by Pamela Aares
“Then you must be one very spicy guy right about now.”
“The news got around, did it?”
“You mean Dylan? Or the escapade on the trail that landed my friend in the hospital?”
“Just the tip of the iceberg.”
“I thought as much.” She dropped down into one of the comfortable chairs that had been placed around the tree. “The tree’s beautiful. I hear you had a hand in choosing it. And judging the cookie contest.”
God, so much had happened in such a compressed time. He was beginning to believe the quantum theorists and their hypothesis that time and space weren’t real.
“Nope, no judging. Tyler and I were on the contestant side of things, if you recall.”
Alana leaned her elbows on her knees. Her hair fell in soft waves against her creamy skin and framed sparkling eyes. He hadn’t met all the Tavonesi cousins, but those he had met were gorgeous.
“Jake, I know what it’s like to inherit a kid.”
“Pardon me?”
“I said, I know what it’s like to inherit a kid. Could be the greatest gift of your life. Has been for mine.”
“Maybe you’re more cut out for parenthood than I am.”
“No one’s cut out for parenthood. You find your way as you go along. You’ll do fine.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’ll give you my tip book.”
“I haven’t decided.”
“Oh, I think you have.” She tapped her head, the bracelets circling her wrists sparkling in the reflected light from the tree. “It takes a while for the brain to catch up with the heart. Kind of like the Lorax.”
His brain was so scrambled by darting messages that he wasn’t in any shape to field Alana’s words of wisdom. Or their implications. “Have you seen Cameron?”
“Sabrina has her on house quarantine. We’re not to disturb her until she comes downstairs.”
Alana crossed to the tree and adjusted a red velvet bow on one of the lower branches. It had looked just fine to Jake, but Alana had the eye of an artist. He squinted at the tree, blurring the lights into a blaze of white.
“Apparently Dimitri has his hands full,” she said as she turned an unreadable smile to Jake. “Poor dear is not only extremely eligible, but he just got the news that he’s in need of an heir and fast. His father abdicated the throne today.”
“People do those things?”
Alana laughed. “Kings do.” Her smile faded. “It’s too bad. Dimitri never wanted to be king. He’d much rather farm grapes in France and be left to his horses and airplanes. But duty calls. His country is sitting on the largest natural-gas resource in southern Europe. Can’t let that turn into chaos.”
Jake watched her as she pivoted and walked through the room and exited through the arched door at the other end. Was he hallucinating, or did she leave a trail of light in her wake?
Her words had certainly left a trail, one of dawning clarity. In a flash, Jake saw how his prejudices had blocked him from seeing the man. Dimitri wasn’t the carefree guy he pretended to be. He might not be right for Dylan, but he’d be perfect for Cameron. He needed an heir, a family. He was from the same glitzy fast-track world she was from. And if the Tavonesi clan liked him, he must be a good guy.
But the one thing Jake couldn’t let go of, the deep truth he had to cop to, was that Cameron made him want to be a better man, to make changes, to go beyond his limitations. Hell, to clearly see the roadblocks he’d set up in the first place. Worse, she challenged him to be the force of good that she’d made him believe he could be.
Harder for him to admit was that she’d made him believe in love. But unlike the man in the tales his grandmother used to tell, the man who’d once fallen in love with a selkie, he wasn’t about to coax Cameron into giving up the life she wanted—the life she’d dreamed of—to follow him into a life that wouldn’t suit her.
But damned if he didn’t want to do just that—to win her, to have her in his life, to live with her spunky challenges and the spirit that was nearly driving him mad.
He made his way into the foyer and grabbed a drink from one of the uniformed servers Alex’s mother had hired for the evening. Feeling like a fish out of place in a foreign sea, he parked himself against a pillar at the other side of the crowded room. Why Parker had insisted that the guests wait until dinner to enter the Great Hall and admire the Christmas tree was a mystery Jake wasn’t going to waste brain cells trying to solve. He had more pressing mysteries on his mind. Like one Cameron Kelley.
A murmur rose.
Jake looked up. And then looked higher.
Cameron stood at the head of the stairs, holding Dylan’s hand. The suit Dylan wore made him look like a kid from a movie set, spit-polished and beamy. But the gold dress Cameron wore hugged her curves and made her look like she’d been dipped in a vat of magic.
Maybe there was some trick of Hollywood that made women heart-stoppingly gorgeous. But if she’d been wrapped in a white hospital sheet, she still would’ve made his pulse leap and his body flood with want.
Dylan tilted a nervous smile up at her. And Jake knew it wasn’t just want that filled every pore of his being. Love seeped through his well-tended walls. He downed his champagne and clutched the empty, delicate glass as if it were a buoy in a rough sea.
The crowd turned back to their conversations as if nothing special had happened. Cameron cast a gentle smile to Dylan, and they descended the stairs. Dimitri stood on the bottom step, his tux crisp, his eyes on Cameron. The two of them were so perfectly matched it made Jake’s heart spasm at the recognition.
Dimitri put a hand on her arm and said something that made both Cameron and Dylan laugh. But with the noise of the party blocking the words, it was like watching a silent film in slow motion. A film whose ending Jake knew, but that he kept watching anyway. Cameron had the starring role, and Dimitri was the perfect supporting actor. No more to say.
Cameron glanced up and caught his focused gaze. He didn’t want her smile to light him, but he felt the heat.
He’d thought giving up gambling would be a challenge, but it paled beside the effort he’d have to make to give her up. She whispered something to Dimitri. But then she began walking his way. A few people stopped her briefly, but she smiled and kept moving through the foyer toward him.
“Merry Christmas Eve, Jake.”
At the melodious sound of her voice and the sparkle in her eyes, he knew he was totally, completely and irretrievably screwed.
“We brought you a present.” She nudged Dylan. “He’s a bit overwhelmed by all the people.”
“I am not.” The squeak in Dylan’s voice gave him away. “Well, maybe a little. I don’t like wearing this suit.”
“Right there with you,” Jake said.
“Give him his present, Dylan.”
Dylan fished in his pocket and handed Jake a folded piece of paper. “It’s not the best picture, but it’s pretty good.”
Jake unfolded the paper. It was a computer printout. Of Peter. With a smiling woman.
“It’s my mom and my dad.” Dylan put his hands to his hips. “But you could adopt me. Coco said it’d be easy. She found this picture on the Internet. My mom was famous. Did you know?”
“Um...” Jake swallowed the lump rising in his throat. “Well, no, I didn’t.”
“You can look tomorrow on Alex’s computer. Cameron said so.”
“Did she?”
“I did.”
“I usually plan my own days.”
Cameron looked as uncomfortable as he felt. Talking with a kid about deceased parents wasn’t anywhere in his stock of experiences.
“You and my dad look almost alike. Except he has different hair. Was he really tall like you?”
“A little taller.”
“I want to be tall,” Dylan said. “My mom looks short. Do you think I’ll be tall like my dad?”
“Maybe, sport. It takes time.” He caught Cameron’s eye. “I’m coming with you tomorrow.”
“I want
to come too,” Dylan said, squeaking above the noise of the growing crowd.
“There will likely be press,” she said. “Shots of you and me together and—”
“I’m coming. I’ll sign the baseballs I bought in town. I want to do this, Cameron. For the kids.”
“Can I have one?” Dylan nailed him with his huge brown eyes. God, the kid did look just like Peter. Peter should be standing there, not him.
Dylan’s eyes tracked from him to the door leading to the courtyard. “It’s snowing!” He grabbed Jake’s hand. “C’mon—snow! I’ve only seen snow once, when Mom and I went to the mountains last year. Snow, Jake! C’mon!”
How he made it through the evening, Jake would never know. The snow hadn’t lasted, but the heavy skies promised more overnight. Cameron had kept her distance, kept busy with Jackie and her brother, Cory, busy socializing with locals who were clearly as stunned by her beauty as Jake was. But he saw the weariness in the way she moved. Though the gold scarf covered her sling, it didn’t hide the pain in her eyes. When she excused herself to go upstairs, he breathed a sigh of relief. For her and for himself. Sitting near her without being able to wrap her in his arms was a torture no sadist could’ve dreamed up.
Dylan had run circles around everyone, eaten way too many chocolate bonbons and crashed in Jake’s arms as they sat admiring the tree in the Great Hall after most of the guests had left.
He carried Dylan to the guest room they shared and tucked him into the rollaway bed Sabrina had arranged to be delivered to the room. Things appeared in Trovare like magic. Wish for them and there they were.
He stood on the balcony as more snow began to fall, the flakes riding the breeze and shining in the moonlight like silvered confetti.
The wish he wanted to make couldn’t be delivered by the behind-the-scenes elves that made Trovare tick. But as he closed his eyes and listened to the hush of falling snow, he wished that it could be.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Are they here yet?” Dylan paced a circle in front of the Christmas tree like a cheetah in a cage.
“On their way,” Alex said with a wink to Jake.
Getting Dylan to wait to open his presents until Alana and Matt and Sophie arrived at Trovare on Christmas morning had been almost as hard for Jake as not storming the door to Cameron’s room and... and what? Carrying her off into the sunset? It was just after noon, no sunsets in sight. The spell of Trovare’s castle was affecting his brain.
Dylan dragged a package out from under the tree. “It’s for you, Jake. I made it.”
“I have to wait just like you.”
“You could shake it.”
“Nope.”
“Let the games begin!” Matt called from the doorway. “Alana’s just bringing a few more things from the car. Parker got called to his parents’ estate and said not to wait for him.”
Sophie ran to Dylan. “We have four presents for you!”
Dylan’s face fell. “But I don’t have any presents for you.”
“Yeah, we do, sport. They’re on the right side,” Jake called out.
Dylan raced to the tree and began digging through brightly wrapped packages.
Matt flopped into the chair next to Jake. “This is madness, you know. But Alana loves everything about Christmas. By the way, my mom’s coming for lunch. She wants to meet you.”
“I won’t be here. I’m headed to the hospital.”
“You sick?”
“Maybe. I’ve agreed to give out presents and sign autographs for the kids.”
Matt put his hand to Jake’s forehead. “Yep, high fever. Definitely delusion material. Where’s Cameron?”
“Sequestered in the library with the prince.”
Matt mirrored Jake’s shrug. “There are fencing foils in the game room. You could challenge him to a duel.”
“No duels,” Alana said as she waltzed in with her arms full of packages. “It’s Christmas. I declare a moratorium on duels.”
Matt kissed her on the cheek and took the packages from her arms. “You’re no fun.”
Alana tapped him on the nose. “As I was reminded by your daughter this morning.”
Jake suppressed a smile. “One for the guidebook?”
“You’ll see.” Alana bent down and looked him in the eye. “You will see, won’t you?”
“She’s a woman of strong opinions,” Matt said. But there was nothing apologetic in his tone.
“Like her brothers and cousins,” Sabrina said as she placed a tray of pastries and a carafe of coffee on the table in front of their crescent of chairs. “Cups are on the table. Someone stop me—I’ve had four espressos. Last night’s party went way too late. Mother said to open presents without her.”
“Seriously?” Alex sounded alarmed.
“It’s not what you think. She’s fine. She has a”—she glanced at Sophie and Dylan pulling presents into a pile beside the tree—“a guest. He came up from the city last night for the party, and they are both still ensconced in her private apartment upstairs.”
“A guest that trumps Christmas morning with the family?”
“Down, Alex,” Sabrina said with a throaty laugh. “She’ll be along soon.” She turned to Jake. “Where’s Cameron?”
Jake felt heat creep up his neck. Why did everyone ask him where Cameron was? “She’s in the library.”
“With Dimitri,” Matt added.
“Oh.” Sabrina slid her gaze to Jake and raised her perfectly arched brow. “I’ll just go get them.” She paused to watch Sophie, Tyler and Dylan dragging wrapped packages out from under the tree. “The natives are restless. And I have something I’m dying for you to open, Alana.”
“Run. Be fleet of foot,” Alana said in an animated tone. She lifted a shoulder as she swung her chair back to face Jake and Matt. “I’m just awful about presents. I can’t resist.”
“I had to hide her gifts in my wine cellar,” Matt said. “And change the combination.”
“Mission: Impossible meets Santa,” Alana chided.
Jake envied the easy banter between the two of them. They couldn’t know the inner storm they stirred in him.
By the time Sabrina returned with a glowing Cameron and a very satisfied-looking Dimitri, he was reconsidering challenging the prince to a duel, his magnanimous resolutions of the previous day mere memories.
Cameron sat in a vacant chair across from Jake, and Dimitri settled into the chair beside her. He crossed one leg over the other and steepled his fingers, looking every inch a royal waiting for his subjects to entertain him. Cameron tapped Dimitri on the arm and said something Jake couldn’t make out over the noise of the kids and the conversations floating in the room. Dimitri’s nod and slow easy smile made Jake want to leap up and strangle him.
“Open this first.”
He hadn’t heard Dylan approach. He lifted the oddly wrapped bundle Dylan had dropped in his lap. “Did you find your presents?”
“Uh-huh. But open mine first.”
Jake wriggled the green ribbon off and slid his finger under the paper, aware of Dylan’s eyes on him. He pulled out what appeared to be a black plastic garbage bag.
“It’s a magic cape,” Dylan said with an unmistakable touch of pride in his voice. “I made it. Cameron helped.”
“I only supplied the tape,” Cameron said. “The magic part was all Dylan.”
“Did I hear the word magic?” said Alex’s mother, Thea, as she and Jackie entered their little crescent of chairs. “There’s more magic in this castle than meets the eye.”
“Merry Christmas, Mother. Where’s our mystery man?”
Thea shot Sabrina a smile. There was no mistaking that they were mother and daughter. The two women shared the same dark features, but it was their eyes that told the story.
“He’s not ours, darling. Not yet.” Thea leaned against the arm of Sabrina’s chair.
“Merry Christmas, Mrs. Tavonesi,” Jake managed to get out before Dylan tugged the plastic out of his hands.
>
“Put it on. I made it big.” Dylan tilted his face to Thea. “It’s a magic cape. I made one for Alex too.”
Thea smiled at Dylan. “So I heard. And, Jake, darling, do call me Thea. You’re one of us now.” She turned to Sabrina and Jackie. “But what I’d like to know is, with all this magic afoot, why don’t I have any grandchildren yet?”
Sabrina laughed. “Because you spent too many years avoiding mentioning your age.” She turned to Jackie. “Ignore her. She’s relentless on this topic.”
Jackie’s brother snuck up behind Thea and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Ah, our hero is finally awake.”
“Two heroes,” Cameron said. The look she cast Jake went straight to his heart.
Thea checked out Cory’s arm, crisscrossed with deep cuts from the Hawaiian reef. “That looks awful. You need some of my lotions so you won’t have scars.”
“For God’s sake, Mother,” Alex said with uncharacteristic agitation. “It’s a miracle Cory survived.”
Thea looked from Jackie to Sabrina and lifted the espresso cup she held. “Well, here’s to miracles, darlings.” She winked at Alex. “I already have names chosen, you know. I had some trouble with boys’ names, but I’m sure you’ll have suggestions when the time comes.”
“Then you’d better come up with a couple that will work for a ballplayer,” Jackie said. She patted her belly. “I’m having a boy.”
Thea stilled as if someone had frozen her midmotion. Then a quick smile curved her lips as she folded Jackie in her arms. “You know I don’t like surprises, but I’ll make an exception this time. Oh my darling, this is the best Christmas gift ever.”
In the whooping and congratulations that followed, Jake focused on Dylan. He had wadded the plastic into his arms and crawled into Jake’s lap.
“Don’t you like your present?” Dylan asked in a voice barely audible over the celebratory chatter of the group surrounding Jackie and Alex. Dimitri and Cameron had remained in their chairs, watching. Perhaps they too felt like outsiders in the family celebration.
“Let’s see if it fits.” Jake set Dylan on his feet and unfurled the plastic cape. His name and number had been pasted on the back with uneven pieces of duct tape. He fitted the plastic to his shoulders.
