hugged her back, warmth for the young girl seeping through her. She loved Sam and all her quirkiness, and she felt so much kinship for everything she’d gone through. “Merry Christmas, Sam. I think my grandmother has saved you a special stash of cookies,” she said as she took her coat.

  Sam laughed. “Best. Grandma. Ever. Is my aunt here yet?”

  Charlotte shook he head. “She texted to say she was on her way,” she said.

  Sam nodded and walked toward the kitchen.

  Charlotte turned to Wyatt, who’d already taken his jacket off and was standing there looking at her like he did when they were alone. She forgot how to breathe because the combination of her emotions and desire was making it impossible.

  “Come here,” he said, tugging her hand.

  Her heart raced as he pulled her onto the porch. Before she could even be chilled by the blast of air, he’d wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her. Her arms wrapped around his neck and delved into the hair at the nape of his neck as she kissed him back. He kissed her with a hunger that made her want so much more. His body was hard and warm against hers, and she never wanted this feeling to end. She had never felt so alive, so wanted, so safe. She held on tighter when her knees wobbled, and he made a noise deep in his throat that made her contemplate quickly escaping to his house for privacy.

  “Now, that’s what I call a Merry Christmas!” Aunt Mary’s voice boomed theatrically from the other end of the porch.

  They both froze.

  “Damn,” Wyatt said softly against her lips, slowly lowering her to the ground. “My family has the worst timing ever,” he said.

  “I’m sure my family will present their own problems at some point,” she laughed.

  “I’ll give you kids a moment. No need to hurry,” Mary said, as she walked into the house.

  Charlotte lowered her head to Wyatt’s chest as the sound of the screen door bouncing against the frame announced that they were alone again.

  “Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. I missed you and then you were just standing there in this amazing red dress and looking at me … with everything I feel for you,” he said, leaning back slightly, looking down at her.

  “I think it was the best Merry Christmas greeting I’ve ever had,” she said with a smile, tugging him closer.

  “You think? Maybe I should try again and make sure,” he said, the corner of his mouth twitching.

  She laughed. “Maybe you should.”

  He leaned down and kissed her again, this time softly, slowly before he lifted his head. “There is so much I want to say to you, but I want to wait until we’re alone and I can be sure that no one is staring at us from the window,” she said.

  She darted her gaze to the window, jumping as she spotted his aunt there. “How did you know?” she whispered.

  He shut his eyes briefly. “Years of training. Years of knowing my aunt.”

  She laughed. “Maybe after dinner …”

  “You can come to my place and we can have a glass of wine together?”

  She nodded. “Okay. Is it bad that I’ll be looking at my watch all night?”

  “I already set a timer on my phone. Five hours max.”

  She grabbed his hand, and they walked into the house as cars started pulling into the driveway. “Okay, let’s get this Christmas Eve started.”

  Half an hour later, almost everyone had been seated in the dining room and they were about to start dinner. The dining room was filled with people they knew from town who were on their own this year, as well as people they had never met before. It was the amazing thing about what her grandmother had started—the idea that people could come together to share in the magic of Christmas no matter their situation in life.

  The house was filled with the aroma of roasting turkey and fresh baking, and Charlotte was almost heady with happiness. There was nothing more she could have wanted. Her grandmother was the picture of health, she’d rebooted her relationship with her sister, she had gotten to know and fall in love with her little niece … and then there were Sam and Wyatt. People she’d never imagined knowing.

  The doorbell rang again, and Charlotte called out that she’d answer it. As much as she loved the evening so far, she was anxious to get started with the second half of her night.

  She opened the door and every part of her body went soft. The air, the light, the joy, had been plucked out in one swoop, leaving her barren and weak, with nothing but the girl she used to be front and center.

  Her father
stood on the other side of the door, holding a red poinsettia. His green eyes, the ones that had always brought her comfort, were the same, except now they had deep creases beside them, from years of laughing … with other people. He didn’t seem as tall as she remembered, not as robust, but then maybe it was because he’d lost his hero status the moment she realized he was never coming back.

  She didn’t know if it was her gasp or if it was intuition, but when she recoiled she stepped back into the warmth of Wyatt’s strong body. His hands were on her shoulders and she didn’t feel so alone then, just like that, with that one simple touch.

  “What are you doing here?” she finally managed to whisper against the heaviness in her chest, the tightness in her throat. Despite wanting to, she took in the sight of him, ingesting every detail that she had missed, a part of her wishing that he could somehow say something that would make this okay. His hair was more gray now, only a sprinkling of dark hair there to remind her of the father she remembered.

  “I know I should have called.”

  “No,” she managed, her voice sounding hoarse to her ears. “No, it wouldn’t have made a difference. Nothing would have made a difference. You know what might have made a difference? You calling the day after you left us. Or you showing up for career day when I stood in front of my school, staring at the clock with my heart breaking. I thought you were coming. Then I told everyone that you must have been heroically saving a family or something. But the truth was you just checked out of your role as a dad. This? A poinsettia, almost twenty years later? This is pathetic,” she said, ready to shut the door.

  “Charlotte, I know you hate me. I know what I’ve done is unforgivable, but I just want a chance to talk. Ten minutes. Just give me ten minutes,” he said, his eyes filling with tears that she knew should not affect her. Nothing about him should have affected her. But it did. Enough to make her stomach churn relentlessly, enough to make her palms sweat, to make her body shake. Everything about him affected her because she had lived a lifetime trying to forget him, to get over him, and now that her life was finally going well … he was here to rip her heart open again and expose all her weaknesses and vulnerability.