Christmas Ever After

by Karen Schaler

  Mike started walking away but then stopped and gave Riley the once-over. “But go fix your hair and your face first. You’re a mess.” Mike left the room before Riley could say anything.

  She picked up a nutcracker, and she swore she would have thrown it him if Comet hadn’t barked at her. “Sorry,” she said to Comet as she put the nutcracker down. Then she looked at Luke, who had an amused look on his face. “Not sorry,” she added.

  Luke started to leave the room. “I’ll see you at the dance.”

  “But wait . . .” Riley started, but he was gone before she could stop him.

  A few minutes later, after she’d touched up her hair and makeup as Mike had demanded, Riley entered the ballroom. She was just starting to look around for Luke when Mike hurried over and linked arms with her.

  “There you are. My favorite author,” Mike said merrily.

  Riley gave him a suspicious look. “Did someone spike your eggnog?”

  “Just smile and look happy,” Mike whispered in her ear. “Everyone’s watching.”

  When he led her onstage, the band had just stopped playing.

  He took the mic. “Hello, everyone,” Mike said, beaming. “Thank you all for being here—our Christmas Campers, everyone from the Christmas Lake community, and all the media that’s helping us share this very . . . unique Christmas story. And now, without further ado, let’s give a big round of applause for Miss Christmas!”

  Riley fought to keep smiling when Mike called her Miss Christmas. As she stepped in front of the microphone, she opened her cocktail purse and took out the speech she had prepared.

  As everyone clapped, she looked out into the crowd. In the front row stood her mom, looking as proud as could be, and beside her were Caylee and Maryanne, who were clapping the loudest. Also in the front row were her Christmas Camper twins, Carrie and Terrie. They were taking pictures. When they waved at Riley, she smiled and waved back.

  As she continued to look around the ballroom, her smile grew. All her Christmas Campers were intermingling with people from the Christmas Lake community. Everyone looked happy and relaxed. Except Margo, who was laser-focused on her phone. When she looked in the back of the room, she saw Colin, Brendan, and Tyler. They all held up their Champagne glasses to her in a joint toast. It was the best gift they could have given her, showing her that they would all be okay. She gave them a grateful smile.

  But when she looked around the room, the one person she didn’t see was Luke.

  She took a deep breath and looked down at her speech again. When she looked back up, that’s when she saw Luke standing in the doorway. She stood up straighter and felt more confident as she put her speech back in her purse and smiled at everyone.

  “First, I want to thank all of you for being a part of this very special Christmas Camp event,” Riley said. “I know a lot of you, especially the press, have seen pictures online and have heard all kinds of different stories about my three ex-boyfriends showing up here to surprise me, so I’m here to tell you what’s really going on, the truth.”

  When Riley looked at her mom, her mom solemnly nodded.

  “Starting with the fact that I’m not Miss Christmas—far from it,” Riley said. She saw Margo’s head jerk up from her phone, and Mike suddenly looked very nervous. She smiled at them both.

  They both gave her a warning look.

  She ignored it.

  “The truth is,” she continued, “I haven’t celebrated Christmas since I was eight years old.”

  Whispers began among the crowd.

  “That’s right. It’s true. You can ask my mom, she’s right here in the front row. After we lost my dad, we stopped celebrating and spent Christmas at the beach in Hawaii. We didn’t do any Christmas activities because I didn’t want to. It was so much easier to forget than to remember everything we’d lost when my dad passed away. So imagine my surprise when I found out I had to write a Christmas novel and host this Christmas Camp.”

  Riley had everyone’s attention now. When she saw how confused her Christmas Campers looked, she kept going. She owed them the truth.

  “I thought I could just come up here and fake it,” Riley admitted. “I was just going to pretend I was like everyone else who celebrated Christmas, especially since my publicist, Mike over here, was marketing me as ‘Miss Christmas.’”

  When another murmur went through the crowd, Riley saw that people weren’t smiling anymore. They looked upset, but she knew she couldn’t stop now.

  “Then things got really complicated when my ex-boyfriends showed up.” Riley laughed, but no one laughed with her. “Everything that happened here during Christmas Camp, I didn’t expect. I didn’t expect the Christmas Lake Lodge to be so magical. I didn’t expect to meet people like Luke, whose family owns this amazing lodge, and Caylee and Maryanne, who have worked around the clock to make sure everyone at Christmas Camp had the best time. I also didn’t expect to have so many genuine connections with all of you Christmas Campers, who have come here to support me and have brought so much joy and love. Everyone here has changed me.”

  Riley smiled at the Christmas Campers.

  “So, yes, the truth is, I did fall in love here at Christmas Camp . . .”

  Everyone was staring at her, hanging on her every word.

  “This weekend I’ve been reminded of how special Christmas really is and that what matters most are family, friends, faith, your community, spending time with the people you love, honoring old traditions, and creating new ones. I’ve fallen in love with Christmas again. It has opened by my heart, and now, as they say at Christmas, anything is possible.”

  Riley looked back at Luke, but she couldn’t read his expression.

  “I want to thank you again for being here and taking this journey with me. I hope you can forgive me for how this story started. Please know how thankful I am, and that with your help, I’ve finally remembered the true meaning and magic of Christmas.”

  She looked out at the audience and smiled a heartfelt smile. “Merry Christmas, everyone.” They were two words she hadn’t said in a very long time, and it felt wonderful. “Merry Christmas!”

  As Riley started walking away from the mic, everyone started clapping and cheering. The applause got even louder when she went over and hugged her mom.

  “I’m proud of you, honey,” her mom said. “And Dad would be proud of you, too.”

  “I love you, Mom. Merry Christmas.”

  “Merry Christmas,” her mom said and then looked into her eyes. “Now, go get your happy ending.” She looked over at Luke.

  Riley, nervous, wrung her hands together. “I don’t know, Mom . . .”

  “Yes, you do,” Riley’s mom said, giving her a nudge. “Just trust your heart and trust Christmas.”

  As Riley walked to the back of the ballroom, she could feel everyone’s eyes watching her.

  She walked up to Colin, and an excited murmur swept through the crowd. “Merry Christmas, Colin,” Riley said as she hugged him. “Thank you for loving me.”

  “Merry Christmas, Riley,” Colin said, smiling back at her.

  She did the same thing with Brendan and Tyler, completely confusing the crowd.

  It wasn’t until she walked toward Luke that the crowd grew completely quiet. You could have heard a piece of tinsel drop.

  Like the rest of the crowd, Luke looked confused when Riley stopped in front of him.

  “What are you doing?” he asked her quietly so no one else couldn’t hear.

  When Riley smiled at him and met his eyes, she didn’t feel afraid anymore. She knew that no matter what happened she was following her heart. She’d had three great loves in her life because she’d trusted her heart. It hadn’t let her down yet.

  When the piano player in the band began to play the classic Christmas song “The Christmas Waltz,” Riley took Luke’s hand. “Will you da
nce with me?”

  Luke looked around. “What about Tyler?”

  “What about him?” Riley asked. “I’m not with Tyler, and I’m not with Colin or Brendan. They’re my past. I’m looking for my future, a future that could start with this dance . . . So what do you say?”

  “To a dance or to a future?” Luke asked, completely serious.

  Riley leaned in and whispered in his ear, “To both.”

  She pulled back and smiled at him. For a moment, he was silent.

  Riley held her breath.

  When Luke slowly smiled back at her and she could see the passion in his eyes, she didn’t want to waste any more time.

  She kissed him, and when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back, she didn’t just feel a spark—she felt fireworks.

  Everyone cheered, with Colin, Brendan, and Tyler cheering the loudest.

  After the kiss, Riley looked into his eyes and smiled a smile that was filled with love. “Merry Christmas, Luke,” she said softly.

  “Merry Christmas, Riley,” Luke said before kissing her again.

  Chapter Forty

  One Week Later, Christmas Morning

  “Ho! Ho! Ho! Time to get up and go! Ho! Ho! Ho! Let’s go! Go! Go!”

  Riley awoke to the Santa alarm clock in her room at the lodge. But this time, instead of yanking the batteries out of Santa, she sang along as she jumped out of the sleigh bed. With the enthusiasm of a cheerleader, she danced around in her new red silk pajamas.

  “Let’s go! Go! Go!”

  She couldn’t wait to celebrate her first Christmas with her mom, stepdad, and Luke at the Christmas Lake Lodge.

  It was hard to believe a week had already gone by since the Christmas Camp dance. Riley smiled remembering her first kiss with Luke and how the dance had also sparked some other possible romances—Tyler dancing with Margo, Maryanne dancing with Colin, and Brendan dancing with Rachel, one of the pretty Christmas Campers from Tennessee.

  After the dance, Luke had invited her and her family to spend the next week leading up to Christmas at the lodge with Caylee, Comet, and his mom, who would be able to make it home for Christmas after all.

  As hard as it had been to say goodbye to her Christmas Campers, Riley felt confident that the friendships they’d formed would last far beyond the holidays. For a Christmas present, Paul had made her a special Christmas Camp album that included all her favorite pictures. She would cherish it and the memories always.

  As for the Christmas Camp itself, her publishing team had called it a huge success. They had gotten a ton of positive publicity and had signed off on Riley’s idea for her first Christmas novel to be about a children’s author who was writing Christmas fairy tales and fell in love with her illustrator. Riley also got the greenlight to do a children’s book featuring her dad’s Christmas fairy tales.

  The Christmas Camp had also inspired Luke to move forward with his career. When his mom had arrived at the lodge, he’d announced the exciting news that they had a new buyer for the property, and he wanted his mom to take the deal.

  When the offer turned out to be from him, his mom had been thrilled to keep the lodge in the family. Luke had decided he owed it to his family’s legacy, the community of Christmas Lake, and to himself to use his expertise to turn the lodge into a Green-friendly property. He wanted to try to set an example of what other small lodges and inns in the area could do to help compete with the new big luxury resorts.

  For Riley, what she’d loved this last week was spending time with Luke enjoying the simple things in life. They’d spent every day together doing different Christmas activities. Luke had shared some of his family favorites, and Riley had shared some from the Google list she’d made. She’d even gotten everyone to go caroling and had loved every second of it.

  She’d also sent her favorite New York bartender a picture of her making a snowman with Luke and captioned it, He’s the one. Alex had congratulated her by sending her his Grandma Lola’s secret mulled wine recipe, the recipe she’d tried to get from him for years. It had truly touched her heart because Alex had always told her he could only share the secret recipe with family.

  After Luke shared his family’s secret hot chocolate recipe with her, she’d asked Alex if she could share Grandma Lola’s recipe with Luke. He’d agreed, and when she’d sent him the secret hot chocolate recipe, he’d gotten a kick out of Luke’s personal secret ingredient, little chopped-up pieces of York Peppermint Patties. She couldn’t wait for two of her favorite guys to meet.

  The more time Riley spent with Luke, the more she realized how truly compatible they were. She felt as if she’d known Luke forever, and he was already her best friend. Her heart hadn’t been wrong, and the spark between them only grew brighter with each new day.

  Riley had a lot to celebrate and be thankful for. Her only disappointment had been when she’d stopped by Merry and Bright wanting to get Luke one of the Christmas Lake Christmas Angels and Lisa had told her they’d sold out already. Riley had been excited to carry on the tradition and give the angel to Luke, someone she was starting to care very much for.

  Now, as she got dressed to go downstairs for Christmas morning, the smell of peppermint hot chocolate and her new favorite blueberry cinnamon rolls filled the air, making her mouth water.

  When she heard a bark at the door, she hurried to open it, eager to see her four-legged best friend, Comet. He didn’t disappoint. She laughed when she saw he was carrying a big wrapped Christmas present in his mouth and he wearing a new ugly Christmas sweater. This one had a bunch of Santa cats all over it.

  “Well, don’t you look puuuurfect,” she said to Comet, laughing at her own joke. He proudly dropped the Christmas present at her feet.

  “Well, Merry Christmas to you, too, Comet. What do we have here?” she asked.

  She unwrapped her gift at a speed that would have made Caylee proud and then laughed loudly. It was a new ugly Christmas sweater. This time it was an emerald-green hooded sweater with a giant elf face on it. When she checked out the hood, it had fuzzy pink elf ears and a pointy top. On the front of the sweater was a pinned note that said, Wear me!

  She laughed again and looked at Comet. “Let me guess. Another family tradition?”

  When Comet barked and ran down the hall, Riley only hoped he wasn’t going to get another sweater.

  After a hilarious, lively Christmas breakfast where everyone wore their new ugly Christmas sweaters, Luke led them all out to the lake to make Christmas snow angels. It was a new tradition he’d just come up with, and everyone agreed it was a good one.

  While people took pictures with their snow angels, Riley stood back and noticed that, once again, her angel wings and Luke’s angel wings were touching.

  “So what do you think it means that our snow angels’ wings are touching?” Luke asked as if reading her mind.

  Riley smiled as she thought about it for a moment, then looked into Luke’s eyes. “I think it means we’re supposed to be together, here and always.”

  Luke smiled back at her. “I like that. I like that a lot.”

  They stood side by side, hand in hand, with their own shoulders touching as they turned back to look at their angels.

  “Okay, everyone, it’s time for my favorite Christmas tradition,” Caylee called out.

  As everyone followed Caylee down to the lake and stepped on to the ice, heading for the Christmas Lake Christmas tree, Riley hesitated for a moment.

  “Are you okay?” Luke asked.

  Riley looked at the ice and took his hand. “I am now.”

  Once they were gathered the beautifully lit Christmas tree, they all joined hands. Then one by one, each of them shared a memory, honoring members of the military they knew and all the brave men and women who served their country.

  When everyone was ready to head back to the lodge, Luke playfully pulled
Riley behind one of the Douglas firs and kissed her.

  “I have a present for you,” he said with a boyish smile.

  “I thought we agreed we weren’t doing presents,” Riley said. “That we were going to make memories instead.”

  Luke nodded. “We are . . . after you open your present.”

  Riley laughed. “You’re impossible.” She looked around. “So where’s my present?”

  Luke pointed at the tree.

  Riley raised an eyebrow. “You’re giving me a tree?”

  Luke laughed. “No, the tree is where you’ll find your present.”

  But Riley didn’t see anything.

  “Look closer,” Luke urged.

  Loving a challenge, Riley started moving around some of the branches. “There’s no way you can hide anything in here,” she said. “These branches are too thick.”

  “Did I say it was in the tree?” Luke asked with a mischievous grin, then kissed her again.

  Riley pulled away, laughing. “Stop distracting me.”

  She circled the tree, and that’s when she spotted it. It was just peeking out from a patch of snow—a little tin box about the size of a shoebox.

  Excited, she scrambled to pick it up and lifted it in victory. “Got it!”

  Luke laughed as they walked over to what had become their favorite bench and sat down together. “Open it,” he said.

  She gave him a look. “You sound just like Caylee.”

  “No, Caylee would’ve already opened it for you.”

  They both laughed.

  As Riley started to lift the lid off the tin box, Comet came running over and sat down at her feet and tried to poke his nose inside the box.

  “Comet, hold on,” Riley said, laughing as she moved the box out of his reach. When she finally removed the lid, she found something wrapped in burlap inside.

  Her eyes flew to Luke. “Is it . . . ?”

  He just smiled back at her.

  She carefully took out the burlap bundle and slowly unwrapped it until she found the Christmas gift she’d dreamed about.