The Christmas House

by Victoria James

  His thumb grazed over her bottom lip and he slowly lowered his head, his lips hovering over hers in a heartbreakingly beautiful moment that been worth waiting a lifetime for. “It’s never too late for a happy ending, Ruby.”

  * * *

  Wyatt walked into the kitchen and tried to look like he was okay going in to work, not sitting on the couch enjoying his misery. Sam was sitting at the island, all dressed up in a dress that he’d preapproved after only ten nos, and texting someone. She quickly put her phone down and turned to him.

  “You look beautiful,” he said, getting a glass from the perfectly organized cupboard. A constant reminder of the woman missing from their lives. It was quite cruel, really.

  “Thanks. You look like a disaster. You should shave and wear something nicer,” she said with a frown.

  He filled up his glass with water. He knew he looked like hell. “I’m going to work. I don’t need to look good.”

  She made a tsking noise.

  He shrugged. “I’ll go shower. Not shaving, though.”

  “Here’s what you’re going to do, Dad. You’re going to drop me off at Scott and Cat’s house and then you’re going to work and then you’re going to meet Charlotte at the clock tower like you told her you would.”

  He choked on the water and stared at his daughter. “What?”

  She nodded wisely. “Yup. You can’t give up. You can’t control the way people behave, but you can control your reaction. So, just because you’re sad, you can’t give up on Charlotte. You have to try one more time. She made you so happy. She made me so happy. And I think we made her happy, and you need to remind her of that. We are really cool people.”

  He put his glass of water down and let his twelve-year-old’s advice sink in. He had planned on maybe just sitting in his SUV after work, parked outside the town square. But then he’d thought it might just break him, because he knew she wasn’t coming. The wisdom in Sam’s eyes was beyond her years. Hope trickled through him. Maybe Sam was right. Maybe Charlotte needed to be reminded of how good they were together, how happy they could make her too.

  He cleared his throat. “I don’t know that she’ll show. She’s not back in Silver Springs.”

  She shrugged. “Then after midnight, drive to Toronto. Do it, Dad.”

  Adrenaline started pumping through his veins. “Okay. I think you’re right. I’m going. If you’re sure you don’t mind staying at Cat’s tonight?”

  She squealed and flew off the chair and into his arms. “I’m so happy you’re finally listening to my advice. I knew this day would come. Also, I totally want to go to Cat’s. Why wouldn’t I? Now, go and make yourself look handsome. Hurry, it might take a while,” she said, giving him an overzealous shove.

  He almost laughed as he headed into the bedroom.

  “Oh, and Dad?”

  He turned around and waited.

  “Also, remind Charlotte that families don’t have to be perfect to be great. We can be great for her,” she said, giving him a wink and a glimpse into his daughter as an adult.

  He smiled at her, a rare prayer of thanks going up for the girl who had been his reason for getting up every day the last twelve years. Just for luck, he sent up another prayer for the woman he wanted to wake up next to for the rest of his life.

  * * *

  Charlotte replayed her sister’s words over and over again in her mind like a mantra as her two-hour drive to Silver Springs turned into a four-hour, treacherous, nerve-wracking ride because of the poor road conditions.

  Charlotte leaned forward, clutching the steering wheel tightly as the SUV moved with the wind. Her windshield wipers were going full force as she neared the outskirts of Silver Springs. Glancing at the clock, she guessed she was about half an hour out of town, maybe a bit longer because of the slick roads.

  She was glad Olivia and Dawn were spending the night in the city at her condo. She would have been so worried about them driving back in this weather.

  She eased her foot off the gas as the back of her SUV fishtailed slightly on the winding roads. Everything is fine. She had driven through countless winter storms. Besides, since it was so late there were barely any other cars on the road. It was just her and nature. Towering trees swayed on either side of the rural highway, and she could drive as slow as she wanted.

  It was New Year’s Eve and there was no way she was going to start her next year as Charlotte the Coward. She could do this. She did trust Wyatt. And she needed to tell him. This time tomorrow night, she hoped to be sitting on the couch with Wyatt and Sam, with the hope of the best new year ever ahead for all of them. If he forgave her.

  She knew that she’d hurt him deeply. Yes, he had understood her reasons for leaving, but she’d still hurt him. He wasn’t a man who threw his love around like confetti. He wasn’t a man who opened his home to any woman. And he wasn’t a father who let people get close to his daughter. But for Charlotte, he had. He’d trusted her and she had broken that trust.

  Tears blurred her eyes as she made the last turn that would lead her into Silver Springs, and the snow died down, hitting the windshield in the prettiest, most erratic pattern. The streets were still slippery, but as she drove toward downtown, she could see they had been plowed. Streetlights led the way, and the tension started easing from her shoulders as a nervous anticipation filled her body. She still had half an hour before their midnight meet-up under the clock tower.

  Slowing her car, she noted the cars along the side of the road and sidewalks filled with people. Twinkling lights on the storefronts beckoned her, filling her with hope. She pulled into a vacant spot on a side street close to the town square and got out of the car.

  Cold night air hit her flushed cheeks, and adrenaline started flowing through her in a way that she hadn’t felt in years. She picked up her pace, weaving her way around families and couples ready to celebrate the start of a new year. It was so much more for her. It was the beginning of a new life, a life she’d never before imagined she needed. But she needed this. She needed Wyatt and Sam and everything they gave her.

  She paused for a second, a wave of nausea rolling through her when the clock tower came into view and Wyatt wasn’t there. He would come. It was early. He was working.

  “Happy New Year, Charlotte!”

  Charlotte glanced in the direction of the voice and waved to Meghan from the cheese shop who was walking with a friend. She kept her smile as she stood in front of the clock tower. The sound of children laughing and yelling as they made their way down the toboggan hill and slid on the skating rink were a wonderful distraction as she stood by herself, people milling around her.

  This was okay. She could stand alone. She had stood alone before.

  “Hi, Charlotte! What are you doing here by yourself?”

  Charlotte smiled at Aunt Mary, who called out from hot chocolate stand. “Just, um, waiting for Wyatt,” she said, trying to sound confident.

  Aunt Mary gave her the thumbs up before she and her boisterous friends walked to the skating rink. For the next five minutes, Charlotte told everyone who asked what she was doing by herself, that he was waiting for Wyatt.

  She glanced at the clock tower and, despite the cold, sweat trickled down between her shoulder blades as it had done so many years ago. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to quell her wobbly chin as she remembered standing on the school stage, confidently telling everyone that her father was on his way.

  Wyatt wouldn’t leave her like this. Wyatt wasn’t her dad. Wyatt would show up.

  She opened her eyes and let her gaze scan the area, taking in all the people, all their joy. She lifted her chin and clung to her belief in him. This was it. This was her finally believing in someone. Tears filled her eyes, blurring the numbers on the clock. She stood still, waiting, letting her smile tell the world that she believed he was coming. She hiccupped and kept her eyes on the clock.

  * * *

  Wyatt cursed loudly as he approached the parking blockade. All the damn roads
in town were blocked off because of the stupid New Year’s town party. He glanced at the clock in his car. Shit. He had five minutes to get to the clock tower, on the crazy off chance that Charlotte would meet him. He’d go through hell and back for a chance. He was just going to have to leave his SUV here and somehow get there on time.

  He parked and hopped out of his SUV and jogged along the sidewalk, darting around slow-moving pedestrians. He gave the occasional wave to people who greeted him, careful not to slow down. He stopped when he reached the toboggan hill. Panic filled him, and he knew there was no way he’d make it down to the town square in five minutes.

  He surveyed the area, his eyes narrowing on the people milling around the bottom of the hill. It was almost impossible to see that far, but his heart started hammering when he spotted Charlotte’s red pom-pom hat. It had to be her standing there in front of the clock tower.

  “Hi, Sheriff Wyatt!”

  Wyatt looked down at the young voice calling up to him. A little boy and his parents stood in front of him. The boy was holding a small sled. Wyatt recognized him from the class he’d gone to speak to as part of their outreach program before the holidays. “Hey there. Happy New Year,” he said, not wanting to be rude, but knowing his time was running out.

  “You too, Sheriff,” the boy’s parents said.

  Wyatt stilled, his eyes going to the small plastic saucer. It was his only choice. “Hey, do you think I could ask you a big favor? Can I borrow your saucer? I need to get down that hill really fast.”

  The boy’s eyes lit up. “Police business?”

  Wyatt winced. “Maybe. Kind of.”

  The boy held out his sled. Wyatt glanced up at the parents. “I’ll bring it back in ten minutes,” he said.

  They nodded. “No problem,” they said as he took the saucer.

  “Thanks,” Wyatt said, giving the kid a handshake. Wyatt broke out into a jog, vaguely aware of the people turning to glance at him. In a town this small and this nosy, the sheriff’s deputy taking a midnight ride down a hill in a tiny plastic saucer was sure to give them something to talk about.

  Wyatt took a deep breath, his eyes on the one woman who made him feel like he could truly be home.

  Grace will lead you home. Ruby’s words that first Christmas in Silver Springs filled him and an odd sensation ran through him.

  None of this had ever been a coincidence. Maybe they were both right where they should be, and this was their time. His and Charlotte’s.

  He sat down on the small saucer, filtering out the soft laughter around him and not giving a crap about any of it. He had to concentrate on keeping his large frame balanced on the child-sized saucer or he’d be a giant snowball going down that hill.

  Here goes nothing.

  He felt small hands on the back of his shoulders.

  “I got you, Sheriff,” the little boy said.

  Wyatt was too nervous to laugh. “Thanks, kid. Give me your biggest push.”

  And just like that, Wyatt found himself flying down the toboggan hill on New Year’s Eve, ready to claim a new life, to start the life he’d always imagined, the one that had always managed to elude him before.

  As he tore down that hill, through his finely honed peripheral vision, he was vaguely aware of his aunt in the distance, of Ruby holding hands with a man at the skating rink, and Charlotte’s parents arguing in front of the hot chocolate stand, and a peace filled him. An eerie calm in the midst of the wildest ride he’d ever been on.

  That peace was unfortunately short-lived as he attempted to guide the saucer to the side in an effort to avoided colliding with a little girl. It wasn’t going to happen. She was straight ahead and he would trample her.

  He swore and abandoned the saucer, avoiding the little girl, and tumbling to the bottom of the hill like a snowman.

  But he’d made it.

  He righted himself and hopped up, not taking the time to brush the snow off his body, and ran toward the clock tower.

  Charlotte turned around, and his gut clenched as he read the expression in her eyes.

  She had waited for him. Even though there were only thirty seconds to New Year’s.

  He remembered her that day on the stage. He remembered her eyes. They were the same right now. Except today she stood there, and she believed in him.

  Her mouth dropped open. “Wyatt,” she whispered.

  He limped over to her, cringing as his bad knee reacted to that ridiculous fall. “You came,” he said, almost in front of her now.

  She nodded, breaking into a gorgeous smile that would forever bring him home. He reached out and pulled her into him, not able to resist a moment longer.

  “I missed you so much and I can’t lose you. I’m sorry. I do trust you. I can’t lose you again,” she whispered.

  He pulled back and raised his hands to cup the sides of her face. Fireworks went off in the distance, and people cheered as the clock tower chimed midnight. He lowered his head and met Charlotte’s lips halfway. “Never again,” he said before kissing her.

  She held onto him tighter. “I knew you’d come,” she said in between kisses.

  “Always. Always for you,” he said, emotion clogging his throat.

  “I had to come back here and tell you how much I regret leaving. I was so wrong. I have nothing without you guys. I felt like I was giving it all up, Wyatt. That terrified me.”

  He smoothed a hand against her face. “Giving what up?”

  “My control over my happiness, my life. I’m handing it over to you, and I’ve never done that before, with anyone. I can’t color code you and schedule you into the appropriate slots.”

  “You can color code me. Red. For hot.”

  She burst out laughing, and he smiled with her. “I’ll be sure to remember that. Keeping it all together was how I learned to survive, to just keep going. My life is so orderly and controlled, because that’s the only way I know to keep it all together. Falling … in love with you has been the greatest gift I have ever received, but it scares the crap out of me, because I feel like I’m giving you all the power. I’m trusting you with everything,” she said, giving him more than he could have ever wanted.

  Wyatt blinked, clearing the moisture from his eyes, knowing what a gift she was giving him. He raised his hands to gently cup each side of her face. “Then I am the luckiest man alive, that you have trusted me with your heart once again. I would go to hell and back to make sure you are happy and safe and loved. You changed my life when I was a kid, and you have changed it again now. You changed Sam’s life too, and for that, I will always love you. I have never before felt the way I do when I’m with you. Charlotte, you make me believe that happy endings are worth fighting for. I know life is scary, and I know there is going to be shit that we’re going to have to face, stuff we can’t predict, but I also know that I’m strong enough to get through anything and, even though you may not see it in yourself, I know you are too. I also know that if we’re in it together, we can do anything we want. I love you.”

  He leaned down to kiss her, and this time it was so much more than desire, this time it was like a contract was being sealed, a bond was being forged. She stood on her tiptoes, and he held her against him tightly, her soft body feeling like it was made for his. “I love you too,” she whispered.

  “I didn’t think you’d be here, and I almost didn’t come. Sam convinced me. She also wanted me to tell you that we’re really cool people.”

  She burst out laughing again. “I love her.”

  He kissed her again. “I know you do. Also, as much as we both love Sam, you should know that she’s out for the night.”

  Her eyes sparkled. “What exactly were you planning?”

  He forced himself to play it cool. “First, I need to return a sled. Then, talking. Obviously, lots of talking. Then I was planning on ordering us dinner.”

  She raised her eyebrows, smiling. “And then what? I’m sensing there was more to this plan.”

  He leaned forward, wrapp
ing one hand at the nape of her neck, his lips brushing against her ear as he spoke. “I thought there were other areas of our relationship that we hadn’t explored yet, and I was pretty certain I could make a case for myself from a completely different angle.”

  Her laugh came out breathless, and she leaned into him and everything he was offering. “Your plan might have worked, I’m not going to lie, Wyatt.”

  He smiled against her mouth, and she clutched his forearms. “Well, we can still try.”

  She leaned up and kissed him. “I can’t think of a better way to start a new year. I thought I had blown it. That I would never get you back. That it was too late for my happy ending.”

  His lips hovered against hers, and he knew in his heart he’d never get tired of this, of her, or the promise of what they could be. “It’s never too late for a happy ending, Charlotte.”

  Also available by Victoria James

  BILLIONAIRE FOR CHRISTMAS SERIES

  The Billionaire’s Christmas Proposal

  The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby

  RED RIVER SERIES

  The Rebel’s Return

  The Doctor’s Fake Fiancée

  The Best Man’s Baby

  A Risk Worth Taking

  TALL PINES RANCH SERIES

  Rescued by the Rancher

  The Rancher’s Second Chance

  STILL HARBOR SERIES

  Falling for Her Enemy

  Falling for the P.I.

  SHADOW CREEK MONTANA SERIES

  Snowed in with the Fireman

  A Christmas Miracle for the Doctor

  The Firefighter’s Pretend Fiancee

  Baby on the Bad Boy’s Doorstep

  The Doctor’s Redemption

  The Baby Bombshell

  Christmas with the Sheriff