by Lizzie Shane
Jade rolled her eyes and trudged back to the bedroom, dragging the roller bag she’d been living out of all week. At least she’d stopped wearing the coat everywhere she went—though after he’d seen the photo she was carrying around in her pocket, it was easier to understand the attachment.
“I don’t think she believes in Santa anymore,” Andi murmured after the door had clicked shut behind Jade.
“She’s had to grow up too fast in too many ways this year. I want to give her this. Besides, you’re never too old for Christmas magic.”
Andi smiled, meeting his eyes, and the air seemed to go still between them.
Now. Now was the moment. Now was the time. There wasn’t going to be a more perfect moment than Christmas Eve with the snow falling outside. If she couldn’t love him now…
“Andi…” He closed the distance between them, reaching for her. He laced his fingers into her hair, bending his head, breathing in her scent, his cheek brushing hers as he moved closer to her mouth.
“What are you doing?” Her voice was low, breathy.
“Falling in love with you?”
She went stiff in his arms. “That isn’t funny.”
“Who says I’m joking?”
He bent his head to kiss her.
* * * * *
It was so tempting, so incredibly tempting to lean into him and tip her face up for the kiss. His scent surrounded her—pine and smoke from tending the fire, mixed with that indefinable maleness that was all his.
She could let herself fall into this moment and pretend everything would work itself out—and part of her desperately wanted to—
But she’d never been able to turn off the noisy doubts in her brain.
“Ty…” She tucked her chin and pushed back in his arms until there was space between them, bracing her hands on his chest—trying to ignore the strength beneath her fingertips. “I know you think you feel something for me, but this is a complicated time for you, emotionally, with everything that’s happening with Jade. You’re falling for your daughter and bundling me in with that feeling is natural because I’ve been a part of it, but you don’t really love me.”
“Andi. My feelings for you are nothing like what I feel for Jade. And frankly that would be creepy on a number of levels if it were true.”
“I didn’t mean that you had romantic feelings for Jade or paternal feelings toward me. I just think you’re mixing up gratitude and love.” She kept her arms braced and as his grip loosened she put more distance between them. “You love how I take care of things for you. How I make your life easy. How I’ve facilitated things with Jade—and you’re transferring that to me.”
“Okay, I will admit there is a grain of truth to that,” he said—and something heavy dropped in her chest. “I do love how you make my life easy. How you make it so I don’t have to do the hard stuff or the boring stuff. I’m a spoiled brat. But that isn’t all I am. And it isn’t all I feel for you.” His arms, which had been awkwardly holding her as she pushed away from him, dropped, but he caught her hands before she could escape. “I rely on you, that’s true, but I also admire you. And I certainly want you. And I just like you too. You make me want to be man enough for you, Andi.”
She shook her head. “That’s a really great line, Ty, and I know you think you mean it, but I’m not the kind of girl who can put her heart on the line on the off chance that you aren’t going to wake up one day and realize what you felt for me was just a side-effect of a huge moment in your life.”
She was already head over heels for him. She couldn’t afford to let it get any worse. She couldn’t afford to pretend they were going to get that happily ever after. She’d stopped believing in Christmas miracles and this week had been lovely, truly lovely, but it hadn’t changed that.
She pulled her hands away and this time he let her, making no move to follow as she turned to walk toward the back bedroom.
“I’m going to convince you, Andi Cooper,” he called after her.
She paused, glancing over her shoulder, but she didn’t turn. “You can try.”
* * * * *
Ty watched her walk down the short hallway after her parting shot, his thoughts rushing.
She didn’t think he meant it. She thought he was transferring gratitude—which wasn’t entirely out of the question, but that didn’t even begin to cover the depth of what he felt for her.
She thought he was a spoiled celebrity—and he was—but he was more than that. She and Jade had made him more. And what he felt for her was more than the comfort he got from a well-ordered life and a good assistant. So much more.
He needed to change the script. Tomorrow he was going to start making her life easier. He was going to prove that he was more than a playboy and that he wanted her for more than her organizational skills. That he needed her, in a way that had nothing to do with her professional competence.
Unfortunately he had no freaking idea how to do that, but he’d figure it out. Ty Walker had never been one to give up easily. No one became an actor without plowing through a shitload of rejection first, so he knew better than to give up at the first sign of resistance.
She hadn’t said she didn’t want him. She hadn’t said anything about how she felt. She’d doubted his feelings. So he had to prove them to her.
Starting with Christmas.
As soon as Ty heard the bedroom door click behind her after her trip to the hall bathroom, he went to work.
Chapter Twenty
“Wake up, you two! Santa came!”
“He did?” Jade’s voice came groggily.
Andi cracked her eyelids as the bed bounced beneath a heavy weight. It was still dark—but this was northern Minnesota in late December, so that didn’t tell her much about the hour. She usually woke up early, bright eyed and bushy tailed, but Ty had apparently beaten her to it and her internal clock was groaning that it was too early.
“Come on, beautifuls. It’s Christmas!” He bounced on the bed, making the entire mattress shake, giddy as a little boy.
Jade groaned incoherently and shoved her head beneath a pillow. Andi stretched, the way her body sank into the mattress too comfortable for her to seriously consider Ty’s demand that she get up. She didn’t mind so much anymore, being one of his beautifuls—but that still didn’t mean she was getting out of this bed.
“Christmas… Christmas… Christmas…” Ty began to chant. He’d leapt onto the bed in between Andi and Jade with his first announcement—which gave him ease of access as he tickled Jade until she kicked at him, groaning, “Ty! Knock it off!”
Ty laughed, temporarily knocking it off—but only because he’d turned his torture to Andi. “Christmas… Christmas…”
“Shut up, you maniac. Some of us are sleeping.” But she was fighting a smile as she said it. It was impossible not to get caught up in his enthusiasm.
“How can you sleep on Christmas morning?” He dragged both of them into his arms, dropping a kiss on the top of Jade’s head and one on Andi’s forehead as her jaw popped with the force of her yawn. “Come on. Don’t you want to see what Santa brought you?”
“Are there really presents?” Jade asked, waking up now.
“Are there really presents?” Ty echoed, scoffing. “Of course there are presents! Santa wouldn’t come empty handed!”
“Go away,” Andi shoved at him. “Come back with coffee.”
Ty laughed, his eyes glittering merrily. “Only because you asked so nicely.”
He darted out of the bedroom, bellowing a distinctly off-tune rendition of Santa Clause is Coming to Town. It was probably fitting that he started with he sees you when you’re sleeping, since Andi immediately closed her eyes when he was gone, but she couldn’t go back to sleep now even if she wanted to. That excitement was humming inside her. Christmas morning. She felt buzzed with Christmas spirit in a way she couldn’t remember feeling in years.
“I guess we should go see what’s under the
tree,” Jade said, restraining her own excitement, though Andi could hear that Christmas morning feeling in her voice.
Andi opened her eyes, meeting Jade’s across the pillow. “He’ll only keep pestering us if we don’t,” she said in a long suffering voice.
Then the two of them burst into giggles and leapt out of bed, racing one another down the hall to the tree.
In the main room, Andi drew up short at the sight of the tree, her jaw dropping.
He’d outdone himself.
Last night there had been a handful of presents—things Andi and Jade had tucked under the tree—but now it overflowed. How had he done it? How had he gotten them here without her noticing? In a snowstorm, no less.
Ty emerged from the kitchen area, holding a coffee cup, and pressed it into her hands, dropping a kiss on her cheek. “Merry Christmas,” he murmured low.
He moved away before she could protest the contact, raising his voice and bellowing, “Merry Christmas!” before sweeping Jade off her feet and spinning her around in circles until she giggled helplessly.
He’d done this. All of it. And it wasn’t even the presents that made Christmas morning special. It was him. Barging into the bedroom. Showering them with his happiness until they couldn’t help but be joyful too.
Andi’s heart clenched.
“Are we opening these presents or what?” Ty demanded.
And the chaos began.
* * * * *
“A tablet!”
Ty watched delight spread across Jade’s face, the sight unraveling a small part of the anxious knot that had taken up residence in his chest. Perfect. He wanted this to be perfect. “Wow. Santa knew exactly what to get you,” he exclaimed brightly. “This way you can Skype with Kendall whenever you want and I bet there’s a reading app on there too so you can bring your books wherever you go.”
“It’s great.” She looked up at him with a shy smile. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, thank Santa.”
She rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue, her attention veering back toward the tablet, already out of the box, charged up and ready to go.
“I’ve made a tactical error, haven’t I?” Ty commented cheerfully to Andi. “She’ll never look me in the face again when that thing is in the room.”
“You might have to set up some rules about devices,” Andi suggested and Ty grinned.
Rules. He’d never really thought about setting up rules, but kids needed structure and discipline, right? He remembered clearly what a hardass his mother had been about homework and chores. If he could be half the parent his mother had been, he’d be doing pretty good.
“Here.” He grabbed another present off the pile. “Open this one next.”
Jade ripped into the wrapping, flinging it over her shoulder—the first present had been tentative, but when Ty had told her to let loose, she’d begun ripping with gusto. She flung open the box and frowned at the paper inside—a print out from a designer furniture site. “Shelves?”
“Bookshelves. For your room,” he explained, rushing the words out. “I thought, if you want, when we get back to LA, we could put something like these in your room. Or if you don’t like these we can pick out others. And then we can fill them up with all the books that will fit. What do you think?” That knot of anxiety was back, throbbing now.
Jade nibbled on her lower lip and gave a small nod. “Thank you, Ty.” She clambered up out of the nest of wrapping paper around her and hugged him.
Ty looked down at the top of her head and swallowed against the tears coming to his eyes. “You’re welcome, kiddo.”
Jade dove back into the pile, searching for the present Kendall had given her, and Andi bumped his shoulder with hers. She had both hands wrapped around her coffee mug as she watched Jade dig through the presents.
“How did you do all this?”
“Express shipping and a lot of help,” he admitted. “Your mother let me use her address and wrapped the presents for me, and then your brothers helped me hide them in the back of the SUV while you were distracted at the reception. Your family makes very good co-conspirators.”
Andi smiled. “This is incredible, Ty.”
“There’s something for you under there too.” He snagged the small, gold-wrapped present secured with shiny red curling ribbon.
“You already gave me a bonus.” Andi’s brows pulled together in a frown as she studied the box like it might bite her. It was too large for a ring—about gift card sized—or she probably would have thrown it in his face.
“This isn’t a bonus. It’s a gift. Say, ‘Thank you, Ty.’”
“Thank you, Ty.” She plucked it off his palm, her frown firmly in place, and sank down on the couch to open it. He’d never seen a woman look so grumpy at the prospect of a present. She tugged off the ribbon and slid her finger under the tape securing the edges of the paper—no wanton paper tearing for Andi. When the last of the paper was free, she set it aside and pulled the top off the box, digging into the tissue for the credit-card-shaped gift inside.
At first she frowned, not understanding what she was seeing, then comprehension dawned and her jaw dropped.
“It’s an unlimited flight pass with the charter service. Gold level,” he explained unnecessarily. “This way you can fly home whenever you want and still get back to LA so I can monopolize your time. I know how hard it’s been for you to spend time with your family. They can use it too. You just book the flights through this account number—” He pointed to the number on the card.
“I know how they work, Ty. I set yours up.”
“Do you like it?”
She shook her head, but more in confusion than answer to his question. “This is too much. You can’t give me something like this.”
“I’m an eccentric millionaire. I can give you whatever I want.”
Her expression still hadn’t gotten past shock.
Jade thrust a shoe-box sized package at him. “Here, Ty, this one’s for you from Andi.”
“No!” Andi leapt up, reaching for the gift, but Ty already had it and lifted it over her head.
“No?”
“It’s nothing,” she said, face flaming red. “I didn’t think you were getting me anything and I just, it’s silly…”
“I’m intrigued. Now I have to open it.”
“Ty…” Andi protested, but he was already ripping off the paper as he dropped down onto the couch at her side. Jade dug through the presents at their feet looking for something.
As soon as the paper came free, the box showed a picture of what was inside, and Ty burst out laughing.
An Oscar. She’d gotten him a personalized chocolate Academy Award.
“I love it!”
Her blush didn’t abate, but she gave him a wry smile. “What do you get the man who has everything?”
“It’s perfect. And we both know this is the only way I’m ever going to get my hands on one of these.”
That brought her frown back. “Don’t do that. You deserve it. A real one. You’re that good, Ty. Don’t sell yourself short.”
She’d twisted on the couch beside him as she spoke, and Ty felt his lips curving into a slight, wondering smile at the earnestness in the eyes of this woman who looked at him and saw more than killer abs and a sexy smile. How could he not fall in love with someone who saw him even through all the layers of image and charisma? Who saw him and thought he was worth something?
He wanted to kiss her. How could he not? But suddenly Jade was kneeling in front of him, thrusting the present she’d found into his hands. “Open this one next.”
He flipped over the card to read it and his heart stuttered. “You got me something?” he asked her.
Jade shrugged, evading his eyes. “It’s not that special.”
He pressed his lips into a smile, feeling himself tearing up before he even took the paper off. The wrapping was a little loose on one corner—like she’d done it hers
elf—and he swallowed thickly. He unwrapped it carefully. The box was plain white and sturdy. When he opened it, packing peanuts spilled out. He dug through them, closing his hand around something smooth as porcelain.
A mug. Nothing fancy. Just a simple blue mug with “Dad” painted across it in black letters. Meticulously painted by hand.
He swallowed again as he met Jade’s eyes. She was chewing on her lip, her small face worried, and he was too choked up to say more than, “Wow.”
“Kendall’s mom has a craft studio,” Jade explained.
He nodded, barely able to speak past the thickness in his throat. “I love it.”
“Don’t let his macho exterior fool you, Jade. Your dad is a total softie.”
Your dad. He almost lost it. “Actors have to be in touch with their emotions,” he said, enough of a man to acknowledge the waver in his voice. “It’s the best thing anyone has ever given me.”
He tugged her up off the floor at their feet and hugged her. Jade turned her face away, but he thought he saw her own eyes shining as well.
Best. Christmas. Ever.
“I have a present for you too, Andi.”
Andi’s mug showed a gorgeous winter scene—though he might have been biased, it seemed to Ty that his daughter was the next Monet. He really should build her an art studio in the house. Maybe the second guest room. Or it might be time to move someplace bigger. Someplace with better security where he wouldn’t have to worry about his fans sneaking in for a peek and disturbing Jade.
In a good school district. He didn’t even know what the good school districts were, but Andi could probably help him there. It was past time he moved out of the bachelor pad and into a home.
Him and his girls.
He looked around at the Christmas debris and the smiles on their faces. This was perfect. Not some made-up, idealized family in his head. This family. His family.
Now all he had to do was work out the legal details with Jade and convince Andi that she should give him a shot. He had a feeling, even with all the crazy legal red tape, that the former was going to be easier than the latter.
