Back at the lodge as they were walking up to the front door, Tyler took her hand and told her how much he’d enjoyed spending time with her again and that he’d missed her in his life.
He was leaning in to try once again to kiss her when all of a sudden, the wood-carved bear out front started singing.
“We wish you a BEARy Christmas . . .
“We wish you a BEARy Christmas . . .”
Startled, they both turned around and stared at the bear.
Riley started laughing the same moment Caylee opened the door to find out why the bear was singing.
But the bear had stopped. There was no more “We Wish You a BEARy Christmas.”
“Everything okay out here?” Caylee asked, giving them a curious look.
Riley and Tyler entered the lodge. “Everything’s great,” Tyler said as smiled at Riley.
Riley yawned. “Except that I’m suddenly exhausted. I’m going to call it a night, you two.”
“Sleep well,” Tyler said, kissing her on the cheek.
“You too,” Riley said. She touched her star necklace. “And thank you again for a really special night.”
“I hope the first of many,” Tyler said, causing Caylee to arch her eyebrow.
After calling Margo and getting an update on how their social media campaign was doing, Riley happily crawled into bed with her laptop. Even though she was craving sleep, she knew she needed to write down some notes from her three different dates first. She didn’t want to forget anything or how the dates had made her feel because she was hoping it would spark some inspiration and help her come up with a story idea for her Christmas novel. So far, she didn’t like any of the storylines she had thought of, which meant she hadn’t been able to start her outline, despite its looming deadline.
When she started writing, she found her fingers could barely keep up with her thoughts, and she couldn’t stop smiling. The dates had all been so different—just like Colin, Brendan, and Tyler were so different. Yet, all the dates had all been special in their own way, reminding her why she had loved these three men so much.
But when she tried to pick one guy who stood out over the others, one guy she had the strongest connection with, one guy she could see herself starting over with, she couldn’t choose. Right now, all three guys were on a level playing field. They all had impressed her, and they all had touched her heart.
What she did know was that she wanted to try to embrace love again. They had all reminded her what it was like to love and be loved. It was something she had been missing in her life, and she knew how lucky she was to be getting a second chance with three amazing guys.
But at this moment, she couldn’t choose one over the other, and she knew her time was running out. Tomorrow night was the Christmas Camp dance when she’d promised to tell the guys her decision, and she didn’t have a Christmas clue what that decision was going to be.
She hoped having one more day with them would give her the clarity she needed to make what could turn out to be one of the most important decisions of her life.
She had always tried to follow her heart, but the problem was, this time her heart was pulling her in three completely different directions with three completely different guys.
She picked up her cell and started scrolling through the pictures she’d taken on the three dates. All the guys looked so happy. But it was the picture of her and Luke, the selfie he had taken of them, where she looked the happiest.
When she glanced up from her phone, one of the Santa figurines, lit up in the moonlight, caught her eye. She shook her head emphatically. “No, I’m not going there,” she said to the Santa. “He has a girlfriend. He doesn’t have a reindeer in this race.”
But when she turned out the light and shut her eyes, it was Luke’s face she saw as she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The next morning, Riley woke up to the Santa alarm clock.
“Ho! Ho! Ho! Time to get up and go! Ho! Ho! Ho! Let’s go! Go! Go!”
“What? No. Stop it,” she grumbled as she fumbled around trying to turn it off. The batteries she’d taken out were somehow now back in.
Santa continued, only getting louder and louder. “Ho! Ho! Ho! Time to get up and go! Ho! Ho! Ho! Let’s go! Go! Go!”
“What’s going on?” she demanded, yanking out the batteries. She looked over at the Santa figurines. “Who did this?”
But she didn’t have time to obsess over the answer because when she saw the time was almost nine o’clock. She freaked out.
“Oh no. I overslept.” She jumped out of bed. “My phone alarm didn’t go off!”
Riley scrambled around her room and got ready in record time. She ran down to the kitchen, closely followed by Comet, and found Maryanne alone, cleaning up from breakfast.
“Have I missed everyone?” Riley asked. “I’m so sorry. I overslept. I swear I never do that. Why didn’t you guys wake me up?” She looked down at Comet. “Even you didn’t wake me up.”
Comet barked and wagged his tail.
“Luke said to let you sleep, that you probably had a late night on your date with Tyler,” Maryanne said. “How was it? Luke said Tyler took you to the Skyline Resort.”
Riley nodded. “The resort was impressive.”
Maryanne laughed. “I meant how was spending time with Tyler?”
“Oh, Tyler. He was pretty amazing, too,” Riley said. “And it seems the things I always worried about with Tyler—him being a workaholic and never having time for us—he now says he wants to change. He wants to enjoy life more.”
Maryanne smiled. “So this is good?”
“Really good,” Riley agreed. “But so were my dates with Colin and Brendan.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Riley said. “I know I can’t keep dating all three of them . . .”
“No,” Maryanne said. “That would definitely land you on Santa’s Naughty List.”
“But does that list even really matter?” Riley asked, only half joking.
“Uh, yeah,” Maryanne said, “it definitely matters. I saw the guys this morning. They all came down for breakfast asking where you were. They seem like they’ve already fallen hard for you.”
“Oh boy,” Riley said. “How is this happening? I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“All you can do is listen to your heart,” Maryanne said.
“But what if my heart’s confused?” Riley asked.
“You’ll find a way to figure it out,” Maryanne said. “It’s Christmas. You just need to believe.” She moved a plate of cinnamon rolls in front of Riley. “Here you go. I made something for you.”
Riley’s eyes lit up. “Cinnamon rolls? One of my favorites!”
“But not your only favorite,” Maryanne said. “You also love blueberry muffins, right?”
Riley nodded, impressed. “My mom used to make them for me on special occasions. But how did you know that?”
“Before everyone came to Christmas Camp, we asked them their favorite Christmas dishes for our last dinner tonight. I think so many memories are connected with the food we eat, especially family recipes. I wanted to surprise you with your favorite things, but when I asked your three exes if they knew what you liked at Christmas, they all said you’d never celebrated Christmas with them.”
When Riley looked up at Maryanne, she was thankful to see Maryanne wasn’t judging her, but she did look curious.
“Anyway,” Maryanne continued, “I did some research and found in an interview where you talked about blueberry muffins being a favorite comfort food.”
“Wow, you’re really good,” Riley said. “Are you sure you shouldn’t have been an investigative reporter?”
They shared a laugh.
“And then Luke said you liked all things cinnamon, even in your coffee,
so I hoped you liked cinnamon rolls. I thought I’d combine the two. I wanted you to have something special. I’m calling these Christmas Lake Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls. Let me know what you think.”
“I think you’re a genius,” Riley said, picking up a fork and diving into the cinnamon roll. It was still warm from the oven, soft and doughy. When she took a big bite, her eyes grew huge. After she had another bite, she put down her fork with a contented sigh. “And now I know you’re a genius. These are amazing! I love the cream cheese frosting. That’s a favorite of mine, too.”
When Luke walked in and saw Riley, he laughed. “Someone looks like a happy Christmas Camper,” he said. “Let me guess . . . you tried the cinnamon rolls.”
“Uh, yes,” Riley said, “and they’re incredible.”
“Told ya she liked cinnamon,” Luke said to Maryanne.
Riley was licking some frosting off her fork. “Maryanne, you should sell these. You’d make a fortune.”
“Well, if you want more, you need to take it to go because we’re already late,” Luke said. “Caylee took everyone into town—to the community center—to get started on our first Christmas Camp activity for the day. We’ll meet up with them there.”
Riley jumped up. “Thank you for waiting for me. I’m really sorry I overslept. I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Maryanne had already put the rest of Riley’s cinnamon roll in a bag for her. “In case you need something to nibble on later.”
“You’re a saint,” Riley said as she happily took the bag. “That restaurant in LA would be crazy not to hire you. Have you heard anything yet?”
“Not yet,” Maryanne said, “but fingers crossed.”
Riley gave Maryanne a quick hug. “Thank you again. This was really thoughtful of you. I’ve never had a Christmas food tradition so this will be my first.”
As soon as she’d said the words and saw Maryanne’s and Luke’s surprised faces, she instantly regretted it.
She hurried out of the kitchen. “Come on, Luke. Let’s go.”
As they were driving into town, Riley was relieved Luke wasn’t asking her any follow-up questions about not having any Christmas food traditions. The less she said about Christmas, the better. At least if she didn’t want to blow her cover as Miss Christmas.
She was actually really looking forward to doing one of Luke’s family’s favorite Christmas traditions: volunteering at the Christmas Lake Community Center and helping to put together Christmas meals for families who needed a little extra help this year. The Christmas Camp theme of the day was giving back, and all the Christmas Campers seemed excited it.
When they got to the community center, she joined the Christmas Campers, who were already making great progress. Everyone had paired up to put the boxes together, and she’d paired up with Luke since they both arrived late.
When he pulled two Santa hats out of a bag and insisted they each wear one, she protested until he told her it was also a family tradition to the wear the hats. When she didn’t believe him, he called his mom on FaceTime. Apparently, it was, indeed, their tradition. However, since she was also a huge fan of Riley’s, she’d told her she could do whatever she wanted. Riley instantly liked Luke’s mom.
A few minutes later, the Christmas song “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” had come on, and instead of cringing and rolling her eyes, she’d found herself singing along with Luke and enjoying it.
They were having a great time together. And then Brianna showed up . . .
Brianna was quick to tell Riley that her family and Luke’s had been volunteering together at the community center since they were kids. When Brianna offered to take over for her so she could go do her job spending time with the Christmas Campers, Riley felt like it was more a way to get rid of her than a kind offer. Especially when Brianna happily took Riley’s Santa hat and put it on her own head as she smiled at Luke.
Riley was sure that if anyone knew what she was thinking about Brianna at that moment, it would have landed her on the Naughty List.
Two hours later, after successfully packing up more than one hundred boxes, everyone was getting ready to leave when Colin, Brendan, and Tyler showed up.
Riley was surprised to see them since the plan was for her to see them at the dance, but when Colin announced they were just stopping by quickly to drop off personal donations for the center, Riley felt so grateful and moved. Luke was also impressed, letting them know much he appreciated their gesture and how much it would make a difference to the families in the Christmas Lake community.
Before the guys took off, Riley gave each of them a hug and thanked them for being so thoughtful. All three of them had always been generous. Even when Colin and Brendan had been broke, they’d always found a way to give back. It was something Riley had always admired and loved about them.
When it came to Tyler, she’d met him when he was already very successful, but he’d also been one to donate to important causes and support charities he felt were making a difference in the world. He’d also helped her set up her own charity where she could give her books to libraries across the country who didn’t have the budgets to buy very many new books. They’d even gotten some other authors on board to donate their books, too.
After all the Christmas Campers had lunch in town, the group headed back the lodge for Riley’s Christmas Camp Author Chat. She couldn’t wait to hear more of their thoughts and ideas on the kinds of Christmas stories they wanted to read.
This was the activity Riley had been the most nervous about, though, fearing the Christmas Campers would ask her personal questions about her favorite Christmas traditions, which were nonexistent. However, as soon as the chat started, Riley quickly realized she didn’t need to worry. The Christmas Campers had all come prepared with a list of their own Christmas traditions to share, things that they thought would be great in her next book.
The conversation had been lively and filled with so many amazing Christmas stories that the chat continued well beyond the hour and a half it had been scheduled for.
Finally, seeing how late it was and knowing that everyone would need some free time to have dinner and get ready for the dance, Riley wrapped up the chat, much to the disappointment for the Christmas Campers. But everyone cheered up when Riley said they could e-mail her their ideas and she promised to look at all of them.
The Christmas Campers all hugged Riley and told her how special this weekend had been but that their favorite part was getting to spend time with her. She genuinely felt like she’d become friends with them and knew that the love they were showering her with was going a long way in helping her get over the ghosts of her Christmases past. There was no denying this Christmas Camp experience was changing her. She was not only starting to open her heart again to Colin, Brendan, and Tyler but she was also starting to open her heart again to Christmas.
The pure joy and love she’d felt at Christmas Camp was giving her some new memories she would always cherish, while also bringing back some of her old Christmas memories, ones she’d thought she’d lost forever.
The memory that was now most vivid was from one Christmas when her dad dressed up like Santa Claus. He’d told her he was one of Santa’s helpers, and just because you couldn’t see the real Santa Claus, it didn’t mean he wasn’t always there with you, loving you and watching over you. He’d told her he was just like Santa, that even if he was gone, he would always be with her, always love her, and always watch over her.
That Christmas was the last one they’d spent together before he passed away. He’d given her a silver charm bracelet with a Santa charm on it and told her they’d add a new charm every Christmas. But that had been her last Christmas with her dad, and after that, she had never looked at her charm bracelet again.
But now, by embracing Christmas, instead of feeling the pain of all she’d lost, she actually felt closer to her dad, connected to him, to the memories th
at were slowing coming back to her.
She smiled as she walked over to the Christmas Wish Santa by the fireplace and peeked inside his bag of wishes.
Caylee joined her. “Looking for something?” she asked in a teasing voice.
“Maybe just an answer to a question,” Riley answered. “Hypothetically, if someone had made a Christmas wish and they’d wanted to change that wish, is that allowed?”
Caylee laughed. “Hypothetically?”
Riley nodded. “Hypothetically.”
“Okay, I’ll play along,” Caylee said. “So, hypothetically, if someone made a Christmas wish, I think it’s okay to change that wish as long as you do it before Christmas.”
“So I still have time,” Riley said, relieved, then quickly tried to cover her mistake. “I mean, a person would have time.”
Caylee laughed again. “Yes, you or any person, hypothetically, would still have time.”
Their Christmas wish conversation was cut short when an elderly couple, the Silvers, came up and wanted to talk with Riley. After Caylee excused herself, the couple told Riley they didn’t have any children so Christmas was usually pretty quiet for them, but that by coming to Christmas Camp, they felt like they’d met a whole new family, one that now included her.
When they hugged and thanked her again, Riley teared up and said she wanted to thank them for bringing so much happiness and joy to Christmas Camp.
After the Silvers walked away, Luke joined her. “I caught the tail end of that,” he said. “It sounds like you have a lot of people who want to adopt you into their family.”
Riley, smiling, looked over at the group of Christmas Campers who were taking pictures together. “This is really something. I had no idea it would be like this. I’ve hosted book events before, but I’ve never had this kind of connection with people.”
“That’s because it’s Christmas,” Luke said. “That’s what Christmas is all about—sharing memories and connecting with people in your community. Christmas is the time of year that people are at their best and have an open heart, and everyone here has certainly taken you into their hearts.”
Christmas Ever After Page 29
